Looking Good In June
What's looking good this month?
Around the Visitor Centre
Outside the Visitor Centre by the Gunnera Fountain the Tulip Tree, Liriodendron tulipifera, has yellow green tulip-shaped flowers with a band of orange at the base.
The leaves of this North American tree have a curious shape; it’s difficult to believe it is a member of the Magnolia family.
The Water Garden
The Water Garden is looking superb – as the drifts of Candelabra Primulas fade, the cream, yellow and green striped leaves of Iris pseudacorus ‘Variegata’ provide striking contrast to surrounding plants such as the Arum Lilies, Astilbes (feathery flowers), Wachendorfia thyrsiflora (a South African perennial with large ‘pleated’ leaves & orange flowers) and Rheum palmatum (palmate leaves with rosy purple undersides).
The Zig Zag
Above the Water Garden on the Zig Zag a spectacular rare Bromeliad and a relative of the pineapple, Puya chilensis has produced 2-3m high flower spikes which will open into neon bright chartreuse-green blooms.
In Chile, the flowers are pollinated by birds which sit on the outward pointing tips and drink the sweet nectar inside.
Dogwoods
June is the month the Dogwoods flower; Cornus kousa and Cornus ‘Norman Hadden’ both with attractive creamy white flower bracts that turn pink as they mature.
Two recent introductions to the garden are, Cornus ‘Miss Satomi’ above the amphitheatre with dark rose-pink bracts and Cornus ‘Venus’* which has bracts up to 15cm across.
Azolla Pool
By Azolla Pool there is a strand of Phyllostachys edulis – one of the most elegant, extraordinary and largest of the subtropical bamboos that thrive in Trebah’s warm microclimate.
The upright blue-green culms (canes) can attain a circumference of 30cm and can grow to a height of 20m.
