July 2018 - Andrea Whitely Garden Consultant

One balmy Pennsylvania afternoon, last August, I visited my GWA (Association for Garden Communicators) friend, Jenny Rose Carey, in her Philadelphia garden and am sitting here thinking about how beautiful it must be looking right now. Luckily, I took heaps of shots and am so happy to be able to share this very special garden with you.

Many gardeners forget that green is a colour and just how effective green on green can be.

Jenny Rose is all things horticulture, author, educator and historian but first and foremost a brilliant gardener with a great eye and is the Senior Director at The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Meadowbrook Farm in Jenkintown (more on that stunning property later).

A Bit about Northview….

On Jenny Roses’ website, she writes “Northview’s 4½ acre site was originally part of Wilmer and Anna Atkinson’s 1887 100-acre Victorian Model Farm. Some of the trees planted by Mr. Atkinson (the Founder and Editor of the Farm Journal) remain, including a beautiful 150-year-old Japanese maple. The current property includes the original 1887 farmhouse and carriage house.”

I climbed up to the top to enjoy the view

This delightful garden, like many private gardens, I am lucky enough to visit, is a reflection of the gardener who created it, Jenny Rose, it’s an elegant garden that’s for sure. This garden offers both form and function and is so respectful of gardeners who have worked that land. There’s lovely, tasteful pieces of artwork scattered throughout, some whimsy pieces, just for fun, long vistas for the mind to rest and drink in the verdant green lawns and breathe the air around old trees and really experience the many places to sit and just be.

Hydrangeas in full bloom

Step through the gate to see what treasures await

Even the birds get a very cool place to hang out here

You can’t help but breathe deeply as you walk under this canopy

Perfect afternoon light to capture this beauty

I love a good stumpery, look at the beautiful lichen and fungi

Nature has an open invitation to visit this garden

OK, so, I will freely admit that I am a sucker for potting sheds and places where people work behind the scenes (I’m a bit of a sticky beak) in gardens and Jenny Roses’ potting shed is, I think No.1 on my list…it is a thing of beauty in itself, such organization, so many pots, so gorgeous, I could see myself sitting in one of those wicker chairs, looking out over the garden and sipping a hot cuppa…could be my dream Air BNB, in fact!

The Potting Shed..from the outside, but the real magic is on the inside.

for those times when you need to sit outside your lovely shed

I would like to sit here and drink tea, wouldn’t you?

I could sit in that shed for months, looking out at that garden and writing a book…ahh what would I write?…what would I call it? This Philadelphia Life, perhaps……

Jenny Rose and her family generously host visitors to her garden and you can request a visit by contacting her on http://www.jennyrosecarey.com/northview-gardens. It would be a fabulous place to go with a group of like-minded garden-loving pals on a Spring or Summers day.

Thank you, Jenny Rose, for so generously sharing your garden with me.

As a professional Garden Consultant, I like to think that everything I touch turns to green, however much like everyone else I sadly, must admit that I have my disasters from time to time too.

A week ago, I had a very healthy-looking six-year-old lime tree, beautifully clipped into a neat ball shape, standing about five feet tall and sitting in front of a very tidy planting of three Pyrus ‘Capital’, which have not even shown a single sign of Autumn leaf loss, is there such a thing as an evergreen ornamental pear? anyway, another story…moving on…the lime tree is now DECEASED, DEAD, GONE, NO TURNING BACK!

Granted, that darn tree, despite plenty of flowers has never had a single lime on it and in recent times, I have given it a very stern talking to however I was not expecting this kind of reaction.

Here’s the main stem-no signs of collar rot-no sign of life either

This lime has been loved, nurtured, given compost, given Potassium as well as a complete citrus fertilizer and up until a week ago looked very healthy. This plant has been treated well. It has been watered in the warmer months and mulched and now this!

Here are some of the possible causes of death:

Scale?-no evidence of any scale

Citrus Leaf Minor?-no evidence of that either

Collar rot?-mulch not pressing up against the trunk of the tree-no signs of collar rot

Armillaria?-according to the Department of Agriculture in Western Australia “Citrus trees affected by Armillaria root rot show decline with leaf yellowing and leaf drop. They may set a very heavy fruit crop in spring but collapse and die when the weather gets hot in summer.

Armillaria appears under the bark of affected trees as fan-shaped mycelia mats with a strong mushroom odour.” There’s no funghi, I have had no fruit and it is winter and the weather is cold so I’m eliminating that.

Phytophthora? “Phytophthora root rot in citrus is caused by the pathogenic fungi P. citrophthora and/or P. nicotianae. Below-ground symptoms are the loss of feeder roots. Above-ground symptoms are a loss of vigour and spindly growth.” says AgricWA It could be this but I’m not convinced.

Sooty Mould? There’s no blackening of the stems, so I am also ruling this out

Nematodes? I am thinking maybe, citrus nematodes (Tylenchus semipenetrans). Well, it could be them, they are microscopic but I will not know until I remove the tree and check out the roots of the plant and very difficult to diagnose.

So, what’s wrong with my lime tree? I have to admit that I am stumped, I don’t know what’s wrong with it but here’s my solution…

I’m ripping it out, goneski, it’s taking far too much of my energy and valuable time to diagnose the problem and it has never given us a single LIME-space is at a premium at my place and so it’s goodbye to you, lime tree!

Looks like I will be buying limes for my Gin and Tonic next Summer

….and now for the biggest (and I do feel guiltily mercenary) is…. what is going to replace the lime…it’s off to the garden centre for me….retail therapy fixes all woes.

Month: July 2018

Northview-Such An Elegant Garden And Oh, What A Shed!

We have had a death in the family