A "Magical Woodland"
Visited on May 18th, 2011
During the month of May I traveled with 54 British members of the Lakeland Horticulture Society (Windermere, England) to the highlands of Northwest Scotland. It was an eight-day tour of a dozen gardens, starting near our first base at Ullapool, Scotland to the gardens of Dunvegan Castle, situated on a rocky outcrop by the sea on the west coast of the Isle of Skye.
The morning after our visit to the garden at Dunvegan Castle, we left the Kings Arm Hotel at Kyleakin on the Isle, to start our return to Windermere. A cold front with high winds was moving towards the island. We left the upper highlands where sheer, rocky granite crags, fast streams cutting through gullies and bright yellow prickly gorse bushes dominated the landscape. Inland we headed, towards warmer weather and a chance of sunshine to Pitlochry, located in the heart of Scotland. A late afternoon visit to Cluny House Gardens located nearby in Aberfeldy, Perthsire was on the itinerary.
It was a light drizzle, gray clouds to the right and left, with a hint of sunlight straight ahead as the coach crossed over the Tay Bridge towards the small town of Aberfeldy, located along the River Tay. Aberfeldy laid in a U shaped valley with scenic peaks of the Perthshire Highlands as a back drop to farms with spring tilled land and gentle rolling pastures where sheep and cattle were grazing. Since the coach was not able to navigate the narrow woodland road leading into Cluny Gardens, we walked the half-mile lane to the entrance. Down-turned nodding, native woodland Scottish bluebells grew in profusion against stone moss walls and surrounded the welcome sign to Cluny Gardens. An open grassland habitat just inside the entrance was planted with varieties of native wild plants.
It began to rain harder while John Mattingley was telling us the stories of the garden as we stood in a circle on the manicured lawn outside the stone country home where he and his wife, Wendy lived. The lawn sloped steeply into the woods where trees overhead provided an umbrella from the rain as I entered the shade. A vibrant showcase of Himalayan woodland plants with a mix of North American natives was to surprise me in a forest garden that had a history connected to Scotland plant explorers.
Wendy’s parents, Bobby and Betty Masterton, original creators of the garden, received 400 seed packets from the Scottish plant explorer and friend, George Sheriff and his Englishman partner, Frank Ludlow, to start their garden in 1950. These seeds from the Sheriff-Ludlow 1949 expedition to Bhutan included several varieties of Meconopsis napaulensis, a difficult to grow but beautiful Himalayan poppy, with colors of yellow, red, and blue. The pure blue variety of Meconopsis poppy added a burst of color not usually seen in a woodland garden. Included in that seed packets were several varieties of Asiatic primulas, which would be difficult to grow in cultivation. The maritime climate at Cluny with moderate rainfall, the altitude of Strathtay Valley and a light, sandy, free draining, slightly acidic soil imitated the origins of these beautiful poppies and primulas.
Several Scottish plant hunters contributed indirectly to the garden. Archibald Menzies was born near Aberfeldy. The Western Red Cedar and Nootka cypress, native to the Pacific northwest of America, are an example of species that he obtained on his expeditions in the late 1700’s and introduced to Great Britain. These species were growing in the woods at Cluny Garden.
The Scotland’s “Indiana Jones” plant hunter George Forrest introduced 1200 new species to Great Britain during his travels from 1904 – 1932, to Yunnan in Western China, upper Burma, eastern Tibet and Sichuan province. Examples of those contributions were seen at Cluny Gardens. The Paeonia delavay with rich red single cupped flowers on the deciduous, multi-stemmed shrubs added splotches of color in the woods in mid May. Also in bloom were numerous varieties of primula in oranges, yellows and lavender. The striped spathes of the cobra lilies (Ariseama) were seen in the boggy areas of the garden. Large clumps of trilliums in white, red, and maroon covered the woodland ground. The rhododendron bushes in bright pinks, white and red, added May color in the forest. The Tibetan Cherry tree (Prunus serrula tibetica) with red peeling bark and the Abies Forrestii, a conifer whose only origin was China (and currently on the list of threatened species) was a George Forrest introduction also.
Cluny Gardens was situated on a hillside 600 feet above the River Tay. The defined pathways in the garden followed the natural terrain, steep in many places so steps were built directly into the embankments. Self- sown seedlings were left to grow alongside the trails so they asked that you watched your step and stay on the paths. Since they do not want to disturb the earth, seedlings are not removed from the forest floor. Propagation at the garden was done by seeds. Their compost made from wood chips and bark is free of peat. Constant hand weeding allowed self-sown seedlings to establish and naturally multiply. When a weed is pulled, the ground is then covered with leaf mold, which reduces the light to prevent germination and additional weeds. All weeds are collected and left to decompose for a two years. The final result is nitrogen rich compost used in the garden borders. For additional weed suppression and nutrients, a layer of leaf mold is added on top of the compost.
The use of leaf mold as a soil amendment or conditioner is an example of how they maintain woodland plant life without the use of chemicals. Leaf mold is a cold composting process where fungi rather then bacteria, with a moist environment, decomposes leaf material. Large piles of leaves that they have collected sit for three years. By then the compost will be moist and crumbly with beneficial bacteria and earthworms. Leaf mold can be used in the garden as mulch or worked into the soil to improve the water holding capacity. The addition of trace minerals and micro- nutrients to the soil is an additional benefit. Using this home produced leaf mold allowed many of the woodland plants to naturalize throughout the garden. Another significant component in the organic processes of the woodland garden is fungi. There were dozens of fungi that had been identified in these woods. These fungi were important in their recycling of the return of dead material to the soil in a form that can be reused.
The care of wildlife was a personal feature in this garden. Nest boxes and feeders for birds could be found placed throughout the garden as well as seed and berry-bearing plants. An example of birds that have made home in the garden were Mistle thrush, Garden warblers, Spotted Flycatcher, Greenfinches, Treecreepers and Blackcaps. It has been reported that there have been approximately 100 different species of birds that have visited or made their home the garden.
In Britain, due to the proliferation of the American gray squirrel, the native Red squirrels are threatened. At the garden the Red squirrels were well taken care of and thrive, being fed pine nuts, hazelnuts, peanuts and apples. Natural food sources that the squirrels find in the garden were tree blossoms, acer seeds, acorns and fungi. Two giant conifers, (one with a British record girth of 35 feet), are used by the Red squirrels as a highway through the garden and feeding boxes were at those trees.
It is believed that those two giant conifers, now 135 feet tall, originated when John Matthews, a botanist from Perthshire, sent seeds of the sequoia from the Sierra Nevada region of Calaveras County, California to Britain in 1853. The British wanted the sequoia named the Wellington, after the Duke of Wellington. The American’s wanted to name it Washingtonia, after their first president. After much debate, it was named the Sequoiadendron giganteum, because of the similarity to the American Redwood. In Britain though, the common name, Wellingtonia is still used.
The rain had subsided by the time I finished walking the pathways in a garden that had been an unexpected delight with bright colors of azalea bushes, Himalayan poppies to masses of the subtle, two toned, soft blue and white columbine (Aquilegia flabellata), native to Japan. Throughout the 6 acres of woods, the Royal (Osmunda regalis) and Ostrich (Matteuccia struthiopteris) ferns served their traditional role as a mainstay in a woodland setting.
We departed the garden in late afternoon sunshine carrying potted-plants purchased from Cluny. Traveling back to Pitlochry on the country road, I could see anglers in the clear river fly-fishing for brown trout and river rafters taking advantage of the break in the rain. Pheasants were abundant in the pastures where horses grazed. Lilacs grew along the fence line with fragrant spring plumes of purple, white and lavender. When we had arrived at Cluny Gardens the sign welcomed visitors to a “Magical Garden.” As I traveled away from the mid-May garden, I added “Exquisite.”
Visit this garden at: www.clunyhousegardens.com