PENZANCE

A few blogs now on signifant holidays. We went to Cornwall every May for forty years at school Whit holiday. Our first break was to Lamorna Cove, near Penzance, a small family hotel with walls covered in pictures by Lamorna Birch who lived next door. When they sold up, we took a variety of holiday lets, most commonly in a cottage which had been an annex to the hotel. Our main purpose was to visit the new art exhibition in the Penlee House Gallery. Jean was very interested in the Cornish artists especially the Lamorna, Newlyn and St Ives schools.

Peter Dawlish In childhood Jean was a voracious reader and remembered a children's series about four boys sailing a masted fishing boat named Dauntless. We searched bookshops and found copies, finding that the author was Peter Dawlish. One year we found a Lamorna village history on sale in the village shop indicating that Peter Dawlish was the pen name for James Lennox Kerr who lived in a house we passed every year overlooking the bay and was married to the daughter of Lamorna Birch. There was a board adversing paintings of the Kerr family. We knocked on their door which was opened by a bearded sailor with three small dogs. I introduced us as people interested in his father's books and he said that most people asked about his artist grandfather We struck up a friendship that lasted until his death. We went to his 80th birthday celebrations and I helped him write his autobiography. He was by career a hydrologist (that is he mapped the ocean bed). James Lennox Kerr wrote on a range of topics, the first an account of his crossing America as a hobo by jumping trains. Then he wrote adult fiction, social novels about poverty in Scotland where he came from. He also wrote crime stories and stories about ships. He tried one story for boys,The Blackspit Smugglers. After war service on mine-sweepers he wrote a series of about four boys in the sailing boat Dauntless, which Jean came across in the Bradford City library.

Penlee House Gallery is close to the Penzance promenade with Morrab Gardens to the right. The Penlee House Gallery to the left it has a small museum and a permanent art collection, not to mention an excellent cafe, several times a year they put on themed exhibitions bringing together paintings from other galleries. We came down for the opening week and bought the bulky exhibition souvenirs. We therefore have a record of each exhibition.

Gardens. There are beautiful semi-tropical gardens in Cornwall. I am focussing on three near Penzance that we went to regularly. The gardens of St Michael's Mount are not open every day. They are set on a steep hillside and rockface and filled with tender plants. There are alsothree balcony gardens leading down to the coastal path. Trengweinton Gardens (National Trust) has a colourful garden alongside the drive. At first we showed tickets to an old lady at a window. Sparrows were flying in and out.The Minack Theatre is an outdoor theatre which puts on a regular programme.. It has a natural rock garden full of aloes, and other tender plants. We went to West Side Story, at which a basking shark plus cub stole the show other one we went to was Our Town, a conversation beteen ghosts in the graveyard.One year we stayed close to Trebah and Glendurgan gardens.

There are also many plant nursaries to buy tender plants.

Stevie Dufyn March 2024.

GARDENING.

 As a schoolboy I was taught to garden by my grandfather. We had an orchard plus veg garden. Our first garden after marriage was tiny, a postage stamp front and back. Our next garden, in Salisbury, was not much bigger. It was our Swindon garden that had more scope, though it had and has problems  of its own. The back was an orchard, though th fruit trees were old and diseased. The one still left was I estimate 200 years old. The back garden has a number of natural springs. Set on a hill, it is now set on three levels. My wife and I developed it so long as she was able, until 2015 when her dementia took hold. We were both specialists  in different plants, and we visited RHS and National Trust gardens regularly. Her knowledge, including plant knowledge, disappeared almost overnight.

 Although we have taken part in village open weekends  since 2000, The bast time for the garden was after my retirement in 2008. We have specialised in growing unusual plants including several species of buddleija, weigela, bottlebrush, hostas, hemerocallis, scented-leaf pelargoniums, even a fothergilla. In2012 I took a photo a day throughout the year which can be found on romancourt365.blogspot.com. My wife's illness from 2014  gave me less time in the garden and made it impossible for her to continue, so the garden was neglected as I cared for her over the next seven years. Now she is in a care home, progress can begin again.

Last autumn the heavy rains caused a retaining garden wall to collapse; it was replaced on Monday. There have been plant casualties requiring replacement. Looking around I see only one penstemon still alive, so have a growing list to buy. Penstemons were once considered annuals because they were hard to overwinter. It was customary to take cuttings. Fortunated new strains were developed which were more resiliant and these are now easy to find. Most were bred in Pershore and carry the name Pensham. Apart from that, I am searching for anything unusual. I plant as a botanist and not an artist, so don't expect clipping to death, or neat lawns but rather plants looking natural and high tolerance of wild flowers. It goes without saying that I aim to be bee-friendly, and that means organic.

The garden is the same size front (west) and back (east) and also has side beds north and south. There is a greenhouse and polytunnel in the back, neither used effectively. A summer-house is used mainly for storage at the moment. When bought, the house had a derelict swimming pool removed when a house extension was built. It was replaced by a double garage. The greenhouse replaced a railway carriage used as a workshop.

Plant names. Although many people are scared of plant names, I find them a source of pleasure and look into their archaeology. Common names differ area to area and are easy to remember. In the 18th century, Carl Linnaeus began to classify plant names in a form that botanists thoughout the world would understand. The academic language of the time was Latin and that is still used today. At first they looked for similarities to other plants to decide on plant families.For example, clethroides means 'like a clethra' in the family Lysimachia, popular names 'gooseneck or Chinese loosestrife' or 'moneywort'. Lysimachia was the ancient king of Sicily. 

The earliest names were descripive, and often quite long. I have a print of a wild fuchsia found in Chile and grown in Kew in 1788. It  was given the name Fuchsia after the German botanist Fuchs and in full Fuchsia coccinea foliis oppositis ovaltus dentitulatis petalis obovatis obstusis. It has since been named Fuchsia magellanica, the explorer Magellan's Fuchsia.  Today, dna analysis shows which species are inter-related and names and names change. 

Propagation. It is is expersive to fill a larger garden with full price mature. Sprinkling annuals (plants which die after flowering and setting seeds) can offer quick colour. If bought in autumn they might be half price. Sowing wildflowers will help the bees. Clones come from cuttings: fresh tips are the most reliable. I put several around the edge of a plantpot and put it in a polythene bag to maintain humidity. If done carefully, most should root. They will need nurturing when in small pots. Plant in the garden the following spring. Don't forget to label.