Atlas cedar

I mentioned the atlas cedar in Hook Road in the other place as long ago as April 8th 2011 and we finally got around yesterday to going to Wisley to see if they had one, Wisley being rather easier to get to than Kew. Our first visit, as it happens, to Wisley since October 17th last year. Every time we go there I am slightly surprised at how long it is since we have been: is it the huge car park which puts me off?

Anyway, off to the library where the assistant gets onto her computer to find out about atlas cedars to find that they have three specimens, two in the pinetum nearby and one on the other side of the garden. Common name Atlas Cedar, proper name Atlantic Cedar, mainly to be found in North Africa. However, the Wisley computer system is not quite Google and the database can only give us the two bed numbers, things like W2035, rather than a map with directions. But all is not lost as the assistant can mark the beds on our handy leaflet map and in no time at all we have found a large Atlantic Cedar in the pinetum. But clearly not a weeping cedar so we look round a bit more to find a Atlantic Cedar (variety weeping) (size small), a lot smaller than the specimen in Hook Road.

Having got that under out belts, off to see the spring bulbs to find that most of the daffodils are yet to come, but there are plenty of blue crocuses and some spring cyclamen. We noticed in passing that the people at Wisley pot their water lilies in the same sort of container as we use as our water lily pond, thus nicely exemplifying the difference in scale between their garden and ours.

Then onto the new hot house to look at the orchid display, starting with the single specimens arranged in a series of show cases, an arrangement which encouraged a proper look. Fascinating plants they are too, with one of the labels explaining that the flowers of some orchids mimic the appearance of the sex organs of female insects so as to attract the male insects, with any one sort of orchid only attracting one sort of insect. A very specialised operation which would seem rather gross if the parties involved were much larger. Moved onto the orchids which were displayed in a more natural setting among the other hot house plants, with the orchids being potted up in special plastic pots which were then attached to the stem or truck of some much larger plant, an arrangement which I did not find terribly successful, although some of the orchids involved were very fetching.

Much taken with the cacti, as usual. I remain keen on the large agaves.

From the new hot house we made our way to the alpine section which included another glass house, this one not hot. Lots of interest, not least because most of the alpines were very small. So, for example, we had some very small cyclamen, smaller than I had ever seen before. The whole business of alpine gardening looked to have much interest; a sort of hybrid between stamp collecting and gardening proper. I shan't go in for it, but I can see why I might. Only spoiled by two or three children using the section as a venue for a rather noisy game of hide and seek or perhaps chase he, parents standing by, oblivious to the annoyance being caused. Don't think such a thing would happen in France where I am told that children are kept under proper control. And it is not as if there was not plenty of open space in which they could have charged around in without annoying anyone.

And so to lunch in the standard class rather than the first class canteen. We both had something described as spring lamb pie which consisted of quite a decent dollop of stew served in an individual enamel bowl, white with blue trim, the sort of thing which I believe the Poles used to specialise in, a topped with  biscuit of puff pastry. Not really a pie, but not bad for the money. Filled myself up with a substantial hot cross bun, served cold without butter. Perhaps it would have been toasted and served with butter in the first class canteen.

And lastly we have yet another memory failure to report. We had noticed that one of the orchids was in a flower pot embossed with the name 'Sankey' which I associated with the sort of sanitary ware you used to get in public houses, and so I assumed that the two Sankeys were one and the same, it all being ceramic of one sort or another. But checking later it seems that Sankey is nothing to do with sanitary ware, the only substantial company of that name in this country having been involved in steel rather than ceramic products, while there is a smaller company called R. Sankey which does garden products, including rather fancy plant pots. Have I conflated 'Sankey' with 'Shanks'?