Ventnor Botanic Garden

 There's something magical about the Isle Of Wight. It's only a short boat journey from Portsmouth, but when you step or drive off the boat after the crossing, you're in another beautiful world. I visited during the last full week of September this year, and was pleased I had done so. The 2024 trip is already booked; this time in July to take advantage of the longer days.

This post is to highlight some of the stars in the garden at Ventnor Botanic Garden in late September, obviously featuring my favourite parts. It's interesting how differently people experience gardens, and these choices made might not chime with others as such. I recently went to a talk about a wonderful RHS garden, almost unrecognisable to me because none of my favourites were picked and it was hard to stay awake; the speaker saw the garden and its highlights in a different way to me.

I'm going to start with a photo of the Ginger lily which was looking fabulous in various parts of the garden, so good that I bought some seeds in the shop.

There were many different varieties of Salvia growing in the garden, above is Salvia Phyllis Fancy which grows to become a 2 metre high bush towards the end of the summer. They grow in profusion in the garden and look fantastic. I had one for several years, but it died over last winter so I bought one from the garden sales and will keep it indoors this winter.

This is Kniphofia linearifolia looking tremendous. I was surprised to see this flowering now because most Kniphofia have finished flowering, and this looks like its first flowering.

In the Tropical House, there's a pond containing twenty two tonnes of water at 28 degrees Centigrade which hosts the lily, Victoria Amazonica in summer months. It's an annual plant grown each year from seed, it grows so fast that within 4 months, the leaves have grown big enough to support the weight of a child. It has evolved so it can complete its life cycle when the Amazon is in flood.

The Aloe polyphylla in the Arid Garden is spectacular with its five spirals of serrated leaves, described as the Fibonacci sequence or golden spiral. The specialised leaf pattern is the most efficient at holding water and stopping evaporation in the hot desert sun.

Near the Aloes, there are some spectacular Agave. I collected seeds from one like this a couple of years ago and now have some quite healthy looking small plants.

Lastly, when the sun comes out, small lizards, Podarcis muralis, emerge from their hiding places. This one ran round the table and then onto Tim before jumping off again. Their mitochondria has been analysed and apparently they originate from Italy. Are they descendants of captive animals that have escaped or were they introduced and then became naturalised? They are mentioned in the Wikipedia entry as being present in Ventnor rather than VBG.