Ivydene Gardens Home:
Demise of trees in pavements in St. Peter Port, Guernsey caused by people to their
Roots

READING THE TEXT IN RED ON THIS PAGE WILL MAKE IT EASIER FOR YOU TO USE EACH PAGE in my educational website.

 

THE 2 EUREKA EFFECT PAGES FOR UNDERSTANDING SOIL AND HOW PLANTS INTERACT WITH IT OUT OF 10,000:-


 

Explanation of Structure of this Website with User Guidelines Page for those photo galleries with Photos (of either ones I have taken myself or others which have been loaned only for use on this website from external sources)

PAGE/INDEX TABLE
is TABLE 3

HOME PAGES - Use this website in Landscape mode on an iPAD instead of an iPHONE, when away from home.
Welcome - Ivydene Gardens informs you how to design, construct and maintain your private garden using organic methods and companion planting.
About Chris Garnons-Williams - About Chris Garnons-Williams, with my
Mission Purpose - Mission Statement,
Contact Chris Garnons-Williams - Contact Information (Never Fail Cake Recipe),
Website Design History - Website Design History and
Copyright Permissions - Copyright Permissions.
Site Map - Ivydene Gardens Site Map - usually each of the educational not commercial 212 topics (none of these 212 linked websites sell or buy anything, nor do they take or give commission, and the only adverts are of products/services that I believe would benefit my visitors and are inserted by me) has its own Site Map, which is normally the first page of that Topic linked to from other topics.
Every page should have 3 separate tables - the Topics Table, the Data Table and the Pages/Index Table.
Each page has its own resources and is not data-base driven, so can be downloaded - downloading the whole website of 20.44 GB (3 Dec 2021) annually, with pages being between 1200 and over 6000 pixels wide and between 16k and over 33k long would provide you with an updating resource when either visiting a garden or planning your own. Usually 3 or 4 clicks gets you to any page in these 9763 pages in these folders from any other page.
Usually the top gallery of a plant type has all the flower images of that and the subsidiary galleries in 1 of 6 colours per month pages, with that flower thumbnail being in each month page that it flowers.
Clicking on the middle of that thumbnail will transfer you to that flower's page or row in data table within that page description; and
its link - the link may not work the day after it was created - to a mail-order nursery selling you that plant directly should be in the Comments row of that Plant Description Page.
The majority of the original images in this website are inserted, published in Freeway which produces a 72 pixel per inch Freeway image. This is exported to a File, and the image published by Freeway replaced by the re-imported Freeway image file as a pass-through image; before that is published again and the resulting folder website uploaded for visitors. The lower resolution speeds up the display of the 28,398 JPEG images - some of these images are re-used in different comparison pages of different galleries and therefore added to the resources of each of those galleries (6,508 images have garnons williams or garnons-williams as the ending of the filename and those can go in the public domain as of 5 June 2019, but all the remainder are
copyrighted by others and may not be re-used elsewhere without the permission of the copyright holder).
Camera photos of Coleus RHS Bedding Trial starts the process of displaying the complete 4000 x 3000 pixel original photos from Chris Garnons-Williams. Since each photo can be 3.5-6.0 Mb and there may be 11 of these on a page; each page may take a long time to download .

Page Menu may also have
an Index (
Flower Colour, Flowering Months, Height and Width) of all plants of that type in that Topic - Plant Photo Gallery.

Besides informing you how to

 

Monitoring of Trees in pavements in Funchal, Madeira from September 2019 to February 2020 1, 2
after the pages below were produced in 2018 and 2019

Problems with trees in pavements in Funchal, Madeira in January/February 2018

PROBLEMS WITH TREES IN PAVEMENTS IN FUNCHAL, MADEIRA IN JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019
Death of tree roots and
Death of tree trunks/branches caused by people.
Solution to problems for trees caused by people using irrigation -
Growth of Pollarded Tree in Hotel Garden in 1 year provides a water solution to this destruction.
Damage to Tree Trunks 1, 2, 3, 4 caused by people,
Damage to Tree Roots caused by people,
Area of Open Ground round trees,
New Trees in pavements 1, 2,
Irrigation of current trees,
Watersprouts on trees,
Crossing Branches in trees,
Utility Equipment with tree Foliage,
Lights on trees,
Bycycle Lane in Pavement,
Public Gardens alongside pavements,
Hotel/Private Gardens alongside pavements,
Current Permeable Pavement Surface round trees and
Irrigation and Fertilising of trees.
Camera Photo Galleries:-
Pavements of Funchal, Madeira
Damage to Trees
1
, 2, 3, 4.
Will visitors to Madeira worry about having branches or trees in public places fall on them? No; according to Engineer Francisco Pedro Freitas Andrade of Est. Marmeleiros, No 1, Jardins & Espaces Verdes who is Chef de Diviso Câmara Municipal do Funchal; Departamento de Ciência e de Recursos Naturais; Divisão de Jardins e Espaços Verdes Urbanos in charge of the trees within the pavements within the area controlled by Funchal Municipality - See Monitoring of Trees in pavements in Funchal, Madeira from September 2019 to February 2010 1, 2 pages by his department.
PROBLEMS WITH TREES IN PAVEMENTS IN ST. PETER PORT, GUERNSEY IN SEPTEMBER 2019

Demise of trees in pavements in St. Peter Port, Guernsey caused by people, to their Roots

 

Britain runs out of food during summer of 2024. If a worker is on State Benefits and is only allowed to work up 15 hours 59 minutes a week at minimum wage, then with these extra new border control food charges it will cost that person 12% of their gross wage each week and 12% extra if they are supporting their child; from 30 April 2024.

 

8 problems caused by building house on clay or
with house-wall attached to clay.
Pre-building
work on polluted soil.
OTHER TABLE 5
is about warnings of the government in the UK turning its population into slaves.

 

TABLE SOS where the action of humans breathing produces carbon dioxide and the trees/plants/algae cannot process that; because we either cover the roots in concrete/tarmac or kill the algae in the sea from the phosphorus in the human produced sewage. So we are slowly asphixiating ourselves in the UK.
The level of oxygen refers to the amount of oxygen present in the atmosphere or water. Oxygen is produced by photosynthesizing organisms that live in the ocean, in fresh water, and on land. These organisms include bacteria, algae and plants. Photosynthesizing algae in the ocean produce around 70% of oxygen in the atmosphere. The UK pollution going into the sea is killing the algae which provide 70% of oxygen for UK, France, Holland, Portugal, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Row 7 in last table on the right in Black Background - Welcome to the UK (Urinating Knave) with details of UK government backed pollution of millions of tons per year into its rivers; which the sea transported across the Channel to Europe killing marine life and humans.
Pollution is biggest threat to Wildlife on our UK waterways.
Photo of permanent air pollution over London.

 

--------------

 

These remaining items are of no interest to people outside the UK,
but will affect you,
if have property in the UK or
intend to reside in the UK for longer than 1 week.

Medway Proposed New School Comments in September 2019

Neighbour cutting branches off our trees without Conservation Area permission and attempting to sink our house with 1000's of litres of their sewage by blocking the drain to our cesspit. For the following week, they continued to download their sewage after we had written to them stating that the cesspit was full and that the drain was blocked.

Gas explosion from incorrectly installed home boiler, with other customers refusing to correct the situation.
Other items in the Home Section which have nothing to do with gardening, but reading them might deter you from visiting Great Britain; or employing its workforce; or trusting its local or main government.

Problems with electrical re-wire in my home, with the knowledge after the event that the client can do nothing about it, since NAPIT requires you to re-use the same contractor to fix the problems.
Would you; after reading these pages? Manderson emails to us about re-wire.
We wrote the
concerns about the electrical work on 21.03.21;
Questions concerning electrics on 21.03.21 and
re-wire narrative on 19.04.2021
which had no effect on the credit card company or NAPIT. So we commisioned the following report to see if that will make any difference.
Pages 10, 11, 12, 13 contain information concerning the condition of the electrical installation of the complete rewiring of my home by Mr Manderson of Manderson Electrical Services Ltd, with the report by a qualified electrician and this statement about the work carried out:-
"The result of my observations and testing, I am recommending that all the fixed wiring be recovered and a complete new fixed wiring installation is installed. Unfortunately the work previously carried out is of such a poor standard I cannot re-use any of it."
Mr Manderson is a Part P Registered Electrician with Napit; Registered Competent Person Electrical; Approved Electrician from Napit; City & Guilds Qualified; Part P Electrical Safety; and Honest & Transparent. His firm was employed to replace all the wiring, power sockets, light switches and lights and make sure that rodents could not attack them to chew through the cables or cause an
electrical problem.
Pages 10 lists 18 electrical faults on the new wiring, re-use of the old wiring, and old wiring that was still either in use or had been cut at the old power socket, at the old light fitting, or old light switch (the plasterers filled an old power socket metal box and short-circuited the fuse - it will be fine in 30 minutes sir; 4 hours later it was still shorting, so presumably that would explain why they switched off one of the fuses in the old fuseboard - see photo on page 15 of the report. As clients; we do appreciate having the opportunity of electrocuting ourselves from their re-wire work) where

  • fault 2 is a Code C1 'Danger Present' and immediate action is required from March 2021, (the electricians testing 2 of the double power sockets installed in the kitchen in 1987 found that they were polarity reversed. This risks a short circuit, shock or fire. They corrected the problem immediately)
  • Faults 4, 12, 14 and 18 are Code C2 and Urgent remedial action required,
  • Faults 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17 are Code C3 where improvement is recommended

Because we had paid part of the cost to Manderson Electrical Services Ltd using a credit card, then after we had contacted them and sent the report, the credit card company re-imbursed us. We then used that money towards a total removal of all wiring and total rewiring by the electrician who had produced the report.

The above was a pointless waste of time - we have now had the house completely rewired again without any recompense from the original contractor's lies, thiefery and extremely dangerous work with the government body Napit being no help at all. The unfortunate consequence of either buying a house or having anything done to it is that you the owner can and will be totally screwed by the majority of the British Workforce.

I have looked at a job of the third replacement of turf in a back garden of a new house. The back garden was clay and sloped down to the house - that house will have subsidence problems within 10 years. The only way that it might save itself is to rip up the lawn and plant shrubs that will absorb every drop of rain that falls on that garden -
you are not allowed to either drain into the storm drain of the house which is what takes the rain from the roof of the house/garage or
drain the rainwater from your garden to outside your property onto either public land or into somebody else's property.
I refused the job and told the owner to get onto the builders to rectify their error.
Since builders are repeating the same error on a massive scale in Ashford, the poor owners of new £500,000 houses are going to be upset.

Guernsey has decided to replace the ground exposed within a small distance from the trunk of trees within pavements in St Julian's Avenue in St.Peter Port with tarmac.

This has also been done in tarmaced paths in Candie Gardens. I noticed that the garden beds in Candie Garden were well weeded with bare soil between the plants. This seems to be the accepted practice in Guernsey. Shame that the trees/shrubs in that garden are not mulched in order to provide humus to feed them and keep the soil as soil instead of it returning to being sand, silt or clay - see soil structure diagram in Tree Problems in pavements in Funchal, Madeira in February 2018 page for the linkage between sand, clay domains, bacterium and organic polymers.

The Death of Tree Roots in Madeira caused by people page details why this is detrimental to the trees. On the right hand side of that page is a practical solution to keeping your trees.

Currently you will lose both the mature trees and the juvenile trees due to lack of oxygen, water, nutrients and soil that can be penetrated by the tree roots.


Text for Photo 1 and 2
 


Photo 1 taken by Chris Garnons-Williams In Guernsey.

 


Photo 2 taken by Chris Garnons-Williams In Guernsey.
Same photo as in Photo 1, but this is the complete Camera image, so that you can see exactly what the camera took.

Page 3 of Perry's Professional Map of Guernsey showing
St Julian's Avenue and Candie Gardens in
St Peter Port, Guernsey.
IMG 0067 image is 4000 x 3000 pixels.

guernseymap

IMG0067a

One of the trees still with its small exposed area of ground for it to receive water, etc in
St Julian's Avenue in St Peter Port, Guernsey.

If this tree is 5 metres high, then it's roots spread at least 5 metres in radius from the trunk.

In geometry, the area enclosed by a circle of radius r is π r2. Here the Greek letter π represents a constant, approximately equal to 3.14159, which is equal to the ratio of the circumference of any circle to its diameter.

Area = 3.14 x 5 x 5 = 78.5

It is likely that the exposed ground does not exceed much more than 1 square metre, so we have been generous in providing access to rain, nutrients, oxygen etc for only 1.27% of the roots of this tree. The others which this space has been covered with tarmac, or in the case of juvenile trees with a 10cm square hole, then 0% of the roots have any access. This is of course the recommended treatment for babies - provide mother with milk but no way for the baby to receive it.

IMG 0021 is 4000 x 3000 pixels.

guernseytreewithopenground

IMG0021a

Newly planted juvenile tree surrounded by tarmac in
St Julian's Avenue in St Peter Port, Guernsey.

IMG 0006 is 4000 x 3000 pixels

guernseyjuveniletree1asurroundedbytarmac

IMG0006a

Same newly planted juvenile tree surrounded by tarmac in
St Julian's Avenue in St Peter Port, Guernsey.

IMG 0007 is 4000 x 3000 pixels

I would advise that the rubber ties should be about 50 cms (20 inches) above ground, so that the tree trunk will flex in the wind and thus decide to strengthen itself as the tree grows to be able to support the upper foliage and branches. If the tree ties are too high, then when they are removed, the trunk may not be sufficiently strong in high winds to prevent itself from being snapped. This 2 post system is correct, since this kind of support is only required during the first 2 or 3 years in this position. Then when the ties are removed, the posts can be also without damaging the tree roots.

guernseyjuveniletree1bsurroundedbytarmac

IMG0007a

Mature tree surrounded by tarmac in
St Julian's Avenue in St Peter Port, Guernsey.

IMG 00016 is 4000 x 3000 pixels

guernseymaturetreesurroundedbytarmac

IMG0017

Redcurrant growing in Victorian Walled Kitchen Garden in Guernsey.
Many people have spent a long time and raised a lot of money to recreate this walled kitchen garden and are in the process of rebuilding one of the original structures. It would be a good idea if they contacted Garden Organic at Ryton Gardens, which has recently been taken over by Coventry University to teach them how to grow their plants in their walled garden as they would have been grown when the garden had been functioning before.

IMG 0055 is 4000 x 3000 pixels

As in many gardens that I saw in Guernsey, there is no mulch or green manure, which feeds, shades the ground, prevents wind and sun drying out the ground as well as reducing weeding.

guernseyredcurrantbushwithnomulch

IMG0055a

 

I have copied this Plant Care section from the Introduction Page of the
Colour Wheel Use of Plant and Flower Shape Gallery.

It is a pity that the people in Madeira and Guernsey seem to have lost the
knowledge of their forebears

  • in that plants have needs and they prevent those needs from being
    realised so that the vegetable/flower bed looks neat and tidy instead of
    having an organic mulch above it or green manure to feed it, recreate
    the soil, keep the moisture in the ground ( I have elsewhere in this site
    given the example of Melcourt Industries Ltd who divided a field in half
    and in half just planted the field with juvenile fruit trees and soaked the
    ground in April; the other half they planted with the same type of fruit
    tree, soaked the ground in April and laid down a Melcourt Organic Mulch.
    They measured the moisture level in the soil throughout a very hot
    summer. The trees without the mulch were suffering from dehydration by
    August, whereas the others with their mulch were fine, healthy and still
    with soil moisture. Besides taking the soil moisture levels during each
    month from April to August no further work was done to that field).
  • The same people in each country of the world think that trees surrounded
    up to their trunks by GRASS, tarmac, concrete, or metal, will quite happily
    grow and provide the calming influence on the population as well as the
    oxygen for them to breath.

Plant Care

This is a photo of a Ryegrass plant, that was growing in Type I MOT Roadstone on
flat ground in a private garden. You will note that it has a great deal of fibrous
root - apparently in American Baseball Stadiums each grass plant has over
100 miles of root.

grassroot2a

.

That root in cooperation with worms, bacteria etc takes in food, which is brought
down from the surface by water (usually rain, but can be by irrigation) either in
tunnels created by the worms, moles, etc or when the ground cracks open in the
summer when the clay soil dries up and shrinks - clay soil can absorb 40% of its
own volume before it turns from a solid to a liquid. That root also breathes in
oxygen then expels carbon dioxide (Click on Carbon Cycle) and nitrogen
(Click on Nitrogen Cycle) ALL THE TIME. That is why the Action Plan for YOU to
Do with Your Soil Page
could help.

If you buy Sharp-Washed-Sand from a Builder's Merchant and put that into a clean
pot round a plant, then using NPK fertilisers the roots of that plant can absorb that
food dissolved in water. Once you stop supplying that water and food, that plant will
die (it is like saying that for you to survive, that you need a lb of glucose each day,
so I sit you down outside and put 365 lbs of glucose round your feet. It rains and
within 6 weeks that glucose has either been eaten by you or dissolved in the rain and
washed down into the ground below your feet. Then you complain to me that
you are hungry).

To make that Sharp-Washed-Sand into soil, you need dead plant material, shit from
animals or dead animals, bacteria, worms that can be eaten by the animal, bacteria
and worms to bind those sand particles together with clay and organic matter
(Click on Soil Structure). That soil can then hold onto the some of the rain
(Click on How does Water act in the Soil) with food for the animal/plant in it, before
the excess rain drains through below the top soil to the sub-soil and the food in it is
then lost to the plants above it. The easiest method of supplying the dead plant
material is to collect your potato peelings, tea bags, coffee grounds in a bucket under
the sink before putting them on the ground surface round a plant. Then, mow the lawn
and put 1cm or 0.5 inch depth of grass mowings on top to complete the organic
mulch, provide water from the grass and nitrogen from it to compost the peelings
below. The worms having made tunnels in the soil may also eat the peelings. When it
rains the water can absorb nutrients from that mulch and take it down using those
tunnels. WHEN THOSE TUNNELS ARE FULL OF WATER AND A CLOD-HOPPING HUMAN
WALKS ON IT, THEN IT COLLAPSES AND NO LONGER FUNCTIONS. If it rains heavily,
allow the ground to recover for a couple of days before walking on it.

You can then see that a Sandy Soil is much easier for the roots of a plant to get into,
but when it rains it dries up quickly and then the food in it gets washed through it very
quickly (Click on How are Chemicals stored and released from Soil?). It is also easier
for the gases to get in and out.

A clay soil is more difficult for plants, since when it rains the tunnels fill up with water and
thus could drown the roots. Put sand round its roots up to the surface of the soil and this
will combine with the clay to stop the roots from being drowned or without Nitrogen and
Carbon gas exchange. If your lawn is soggy when it rains, then cut the lawn short when it
is dry and apply 25Kg of sand over a 5 metre x 5 metre area once a month for 3 months
during May-September and it will change the soil structure to lessen that.

A mixture of Clay and Soil is best (Click on Soil Formation - What is Soil Texture?).

 

I saw a yew tree that had been planted in a churchyard in 2000 as a 2 foot high tree. In 2009
it had reached 7 feet high and 3 feet across. Why had it not grown?

It was planted on a 30 degree slope in clay/sand soil with grass growing round its base. It had
the following 3 reasons for failure to grow:-

  • When it rained, the water would either be taken up by the roots of the grass (Click on
    the roots of just 1 plant in the photo above) or run off down the slope.
  • The grass would take all the nutrients out the top soil leaving none to be washed down
    to the roots of the yew tree.
  • The grass would be using all the oxygen that came down the tunnels, leaving none
    for the yew tree

So, I carefully removed the grass and its roots from around its base out to the tips of the tree
branches and mulched that bare ground with shrub prunings / grass mowings to a 4 inch depth.
A year later it was growing quite well with new leaves and an increase of density of branches.

In Maderia I saw a mature olive tree - which had been transplanted from the nursery to a roof
garden - a year after it was planted. It was on a mound with brazilian grass growing round its
base. It was dying from dehydration even though it was irrigated every other day - the grass
was growing well.

An organic mulch about 4 inches deep on weeded soil makes garden maintenance very easy.
Once a week you walk round the garden and using a swoe (a hoe has 2 arms to the horizontal
blade, a swoe only has 1 so that you can stand on the lawn and be able to hoe behind the plant
in front of you) hoe through the weed root in the top of the mulch and remove the uprooted
weed. I find that Spent Mushroom Compost is light, easy to lay, easy to hoe and lasts a relatively
long time. You may lose about 50% each year. If you do not apply any mulch and you do have
groundcover plants covering all the soil, then you will enjoy permanent weeding chores like the
painters on the Forth Bridge last century - you come to the other side and have to start again
immediately. When you prune your shrubs/trees/hedges then put the prunings on your uncut
lawn. When you deadhead your bulbs or remove perennials, shake off the earth from the roots
and place on the uncut lawn. Using a rotary mower cut your lawn and it will cut the grass and
your prunings/perennials into small bits which you then mulch your flower beds/hedges with.
In the autumn, set your mower to its highest cut and transfer the autumn fallen leaves onto
the lawn before mowing them and mulching as before. Continue mowing once a week untill
all fallen leaves have been removed.

If your garden is on a steep slope - I maintained one that had half-circle beds with lawn paths
round them - the diameter of the circle was usually level and the half-circumference went down
the slope. The ground had flint and chalk in it and the plants in it were usually the inverted
cone shape. When it rained, the stones would be washed off onto the lawn paths and damage
my mowing machine. Providing any mulch applied to those beds is covered with grass mowings,
then that problem - of the stones being washed off by any rain however hard onto the
paths - is stopped.

Roots of plants that you put into your garden do extend and grow, but the existing roots do not
move by themselves to better places. You have to untangle them and spread them out yourself.
I planted a blue cedar in my front garden and 9 years later it died. When I took it out, I found
that the roots which had been going round the inside of the pot before I planted it had expanded
sideways to fill the complete space between them as if they were still in the pot. There were very
few roots which had grown away from this rootball and so the plant died due to dehydration,
lack of food and lack of gas exchange in the ground.

A minor point that people forget is that you only live because you can breath oxygen, and plants
provide it. So please look after the plant so that they have food, water and air (best soil has at
least 30% air in it) on a regular basis, just like you do for your children.

.

 

This website is being created by Chris Garnons-Williams of Ivydene Horticultural Services from it's start in 2005.

It should be remembered that nothing is sold from this educational site, it simply tries to give you the best advice on what to use and where to get it (About Chris Garnons-Williams page details that no payment or commision to or from any donor of photos or adverts I place on the site in the Useful Data or other sections is made to Chris Garnons-Williams or Ivydene Horticultural Services). This website is a hobby and not for direct commercial gain for Ivydene Horticultural Services. There is no Google Adscenes or Search Facility in this website.

The information on this site is usually Verdana 14pt text (from December 2023, this is being changed from 14pt to 10pt) and all is in tabular form. This can be downloaded and sorted using WORD or other word-processing software into the order that you personally require, especially for soil subsidence, the Companion Planting Tables and the pages in the Plants section. This would be suitable for use in education as well.

I put jokes in at various places to give you a smile.

 

Site design and content copyright ©April 2007. Page structure amended October 2012. Page structure changed February 2019 for pages concerning Trees in pavements alongside roads in Madeira. Chris Garnons-Williams.

DISCLAIMER: Links to external sites are provided as a courtesy to visitors. Ivydene Horticultural Services are not responsible for the content and/or quality of external web sites linked from this site.  

 

Main Menu to Site Map of each Topic.
The
Topic Table normally in this position (but sometimes moved to the right hand side of the page) has the SAME CONTENTS in the SAME ORDER for every one of the remaining 9762 pages in the 212 Topic folders.

Plants detailed in this website by
Botanical Name

A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
H, I, J, K, L, M, N,
O, P, Q, R, S, T, U,
V, W, X, Y, Z ,
Bulb
A1, 2, 3, B, C1, 2,
D, E, F, G, Glad,
H, I, J, K, L1, 2,
M, N, O, P, Q, R,
S, T, U, V, W, XYZ
Evergreen Perennial
A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
H, I, J, K, L, M, N,
O, P, Q, R, S, T, U,
V, W, X, Y, Z
Herbaceous Perennial
A1, 2, B, C, D, E, F,
G, H, I, J, K, L, M,
N, O, P1, 2, Q, R,
S, T, U, V, W, XYZ,
Diascia Photo Album,
UK Peony Index
Wildflower
Botanical Names
Common Names
will be compared in:-
Flower colour/month

Evergreen Perennial
Flower Shape
Wildflower Flower Shape
and Plant Use
Evergreen Perennial Flower Shape,
Bee plants for hay-fever sufferers
Bee-Pollinated Index
Butterfly
Egg, Caterpillar, Chrysalis and Butterfly Usage
of Plants.
Chalk
A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
H, I, J, K, L, M, N,
O, P, QR, S, T, UV,
WXYZ
Companion Planting
A ,B ,C ,D ,E ,F ,G ,
H ,I ,J ,K ,L ,M ,N ,
O ,P ,Q ,R ,S ,T ,
U ,V ,W , X, Y, Z
Pest Control using Plants
Fern
Fern
1000 Ground Cover
A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
H
, I, J, K, L, M, N,
O
, P, Q, R, S, T, U,
V
, W, XYZ
Rock Garden and Alpine Flowers
Rock Plant Flowers
Rose
Rose Use
These 5 have Page links in rows below
Bulbs from the Infill Galleries (next row),
Camera Photos A 1,
Plant Colour Wheel Uses,
Sense of Fragrance,
Wild Flower

Case Studies
...Drive Foundations
Ryegrass and turf kills plants within Roadstone and in Topsoil due to it starving and dehydrating them.
CEDAdrive creates stable drive surface and drains rain into your ground, rather than onto the public road.
8 problems caused by building house on clay or with house-wall attached to clay.
Pre-building
work on polluted soil.

Companion Planting
to provide a Companion Plant to aid your selected plant or deter its pests

Garden
Construction

with ground drains

Garden Design
...How to Use the Colour Wheel Concepts for Selection of Flowers, Foliage and Flower Shape
...RHS Mixed
Borders

......Bedding Plants
......Her Perennials
......Other Plants
........
Flower Shape
......
Camera photos of Plant supports
Garden
Maintenance

Glossary with a tomato teaching cauliflowers
Home
Library of over 1000 books
Offbeat Glossary with DuLally Bird in its flower clock.

Plants
...in
Chalk (Alkaline) Soil A-F1, A-F2,
A-F3, G-L, M-R,
M-R Roses, S-Z
...in
Heavy Clay Soil
A-F, G-L, M-R, S-Z
...in
Lime-Free (Acid) Soil A-F, G-L, M-R,
S-Z
...
in Light Sand Soil
A-F, G-L, M-R, S-Z.
...Poisonous Plants.
...Extra Plant Pages
with its 6 Plant Selection Levels

Soil
...
Interaction between 2 Quartz Sand Grains to make soil
...
How roots of plants are in control in the soil
...
Without replacing Soil Nutrients, the soil will break up to only clay, sand or silt
...
Subsidence caused by water in Clay
...
Use water ring for trees/shrubs for first 2 years.

Tool Shed with 3 kneeling pads
Useful Data with benefits of Seaweed

Topic -
Plant Photo Galleries

If the plant type below has flowers, then the first gallery will include the flower thumbnail in each month of 1 of 6 or 7 flower colour comparison pages of each plant in its subsidiary galleries, as a low-level Plant Selection Process
Aquatic
Bamboo
Bedding
...by Flower Shape


Bulb
...Allium/ Anemone
...Autumn
...Colchicum/ Crocus
...Dahlia
...Gladiolus with its 40 Flower Colours
......European A-E
......European F-M
......European N-Z
......European Non-classified
......American A,
B, C, D, E, F, G,
H, I, J, K, L, M,
N, O, P, Q, R, S,
T, U, V, W, XYZ
......American Non-classified
......Australia - empty
......India
......Lithuania
...Hippeastrum/ Lily
...Late Summer
...Narcissus
...Spring
...Tulip
...Winter
...
Each of the above ...Bulb Galleries has its own set of Flower Colour Pages
...Flower Shape
...Bulb Form

...Bulb Use

...Bulb in Soil


Further details on bulbs from the Infill Galleries:-
Hardy Bulbs
...Aconitum
...Allium
...Alstroemeria
...Anemone

...Amaryllis
...Anthericum
...Antholyzas
...Apios
...Arisaema
...Arum
...Asphodeline

...Asphodelus
...Belamcanda
...Bloomeria
...Brodiaea
...Bulbocodium

...Calochorti
...Cyclobothrias
...Camassia
...Colchicum
...Convallaria 
...Forcing Lily of the Valley
...Corydalis
...Crinum
...Crosmia
...Montbretia
...Crocus

...Cyclamen
...Dicentra
...Dierama
...Eranthis
...Eremurus
...Erythrnium
...Eucomis

...Fritillaria
...Funkia
...Galanthus
...Galtonia
...Gladiolus
...Hemerocallis

...Hyacinth
...Hyacinths in Pots
...Scilla
...Puschkinia
...Chionodoxa
...Chionoscilla
...Muscari

...Iris
...Kniphofia
...Lapeyrousia
...Leucojum

...Lilium
...Lilium in Pots
...Malvastrum
...Merendera
...Milla
...Narcissus
...Narcissi in Pots

...Ornithogalum
...Oxalis
...Paeonia
...Ranunculus
...Romulea
...Sanguinaria
...Sternbergia
...Schizostylis
...Tecophilaea
...Trillium

...Tulip
...Zephyranthus

Half-Hardy Bulbs
...Acidanthera
...Albuca
...Alstroemeri
...Andro-stephium
...Bassers
...Boussing-aultias
...Bravoas
...Cypellas
...Dahlias
...Galaxis,
...Geissorhizas
...Hesperanthas

...Gladioli
...Ixias
...Sparaxises
...Babianas
...Morphixias
...Tritonias

...Ixiolirions
...Moraeas
...Ornithogalums
...Oxalises
...Phaedra-nassas
...Pancratiums
...Tigridias
...Zephyranthes
...Cooperias

Uses of Bulbs:-
...
for Bedding
...
in Windowboxes
...
in Border
...
naturalized in Grass
...
in Bulb Frame
...
in Woodland Garden
...
in Rock Garden
...
in Bowls
...
in Alpine House
...
Bulbs in Greenhouse or Stove:-
...Achimenes
...Alocasias
...Amorpho-phalluses
...Arisaemas
...Arums
...Begonias
...Bomareas
...Caladiums

...Clivias
...Colocasias
...Crinums
...Cyclamens
...Cyrtanthuses
...Eucharises
...Urceocharis
...Eurycles

...Freesias
...Gloxinias
...Haemanthus
...Hippeastrums

...Lachenalias
...Nerines
...Lycorises
...Pencratiums
...Hymenocallises
...Richardias
...Sprekelias
...Tuberoses
...Vallotas
...Watsonias
...Zephyranthes

...
Plant Bedding in
......Spring

......
Summer
...
Bulb houseplants flowering inside House during:-
......
January
......
February
......
March
......
April
......
May
......
June
......
July
......
August
......
September
......
October
......
November
......
December
...
Bulbs and other types of plant flowering during:-
......
Dec-Jan
......
Feb-Mar
......
Apr-May
......
Jun-Aug
......
Sep-Oct
......
Nov-Dec
...
Selection of the smaller and choicer plants for the Smallest of Gardens with plant flowering during the same 6 periods as in the previous selection


Climber in
3 Sector Vertical Plant System
...Clematis
...Climbers
Conifer
Deciduous Shrub
...Shrubs - Decid
Deciduous Tree
...Trees - Decid
Evergreen Perennial is to compare every plant in this website, starting from July 2022
...P-Evergreen A-L
...P-Evergreen M-Z
...Flower Shape
Evergreen Shrub
...Shrubs - Evergreen
...Heather Shrub
...Heather Index
......Andromeda
......Bruckenthalia
......Calluna
......Daboecia
......Erica: Carnea
......Erica: Cinerea
......Erica: Others
Evergreen Tree
...Trees - Evergreen
Fern
Grass
Hedging
Herbaceous
Perennial

...P -Herbaceous
...Peony
...Flower Shape
...RHS Wisley
......Mixed Border
......Other Borders
Herb
Odds and Sods
Rhododendron

Rose
...RHS Wisley A-F
...RHS Wisley G-R
...RHS Wisley S-Z
...Rose Use - page links in row 6. Rose, RHS Wisley and Other Roses rose indices on each Rose Use page
...Other Roses A-F
...Other Roses G-R
...Other Roses S-Z
Pruning Methods
Photo Index
R 1, 2, 3
Peter Beales Roses
RV Roger
Roses

Soft Fruit
Top Fruit
...Apple

...Cherry
...Pear
Vegetable
Wild Flower and
Butterfly page links are in next row

Topic -
Butterflies in the UK mostly use native UK wildflowers.

Butterfly Species.

Egg, Caterpillar, Chrysalis and Butterfly Usage
of Plants.

Plant Usage by
Egg, Caterpillar, Chrysalis and Butterfly.

Wild Flower
...Flower Shape of all wildflower/ cultivated plants with Landscape USA Uses

7 Flower Colours per month and
UK Plant Uses
with its
flower colour page,
space,
Site Map page in its flower colour NOTE Gallery
...Blue Note
....Scented Flower, Foliage, Root
....Story of their Common Names
....Use of Plant with Flowers
....Use for Non-Flowering Plants
....Edible Plant Parts
....Flower Legend
....Flowering plants of Chalk and Limestone Page 1, Page 2
....Flowering plants of Acid Soil Page 1
...Brown Botanical Names
....Food for
Butterfly/Moth

...Cream Common Names
....Coastal and Dunes
....Sandy Shores and Dunes
...Green Note
....Broad-leaved
Woods

...Mauve Note
....Grassland - Acid, Neutral, Chalk
...Multi-Cols Note
....Heaths and Moors
...Orange Note
....Hedgerows and Verges
...Pink A-G Note
....Lakes, Canals and Rivers
...Pink H-Z Note
....Marshes, Fens,
Bogs

...Purple Note
....Old Buildings and Walls
...Red Note
....Pinewoods
...White A-D Note
....Saltmarshes
....Shingle Beaches, Rocks and Cliff Tops
...White E-P Note
....Other
...White Q-Z Note
....Number of Petals
...Yellow A-G Note
....Pollinator
...Yellow H-Z Note
....Poisonous Parts
...Shrub/Tree Note
....River Banks and
other Freshwater Margins


Poisonous
Wildflower Plants.


You know its name, use
Wild Flower Plant Index a-h, i-p, q-z.
You know which habitat it lives in, use
on
Acid Soil,
on
Calcareous
(Chalk) Soil
,
on
Marine Soil,
on
Neutral Soil,
is a
Fern,
is a
Grass,
is a
Rush, or
is a
Sedge.
You have seen its flower, use Comparison Pages containing Wild Flower Plants and Cultivated Plants in the
Colour Wheel Gallery.

Each plant named in each of the 180 Wildflower Family Pages within their 23 Galleries may have a link to:-
1) its Plant Description Page in its Common Name column in one of those Wildflower Plant Galleries and will have links,
2) to external sites to purchase the plant or seed in its Botanical Name column,
3) to see photos in its Flowering Months column and
4) to read habitat details in its Habitat Column.

WILD FLOWER FAMILY PAGE MENU
Adder's Tongue
Amaranth
Arrow-Grass
Arum
Balsam
Bamboo
Barberry
Bedstraw
Beech
Bellflower
Bindweed
Birch
Birds-Nest
Birthwort
Bogbean
Bog Myrtle
Borage
Box
Broomrape
Buckthorn
Buddleia
Bur-reed
Buttercup
Butterwort
Cornel (Dogwood)
Crowberry
Crucifer (Cabbage/Mustard) 1
Crucifer (Cabbage/Mustard) 2
Cypress
Daffodil
Daisy
Daisy Cudweeds
Daisy Chamomiles
Daisy Thistle
Daisy Catsears Daisy Hawkweeds
Daisy Hawksbeards
Daphne
Diapensia
Dock Bistorts
Dock Sorrels
Clubmoss
Duckweed
Eel-Grass
Elm
Filmy Fern
Horsetail
Polypody
Quillwort
Royal Fern
Figwort - Mulleins
Figwort - Speedwells
Flax
Flowering-Rush
Frog-bit
Fumitory
Gentian
Geranium
Glassworts
Gooseberry
Goosefoot
Grass 1
Grass 2
Grass 3
Grass Soft
Bromes 1

Grass Soft
Bromes 2

Grass Soft
Bromes 3

Hazel
Heath
Hemp
Herb-Paris
Holly
Honeysuckle
Horned-Pondweed
Hornwort
Iris
Ivy
Jacobs Ladder
Lily
Lily Garlic
Lime
Lobelia
Loosestrife
Mallow
Maple
Mares-tail
Marsh Pennywort
Melon (Gourd/Cucumber)
Mesem-bryanthemum
Mignonette
Milkwort
Mistletoe
Moschatel
Naiad
Nettle
Nightshade
Oleaster
Olive
Orchid 1
Orchid 2
Orchid 3
Orchid 4
Parnassus-Grass
Peaflower
Peaflower
Clover 1

Peaflower
Clover 2

Peaflower
Clover 3

Peaflower Vetches/Peas
Peony
Periwinkle
Pillwort
Pine
Pink 1
Pink 2
Pipewort
Pitcher-Plant
Plantain
Pondweed
Poppy
Primrose
Purslane
Rannock Rush
Reedmace
Rockrose
Rose 1
Rose 2
Rose 3
Rose 4
Rush
Rush Woodrushes
Saint Johns Wort
Saltmarsh Grasses
Sandalwood
Saxifrage
Seaheath
Sea Lavender
Sedge Rush-like
Sedges Carex 1
Sedges Carex 2
Sedges Carex 3
Sedges Carex 4
Spindle-Tree
Spurge
Stonecrop
Sundew
Tamarisk
Tassel Pondweed
Teasel
Thyme 1
Thyme 2
Umbellifer 1
Umbellifer 2
Valerian
Verbena
Violet
Water Fern
Waterlily
Water Milfoil
Water Plantain
Water Starwort
Waterwort
Willow
Willow-Herb
Wintergreen
Wood-Sorrel
Yam
Yew

Topic -
The following is a complete hierarchical Plant Selection Process

dependent on the Garden Style chosen
Garden Style
...Infill Plants
...12 Bloom Colours per Month Index
...12 Foliage Colours per Month Index
...All Plants Index
...Cultivation, Position, Use Index
...Shape, Form
Index

Topic -

All Flowers 53 with
...Use of Plant and
Flower Shape
- page links in bottom row

All Foliage 53
instead of redundant
...(All Foliage 212)


All Flowers
per Month 12


Bee instead of wind pollinated plants for hay-fever sufferers
All Bee-Pollinated Flowers
per Month
12
...Index

Rock Garden and Alpine Flowers
Rock Plant Flowers 53

...Rock Plant Photos

Flower Colour Wheel without photos, but with links to photos
12 Bloom Colours
per Month Index

...All Plants Index

Topic -
Use of Plant in your Plant Selection Process

Plant Colour Wheel Uses
with
1. Perfect general use soil is composed of 8.3% lime, 16.6% humus, 25% clay and 50% sand, and
2. Why you are continually losing the SOIL STRUCTURE so your soil - will revert to clay, chalk, sand or silt.
Uses of Plant and Flower Shape:-
...Foliage Only
...Other than Green Foliage
...Trees in Lawn
...Trees in Small Gardens
...Wildflower Garden
...Attract Bird
...Attract Butterfly
1
, 2
...Climber on House Wall
...Climber not on House Wall
...Climber in Tree
...Rabbit-Resistant
...Woodland
...Pollution Barrier
...Part Shade
...Full Shade
...Single Flower provides Pollen for Bees
1
, 2, 3
...Ground-Cover
<60
cm
60-180cm
>180cm
...Hedge
...Wind-swept
...Covering Banks
...Patio Pot
...Edging Borders
...Back of Border
...Poisonous
...Adjacent to Water
...Bog Garden
...Tolerant of Poor Soil
...Winter-Flowering
...Fragrant
...Not Fragrant
...Exhibition
...Standard Plant is 'Ball on Stick'
...Upright Branches or Sword-shaped leaves
...Plant to Prevent Entry to Human or Animal
...Coastal Conditions
...Tolerant on North-facing Wall
...Cut Flower
...Potted Veg Outdoors
...Potted Veg Indoors
...Thornless
...Raised Bed Outdoors Veg
...Grow in Alkaline Soil A-F, G-L, M-R,
S-Z
...Grow in Acidic Soil
...Grow in Any Soil
...Grow in Rock Garden
...Grow Bulbs Indoors

Uses of Bedding
...Bedding Out
...Filling In
...Screen-ing
...Pots and Troughs
...Window Boxes
...Hanging Baskets
...Spring Bedding
...Summer Bedding
...Winter Bedding
...Foliage instead of Flower
...Coleus Bedding Photos for use in Public Domain 1

Uses of Bulb
...Other than Only Green Foliage
...Bedding or Mass Planting
...Ground-Cover
...Cut-Flower
...Tolerant of Shade
...In Woodland Areas
...Under-plant
...Tolerant of Poor Soil
...Covering Banks
...In Water
...Beside Stream or Water Garden
...Coastal Conditions
...Edging Borders
...Back of Border or Back-ground Plant
...Fragrant Flowers
...Not Fragrant Flowers
...Indoor
House-plant

...Grow in a Patio Pot
...Grow in an Alpine Trough
...Grow in an Alpine House
...Grow in Rock Garden
...Speciman Plant
...Into Native Plant Garden
...Naturalize in Grass
...Grow in Hanging Basket
...Grow in Window-box
...Grow in Green-house
...Grow in Scree
...Naturalized Plant Area
...Grow in Cottage Garden
...Attracts Butterflies
...Attracts Bees
...Resistant to Wildlife
...Bulb in Soil:-
......Chalk
......Clay
......Sand
......Lime-Free (Acid)
......Peat

Uses of Rose
Rose Index

...Bedding 1, 2
...Climber /Pillar
...Cut-Flower 1, 2
...Exhibition, Speciman
...Ground-Cover
...Grow In A Container 1, 2
...Hedge 1, 2
...Climber in Tree
...Woodland
...Edging Borders
...Tolerant of Poor Soil 1, 2
...Tolerant of Shade
...Back of Border
...Adjacent to Water
...Page for rose use as ARCH ROSE, PERGOLA ROSE, COASTAL CONDITIONS ROSE, WALL ROSE, STANDARD ROSE, COVERING BANKS or THORNLESS ROSES.
...FRAGRANT ROSES
...NOT FRAGRANT ROSES

Topic -
Camera Photo Galleries showing all 4000 x 3000 pixels of each photo on your screen that you can then click and drag it to your desktop as part of a Plant Selection Process:-

RHS Garden at Wisley

Plant Supports -
Pages
1
, 2, 3, 8, 11,
12, 13,
Plants 4, 7, 10,
Bedding Plants 5,
Plant Supports for Unknown Plants 5
,
Clematis Climbers 6,
the RHS does not appear to either follow it's own pruning advice or advice from The Pruning of Trees, Shrubs and Conifers by George E. Brown.
ISBN 0-571-11084-3 with the plants in Pages 1-7 of this folder. You can see from looking at both these resources as to whether the pruning carried out on the remainder of the plants in Pages 7-15 was correct.

Narcissus (Daffodil) 9,
Phlox Plant Supports 14, 15

Coleus Bedding Foliage Trial - Pages
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11, 12, 13, 14, 15,
16, 17, 18, 19, 20,
21, 22, 23, 24, 25,
26, 27, 28, 29, 30,
31, 32, Index

National Trust Garden at Sissinghurst Castle
Plant Supports -
Pages for Gallery 1

with Plant Supports
1, 5, 10
Plants
2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9,
11, 12
Recommended Rose Pruning Methods 13
Pages for Gallery 2
with Plant Supports
2
,
Plants 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Dry Garden of
RHS Garden at
Hyde Hall

Plants - Pages
without Plant Supports
Plants 1
, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Nursery of
Peter Beales Roses
Display Garden

Roses Pages
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11, 12, 13

Nursery of
RV Roger

Roses - Pages
A1,A2,A3,A4,A5,
A6,A7,A8,A9,A10,
A11,A12,A13,A14,
B15,
B16,B17,B18,B19,
B20,
B21,B22,B23,B24,
B25,
B26,B27,B28,B29,
B30,
C31,C32,C33,C34,
C35,
C36,C37,C38,C39,
C40,
C41,CD2,D43,D44,
D45,
D46,D47,D48,D49,
E50,
E51,E52,F53,F54,
F55,
F56,F57,G58,G59,
H60,
H61,I62,K63,L64,
M65,
M66,N67,P68,P69,
P70,
R71,R72,S73,S74,
T75,
V76,Z77, 78,

Damage by Plants in Chilham Village - Pages
1, 2, 3, 4

Pavements of Funchal, Madeira
Damage to Trees - Pages
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11, 12, 13
for trees 1-54,
14, 15,
16, 17, 18, 19, 20,
21, 22, 23, 24, 25,
for trees 55-95,
26, 27, 28, 29, 30,
31, 32, 33, 34, 35,
36, 37,
for trees 95-133,
38, 39, 40,
41, 42, 43, 44, 45,
for trees 133-166

Chris Garnons-Williams
Work Done - Pages
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11, 12, 13

Identity of Plants
Label Problems - Pages
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11

Ron and Christine Foord - 1036 photos only inserted so far - Garden Flowers - Start Page of each Gallery
AB1 ,AN14,BA27,
CH40,CR52,DR63,
FR74,GE85,HE96,

Plant with Photo Index of Ivydene Gardens - 1187
A 1, 2, Photos - 43
B 1, Photos - 13
C 1, Photos - 35
D 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
Photos - 411
with Plants causing damage to buildings in Chilham Village and Damage to Trees in Pavements of Funchal
E 1, Photos - 21
F 1, Photos - 1
G 1, Photos - 5
H 1, Photos - 21
I 1, Photos - 8
J 1, Photos - 1
K 1, Photos - 1
L 1, Photos - 85
with Label Problems
M 1, Photos - 9
N 1, Photos - 12
O 1, Photos - 5
P 1, Photos - 54
Q 1, Photos -
R 1, 2, 3,
Photos - 229
S 1, Photos - 111
T 1, Photos - 13
U 1, Photos - 5
V 1, Photos - 4
W 1, Photos - 100
with Work Done by Chris Garnons-Williams
X 1 Photos -
Y 1, Photos -
Z 1 Photos -
Articles/Items in Ivydene Gardens - 88
Flower Colour, Num of Petals, Shape and
Plant Use of:-
Rock Garden
within linked page

Topic -
Fragrant Plants:-

Sense of Fragrance from Roy Genders
Fragrant Plants:-
Trees and Shrubs with Scented Flowers
1
, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Shrubs bearing Scented Flowers for an Acid Soil
1
, 2, 3, 4
Shrubs bearing Scented Flowers for a
Chalky or Limestone Soil
1
, 2, 3, 4
Shrubs bearing Scented leaves for a
Sandy Soil
1
, 2, 3
Herbaceous Plants with Scented Flowers
1
, 2, 3
Annual and Biennial Plants with Scented Flowers or Leaves
1
, 2
Bulbs and Corms with Scented Flowers
1
, 2, 3, 4, 5
Scented Plants of Climbing and Trailing Habit
1
, 2, 3
Winter-flowering Plants with Scented Flowers
1
, 2
Night-scented Flowering Plants
1
, 2

Topic -
Website User Guidelines

My Gas Service Engineer found Flow and Return pipes incorrectly positioned on gas boilers and customers had refused to have positioning corrected in 2020.


These 4 rows show that plants need access to the air, water and nutrients in the ground for mycorrhizal fungi to exchange with them for 30% of the plants production of sugars and lipids. If the ground is covered with tarmac, concrete or stone, it will stop this exchange to the detriment of the plant and the fungi.

 

The following is from
This Book is a Plant
How to grow, learn and radically engage with the natural world
by different authors.
Published in 2023 by Profile Books Ltd in association with Wellcome Collection.
ISBN 978 1 78816 692 8 :-

"Some time around 600 million years ago, green algae began to move out of shallow fresh waters and onto the land. They were the ancestors of all land plants... Today, plants make up to 80% of the mass of all life on Earth and are the base of the food chains that support nearly all terrestrial organisms....

But the algal ancestors of land plants had no roots, no way to store or transport water, and no experience in extracting nutrients from solid ground. How did they manage the fraught passage onto dry land? ... It was only by striking up new relationships with fungi that algae were able to make it onto land.

These early alliances evolved into what we now call mycorrhizal relationships. Today, more than 90% of all plant species depend on mycorrhizal fungi. Mycorrhizal associations are the rule not the exception: a more fundamental part of planthood than fruit, flowers, leaves, wood or even roots....

For the relationship to thrive, both plant and fungus must make a good metabolic match. In photosynthesis, plants harvest carbon from the atmosphere and forge the energy-rich carbon compounds - sugars and lipids - on which much of the rest of life depends. By growing within plant roots, mycorrhizal fungi acquire privileged access to these sources of energy: they get fed. However, photosynthesis is not enough to support life. Plants and fungi need more than a source of energy. Water and minerals must be scavenged from the ground - full of textures and micropores, electrically charged cavities and labyrinthine rot-scapes. Fungi are deft rangers in this wilderness and can forage in a way that plants can not. By hosting fungi within their roots, plants gain hugely improved access to these sources of nutrients. They, too, get fed. By partnering, plants gain a prosthetic fungus, and fungi gain a prosthetic plant. Both use the other to extend their reach.... By the time the first roots evolved, the mycorrhizal association was already some 50 million years old. Mycorrhizal fungi are the roots of all subsequent life on land.

Today, hundreds of millions of years later, plants have evolved, faster-growing, opportunistic roots that behave more like fungi. But even these roots cannot out-manoeuvre fungi when it comes to exploring the soil. Mycorrhizal hyphae are 50 times finer than the finest roots and can exceeed the length of a plant's roots by as much as a 100 times. Their mycelium makes up between a third and a half of the living mass of soils. The numbers are astronomical. Globally, the total length of mycorrhizal hyphae in the top 10 centimetres (4 inches) of soil is around half the width of our galaxy (4.5 x 10 to the power 17 kilometres versus 9.5 x 10 to the power 17 kilometres). If these hyphae were ironed into a flat sheet, their combined surface area would cover every inch of dry land on Earth 2.5 times over....

In their relationship, plants and mycorrhizal fungi enact a polarity: plant shoots engage with the light and air, while the fungi and plant roots engage with the solid ground. Plants pack up light and carbon dioxide into sugars and lipids. Mycorrhizal fungi unpack nutrients bound up in rock and decomposing material. These are fungi with a dual niche: part of their life happens within the plant, part in the soil. They are stationed at the entry point of carbon into terrestrial life cycles and stitch the atmosphere into relation with the ground. To this day, mycorrhizal fungi help plants cope with drought, heat and many other stresses life on land has presented from the very beginning, as do the symbiotic fungi that crowd into plant leaves and stems. What we call 'plants' are in fact fungi that have evolved to farm algae, and algae that have evolved to farm fungi....

Mycorrhizal fungi can provide up to 80% of a plant's nitrogen, and as much as 100% of its phosphorus. Fungi supply other crucial nutrients to plants, such as zinc and copper. They also supply plants with water, and help them to survive drought as they have done since the earliest days of life on land. In return, plants allocate up to 30% of the carbon they harvest to their mycorrhizal partners....

And yet mycorrhizal fungi do more than feed plants. Some describe them as keystone organisms; others prefer the term 'ecosystem engineers'. Mycorrhizal mycelium is a sticky living seam that holds soil together; remove the fungi, and the ground washes away. Mycorrhizal fungi increase the volume of water that the soil can absorb, reducing the quantity of nutrients leached out of the soil by rainfall by as much as 50%. Of the carbon that is found in soils - which, remarkably, amounts to twice the amount of carbon found in plants and the atmosphere combined - a substantial proportion is bound up in tough organic compounds produced by mycorrhizal fungi. The carbon that floods into the soil through mycorrhizal channels supports intricate food webs. Besides the hundreds or thousands of metres of fungal mycelium in a teaspoon of healthy soil, there are more bacteria, protists, insects and arthropods than the number of humans who have ever lived on Earth.

Mycorrhizal fungi can increase the quality of a harvest. They can also increase the ability of crops to compete with weeds and enhance their resistance to diseases by priming plant's immune systems. They can make crops less susceptible to drought and heat, and more resistant to salinity and heavy metals. They even boost the ability of plants to fight off attacks from insect pests by stimulating the production of defensive chemicals...

But over the course of the twentieth century, our neglect has led us into trouble. In viewing soils as more or less lifeless places, industrial agricultural practices have ravaged the undergound communities that sustain the life we eat.... A large study published in 2018 suggested that the 'alarming deterioration' of the health of trees across Europe was caused by a disruption of their mycorrhizal relationships, brought about by nitrogen pollution." from Before Roots chapter by Merlin Sheldrake.

 

 

"We do know, that this fragile, generative world has been damaged by intensive farming, pollution, deforestation and global heating. A third of the planet's land has been severely degraded and 24 billion tons of fertile soil are destroyed every year through intensive farming, according to the Global Land Outlook. Topsoil is where 95% of the planet's food is grown and is very delicate. It takes more than 100 years to build 5mm of soil, and it can be destroyed shockingly easily. This destruction and degradation of the soil is created by intensive farming practices such as heavy mechanised soil tilling, which loosens and rips away any plant cover, leaving the soil bare. It is also caused by the overgrazing of animals, as well as forest fires and heavy construction work. These factors disturb the soil and leave it exposed to erosion from wind and water, damaging the complicated systems underneath its top layer...

We are losing good soil at an estimated 100 times faster rate than we can remake and heal it. The world's soils are thought to store approximately 15 thousand million tonnes of carbon - 3 times as much as all of our planet's terrestrial vegetation combined. Soils hold twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, and when soil disintegrates, the carbon is released. In the last 40 years the soil in the UK's croplands lost 10% of the carbon it could store. In a time of climate crisis, soil's quiet potency, its ability to store carbon safely, is utterly essential to our future survival....

We know that soils are being destroyed, and that with that comes a higher risk of floods, and a more unpredictable and unreliable food and water system. An Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecostem Services report in 2018 told us clearly that land degradationis already putting the welfare of two-fifths of humanity at risk, and that urgent action is needed to avoid further danger. There are many things we can do to protect soils, and the organisms, plants and connections that thrive within them. Actions that can support and heal soil structure include

  • planting 'cover crops',
  • planting hedgerows or ley strips and
  • encouraging the habitats of animals such as earthworms, which act as 'ecosystem engineers' and aerate the soil as they burrow into it
  • Using reduced till or no-till regimes in farming can also help to prevent the destruction of organic matter in the soil.

Such regimes allow soil structure to remain intact, and protect the soil by allowing crop residues to stay on the surface. " from Strange Soil chapter by Rebecca Tamas.
 

 

Due to intensive farming techniques and chemical fertilisers this has occurred:-
A 2004 US study found important nutrients in some garden crops are up to 38% lower than there were at the middle of the 20th Century. On average, across the 43 vegetables analysed, calcium content declined 16%, iron by 15% and phosphorus by 9%.

The BBC has produced an article as to why modern food as lost its nutrients.
 

 

The following about trees in pavements show why when the roots are denied access to air, water and nutrients even the fungi cannot work to support the trees.

Pavements of Funchal, Madeira
Damage to Trees - Pages
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11, 12, 13
for trees 1-54,
14, 15,
16, 17, 18, 19, 20,
21, 22, 23, 24, 25,
for trees 55-95,
26, 27, 28, 29, 30,
31, 32, 33, 34, 35,
36, 37,
for trees 95-133,
38, 39, 40,
41, 42, 43, 44, 45,
for trees 133-166
 

 

The following addition of this mulch improved the clay soil, so that
neither the fungi nor the plants would drown.
 

A 150mm deep mulch of mixed peat, sharp washed sand and horticultural grit was applied on top of a heavy clay soil to improve its structure, and stop the plants therein from drowning, at £10 a square metre. The mix was:

  • 4 cubic metres of Peat (to provide the Organic Polymers/Organic Matter and Carbon.)
  • 2 cubic metres of Sharp Washed Sand (to provide the sand for the production of microaggregates)
  • 2 cubic metres of Horticultural Grit (to provide larger particles for aggregation)
  • 25kg of Garden Lime (to provide Calcium for the plants and allow clay minerals to bond together to form domains. Once clay minerals are stacked together to form domains, they can then bond with organic matter to form microaggregates)
  • 25 kg of Sulphate of Iron (to provide Iron to act as a trace element and to create soil colloid for buffering chemical nutrients in the soil for later use by plants)
  • 25Kg of Sulphate of Potash ( to provide fertilizer for the plants)

The following was then sent to me:-

soil14a1

 

and the following was sent to me in October 2004:-

An unsuccessful planting scheme had left bare areas of garden as plants failed to survive winter in the waterlogged clay soil. The loss of numerous plants and the cost of replacing them had left us disheartened. It was evident that remedial action was need in the form of a mixture of gravel, sand and peat to create an organic loam. Approximately six inches was added in April and left to settle and do its job. By July there was a noticeable difference in the quality of the soil and the plants. Shrubs with sparse, mottled leaves were looking glossy and robust, overall growth had increased (including the weeds!) and the soil was holding its moisture well. But the biggest difference came in the confidence it gave us to transform the garden. The borders used to be a no-go area between May and September as the clay baked and cracked, but the new soil was easy to handle and weeds could be successfully removed. We realised that there are no quick fixes - the key to a healthy garden is rich, nutritous soil. Once our plants began to thrive we were optimistic that, with good advice, we could create a garden to be proud of.

More Details

Cultural Needs of Plants
from Chapter 4 in Fern Grower's Manual by Barbara Joe Hoshizaki & Robbin C. Moran. Revised and Expanded Edition. Published in 2001 by Timber Press, Inc. Reprinted 2002, 2006. ISBN-13:978-0-
88192-495-4.

"Understanding Fern Needs
Ferns have the same basic growing requirements as other plants and will thrive when these are met. There is nothing mysterious about the requirements - they are not something known only to people with green thumbs - but the best gardeners are those who understand plant requirements and are careful about satisfying them.
What, then, does a fern need?

All plants need water.
Water in the soil prevents roots from drying, and all mineral nutrients taken up by the roots must be dissolved in the soil water. Besides water in the soil, most plants need water in the air. Adequate humidity keeps the plant from drying out. Leaves need water for photosynthesis and to keep from wilting.
All green plants need light to manufacture food (sugars) by photosynthesis. Some plants need more light than others, and some can flourish in sun or shade. Most ferns, however, prefer some amount of shade.
For photosynthesis, plants require carbon dioxide, a gas that is exhaled by animals as waste. Carbon dioxide diffuses into plants through tiny pores, called stomata, that abound on the lower surface of the leaves. In the leaf, carbon dioxide is combined with the hydrogen from water to form carbohydrates, the plant's food. This process takes place only in the presence of light and chlorophyll, a green pigment found in plant cells. To enhance growth, some commercial growers increase the carbon dioxide level in their greenhouses to 600ppm (parts per million), or twice the amount typically found in the air.
Plants need oxygen. The green plants of a plant do not require much oxygen from the air because plants produce more oxygen by photosynthesis than they use. The excess oxygen liberated from the plants is used by all animals, including humans. What do plants do with oxygen? They use it just as we do, to release the energy stored in food. We use energy to move about, to talk, to grow, to think - in fact, for all our life processes. Although plants don't talk or move much, they do grow and metabolize and must carry on all their life processes using oxygen to release the stored energy in their food.
Roots need air all the time. They get it from the air spaces between the soil particles. Overwatering displaces the air between soil particles with water, thereby removing the oxygen needed by the roots. This reduces the root's ability to absorb mineral nutrients and can foster root-rot.
Plants need minerals to grow properly. The minerals are mined from the soil by the plant's root system. If a certain mineral is missing, such as calcium needed for developing cell walls, then the plant will be stunted, discoloured, or deformed.
Some plants tolerate a wide range of temperatures, whereas others are fussy. If the temperature is too high or low, the machinery of the plant will not operate satisfactorily or will cease entirely.

The basic needs of plants are not hard to supply, but growing success depends on attending to these needs with care and exactitude. The remainder of this chapter is devoted to a discussion of these requirements, with the exception of mineral needs, which are discussed in Chapter 5."

 

It is worth remembering that especially with roses that the colour of the petals of the flower may change - The following photos are of Rosa 'Lincolnshire Poacher' which I took on the same day in R.V. Roger's Nursery Field:-

apoacher1

Closed Bud

apoacher2

Opening Bud

apoacher3

Juvenile Flower

apoacher4

Older Juvenile Flower

apoacher5

Middle-aged Flower - Flower Colour in Season in its
Rose Description Page is
"Buff Yellow, with a very slight pink tint at the edges in May-October."

apoacher6

Mature Flower

apoacher7

Juvenile Flower and Dying Flower

apoacher8

Form of Rose Bush

There are 720 roses in the Rose Galleries; many of which have the above series of pictures in their respective Rose Description Page.

So one might avoid the disappointment that the 2 elephants had when their trunks were entwined instead of them each carrying their trunk using their own trunk, and your disappointment of buying a rose to discover that the colour you bought it for is only the case when it has its juvenile flowers; if you look at all the photos of the roses in the respective Rose Description Page!!!!

 

There are 180 families in the Wildflowers of the UK and they have been split up into 22 Galleries to allow space for up to 100 plants per gallery.

Each plant named in each of the Wildflower Family Pages may have a link to:-

its Plant Description Page in its Common Name in one of those Wildflower Plant Galleries

and it does have links:-

to external sites to purchase the plant or seed in its Botanical Name,

to see photos in its Flowering Months and

to read habitat details in its Habitat Column.

 

Links to external websites like the link to "the Man walking in front of car to warn pedestrians of a horseless vehicle approaching" would be correct when I inserted it after March 2007, but it is possible that those horseless vehicles may now exceed the walking pace of that man and thus that link will currently be br
ok en .... .....

My advice is Google the name on the link and see if you can find the new link. If you sent me an email after clicking Ivydene Horticultural Services text under the Worm Logo on any page, then; as the first after March 2010 you would be the third emailer since 2007, I could then change that link in that 1 of the 15,743 pages. Currently (August 2016).

Other websites provide you with cookies - I am sorry but I am too poor to afford them. If I save the pennies from my pension for the next visitor, I am almost certain in March 2023, that I could afford to make that 4th visitor to this website a Never Fail Cake. I would then be able to save for more years for the postage.