Garden Club visit to La Concepcion

 

La Concepcion botanic gardens Photo Album

For the sake of completeness here is the photo album of the visit to La Concepcion botanic garden in May 2010. Retrospective thanks to Carol for the organisation. The trip was well attended and we were lucky with the weather and didn't get very wet.


An exceptional outdoor tropical section on a very large site, it has a long history of care and investment and is rightly touted as the best outdoor tropical garden in Europe. It can be physically a little tiring  as the site is very large but there is a good bar/restaurant for refreshments. Not to be missed by anyone with even a passing interest in plants. I have been  back since with the summer visitors

Featured Plant No1

Grevillea rosmarinifolia

My choice this month is Grevillea rosmarinifolia  it is just coming in to flower and gives a good lift to the garden at this time of year. My one specimen has thrived in the local conditions, nothing seems to deter it and yet strangely enough I've never taken any cuttings and I just can't think why. Many cultivars exist with a wide range of flowere forms. I can't say I remember seeing it in local garden centres and can't for the life of me remember were I got mine.
I`ve only ever pruned mine very lightly as I read somewhere that it dislikes a hard prune. an attractive shrub at all times of year requiring little in the way of food and water and is distinctly unfussy as to site and soil. Mine has been fully hardy-so far.
Height and spread are variously reported to be about 2m either way but I would guess that given the space this will spread well beyond that.