Hello my name’s Lisa and I’m a Craft Gardener at Highdown Gardens.
Petit Afrique is a dry, partially shaded border in the Performance Area of Highdown Gardens. This border used to be part of the front garden of Highdown Towers, the home of the garden’s creator Sir Frederick Stern, now Highdown Hotel. Petit Afrique, meaning ‘Little Africa’ in French, so named by Stern as it is a rocky border of plants from warmer climes which enjoy this drier and well-draining chalk area. It has remained unchanged for many years and started to get shadier because of large bay trees and holm oaks growing around it, some of these have been removed to let more sun in.
To invigorate this area, plants that were suffering from the increased shade were lifted, bolstered and propagated in our glasshouse with the help of our fantastic nursery volunteers. These plants, Teucrium fruticans (shrubby germander), Fascicularia bicolor, Agave and Aloe arborescens add an air of the exotic. They were planted in the Petit Afrique border with the help of our enthusiastic team of gardening volunteers! The area had become dominated by mature Euphorbia amygdaloides, which were dug up and relocated to make room for the new plants. Some large overgrown Teucrium were also planted in new locations.
To ensure the new plants did not get too wet, as they enjoy dry conditions, they were planted when the weather was forecast to be dry and sunny. They were also planted with a mixture of sand and grit to help excess water drain away. With all the rain we’ve had, up until just recently, the sand and grit we used helped these young plants to stay dry. The excess rain, however, did help the relocated mature Euphorbia and Teucrium to settle in their new places.
The Agave are very slow growing but are very dramatic, with their white and dark green striped leaves. The Aloe arborescensare a good contrast to the Agave with their cool lime green colour, but the Aloe arborescens will need to be protected with fleece over the winter. The Teucrium are a bluey green colour with small delicate leaves which compliment the spikes on the Aloe Vera and especially the very spiky Agave! More exciting will be the Fascicularia bicolor next winter, when hopefully they’ll produce beautiful pale powdery blue flowers, when at the same time the innermost leaves of the rosette turn scarlet red.
Photos: Fascicularia bicolor and Agave (left) and Aloe arborescensare (right)
Photos: Teucrium (left) and Agave (right)
