Tag: moss

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Vegepod Gardening in the Shade

Whether you garden in sunshine or shade, there are plants that will be perfectly suited to growing in your garden – it’s just a case of finding them!  In 2019, my Vegepod was moved from a sunny spot, to a new enclosed, deeply shaded area of my garden.  I am not exaggerating when I say that in its new position my Vegepod truly was shaded – my Vegepod was sandwiched in a tight space, wedged between a tall conifer hedge, a two storey high wall, a tall fence, and an 8ft tall pergola that was smothered with climbing plants – the plants growing in my Vegepod did not receive any direct sunshine whatsoever.

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Yesterday afternoon when I logged onto Twitter, the first thing I saw was an open letter on the use of peat signed by some well-known professional horticulturists and illustrated with a picture of Peter Seabrook.  Earlier this year, I responded to some of the claims Peter Seabrook made about peat in Hort Week; today I’m responding to the claims made by the following professional horticulturists in an open letter, which was published by Garden Trade News.

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Peatlands cover just 3% of our planet’s surface, yet these precious areas store more carbon than all the world’s forests and vegetive plants combined.  Home to rare plants and wildlife, peatlands support a biodiverse range of plants, insects, birds, and wildlife, including many species that can only survive in these unique habitats.  As well as protecting us from climate change and providing us with beautiful open countryside refuges, peatlands offer us many other advantages. 

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I’m supporting Peat Free April – a campaign by garden writers, nature writers, and gardeners who want to ban the use of peat in horticulture and protect the planet’s peatlands and peat bogs.

We really need your help to push the government to protect peat bogs and peatlands, so please sign this petition to ask the government to ban the use of peat in horticulture.

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Building a Tall Orchidarium

In November 2019, I set up this new terrarium, which I’ve christened my Tall Orchidarium.  I designate a name to each of my terrariums to help you more easily find every article relating to the particular terrarium you’re interested in.  If you want to know more about my Tall Orchidarium, you can find all of my articles that relate to this terrarium by clicking here.

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What am I growing inside my Vegepod?

Since I first told you about my Vegepod much has changed.  Back in 2018, my Vegepod was set up in an area of my garden that enjoyed partial shade, but after trialling the Vegepod in this fairly beneficial position (vegetables thrive when they’re grown in sunny and partially shaded sites), I decided to move my Vegepod to a more shaded area of my garden, to see what I could grow successfully inside my Vegepod with more challenging growing conditions.

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Peatlands and peat bogs: precious environments that urgently need our protection

Peatlands are extraordinary environments, which now cover just 2-3% of our planet’s surface.  Home to a fascinating range of native plants and wildlife, peatlands form unique ecosystems that support incredible flora and fauna.  Many of the plants, insects, birds, and wildlife that have evolved in these boggy, acidic areas can’t survive anywhere else.

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Miniature Orchid Trial BiOrbAir Terrarium

Welcome to the twenty-third update from my BiOrbAir Review – Growing Miniature Orchids in the BiOrbAir!  Since my last instalment, the two plants that were really struggling – Diplocaulobium chrysotropis and Macroclinium chasei have both died.  But it’s not all bad news, I’ve got a few orchid flowers to share with you and I’m also celebrating that for this week at least, the tiny aphid species that has colonised the plants inside this terrarium is temporarily under control.

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An Update on the Orchids growing inside my Orchidarium (part four)

In February 2017, which (as I write to you in September 2019) was over two and a half years ago, I decided to create an Orchidarium with an automated misting unit, LED lights, and fans, to house some of my miniature orchids and provide them with automatic care.  This wasn’t about creating a beautiful enclosure; I built this Orchidarium to house as many orchids from my collection as possible inside this enclosure and to provide these plants with automated care. 

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The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019

Welcome to the second part of my overview of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019.  (If you missed the first part of my Chelsea overview, click here to see the first instalment.)

The Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show is the world’s most prestigious flower show.  Held in the Royal Hospital’s grounds, at Chelsea, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is a great place to find inspiration and ideas for your home and garden. 

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I really enjoy designing and planting terrariums and bottle gardens.  Usually, I look for pre-made glass bottles, vases, vivariums, old aquariums, or fish tanks, to use to create and design my indoor gardens.  However, earlier this year I decided to commission a custom made terrarium, which was designed to fit neatly on top of my sideboard, where it now provides a home, complete with automated care, for some of my orchids that form part of my National Collection. 

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If you’re setting up a terrarium, vivarium, or bottle garden, and you’re looking for miniature orchids to add to your indoor garden, you may find that it is not always easy to tell which orchids are truly miniature and which aren’t.

Many orchids that are sold as miniatures are miniature sized when they are young, but as they grow and develop, many of these plants will soon outgrow a traditionally sized terrarium or bottle garden. 

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Welcome to the tenth part of my Madagascar BiOrbAir Terrarium Trial – growing epiphytic orchids, which are endemic to Madagascar, inside the BiOrbAir terrarium.  In this update, I am delighted to share with you the extraordinary blooms of Aeranthes arachnites!  I’ll also be showing you an update on the progression of my Aerangis citrata specimen’s flower spike production, alongside updates on the growth and development of all of the orchids that are growing inside this Madagascar BiOrbAir Terrarium.

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The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018

The highlight of the horticultural calendar, The Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show is the world’s most prestigious flower show!  Over the past three weeks, award winning garden designers from all over the world, together with their teams, made up of some of the best landscape architects, project managers, builders, technicians, horticulturalists, artists and crafts people, have been working solidly to transform the Royal Hospital’s grounds at Chelsea into an oasis of gardening ideas and inspiration!

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I’ve admired the work of Master Florist Henck Röling for a number of years now.  Henck Röling is a Master Florist and Artist, he works for some of London’s top florists; Henck creates weekly flower arrangements for the Ritz, Southerby’s, and Fortnum and Mason, to name but a few.  As well as at top London hotels and restaurants, you may have seen some of Henck’s work at Kew Gardens’ Orchid Festivals, where Henck has created an absolutely fabulous series of floral installations over the past eight years.

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Phalaenopsis honghenensis

Phalaenopsis honghenensis is an epiphytic orchid species, which is native to Honghe in Yunnan.  This is the region in China which gives this orchid species its name, but Phalaenopsis honghenensis can also be found growing in Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand.

Phalaenopsis honghenensis can be found growing at about 2000m above sea level, on the trunks and branches of mossy, lichen covered trees in Vietnam, Thailand, and China.

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How to Build an Orchidarium

I love indoor creating bottle gardens, terrariums, vivariums, orchidariums, and other indoor gardens.  In this article I’ll show you how one of my orchidariums was created.  I hope this feature will help you, if you’re considering creating an orchidarium, vivarium, terrarium, or another lovely indoor garden of your own.

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The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2017 featured five new Show Gardens – The Radio 2 Feel Good Gardens, designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Radio 2.  Each of the Radio 2 Feel Good Gardens depicts one of the five senses and is named after a Radio 2 presenter.  I met up with Garden designer Matt Keightley to learn more about the textural garden he designed for Jeremy Vine.

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I so enjoy growing miniature, epiphytic orchids.  When I am mounting epiphytic orchids, usually I use cork bark as a mount, although sometimes I will use other woods to mount my orchids, it all depends on which orchid I am growing, and what materials I have.

I hope this information will help you, if you’re mounting epiphytic orchids onto cork bark or other wood, or if you’d just like to learn more about these diverse and interesting plants.

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Madagascar is an amazing island that’s situated off the South East coast of Africa.  Madagascar is a special place, it’s is home to a large number of interesting and amazing orchids, many of which are only found in this one special area of our planet.

In order to highlight the beauty of Madagascan orchids – and to raise awareness of the fragility of their home environment – I have planted a specialised, automated BiOrbAir terrarium from BiOrb with orchids that are endemic to Madagascar.