ABC Wednesday - Q is for...

...Quercus robur

One of the most venerated of our trees, otherwise known as the pedunculate oak. This one stands guard over the nearest water standpipe to my plot and also the subject of my recent ABC Wednesday 'N' posting. I often go and sit under its stately branches on a hot summer's day when it's time for a break from my hard labours. It also causes me great amusement during the Autumn when its many acorns rain down on our allotment loo. As this is a 'tin box', the noise can be quite something until you get used to it!

It's one of two native oak species, the other is the sessile oak (Quercus petraea). It grows to over 100 feet - so is not a good choice for most of our gardens! Our allotments were once part of a country house estate, so I suspect it's part of the original landscape planting. It's magnificent size suggests it's pretty old anyway. They can live for up to 1000 years, can host up to 423 insect species and is said to be an indicator of better soils. Certainly the sessile oaks I've seen have been in poorer soil upland regions, such as Snowdonia National Park.

The use of its timber for building has made a comeback in recent years, thanks to programmes such as Grand Designs which has featured some magnificant oak framed buildings. It's an extremely tough, hard wearing wood - lasting for many centuries if well cared for. Lord Nelson ordered many trees to be planted across England so the nation would never be short of a good timber supply for ship building. Little did he know that iron would soon replace oak as the material of choice.

Finally, it's also part of our weather lore:

If the oak comes before the ash, then we'll only have a splash.
If the ash comes before the oak, then we'll surely have a soak.

If this is true, then we're due for a good summer in this area as the oak unfurled its leaves first this year. However, our weather forecasters who use more scientific methods disagree!

ABC Wednesday is bought to you courtesy of Mrs Nesbitt's Place.

Comments

  1. Diana S14 May 2008 at 02:34

    I hope your oak is right! It'll be fun to wait and see.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Texas Travelers14 May 2008 at 03:09

    Forget the weatherman, listen to the trees. I love oak trees. I used to help my Grandfather and Dad chop Post Oak for fence posts on the farm.
    Thanks for sharing.

    Come visit my Quadruped,
    Troy

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous14 May 2008 at 03:19

    I too hope your Oak is right. What great info you gave us today. Such a gorgeous tree...
    I live next door to a town called Thousand Oaks here in California that has many beautiful majestic Oaks...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Paulie14 May 2008 at 04:04

    I love learning so much about nature through bloggging! Wonderful choice and explanation.

    Come and see mine.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Juliana RW14 May 2008 at 05:00

    great post with the info....

    Will you visit mine Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  6. Neva14 May 2008 at 05:15

    I haven't heard that saying before.....I love the things I learn from bloggers!.....
    Mine seems so unoriginal.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Gerald (SK14)14 May 2008 at 08:54

    seems like you've got MNOPQ all rolled into one here!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Rune Eide14 May 2008 at 08:58

    Oaks are "the king among trees" in my opinion. Take good care of it!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Miss_Yves14 May 2008 at 13:00

    A great shot for a mythic tree!
    miss Yves

    ReplyDelete
  10. Liz Hinds14 May 2008 at 13:57

    I hope you're right about the summer and what a good idea for Q.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Unknown14 May 2008 at 15:08

    Trees always know the weather, moreso than humans!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Unknown14 May 2008 at 17:30

    Wonderful choice and explanation!

    ReplyDelete
  13. mrsnesbitt14 May 2008 at 18:54

    A good summer? About time. We have overcast weather here right now.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Katney14 May 2008 at 19:51

    That weather lore is interesting. We don't have a lot of oaks in this area, but I love seeing them when I do.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Powell River Books14 May 2008 at 20:04

    I love large old oak trees. We don't have any near our home. Now the maples are one of my favourite. I love the garden pictures on your site. Thanks for sharing.

    I chose to use nearby Quadra Island for Q. It is a fun vacation destination that you can see by clicking here. – Margy

    ReplyDelete
  16. Suburbia14 May 2008 at 20:41

    The green looks so lovely this time of year.
    Thanks for info on bug. Husband says he thought it was a May Bug (not what he said at the weekend!)
    Sorry I haven't done your meme yet, I will do it soon :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. joco15 May 2008 at 09:39

    Hiya VP,

    I learned this with a different scan:

    'f the oak is out before the ash
    we only get a little splash

    'f the ash is out before the oak
    we can expect a real soak.

    I have used this as a mantra over the past few weeks, praying the ash would win.

    They were neck 'n neck for ages, but alas in our area Berks) the oak won :-(

    do you over there still have a blanket hose-pipe ban? I am carrying water in 5-liter bottles and they are making my arms drop off.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Mrs Mac15 May 2008 at 14:39

    Beautiful! I love the idea of sitting uner it.

    Great Q! I had such a hard time trying to think of a "Q"!

    ReplyDelete
  19. VP17 May 2008 at 17:38

    Hi everyone and thanks so much for your comments. Q was quite hard wasn't it?

    I've left you a comment over at your place...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love hearing from you and welcome thoughtful conversations :)

Comments aiming to link back and give credence to commercial websites will be composted!

Your essential reads

That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide

Image
Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it ...
Read more

Jack Go To Bed At Noon

Image
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl...
Read more

Red Nose Day - Gardening Jokes Anyone?

Image
The nation goes ever so slightly bonkers on Red Nose Day - hurrah! Previously, it's been very easy to join in - usually via a dress down day at work plus lots of people up to mad things at the station and in the office. Everyone smiling for once - it's a real feel good day and all in a good cause. This year's different - every day's a dress down day for me now - my friend L suggested yesterday that perhaps I could have a dress up day instead and whilst that's a good idea, I confess that ballgowns and tiaras don't really feature in my wardrobe: scruffy student's always been my favourite look. So my Red Nose Day contribution for this year is to compile a list of gardening related jokes. For each one (clean ones only please) you leave in the comments below, I'll make a donation of 50p to the cause. Here's a few for starters just to get you warmed up: Q Why do potatoes make good detectives? A Because they keep their eyes peeled. Q What did the grape...
Read more

Salad Days: Mastering Lettuce

Image
I've decided one of my salad challenges for this year is to grow as many lettuce varieties as I can, ready for the publication of my planned Factsheet* later on. The idea is to grow as many of the Tried and Trusted lettuce varieties last year's Salad Challengers helped compile, then provide a visual guide and as many lettuce facts as I can muster. So far I've found around half of those listed**. Then naturally whilst I was out searching - because such is the way with seeds - a number of other varieties found their way home too ;) A couple of weeks ago I sowed 22 varieties***. Just the simple act of sowing them has me intrigued. Why are some lettuce seeds black and others white****? They split into about half white to half black in my sample and as far as I can tell it's nothing to do with whether they're a type of cos, iceberg, or whatever. I sowed them indoors and popped them into a propagator on the windowsill. The soil's too cold outside for sowing ...
Read more

VPs VIPs: Derry Watkins of Special Plants

Image
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Derry Watkins at her home, garden and nursery - the acclaimed Special Plants - just a few miles along the road from me. I first met Derry at one of her open garden days last year and was keen to find out more about her wonderful garden and running an independent nursery. She specialises in tender perennials and regularly goes on plant hunting trips to find new treasures, particularly in South Africa. As well as running Special Plants and opening her garden under the NGS scheme , Derry holds day courses at her nursery, hosts Special Tuesdays from April until September, lectures and has written a couple of books. How did you find your way from Connecticut to the UK? I'd started a biodynamic vegetable garden in Connecticut and we used to have people come along at weekends to help out. A particular young man turned up: he returned many times and at the end of the summer I married him. So it was all down to love? Isn't that the...
Read more

#mygardenrightnow: heading into summer with the Chelsea Fringe

Image
Ahhhhhh, that's better! I love walking through dewy grass in bare feet, not that there's much in the way of grass on my back lawn this weekend. My wild and woolly lawn has morphed into meadow of sorts this month, which even NAH admits looks attractive*. It's also proved a great source for my Flowers for mum project so far, yielding self-sown perennial cornflowers, lamb's ears, and lemon balm in addition to the blooms you can see. These originated from elsewhere in the garden, the ox-eye daisies must have blown in from the A350 nearby. * = he got very stroppy about the weeds aka self-sown foxgloves in the lawn one year, so he's come along a bit since then. Skimble's demanding to say hello to you too. He does enjoy the patio when it warms up. If the embedded video doesn't work try this link instead. The Nectaroscordum are a revelation. I planted the bulbs around 2 years ago, but it's only this year they've bloomed properly. The bee...
Read more

Make Use of Mildew

Image
On my garden patrol this morning I spotted some powdery mildew on a couple of my new Verbena bonariensis plants. I suppose it was almost inevitable as I prefer to grow my plants hard - this means no water for them unless they look absolutely desperate. This approach means plants root themselves more deeply and have a better chance of survival during spells of dry weather like we've had lately. However, it also means I run the risk of problems like today's, especially with any garden newbies planted late in the season. We've had a good drop of rain overnight, so this should help my plants survive. I'll mulch them later today to help lock in the moisture as it's water stress which encourages the mildew to take hold. I've also removed the infected leaves and sprayed the rest with a milky drink.* I'm also pleased to find there's a use for my infected leaves. Oliver Ellingham at Reading University has started a PhD - sponsored by the RHS - researchi...
Read more

The Resilient Garden

Image
  Part of Tom Massey's Resilient Garden at RHS Hampton Court I've been pondering VP Gardens a lot lately. Last year's drought conditions set me off initially, then our harsher than usual winter combined with this summer's flip and flop weather means the thinking continues. It's a huge topic which I freely admit I'm struggling to get my head around. Tom Massey's Resilient Garden  at Hampton Court recently  tackled this topic brilliantly and was a timely interlude which gave me much food for thought. There he encapsulated the detailed research he'd found which informed both his show garden and book of the same name. I think it's one of the most important show gardens I've ever seen. It's clear the way I garden needs to change so that I have my own resilient garden. I haven't worked out the exact details yet, but Tom's book plus a couple of others (see below), alongside the rainwater management handout from the show garden's  sponso...
Read more

Chelsea Fringe 2014: Shows of Hands - Episode I

Image
The gloves NAH used to build the raised bed . The effects are L to R, top to bottom:  Original photo, Warhol, HDR, Green tint, B&W, Posterize, Boost, Cross process and Sepia Welcome to Shows of Hands - my Chelsea Fringe project for 2014! As you can see I've been having a bit of a play around in Pic Monkey for my first contribution. You're welcome to join in between now and 8th June 2014. The idea behind this year's project is to highlight the tool most precious to a gardener: their hands. How do I take part? It's simple. All you need to do is take a photo of hand(s) in a gardening context and then share it via your blog or other social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), then make sure I know you've done so. I've set up Mr Linky below for your blog contributions. The Chelsea Fringe photo on the right sidebar links to this post, so you can easily find it again when you're ready to add your contribution. If you share your photo on Twitter, ...
Read more

Testing Times: Tomatoes

Image
  I've run a couple of tomato trials this year. The first is a revisit of the biochar trial with Oxford University I attempted some years ago (with a different organisation this time), and the second is a trial of a water gadget called Plantsurge which I was given to try at Malvern Spring Show earlier this year. Most of you have probably heard of biochar already and the claim that this inert, carbon-rich material can help soil fertility and plant health. The RHS information in the above link says results can be mixed, with reduced effects found in alkaline soils. This may help to explain the lack of difference I found in my previous trial as VP Gardens is on a lime-rich soil. Plantsurge is a different beast altogether. It's a strong magnet which is attached to a hosepipe as shown in the photo above. It's claimed that it softens water, with the result more like watering with rainwater. The higher nitrogen found in rainwater is thought to be beneficial to plants. Gardener...
Read more