Ivydene Gardens Home: Website Design History

 

This Topic Box is repeated on every page, except the Plant/Insect Description Pages, with the same contents in the position to the left.
To see the Site Map Page of the Topic, click on the Topic below. Then, click on a Page Name in that Site Map List to get to that named Page.

Topic
Case Studies
Companion Planting
Garden Construction
Garden Design
Garden Maintenance
Glossary
Home*
Library
Offbeat Glossary
Plants
Soil
Tool Shed
Useful Data

Topic - Plant Photo Galleries

To see the Site Map Page of the Gallery, click on the relevant Gallery Name below. Read the Site Map Page for the list of Plant/Insect Description Pages. Then, click on the Plant/Insect Name to see the respective Plant/Insect Description Page.

Aquatic 1 plant
Bamboo 9 bamboos
Bedding 22 bedding
Bulb flower photo for each plant for each month that it flowers for the 222 bulbs
...Autumn Bulb 46 bulbs
...Colchicum/Crocus Bulb 50 colchicum and 29 crocus bulbs
...Late Summer Bulb 89 bulbs
...Lily and Woodland Bulb 3 bulbs
...Spring Bulb 5 bulbs
Climber flower photo for each plant for each month that it flowers for the 120 climbers
...Clematis 62 climbers
...Climbers 58 climbers

Conifer 7 conifers
Deciduous Shrub flower photo for each plant for each month that it flowers for the 45 deciduous shrubs
...Shrubs - Deciduous 45 deciduous shrubs
Deciduous Tree flower photo for each plant for each month that it flowers for the 4 deciduous trees
...Trees - Deciduous 4 deciduous trees
Evergreen Perennial flower photo for each plant for each month that it flowers for the 98 evergreen perennials


Evergreen Shrub flower photo for each plant for each month that it flowers for the 62 evergreen shrubs
...Shrubs - Evergreen 62 evergreen shrubs
Evergreen Tree flower photo for each plant for each month that it flowers for the 1 evergreen tree
...Trees - Evergreen 1 evergreen tree
Fern 16 ferns
Grass 4 grasses
Hedging 18 hedges
Herbaceous Perennial flower photo for each plant for each month that it flowers for the 85 herbaceous perennials
...Perennials - Herbaceous 89 herbaceous perennials
Herb 3 herbs
Odds and Sods 20 plants
Rhododendron 10 rhodos
Rose 343 roses
Soft Fruit 5 soft fruit
Top Fruit 8 apples, 1 cherry, 3 pear
...Apple Gallery Introduction
...Cherry Gallery Introduction
...Pear Gallery Introduction
Vegetable 8 vegetables
Wild Flower 297 wild flower description pages (o) 1041 wildflowers in wild flower family pages as shown on the Welcome Page
(o) indicates this family has wildflower photos.
 

Flower Colour Wheel Flower petal colour matched to nearest Colour Wheel colour for all plants with flowers in this website to aid your choice of complementary or contrasting flower colour schemes
...(o)Dark Tone: Red 12
...(o)Dark Tone: Red Orange 12
...(o)Dark Tone: Orange 1
...Dark Tone: Yellow Orange 1
...(o)Dark Tone: Yellow 12
...(o)Dark Tone: Yellow Green 12
...(o)Dark Tone: Green 12
...Dark Tone: Blue Green 12
...(o)Dark Tone: Blue 12
...(o)Dark Tone: Blue Violet 12
...(o)Dark Tone: Violet 12
...(o)Dark Tone: Red Violet 12

...(o)Mid-Tone: Red 34
...(o)Mid-Tone: Red Orange 34
...Mid Tone: Orange 2
...(o)Mid-Tone: Yellow Orange 23
...Mid-Tone: Yellow 34
...(o)Mid-Tone: Yellow Green 34
...(o)Mid-Tone: Green 34
...Mid-Tone: Blue Green 34
...(o)Mid-Tone: Blue 34
...(o)Mid-Tone: Blue Violet 34
...(o)Mid-Tone: Violet 34
...(o)Mid-Tone: Red Violet 34

...(o)Pure Hue: Red 56
...(o)Pure Hue: Red Orange 5
...(o)Pure Hue: Orange 3
...(o)Pure Hue: Yellow Orange 45
...(o)Pure Hue: Yellow 56
...(o)Pure Hue: Yellow Green 56
...(o)Pure Hue: Green 56
...Pure Hue: Blue Green 56
...(o)Pure Hue: Blue 56
...(o)Pure Hue: Blue Violet 56
...(o)Pure Hue: Violet 56
...(o)Pure Hue: Red Violet 56

...(o)Pastel: Red 789
...(o)Pastel: Red Orange 6
...(o)Pastel: Orange 45
...(o)Pastel: Yellow Orange 67
...(o)Pastel: Yellow 789
...(o)Pastel: Yellow Green 789
...(o)Pastel: Green 789
...(o)Pastel: Blue Green 789
...(o)Pastel: Blue 789
...(o)Pastel: Blue Violet 7
...(o)Pastel: Violet 789
...(o)Pastel: Red Violet 789

...(o)Neutral: Black 1
...Neutral: Gray 234
...(o)Neutral: Gray 5
...(o)Neutral: Pure White 6

Topic - Wildlife on Plant Photo Gallery

Butterfly 68 butterflies
 

Website Design History
When the site was started, it was one document with Garden Design, Garden Maintenance and Garden Construction sections. As the other sections on Case Studies, Companion Planting, Glossary, Library, Offbeat Glossary, Plants, Soil, Tool Shed and Useful Data were added, the document became too big, so each was split off the Home section to become separate documents. Every Page with the Main Topic Box on it can link to the Site Map Page of every other document stated in that menu.

Each page has grey columns on each side with light green background in between. Some pages require their information to be spread across the entire page or the part of the page where the Navigation Boxes are, so this data will appear below the Main Navigation Box, Topic Navigation Box and Ivydene Logo and Advert Box, so please scroll down to find it. Examples are Poisonous Plants , Bee-pollinated Plants and Pest Control Pages. This is now changing so that the Topic menu is on the left with the Page menu on the right and the data in between surrounded by a light green background for the page (October 2012).

Case Studies
These follow the progress of part or all of a private garden from design to completion.

Companion Planting
The name given to the system of using one plant to help another is Companion Planting, i.e garlic planted with roses deter greenfly rather than using pesticides to kill them.

Glossary
Underlined words in the main content may be defined in the Glossary and in the right hand column of that page.

Library
The Library catalogue is split into 17 sections, starting with Garden Style, then use the Garden Design book followed by the Garden Planting Design for that garden style etc.

Plants
About 1300 plants are detailed in lists with their:-

• sun aspect,
• soil type,
• moisture level,
• shape,
• garden use,
• foliage,
• flower colour and
• pruning requirements.

Plant Photographic Galleries
The Comments section of the Plant Description Page may give website links to nurseries so that you can buy your chosen plants.

Tool Shed
This describes the tools that I use.

Useful Data
Answers given to where can you get the plants, irrigation system, paving, work clothes, work tools etc.

Wild Flower of British Isles
The Wild Flower Galleries contain every wild plant (some with colour photos of flower, flowers, foliage and form) of the United Kingdom in its relevant Page (The number of plants - 1111 - with photos in each Page is noted on the Introduction Page of the Wild Flower Gallery), with their Plant Description Page (The number of Wild Flower Plants with Description Pages - 297 - is noted on the Introduction Page of the Wild Flower Gallery).

Wildlife on Plant Photographic Gallery
This gallery will contain most of the Butterflies (started in June 2008) of the United Kingdom. The relationship between the Wildlife and the Plants they eat or use in their lifespan, the Habitats they live in and who eats them is shown. There are Comparison Pages for identification purposes.

Plant Photographic Galleries
The Plant Photographic Galleries were started in the summer of 2007 to support the groundcover plants described in the Plants section with a plant gallery.

Each plant has its own Plant Description Page with large photographs of

• flower,
• foliage,
• form,
• seed, fruit

together with text description of its height, etc. The relevant site map would then show in alphabetical order all the plants that had descriptions for that gallery. Clicking on a plant name would then change the site map page to that Plant Description Page. Clicking on the Monitor Screen Back Arrow would return you to the site map. The topic menu and Page menu are now being added to that page (October 2012).

As far as possible, nurseries that can sell the plant or seed to you direct are specified for the Plant to which they apply in the Comments section of the relevant Plant Description Page for both cultivated and wild flowers.

Besides the Introduction Page, there are also Plant Comparison Pages. These compare 48 or more thumbnail photos of plants from that gallery with either the same:-

• flower colour,
• foliage colour,
• form, or
• fruit/seed.

The text box below these thumbnail photos contains the:-

• the SOIL TYPE it prefers (Sand, Chalk, Clay, Peaty),
• name of the plant,
• the SUN ASPECT (Full Sun, Part Shade or Full Shade),
• soil moisture level as the background colour (Dry is Brown, Moist is White, Wet is aquamarine) and
• the height of the plant (0-2 feet, 2-6 feet, or over 6 feet) as colour of the text box border.

Click on one of these 2 thumbnail photos in the next 2 columns, then the Plant Description Page for that Plant will appear as another window in addition to this Comparison Page you are viewing. Click on Back Arrow to return to calling page.
The background is White indicating Moist Soil. The Height of the plant is 0-2 feet indicated by blue border.	CHALK, SAND. Sisyrin-chium gramin-oides SUN, PART SHADE	CHALK, SAND. Tradesc-antia x Anderso-niana SUN, PART SHADE

Having put 150 plants into the Plant Gallery, I ran out of space in memory. The Plant Gallery (renamed Odds and Sods Gallery) was then split up into the Plant Photographic Galleries ; some of which you can see on the left.

The structure of the original Plant Gallery was repeated for the other Galleries. In the Bamboo Gallery, you do not compare flower colour but you do compare Cane Colour, so the structure stating Flower Colour was changed to Cane Colour for Bamboo. The Bedding Gallery besides the flower colour comparison pages also has flower shape comparison pages.

Up until December 2008 all links from the Main Navigation Box pointed to the Introduction Page of the topic it was going to, currently those links are to the Site Maps of those topics instead. Now you may find viewing the relevant Introduction Page useful.

The others state the number of plants that have plant description pages with comparison pages of those plants.

.

.

WildFlower Galleries
In March 2008, a problem (more than 900 photos in a document leads to an over 30 minute time period to close the Freeway application when developing the document) was solved by splitting up the Wild Flower Gallery into 23 galleries. The Wild Flower Gallery now contains all the flower colour and fruit/seed Comparison Pages.
The other Wild Flower Galleries are aimed to have up to 100 plants in each; starting with the plants in the first Wild Flower Adder's Tongue and ending with the Yew .
The site map of each gallery gives you instant access to each Plant Description Page for the flowers in that gallery and clicking on the thumbnail photos in the Comparison Pages in the Wild Flower Gallery gives you it as well.

Access to the complete list of Wild Flower plant names has been split into the following habitat pages, which is accessible from every Wild Flower Gallery Page and situated above the Wild Flower pages in their Topic Navigation Box:-

• Ferns in Habitat Table
• Flowers in Habitat Table
• Grasses in Habitat Table
• Rushes in Habitat Table and
• Sedges in Habitat Table

The Plant Description Page can also be found by clicking on the relevant Family Name in the other Sub-Navigation box on all the Comparison pages in those Wild Flower Galleries and looking for the plant name on that Family Page, then click the plant name.

The complete list of all Wild Flower plant names in alphabetical order has also been split into the following pages for direct access of their Plant Description Page from the Wild Flower Gallery only:-

• Wild Flower Plant Index a-h
• Wild Flower Plant Index i-p
• Wild Flower Plant Index q-z
   

The complete list of all Wild Flower plant names in alphabetical order is currently (October 2012) being split into the Common Name and Botanical Name pages for linking the name to its Wildflower Family Page:-

• Wild Flower Plant Common Name
• Wild Flower Plant Botanical Name

TopFruit Galleries
When more than 100 plants/insects have been added to a photographic gallery, then that Gallery structure will need to be changed to perhaps the same as that for the Wild Flowers. This means that in future individual Site Maps will not state all the Plant/Insect names for that Plant/Insect Type, so Plant/Insect Index pages will be used to gain direct access to ALL the relevant Plants or Insects of that Type as well.
The TopFruit Gallery has been split into the Apple Gallery, Cherry Gallery and Pear Gallery in December 2008. All the links to the Top Fruit gallery from other sections are to the site map page of the Apple Gallery.
The links to each introduction page of apple, cherry or pear galleries are given at the top of the sub-navigation box for each page in each gallery.
Then when in the relevant gallery, the respective sub-navigation box links apply. The Site Map Page of each TopFruit Gallery gives direct access to the Plant Description Pages of that Gallery.

Climber, Herbaceous Perennial, Evergreen Perennial, Deciduous Shrub, Evergreen Shrub, Deciduous Tree, Evergreen Tree and Bulb Galleries
In April 2009, the structure of the Climber and Bulb Galleries had the following addition:-
The original gallery was duplicated with another name and the original gallery was changed to show the Flower colour of each plant for each month of the year that it flowered, and all the respective plant names were put into Plant Index Pages with their flower colour and link to the pages showing their flower in each month. This process will be repeated for most of the other galleries which have plants with flowers (The structure in Bulbs, Herbaceous Perennials, Evergreen Perennials, Deciduous Shrubs, Evergreen Shrubs, Deciduous Trees and Evergreen Trees has been changed in July 2009).

Wildlife on Plant Photographic Galleries
The Wildlife on Plant Photographic Galleries were started in May 2008 to show the relationship over a long period in the year between the insects/animals in the UK and the native wild flowers. So, if you want a wildlife friendly garden, one needs to leave some areas alone to maintain them in a very narrow time window during that year.

A summary is listed in a Table of the Plants that each Insect (Butterfly) uses in a page and another Table gives the Insects (Butterflies) that use each plant in another page:-

• Plant Name
• Butterfly Name
• Used by Egg, Caterpillar, Chrysalis or Butterfly
• Plant Usage
• Plant Usage Months

If you click on a thumbnail in one of the Comparison Pages for the Butterfly Gallery, then another window opens with up to the following 21 larger images:-

• Caterpillar
• Insect at Rest
• Caterpillar Food Plant Form with Foliage
• Egg
• Chrysalis
• Insect Resting
• Caterpillar Food Plant Foliage
• Caterpillar Food Plant Form without Foliage
• 4 of Insect Food Plant
• 3 of Insect Habitat
• 3 of Caterpillar Eaten By
• 3 of Insect Eaten By

for the:-

• Caterpillar,
• Butterfly Identity,
• Plants that Caterpillars Eat,
• Plants that Butterflies Use,
• Habitats that Butterflies Use,
• Egg, Caterpillar, Chrysalis Eaten By
• Insect Eaten By

pages and the following plant description:-

• Insect Common Name
• Zoological Name
• Food plant for Egg, Caterpillar and Chrysalis
• Egg Stage : Colour
• Caterpillar Stage: Colour
• Egg, Caterpillar, Chrysalis Eaten By
• Chrysalis Stage
• Adult Insect: Colour
• Adult Insect: Wingspan
• Adult Insect: Lifespan
• Adult Insect: Food Plants
• Adult Insect: Habitat
• Adult Insect Eaten by
• Comments

Please close that window before clicking on another thumbnail.

The other 20 Insect Galleries were empty and so Website Work (from 16/03/2010 to 15/07/2010) was executed for every relevant page on every Document:-
Replacing the Submenu under the Main Menu with the above system of Main Menu on the left and the Submenu on the right at the top of the page.
Correctly separating all the links in each of the Menus.
Replacing the Worm Logo graphic with a Pass-through graphic.
Putting each page into a Table.
Editing the MetaTags to show the correct Description and Keywords.
Removing the Main Menu entries under Introduction Page Links for Wildlife on Plant Photographic Galleries of empty galleries to leave only the Butterfly Gallery.

.

I spent between September 2012 and March 2013 rewriting the complete site to change it from 800 pixels wide to 1200 pixels wide with 3 tables in a horizontal plane and usually an index of a topic in the right hand table on every page of each respective gallery or topic to make it more user-friendly.

Any of the more than 12,000 pages of this website may be viewed and either changed to a new Plant Description page or display the added Plant Description Page, when you use the landscape version of an IPAD, which of course you will be able to use outside. IPHONES do not allow you to add a page.
 

Using the photos I took of the Roses in the 2 rose gardens at Wisley and the roses that took 5 days to photo in the nursery field of R.V. Roger in 2014, I extended the number of roses described from 343 to 720 in the Rose Galleries.

From October 2013 I updated the explanation of Structure of this website with User Guidelines Page .

Also the original system of changing from a comparison thumbnail to showing its Plant Description Page was done by adding that Plant Description Page on top of the existing Compoarison Page. I am still changing those thousands of links to changing the comparison page to the plant description page using a Map Link System - my ghost in 2035 may still be doing it. The state of the changeover is indicated on the Structure of this website with User Guidelines Page .

I changed the Plant Selection Process in Plants topic to only 6 levels in June 2015.

When I do not have photos , then from March 2016, I am using my leisure time on creating the following Structure:-

• Create and input all the thousands of plants known by Amateur Gardening inserted into their Sanders' Encyclopaedia from their edition published in 1960 (originally published by them in 1895) into these
  • Stage 1 - Garden Style Index Gallery,
    then
  • Stage 2 - Infill Plants Index Gallery being the only gallery from these 7 with photos (from Wikimedia Commons) ,
    then
  • Stage 3 - All Plants Index Gallery with each plant species in its own Plant Type Page followed by choice from Stage 4a, 4b, 4c and/or 4d REMEMBERING THE CONSTRAINTS ON THE SELECTION FROM THE CHOICES MADE IN STAGES 1 AND 2
  • Stage 4a - 12 Bloom Colours per Month Index Gallery,
  • Stage 4b - 12 Foliage Colours per Month Index Gallery with
  • Stage 4c - Cultivation, Position, Use Index Gallery and
  • Stage 4d - Shape, Form Index Gallery
  • Unfortunately, if you want to have 100's of choices on selection of plants from 1000's of pages, which you can jump to from almost any of the pages in these 7 galleries above, you have to put up with those links to those choices being on
    • the left topic menu table,
    • the header of the middle data table and on
    • the page/index menu table on the right of every page of those galleries.

It is regrettable - that having signed the Official Secrets Act - that the information of how to send me an email from the specified and relevant unclassified page(s) on this site is restricted to the privileged few.

Notes

It should be remembered that nothing is sold from this commercial 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.

The first visitor sending me an email in 2006 requested a planting plan for a fruit farm in Chile to contain Apples, Pears, Lemons, Oranges and Pineapples as well as other fruit and vegetables. The book Ultimate Fruit & Nuts A comprehensive guide to the cultivation, uses and health benefits of over 300 food-producing plants by Susanna Lyle ISBN 13: 978-0-7112-2593-0 would help her and I advised her to contact the Chilean Agricultural Department to offer suggestions for fruit varieties suitable for the Chilean climate - especially for apples and pears.

The second visitor (the following year) requested the identity of a house-plant, having supplied me with colour photos in their email. I replied with the plant's name.

The third visitor via email in the third year complained that he could not find the contact details for Ivydene Horticultural Services easily. Having worked in a Military Defence Company for 14 years, I have signed the Official Secrets Act. Due to this reason, the Top Secret contact details have for the highest level of security considerations been severely restricted to the Contact Chris Garnons-Williams Page. Due to the importance of keeping this sensitive information confidential during this period of war and that currently this site is requesting donations of photos of plants/ butterflies, please do not divulge this to anyone, otherwise I might get a fourth visitor after 2008, who might interrupt the possible photo donation during the next 2 years or more.

2 visitors have donated photos in the last 2 years, and hopefully one or 2 people may view the site in the next year or so.

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• Create flower colour comparison pages and a NOTE description page for every native to the UK wildflower plant in the Wildflower galleries and
• Update the original website photo comparison pages to change to the Plant Description Page instead of adding that Plant Description Page when clicking on a thumbnail in 1 of its comparison pages.
• Update and add to the words defined in Glossary from the definitions in the Encylopaedia of Garden Work and Terms, which is also in The Gardeners' Golden Treasury, which also includes the above Sander's Encyclopaedia.

I may not spend all my time that I use to execute these tasks to just 1 of them, but try rotating to the next every so often.

These tasks may take some time during my retirement.

I hope that you find that the information in this website is useful to you:-

I like reading and that is shown by the index in my Library, where I provide lists of books to take you between designing, maintaining or building a garden and the hierarchy of books on plants taking you from

• the coffee-table book where different blue primrose cultivars occur in the prose on pages 17, 90 and 202,
• to ones where there is a table of primrose cultivars with blue flowers on a single page,
• to what plants to associate with those blue primroses and
• companion plants for them.

There are the systems for choosing plants as shown in

• Plants topic
• Garden Style Index Gallery
• Colour Wheel of All Flowers 53
• Colour Wheel of All Flowers per Month 53
• Flower Shape

Preface of

The First Book of Botany. Designed to cultivate The Observing Powers of Children by Eliza A. Youmans.
"....Not that more is taught at an early age, but less; that time is taken, that the wall is not run up in haste; that the bricks are set on carefully, and the mortar allowed time to dry" by Lord Stanley.
"You study Nature in the house, and when you go out-of-doors you cannot find her." by Professor Agassiz.
London: C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1 Paternoster Square. 1880

"This little book has a twofold claim upon those concerned in the work of education.

In the first place, it introduces the beginner to the study of Botany in the only way it can be properly done - by the direct observation of vegetable forms. The pupil is told very little, and from the beginning, thoughout, he is sent to the plant to get his knowledge of the plant. The book is designed to help him in this work, never to supersede it. Instead of memorizing the statements of others, he brings a report of the living reality as he sees it; it is the things themselves that are to be examined, questioned, and understood. The true basis of a knowledge of Botany is that familiarity with the actual characters of plants, which can only be obtained by direct and habitual inspection of them. The beginner should therefore commence with the actual specimens, and learn to distinguish those external characters which lie open to observation; the knowledge of which leads naturally to that arrangement by related attributes which constitutes classification.

But the present book has a still stronger claim to attention; it develops a new method of study which is designed to correct that which is confessedly the deepest defect of out current education. This defect is the almost total lack of any systematic cultivation of the observing powers. Although all real knowledge begins in attention at things, and consists in the discrimination and comparison of the likenesses and differences among objects; yet, strange to say, in our vaunted system of instruction there is no provision for the regular training of the perceptive faculties. That which should be first and fundamental is hardly attended to at all. We train in mathematics, and cram the contents of books, but do little to exercise the mind upon the realities of Nature, or to make it alert, sensitive, and intelligent, in respect to the order of the surrounding world.

Something, indeed, has been done in the way of object-teaching, although but little of that is satisfactory. These exercises are notoriously loose, desultory, incoherent, and superficial, and hardly deserve the name of mental training. What is wanted is, that object-studies shall become more close and methodic, and that the observations shall be wrought into connected and organized knowledge. It is the merit of Botany that, beyond all other studies, it is suited to the attainment of this end. Plants furnish abundant and ever-varying materials for observation. The elementary facts of Botany are so simple that their study can be commenced in early childhood, and so numerous as to sustain a prolonged course of observation. From the most rudimentarty facts the pupil may proceed gradually to the more complex; from the concrete to the abstract; from observation to the truths resting upon observation, in a natural order of ascent, as required by the laws of mental growth. The means are thus furnished for organizing object-teaching into a systematic method, so that it may be pursued continuously through a course of successively higher and more comprehensive exercises. Carried out in this way, Botany is capable of doing for the observing powers of the mind what mathematics does for its reasoning powers.

Moreover, accuracy of observation requires accuracy of description; precision of thought implies precision in the use of language. Here, again, Botany has superior advantages. Its vocabulary is more copious, precise, and well settled, than that of any other of the natural sciences; it is thus unrivalled in the scope it offers for the cultivation of the descriptive powers.

On purely mental grounds, therefore, and as a means of attaining the most needed of educational reforms, Botany has a claim to be admitted as a fourth fundamental branch of common-school study; and the hope of contributing something to this end has been the author's main incitement in the preparation of this rudimentary work.

It is needful here to state that the method of instruction developed in these pages is no mere educational novelty; it has been tested, and its fitness for the end proposed has been shown in practice. The schedule feature which is here fully brought out, and which is its leading peculiarity as a mode of study, was devised and successfully used by Professor J.S. Henslow, of Cambridge, England. My attention was first drawn to it as I was looking about in the educational department of the South Kensington Museum, in London. In a show-case of botanical specimens, I noticed some slates covered with childish writing, which proved to be illustrations of a method of teaching Botany to the young. They were furnished by Professor Henslow for the International Exhibition of 1851. He died without publishing his method, but not without having subjected it to thorough practical trial. He had gathered together a class of poor country children, in the parish where he officiated as clergyman, and taught them Botany by a plan similar to the present, though less simplified. The results of this experiment have been given to the public by Dr J. D. Hooker, Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens at Kew, who was summoned to give evidence upon the subject before a Parliamentary Commission on Education.

The following interesting passages from his testimony will give an idea of Professor Henslow's methods of proceeding and its results:

Question. Have you ever turned your attention at all to the possibilty of teaching Botany to boys in classes at school?

Answer. I have thought that it might be done very easily; that this deficiency might be easily remedied.

Q. What are your ideas on the subject?

A. My own ideas are chiefly drawn from the experience of my father-in-law, the late Professor Henslow, Professor of Botany at Cambridge. He introduced Botany into one of the lowest possible class of schools - that of village laborers' children in a remote part of Suffolk.

Q. Perhaps you will have the goodness to tell us the system he pursued?

A. It was an entirely voluntary system. He offered to enroll the school children in a class to be taught Botany once a week. The number of children in the class was limited, I think, to 42. As his parish contained only 1000 inhabitants, there never were, I suppose, the full 42 children in their class; their ages ranged from about 8 years old to about 14 or 15. The class mostly consisted of girls... He required that, before they were enrolled in the class, they should be able to spell a few elementary botanical terms, including some of the most difficult to spell, and those that were the most essential to begin with. Those who brought proof that they could do this were put into the third class; then they were taught once a week, by himself generally, for an hour or an hour and a half, sometimes for 2 hours (for they were exceedingly fond of it).

Q. Did he use to take them out in the country, or was it simply lessons in school?

A. He left them to collect for themselves; but he visited his parish daily, when the children used to come up to him, and bring the plants they had collected; so that the lessons went on all the week round. There was only 1 day in the week on which definite instruction was given to the class; but on Sunday afternoon he used to allow the senior class, and those who got marks at the examinations, to attend at his house...

Q. Did he find any difficulty in teaching this subject in class?

A. None whatever; less than he would have had in dealing with almost any other subject.

Q. Do you know in what way he taught it? did he illustrate it?

A. Invariably; he made it practical. He made it an objective study. The children were taught to know the plants, and to pull them to pieces; to give their proper names to the parts; to indicate the relations of the parts to one another; and to find out the relation of one plant to another by the knowledge thus obtained.

Q. They were children, you say, generally from 8 to 12?

A. and up to 14.

Q. and they learned it readily?

A. Readily and voluntarily, entirely.

Q. and were interested in it?

A. Extremely interested in it. They were exceedingly fond of it.

Q. Do you happen to know whether Professor Henslow thought that the study of Botany developed the faculties of the mind - that it taught these children to think? and do you know whether he perceived any improvement in their mental faculties from that?

A. Yes; he used to think it was the most important agent that could be employed for cultivating their faculties of observation, and for strengthening their reasoning powers.

Q. He really thought that he had arrived at a practical result?

A. Undoubtedly; and so did every one who visited the school or the parish.

Q. They were children of quite the lower class?

A. The laboring agricultural class.

Q. and in other branches receiving the most elementary instruction?

A. Yes.

Q. And Professor Henslow thought that their minds were more developed; that they were become more reasoning beings, from having this study super-added to the others?

A. Most decidely. It was also the opinion of some of the inspectors of schools, who came to visit him, that such children were in general more intelligent than those of other parishes; and they attribute the difference to their observant and reasoning faculties being thus developed...

Q. So that the intellectual success of this objective study was beyond question?

A. Beyond question....In conducting the examinations of medical men for the army, which I have now conducted for several years, and those for the East-India Company's Service, which I have conducted for, I think, 7 years, the questions which I am the habit of putting, and which are NOT answered by the majority of candidates, are what would have been answered by the children in Professor Henslow's village-school. I believe the chief reason to be, that these students' observing faculties, as children, had never been trained - such faculties having lain dormant with those who naturally possessed them in a high degree; and having never been developed, by training, in those who possessed them in a low degree. In most medical schools, the whole sum and substance of botanical science is crammed into a few weeks of lectures, and the men leave the class without having acquired an accurate knowledge of the merest elements of the science....

The printed form or schedule contrived by Professor Henslow, and used in these classes, applied only to the flower, the most complex part of the plant, and the attention of children was directed by it chiefly to those features upon which orders depend in classification. But, instead of confining its use to the study of a special part of plant-structure, it seemed to me to apply equally to the whole course of descriptive Botany, and to be capable of becoming a most efficient instrument of regular observational training. I accordingly prepared a simplified series of exercises on this plan, and used them to guide some little children in studying the plants of the neighborhood; and, had this experiment not been regarded, by those who witnessed it, as a success, the book embodying these exercises would not now appear.

The successful experience here referred to, which led to the publication of this book, has now been decisely confirmed by the public after a year's trial with it. It has had an extensive sale, has been introduced into many schools of all grades, has been much used by private students, and has been approved with a unanimity and earnestness quite unprecedented in the history of school-books based upon new methods of teaching.

A new edition now appears, with several additional chapters treating of the seed, germination, buds, the aspects of woody plants, etc. The descriptions will here be more full and general, but the plan of describing only the results of actual observations is still adhered to. Questions are asked, but no answers are given; these are to be got by direct inspection of the objects. Some simple experiments for the cildren to make are introduced, and they will now be more occupied in watching the changes which take place in the different parts of plants.

In arranging a course of observations for beginners in Botany, only those have been selected which may be made with the naked eye. In another book now in preparation the same plan of schedule study will be carried out, and provision made for more close and extended observations, requiring the help of magifying-glasses.

There have been attempts to teach classes by the schedule method of this work by means of the blackboard, and without the book, but all such attempts are volations of the method. Botany cannot be "taught" by this system, for the very essence and soul of it is that the pupil is himself to find out what he wants to know. For repetition, comparison, and verification, constant reference to past exercises is required, which makes it indispensable that plant and book should go together. Only as a manual of practice, in individual observation, can the present work subserve the purpose for which it was prepared.

Suggestions to Teachers.

The method to be pursued by the aid of this book is the following: The child, whether at home or at school, first of all collects some specimens of plants - almost any will answer the purpose in commencing. These consist of organs, each of which is made up of different parts, and these vary in form and structure continually in different species. The object of the learner is to find out these parts or characters, and to learn their names, so as to be able to describe them.

The beginner, of course, must start with the simplest characters. Turning to the first exercises, for example, he finds the parts of leaves represented by pictures accompanied by the names applied to them. Guided by these, he refers to his specimens, and finds the real things which the pictures and the words represent. When a few characters are fixed in the mind by 2 or 3 exercises, he will commence the practice of noting down what he observes. For this purpose a form, or schedule, is used, containing questions which indicate what he is to search for. Models of these schedules, filled out, are given in the successive exercises: the pupil will make them for himself with pencil and paper (see Note below). He now carefully observes his specimen, and writes down the characters it possesses, with which he has thus far become acquainted. Having done this, he pins the specimen to the paper describing it, and brings it to the teacher as the report of his observation and judgement in the case.

This operation is constantly repeated upon varying forms, and slowly extended by the addition of new characters. He then goes on discovering new parts and acquiring their names - noting the variations of those parts and the names of their variations. The schedules guide him forward in the right direction, and hold him steadily to the essential work of excersising his faculties upon the living objects before him. In every fresh collection of plants, new plants and new relations will solicit the attention, and will have to be observed, compared, and recorded. Particular kinds of plants, let it be remembered, are not described in the book - they are not even named; the object is, by constant practice and repetition, to train the pupil to find out the characters of any that come in his way, and make his own descriptions.

An aquaintance with Botany, although of course desirable, is not indispensable in using these exercises. Any teacher or parent who is willing to take the necessary pains can conduct the children through them without difficulty; and if they will become fellow-students with them all the better. The child is not so much to be taught, as to instruct himself. The very essence of the plan is, that he is to make his own way, and rely on nobody else; it is intended for self-development. Mistakes will, of course, be made; but the whole method is self-correcting, and the pupil, as he goes forward, will be constantly rectifying his past errors. The object is less to get perfect results at first than to get the pupil's opinion upon the basis of his own observations.

Children can begin to study plants successfully by this method at 6 or 7 years of age, or as soon as they can write. But close observations should not be required from young beginners, nor the exercises be prolonged to weariness. The transition from the unconcious and spontaneous observations of children to conscious observation with a definite purpose should be gradual, beginning and continuing for some time with the easiest exercises upon the most simple and obvious characters.

Note
I have thought it desirable also to present the whole set, at the end of the volume, with the answers omitted, to illustrate at a glance the scope of the first series of observations. As the pupil is to be constantly engaged in schedule practice, and as the schedules are not to be preserved, the cheapest kind of paper will answer, and it can of course used on both sides. Slates will do just as well; but then the desription must be numbered, and a corresponding number attached to the specimen, so that they can be compared by the teacher.

BOOK CONTENTS

• Chapter I. - THE LEAF
• Ex. 1. The parts of a Leaf
• Ex. 2. The parts of a Grass-Leaf
• Ex. 3. Venation
• Ex. 4. The framework and its Parts
• Ex. 5. Feather-veined and Palmate-veined Leaves
• Ex. 6. Margins
• Ex. 7. Bases
• Ex. 9. Forms of Lobes
• Ex. 10. Forms of Sinuses
• Ex. 11. Kinds of Leaves
• Ex. 12. Shapes of Leaves
• Ex. 13. Petioles, Surfaces, and Colors
• Ex. 14. Simple and Compound Leaves
• Ex. 15. Parts of Compound Leaves
• Ex. 16. Pinnate and Digitate Leaves
• Ex. 17. Varieties of Pinnate Leaves
• Ex. 18. Varieties of Digitate Leaves
• Ex. 19. Forms of Stipules
• Ex. 20. Examples of Description
   
• Chapter II. - THE STEM
• Ex. 21-27
   
• Chapter III. - THE INFLORESCENCE
• Ex. 28-34
   
• Chapter IV. - THE FLOWER
• Ex. 35-50
   
• Chapter V. - THE ROOT
• Ex. 51-53
   
• EXAMPLES IN PLANT DESCRIPTION
   
• Chapter VI. - THE SEED
• Ex. 54-57
   
• Chapter VII. - WOODY PLANTS
• Ex. 58-62
   
• Chapter VIII. - THE LEAF-BUD
• Ex. 63-64
   
• Chapter IX. - STEM AND ROOT
• Ex. 65-66
   
• Chapter X. - FRUIT
• Ex. 67-69
   
• Chapter XI. - THE ACTIONS OF PLANTS
• Ex. 70
   
• LEAF SCHEDULES
• STEM SHEDULES
• INFLORESCENCE SCHEDULES
• FLOWER SCHEDULES

The ethos of the above book is what students at Universtity should do instead of taking down what is written on a blackboard, rote-learning it and spewing it forth at the exams ( which was what I had to do at the end of a year studying Polymer Chemistry at university, so I changed my study to Psychology and then earned my degree).

At University they should be taught:-

• concepts - like a building has walls, floors, a roof, doors and windows.
• Then, if the house is to be built of brick,
  they should fully understand each type of brick (facing, commons, foundation,engineering, etc),
  but not learn the full list of every brickmaking business who produce each type of brick in every country.
• They should understand the concept and not learn all the details - as long as they know where to look to get the list containing the relevant facing brick for the type of house they intend to build in that specific location.
• A student is to think and produce an answer from those thoughts and to not only regurgitate data as an answer to an essay or exam. Then to use that concept system following university in their work and play.

After I had my degree in Psycholgy, as part of my job as a Laboratory Technician, I taught Computer Science to Architecture students during 6 hours of lectures. They learnt Computer Hardware, Computer Software, Flowcharting, Documentation and the Fortran language using my type written notes for each lecture and a copy of them was shown to them on transparency film for an overhead projector. The next lecture notes were given to them at the end of the previous weekly 1 hour lecture. After all the lectures, I then split them into teams and during 2 afternoons they had to produce a statistical program analyzing 1 of their lab experiments, as well as document, flowchart and run it to get their answers.
In 14 hours those pupils received sufficient education to get more than 75% for each pupil in his/her computer science exam results from questions on writing a fortran program, flowcharting a program and a waffle at the end of the year. The results were verified by the Computer Science Department.

In order to live with my fiancee and then wife, I moved location and job to become a software engineer in military avionics. I wrote machine code and documentation over 14 years for many different computers:-

• for 44 computers in the test rigs to transmit sensor data to the Sea King Helicopter Computer System,
• to create the first display software for Sat Nav for military helicopters using digitised paper maps, and
• to create the display software for the Nimrod Tactical and Routine Navigators (in doing so, I also produced 2100 A3 pages of typed dicumentation for those Navigators in Levels, 1,2,3 and 4).

The above jobs demontrate that at University you should learn to think to solve a situation after you leave; and it does not matter if you never use the information that you absorbed at University on that course.

I have created a 32 A5 page booklet describing how to design, construct and maintain a private garden and had 1000 published and gave them to prospective clients, so that I could demonstrate that I knew how to look after their gardens. I have about 10 left.

So in 2006 I bought a Mac-Mini and started this website.

• I started with 40 Mb cartridge tapes for archiving. My 40Mb archiving tape machine broke, so I replaced it. The newer version did not read 40 Mb tapes.
• So I bought a CD reader/writer, since my Mac-mini had a Cd reader.
• My Mac-mini I bought in mid 2011 does not have a CD reader.
• So I bought external disk drives. I filled them up, so in March 2016 I bought 2 more with Western Digital software and then had problems with the system kernel panics telling me to shut down the computer, so in May I took it to Apple, who returned it a week later stating that it had passed all tests. It continued to fail so went back again 2 months later for a fortnight having been told it was a USB device problem. After a week, I requested that since the power board and logic board had heated that those were replaced and the internal disc as well. That having been done I got it back, so I thought I had better make sure that the disks I would use for archiving came from Aplle so bought 2 more archive disks from Apple, a new keyboard and mouse. Unfortunately, I did not realise that the new wireless mouse and keyboard would only work with a 2 version higher operating system as detailed in their written installation instructions, than I had. The same kernel panic attacks continued.
• When I visited an Apple Recommended Repair firm, they discovered that the Western Digital Software from the set of archive disks used in March to July was continually crashing with its report file on my computer, even though neither of those disks were attached. The firm removed the software and put into a folder on my desktop, which I have now sent to trash. I bought 2 more archive disks from and in the last 22 hours, I have reformatted them and archived onto each, received my email, changed a couple of sections of my website and uploaded them and left my computer in the condition set up by that Apple Recommended Repair firm. I hope that it will continue to work for some years.

The architecture in my Mac-Mini is usually changed on a regular basis from an early to a mid and then to late - the latest Mac-Mini is a late 2014 and it is expected that during the winter of 2017 that the early of the next version will become available.
My publishing program Freeway Professional version 5 has been loaded onto the next version of the Mac operating system to mine and to the current El Capitan by the Apple Recommended Repair firm, who states that it loads when requested. I cannot use the latest version of Freeway probably due to the previous versions being written for a 32k machine and version 6 for a bigger machine.
When Apple stop selling a product, they will still stock the components for another 5 years. My Mac-Mini of 2011 reached its stop point in 2012 and so 2017 will be the last year that Apple will stock its components.
I have requested the Apple Recommended Repair Firm to put together a new Mac with 2 displays, keyboard, mouse, airport extreme or its equivalent and use the 2 new archive discs as archives, with a book page scanner, and printer package for me to see if that will produce the same output as my present Mac-Mini. I have stated that I will pay them for the equipment and installation irrespective of whether it works or not, since it will then become second-hand if it is of no use to me, when they re-sell it. That new computer should still be for sale for a few years and its components for a few more so that I can continue to output this educational website for my 4th visitor to see in March 2023. I pay for all the costs of this website and neither sells, nor buys anything, nor does it take or give commission.
Unfortunately if I google a plant currently, sometimes when I request to look at one of their answers I am refused because I do have the necessary widget to read it, whereas with a new compter and the latest operating system, I probably would be able to.

The above shows some of the problems involved in creating something for the internet which takes a very long time.
I asked Freeway to amend their program to allow a table to be greater than 16k long on a page and that one could add more rows after 9999 pixels, but they have not.
I am trying to provide you with enough detail to choose and grow your own plants with a Joe Public notion of how things are rather than the complete detail shown using botanical language to describe a plant, instead of a coffee-table book of photos, which do not provide the cultural requirements.
I am being defeated by:-

• time (aged 68),
• health (added diabetes and glaucoma to my list of diseases including heart failure, respiratory problems, water retention and pituary gland tumour this year - 2016) and
• a computer system that will last and output a website for more than 5 years.

If you decide to download any of the pages of this website for use in your own website, then I suggest that you only use the data and graphics but not this table layout system, since this is not the current fashion and you will have problems in adding to that new page on your website in the future. You might be able to replicate it using CSS layouts.

I have designed and constructed a garden in her rented property for a primary school teacher. If the children were good on a school day, then at the end of the day, she would read them a story. Surprising how the children loved hearing the stories.

Alice B. Gomme in the nineteenth century with her husband assembled 'The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland' into 2 volumes:-

"The traditional games of a nation excite interest not only as a means of amusement, but also as a means of obtaining an insight into the customs and beliefs of that nation. This book list, describes, and analyzes over 600 games traditionally played in England, Scotland and Ireland. It is the most authoritative treatment of the subject ever produced, and contains much information that cannot be found elsewhere. It contains everything known about British children's games, both from folkloristic field rsearch and literary records daing back to the middle ages.

The games are arranged in alphabetical order according to the title usually accorded the gme. The non-singing games are described in terms of basic types, variants, and origins. For the singing games, the author gives the tune and all the different versions of the game-rhyme; the method of playing the game; an analysis table that shows where the variant versions of the game-rhyme are found and indicates similarities and dfferences among them; a careful discussion of the results of this analysis so far as the different versions allow; and an attempt to deduce from the evidence suggestions as to the probable origin of the game, with references to earlier authorities and other facts bearing upon the subject.

The treatment of all the games is lucid and very thorough: the game called "Sally Water", for example, covers 30 pages, including an analysis table that records variants from 43 locales. The illustrations will help the reader understand the different actions where the method of play is complex, or where there are several changes in the form of the game. Finally, the essay subjoined to the text proper contains fruitful commentary on all aspects of the study of children's games.

Folklorists and anthropologists will wish to have this book as a reference tool, whle recreation leaders, teachers, parents, and all others who are directly concerned with young people will find it a useful source for new games for their children."

A Dover edition designed for years of use!
We have spared no pains to make this the best book possible. Our paper is opaque, with minimal show-through, it will not discolor or become brittle with age. Pages are sewn in signatures, in the method traditionally used for the best books.Books open flat for easy reference. Pages will not drop out, as often happens with paperbacks held together with glue. The binding will not crack and split. This is a permanent book.
This Dover edition, first published in 1964, is an unabridged and corrected republication of the work first published by David Nutt, London, as Part I of the Dictionary of British Folk-Lore. Volume I was first published in 1894, and Volume II was first published in 1898.

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:-

Closed Bud

Opening Bud

Juvenile Flower

Older Juvenile Flower

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."

Mature Flower

Juvenile Flower and Dying Flower

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!!!!

Errors at Wisley Garden Row and
Sarcasm from the many to the so few who are spending so much more than the many can afford Row
 

Errors at Wisley Garden

From January 2013, I took photos in Wisley to discover the design used in the 2 Mixed Borders to January 2014. Photos of the plants used in the 2 Rose Gardens, the Alpine House, and the Vegetable Garden were taken in 2014 and 2015. Then from 2014 I took photos of the heathers in their National Collection during each of the 4 seasons - I found out in 2015 that I could not validate the plant labels against every heather, so have stopped updating the Heather Galleries, since I must have a valid plant name with each respective Heather.

"With the photographic help of Heather Kavanagh and as an insignificant member of the Royal Horticultural Society, I am visiting the Royal Horticultural Society garden at Wisley to take photos of their plants to use in this website, since neither commercial mail-order nurseries nor the Royal Horticultural Society or The National Trust (member) will provide photos of the flower, foliage, overall shape, fruit/seed and in flower bed/ fruit orchard/ vegetable garden/ pond/ landscape from their plants that they own without payment.

As an unqualified member of the public, I am commenting on the unfortunate state for the visitors of the 2 Mixed Borders either side of the long lawn leading past the RHS Plant Centre to Battleston Hill; with the East Border having an entrance to that Plant Centre and the West Border having lawn gaps which lead to the Jubilee Rose Garden and AGM Borders. The Mixed Borders are item 2 on the Visitor Map to the RHS Garden Wisley Summer 2012, part of which is shown below with North being on the right hand side:-

This section details what I consider as errors in design carried out by the staff at the RHS garden in Wisley, before the next section details my Design Concepts:-

Mixing all the primary colours together for the flower colours used in many of the 71 parts of these Mixed Borders
This Mixed Border scheme has deciduous climbers, trees, evergreen and deciduous shrubs with bulbs as its other permanent plants to provide a permanent structure; which is backed by a deciduous hornbeam hedge.

This mixture provides a foliage and flower foil against which these other permanent herbaceous perennials can provide new growth from the ground each year, with the different colours of foliage from juvenile to mature to dying off in the autumn and then an easy maintenance during the months of December-March for removing most of the growth above ground and replacing the plant supports to provide a neat bed in a series of large ground areas.

The bedding plants provide the icing on the cake at different flowering time periods between May and November to enhance the overall flower colour scheme. The new bedding each year can provide opportunities to vary the look of these beds.

It was disapointing that I did not see the flowers during 2013 of more than 25% of these Permanent Herbaceous Perennial Plants - possible reasons shown in Lost Flowers Page with 'Walkabout' Plants and 'Stateless' Plants Page.

A table for each month - May, June, July, August, September, October, November - shows the flower photos for each of the 71 parts of the Mixed Borders split into Blue, Orange, Pink, Red, Unusual Colour, White, or Yellow for all the plants. Besides that, you can see from the table below that Red and Pink with Unusual Flower Colours seem to be predominant as flower colours and that these are spread throughout the beds.
Not having the knowledge of a fully qualified Royal Horticultural Society gardener, I am failing to see either

• a colour scheme from pastels to bright colours and then back to pastels to accentuate the middle area of the entrance to the Plant Centre or exit path to the Bowes-Lyon Rose Garden on the other side or
• the Red, bright Blue and Bright Yellows being closest to the garden entrance with the pastels at the furthest point of Battleston Hill to provide a visual extension to these beds or
• the duplication of the same plant throughout the beds to provide continuity (there are 14 Phlox varieties which provide some kind of continuity in the bed in using the same family with the same kind of plant form). Each of the Permanent Herbaceous Perennials normally only occurs in 1 patch in these Mixed Border Beds - rarely twice and even more rarely in 3 patches. Each of the parts of the Mixed Border beds overlaps the adjacent parts, so depending on how wide on the ground is that patch of a collection of a plant, then it depends on how many parts of the 71 parts that it is on.
  or
• change of flower colour from for example Yellow in May to Red in September to coincide with the possibility of the herbaceous shrubs/trees/hedge foliage becoming Brown/Red in the Autumn, in this Mixed Border or background hedge.
  or
• how the following distribution of flower colours from the Permanent Herbaceous Perennials in these beds comes from a restful to the eye and mind, coordinated and planned flower planting scheme:-
  Red or Pink flowers occurs in
  35 parts (17 Pink + 20 Red - 2 Pink and Red) in June,
  53 parts in July,
  59 in August and
  60 in September.
  Multi-coloured or not Blue, Orange, Pink, Red, White or Yellow flowers occurs in
  35 parts in June,
  53 parts in July,
  57 parts in August and
  47 parts in September.
  Mixtures of 2 or more colours is
  29 in June (16 of 2 colours + 17 of 3 colours + 2 of 4 or more colours - 6 of White and other Colour),
  52 in July,
  55 in August,
  50 in September.

I have added the BEDding (started January 2014 - completed March 2014) and then the OTHer Permanent Plants (started March 2014 - completed May 2014) to the table below to show the flower colour planting scheme of the Bedding and the Other Permanent Plants and then its combination.
"Bedding Plant in Unknown Section" top data row in the Flower Colour Range months pages refers to the lack of a photo taken by me or H. Kavanagh of that bedding plant with the label in the same photo of a Permanent Herbaceous Perennial or Other Permanent Plant whose location in 1 or more of the 71 Parts of those Mixed Borders can be identified.

If I had produced this planting design with its mixture of flower colours in almost every part - or maintained these beds in this way - in 2013, I would be deeply ashamed.

As a nation of gardeners in Britain; the Royal Horticultural Society being at its pinnacle, with the tradition of excellence by our previous head gardeners and their staff during the Victorian era, I had thought that the staff at the RHS Garden at Wisley would not need a lecture.

Another Possible Solution for lack of coordinated Flower Colour Scheme

If you want the garden to be restful to the eye, then you can provide a colour scheme using the harmony of adjacent colours. If you prefer to shock the visitor, then use the contrast of opposite colours, but I am not favourable of the above partial use of the harmony of triads as shown by the Colour Wheel Page of Garden Design.

Very Poor Plant Labelling

After reviewing the situation that 102 plants were missing their identity when in flower in 2013 out of 348 (29.31% of the plants) in 768 square metres of Mixed Borders garden beds:-

• for the Permanent Herbaceous Perennials of the Mixed Border beds in the
  Lost Flowers Page with the
  'Walkabout' and 'Stateless Plants' Page ,
• for the Other Permanent Plants of the Mixed Borders in the Index above
• and the Bedding Plants of the Mixed Border beds in the
  Bedding Plant Index Page
  and Un-labelled Bedding Plant Index Page

I am tempted to state:-
'There is room for improvement in the Mixed Border'.

If the above situation had arisen in any English estate of the landed gentry during the 1800's, then the garden staff would have been sacked and they with their families removed from the owner's land.
It is sad to see that standards have declined so much, so that not even the most knowledgeable and prestigous staff in Horticulture know how to manage a garden.

Possible Solution for this Very Poor Plant Labelling

As a possible improvement for the viewing public being able to identify the plants in the RHS Garden at Wisley, maybe the following might be useful:-

• Each planting member of the RHS staff at Wisley be provided with Large White Plastic Angled-Head Labels which are 20 inches (50 cms) in height with a 6 x 4 inch (16 x 10 cms) writing surface and a Marker pen with Black ink.
• When they have completed the planting, then the plant information on the plant label supplied with the plants will be rewritten onto 1 Angled-Head Label and inserted into the ground in front of the plants. This label should have large-enough writing on it for the public to be able to read it from outside the flower-bed with the naked eye, even if that bed is in the Alpine House:-
  
  or behind it if the label is higher than that plant:-
  
  Above photos taken by Chris Garnons-Williams on 2 September 2013.
• The plant label supplied with the plants will be given to the sign-writer with the distance from the public viewing point and the eventual height of the plant when in flower, who could then use the Letter Size to Visibility Chart with the Colour Contrast Visibility Chart.
• The sign-writer will then produce the required plant label on a relevant contrast colour background with the font size being large enough to read easily by the viewing public at the viewing distance that public is away from the plant label. The stake that it is on is to be sufficiently high that the reading part of the label will be 6 inches (15 cms) higher than the plant when in flower and be inserted at least 8 inches (20 cms) into the ground to provide stability for that plant label.
• This new label should replace the white plant label inserted by the planter within a week and should be inserted into the same hole as the previous label by the same plantsman. If plant labels in between this label and the viewing public are higher than this plant label, then the Soft Landscaping Designer of that bed should be informed so that person can then resolve the possibility that the newly planted area would become not visible when that plant was in flower because the plants in front had grown higher than it.
• The White plant label can be cleaned and re-used.

This might lead to flower beds becoming educational instead of being frustrating for the viewing public:-

• in not being able to either identify that plant in flower because it had no label or
• that label supplied was unreadable by the naked eye due to its font size being too small for the distance from it to the viewing public, or
• not identify it because its label had been overgrown by the plant in front of it, or
• not identify it because the plant label had been turned away from the viewing public:-

The viewing public stand on the lower path. Only RHS staff have access to the path at the back of this Mixed Border bed.

Photos taken by Chris Garnons-Williams on 30 November 2013.

Another way to provide plant labels is to provide a Plan with Plant Labels from the Plant Label Wizard and place that at the front of a bed or part of a bed on 1 label.
If you want to allow people to continue walking whilst searching and looking at the signs then the Sign Legibility Rules of Thumb by the United States Sign Council will help.

Sarcasm from the many to the so few who are spending so much more than the many can afford:-

Great Britain owes over 1 million million pounds. Assuming population paying tax of 50 million, then each taxpayer is paying the interest on £20,000 of debt. The government state that this will increase by £10,000 per taxpayer by 2015.

From 26 November 2011 The Week "UK government Ten-Year Gilts which provide the capital for these debts now yield 2.2%", so by 2015 each of us will be paying £660 interest with £3000 capital repayment making a total of £3660 to pay each year for that government overspend. It is interesting to note that my fuel to get to my client's gardens and other taxes incurred in the tax year 2010-2011 has just managed to pay for that from my gross income leading to negative net income.

It is gratifying to know that for 2,800 staff in banks in Britain who earned above £1,000,000 in 2009 (3 December 2011 The Week) that they will not face a problem in paying that interest payment.

Happiness in Switzerland increases if you can influence events. Thus a vote every 5 years on which government should take over from the last and increase national debt by 50% during its period of office is no consolation.

Since I cannot influence people in power:

To not buy the dripping to go on my bread once a week using negative net income, I shall go to:-

• Marks & Spencer on a Monday
• Tesco on a Tuesday
• Waitrose on a Wednesday
• Ocado on a Thursday
• Asda on a Friday
• Sainsburys on a Saturday or
• Co-op on a Sunday

and the fuel to get there from:-

• Morrisons on a Monday
• Texaco on a Tuesday
• Esso on Wednesday
• Total on Thursday
• BP on Friday
• Sainsbury on Saturday or
• Shell on Sunday

since if I protest outside St Pauls about the overspend or the attack on civil service pensions (which according to the governments own figures in 2006 that their cost will actually fall in the coming years), that I am likely to get arrested and this protest will be ignored.

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.