No ducking required if you waddle into the Cushion House today

It may not be summer yet, but the garden had a distinctly summer feel in the warm sunshine. There were many spring classic plants to still enjoy reminding you that summer is not quite here yet. All pictures were taken on 13 May 2025.

At the top of the rock garden rhododendrons are in flower

I particularly like the three rhododendrons that are at the top of the rock garden. The second and third pictures are of plants that were raised by Peter A. Cox VMH MBE (1934 – 2025),  who ran the Glendoick nursery near Perth. He bred a whole range of rhododendrons that were named after mammals and birds from the 1960’s onwards. His son Kenneth started his own programme in the 1980s. R. ‘Chipmunk’ and R. ‘Panda’ are just a couple, from the many that Peter created.

Rhododendron ‘Kermesinum Rose’ was a sport from R. kermesinum, found in 1972 by Mr. A. Wemken in Germany and was given an AGM in 2013. It grows to 60cm in ten years, from the Latin – kermesinum – carmine, carmine coloured. This plant is trying to revert back from the rose to the darker colour.

Potentilla eriocarpa comes from Himalaya to Central China. The genus name is from the Latin – potens – powerful, as some plants in the genus had active medical properties. The specific epithet is also from the Latin – erio – woolly and – carpe – fruit, fruited. Genista pilosa ‘Procumbens’ flowers from April to June and can be found in Western and central Europe including the UK. It grows in poor, dry sandy and stony soils. The specific epithet is from the Latin – felted with long soft hairs and procumbens – lying flat on the ground.

I noticed  lots of white flowered plants on show

I have cut back the following plant a number of times and have a love / hate relationship with it, as it has wickedly sharp thorns. Now I know more about the name I’m back in love with it. Rosa spinosissima is known as the Burnet rose (the leaves are like the herb Salad Burnet), the Scotch rose or the White rose of Scotland. It produces spherical black hips and a purple dye was produced from them when mixed with alum (potassium alum which acts as a mordant to fix the dye to a fabric). Traditionally used to dye tartan, hence its Scottish reference. It is at home in Scotland and also in the rest of Europe to Southwest Siberia, Northwest Iran and Algeria. In Tudor England it was the emblem for the House of York.

Deutzia gracilis ‘Nikko’ is a deciduous shrub and flowers from May – June. The flowers are fragrant and it grows to 80cm. In the autumn the leaves turn red / purple. This plant was originally selected at Watanabe Nursery, Gotemba City, Japan in 1976 and has had several name changes before being identified as a variant of D. gracilis, the slender deutzia. The specific epithet comes from the Latin – slender.  The cultivar name was applied by British nurseryman Mr. C. G. Hollett of Greenbank Nursery, Cumbria in 1976 – 77 and introduced it into the trade in the late 1980’s. Paeonia x suffruticosa ‘Koshino – yuki’ is the white tree peony and has amazing large double flowers. The cultivar name is from  – koshino – the mountainous area west of Kawasaki and yuki -snow. It grows up to 1.8m and the specific epithet is from the Latin – somewhat shrubby at the base, soft wooded, growing yearly from ground level.

Halesia diptera is known as the snowdrop tree. The white flowers can be up to 3cm and the tree can eventually reach 4.8m high x 8m spread. The genus name is to honour the Reverend Stephen Hales (1677 – 1761) who was also a physiologist being ordained in 1703. He was the first person to quantitively measure blood pressure and investigated and measured plant transpiration. He spent most of his adult life in the Parish of Teddington, from 1709 – 1761. The specific epithet is from the Greek – di – two and ptera – winged, referring to the fruits.

If a yucca is too big for your garden try this one. Nolina texana is known as the Texas beargrass. Of course it is. The genus name is to honour Abbe Pierre Charles Nolin (1717 – 1796) a French agriculturalist, horticulturalist, botanist, author and cleric. The specific epithet is from the Latin – of or from Texas. Its other common name is Texas sacahuista or thorn grass. This is from the Aztec – zacatl – grass and huitzli – thorn. I can vouch that the leaves are very sharp. It is found in a number of states including Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and over the border into parts of Mexico.

It wasn’t a complete whiteout, there was plenty of colour as well

Petrocoptis pyrenaica subs. glaucifolia is another short lived plant that is native to Northwest Spain. It can have magenta or white flowers. The genus name is from the Greek – petro – of rocky places and – kopto – to cut. Erysimum kotschyanum is known as the Kotschy wallflower. It was named in honour of Carl Georg Theodor Kotschy (1813 – 1866) an Austrian botanist, explorer and botanical collector. It is found growing in Turkey. The genus name comes from the Greek – eruo – to draw up – some species would cause blisters on the skin.

Helianthemum ‘Saint John’s college Yellow’ was give an AGM in 1925. It has bright golden yellow flowers with an orange centre, grey green foliage and flowers from May to the end of June. There is an excellent website https://www.helianthemums.co.uk/  that was created by Andrew Roberts and has lots of information, and is very helpful in identifying many of the rock roses. H. ‘Henfield Brilliant’ AGM is named after the large village in West Sussex.

Erodium ‘Stephanie’ flowers from May to October and has white flowers with a purple – brown to inky black blotch. It was raised by John Ross from Chapter House Nursery in the UK in 1990. It was an open cross with E. heteradenum as the seed parent. Alyssum halimifolium is known as the sweet alyssum and has honey scented flowers. The genus name is from the Greek – a – not and – lyssa – madness, the genus once being considered a cure for a bite by a mad dog, leading to the popular name of Madwort. The specific epithet is from the Latin – Halimi – orache like, with silvery grey rounded leaves and – folium – leaved.

Some of the views around the rock garden today

I’ve included more views of the rock garden as at this time of the year it is looking at its best.

The Alpine Display House continues to be the highlight for many visitors to Wisley

There are many parts of the garden that compete for the favourite place for visitors but whenever I’m in the display house it’s a commonly repeated phrase.  Meconopsis baileyi AGM, the Himalayan blue poppies have been raised from seed last year and have come into flower for the first time. The genus name is from the Greek – mekon – a poppy and – opsis – like. The specific epithet is for Lt. Col Frederick Marshman Baily, who identified and named it in 1912. It is short lived and in my hands even shorter. Tricky to grow as it likes moisture when in growth in the spring and summer, but drier during winter. It will thrive in cooler / dappled shaded areas avoiding the hot sun. Its mountain home is in East Himalaya, Myanmar and Tibet and will reach a height of 1.2m. An area on the rock garden has been identified as a potential home for them and time will tell whether the conditions will suit them. I do hope so. We are hoping that some of the seedlings will be a stronger blue. The second picture is the white form, M. b. var. alba.

Phyteuma scheuchzeri has its home in France, Italy, Switzerland and the Northwest of the Balkan peninsular. Its common name is the horned or Oxford rampion. The specific epithet is in honour of Johan Jakob Scheuchzer (1672 – 1733) a Swiss naturalist and physician. The nice thing about the ADH is you can escape the worst of the weather particularly, the wind and rain. Zephyranthes fosteri is one of the rain lilies. The genus name is from the Greek – zephyr – the west wind and – anthos – a flower. It was named for Mulford Bateman Foster, an American explorer, horticulturist, photographer, writer and botanist. He is also known as the Father of Bromeliads. I drink tea and eat chocolate biscuits. It comes from Central, Northeast and Southeast Mexico. The flowers are pale pink although my picture doesn’t quite reflect this.

Allium hierochuntinum is the name recognized by the RHS with some authorities having it as a synonym of Allium ascalonicum. Its common name is the Jericho garlic, hierochuntinum being the classical Latin name for Jericho. It is found in the western end of the Mediterranean including Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. Aquilegia chrysantha can be found in the wild in the states of Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico and across the border into Mexico. The specific epithet is from the Latin – yellow flowered and its common name is the golden Columbine.

In the Cushion House

Helichrysum orientale is one of the everlasting or immortelle flowers. One of the flowers is undergoing a biological control thanks to a Ladybird. The genus name is from the Greek – helios – the sun and – chrusos – gold. The specific epithet is from the Latin – eastern or oriental. It is found in Greece, East Aegean Islands, Crete, Turkey and Egypt. Acantholimon hohenackeri comes from Eastern Turkey. The specific epithet is to honour Rudolph Friedrich Hohenacker (1798 – 1874), a Swiss missionary, doctor, plant collector, and is known as the prickly thrift. Visitors only touch or pat it once.

You can really make yourself at home in the Cushion House today – if you are a duck

For those of you that have been to the garden you will be aware of the many species of wildlife that chooses to make its home in and around the garden in general, and in the Rock garden in particular. This week a mallard duck has decided that the cushion house makes an ideal location for her nest. A small scrape was made and a single egg laid. She moved on to building a nest, initially from some of the plant material pulled from the beds and latterly from a supply of material placed by the team near her. Typically there will be a clutch of twelve eggs laid at one to two day intervals. This represents half her body weight in eggs. I thought the number of visitors would make her abandon the nest, but so far she has not, and has added some feathers to help camouflage it. Some visitors don’t  notice the nest and some go very close for a better look. It may not end well but that is nature. Not every clutch of eggs hatch and if they do the survival rate unfortunately it is not very high. While this may seem like a strange choice of location to me, there is evidence that proves the further the nest is away from the water the higher the survival rate of the ducklings. Once again this proves that mum knows best. If I don’t mention the ducks again you‘ll know that there wasn’t a happy ending. But for now we keep our fingers crossed.