On a bright morning we gathered around Owen Johnson, guide for our visit, to start our visit to the gardens at Wakehurst Place. Owen led us past the Seedbank complex into Bethlehem Wood and from there through Coates Woodand, returning in time for lunchtime refreshment at the Stables Café.
Owen explained his route selection as exploring some more “less commonly visited” parts of the tree collection…and so it indeed turned out.
On our way to Bethlehem Wood we passed and admired a statuesque Caucasian Wingnut Tree ( Pterocarya pterocarpa) which had just dropped its beautiful yellow leaves in the recent winds. The wood itself contains a significant collection of 30 Birch varieties, including a number from Japan and China. These trees were fascinating not only for their different size and shape, but for their wonderfully coloured bark. One particularly eye-catching example (amongst a number of others) was the Erman’s Birch ( Betula ermanii) with peeling pink-grey bark. Other birches had so much dangling bark they resembled a mummy losing its bindings . We also admired the Chinese Elm (Ulmus parvifolia), which, unusually, bears flowers in the Autumn and whose bark is exquisitiely textured and coloured such that – to my eye – it could have been created by an impressionist painter.
Moving through to Coates Wood we passed a splendid Japanese elm (Zelkova serrata) showing wonderful Autumn colour.
At Coates Wood we landed in the southern hemisphere, and here quickly spotted a significant stand of apparently very happy Wollemi pine ( Wollemia nobilis); interestingly, this species appears to be the only Australian conifer to thrive in this country.
The eucalyptus trees are spectacular, but not to everybody’s taste. The peeling bark strips that forms a carpet around the tree feed the natural forest fires that then burn so hot they endanger all plants except the eucalyptus seedlings.
Among the antipodean trees pointed out by Owen were a number of Southern beech and a broad-leafed conifer from Tasmania the Celery top pine (Phyllocladus aspleniifolius)
Our trail back towards refreshments took us through a rocky area…and here trees grew as artworks around the outcrops; we all admired the fascinating shapes and the fact that many tree species rose to the challenge of the landscape…
A view down the valley was a delightful sight, with Dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) and Swamp cypress (Taxodium distichum) both showing splendid Autumn colour contrasting with native trees and a group of green Monkey puzzle trees completing the picture.
After refreshments some members of the group visited the Millenium Seedbank building, to learn more about the workings of this project.