Note 14: Scilly odyssey - a week away

Christopher Nolan seems to be enjoying success with his 3-hour long IMAX epic, The Odyssey, at the moment but the thought of sardining myself into a hot cinema during a heatwave is not on my current bucket list.  My own odyssey has just taken me four hours of motoring south to Penzance where a three hour trip by ferry to St Marys followed by a 20 minute boat trip to St Agnes embedded me firmly in the slow pace of island life on the Isles of Scilly.  Twenty eight miles off Lands End the islands are an archipelago of over 140 named rocks and islets of which five are inhabited. 

You may not be familiar with The Isles of Scilly but the island of Tresco is famous throughout the world for its sub-tropical planting in the Abbey Gardens.  Owned by the Duchy of Cornwall its first ‘Lord Proprietor’, Augustus Smith, protected the barren windswept island 190 years ago by planting shelter belts of Monteray Pine and Cypress trees.  Approximately ten years later the terraces, carved out of the solid granite, were created and the garden has continued to develop ever since.  The frost free environment enables a global collection of plants from 80 countries to survive as one of the most important botanical collections in the northern hemisphere.  Famously an annual flower count is carried out every New Year with just under 300 species found to be in bloom most years making it often referred to as ‘Kew without a roof’.

The natural flora of the islands comprise common gorse, heather, bracken, brambles, red campion and bird’s foot trefoil.  On the rabbit cropped grasslands, beach edges, and sand dunes, sea thrift, marram grass, yellow horned poppy and sea kale thrive.  Some garden escapees such as Agapanthus, Gladiolus, Nerine, and Crocosmia have come to be loved by visitors and locals alike but not by the Wildlife Trust who look after around 1,700 acres of land.  Much of their work includes clearing the invasive species such as Pittosporum and Ice Plant (Carpobrotus edulis with the wonderful colloquial name of Sally-my-handsome)  from the dunes and surrounding landscape.

Flower farming, primarily scented narcissi, has been pursued there since the late 1870’s, a once thriving industry that required the planting of protective hedges comprising Pittosporum, Escallonia, and Tamarisk.  Forty years ago the cold weather was so extreme that many of the hedges were destroyed.  Nature is resilient however and the hedges thrive once again.

Before this, earth filled stone walls known as Cornish hedges protected any livestock and still remain to this day.  It’s these ‘hedges’ that the locals have taken to their hearts and many are planted up with Aeonium, (pictured) Lampranthus, Echeveria, and Agapanthus and many roadside stalls sell these plants with honesty boxes often labelled ‘pay what you can’. 

My relatives enjoy living on the Island 12 months of the year and their garden boasts permanent plantings of pelargoniums, Osteospermum, Argyranthemum, and Gazania - summer bedding or pot plants for most of us on the mainland.  More familiar are apples and pears but the view is thrown into confusion by the addition of a 25 foot avocado tree planted as a stone over 60 years ago. 

‘Prairies’ of Agapanthus and ten feet tall Echium pininana are another sight to be enjoyed while in front gardens huge towering Agaves are often spotted.  Known as the century plant, Agave americana grows its spikey rosette for thirty years before throwing up a huge 20 feet tall flower stem.  Being monocarpic, the parent plant dies but in doing so offsets known as ‘pups’ soon start to grow around the base. 

For many years I have tried to recreate my own Scilly garden in Gloucestershire.  Echiums have never quite managed to scrape through cold winters.  On one occasion I nearly succeeded but a late April frost finished off the flowering spike.  Many of the other plants have done well in my galvanised trough but of course need to come in to receive protection during the winter. 

Back home I’m beginning to think that in only a few years time anything may be possible.  With hotter summers I may be able to have some permanent plantings in place.  It's just the prospect of wet winters that makes me wonder just  quite what our gardens will look like in 50 years time.