Re: The lovely Isle of Wight...

Hi Karrie,

Thanks!
British weather generally is variable, but it gets more so in my experience as you go north and west to the wetter parts of the country. I once stayed in Orkney (off the north coast of Scotland) for a week in April, and the weather might change as often as every ten minutes! Gorgeous place though, the cleanest air I've breathed in Britain (Co. Cork in SW Ireland was even cleaner).
Know what you mean about botanical gardens. I once lived in London, and when I left I had a leaving party at Kew. That was also one of the hottest days I've ever experienced in Britain - we all sat in the shade, with a great view of a strawberry tree (Arbutus)...
Money is a pain. If only people just built their own houses, for their own pleasure, instead of speculative developers doing anything they think they can get away with, just for the money.
I've just replied to Jason and said I do want to visit California one day. So I'll remember Strybing Arboretum! We need a good arboretum here on IW. The best one I've visited here in Britain is Westonbirt in Gloucestershire, though I still haven't visited the Hillier Arboretum in Hampshire (only a few miles away over the water!) or Bedgebury Pinetum in Kent, both of which sound excellent.
The Brugmansia/evergreens/ Nandina mixture sounds lovely. I've just bought two eucalypts, E. glaucescens and E. parvula, so that I can coppice them for foliage. They're so beautiful though that I may find it hard to cut them!

Best wishes,
Rowan.


On Friday, Aug 26, 2005, at 03:42 Europe/London, Reid Family wrote:

Thank you so much for the response.  I feel like I've had a little vicarious trip through the isle.  The weather sounds like what we had when we lived in the high desert southwest (5,000 ft. altitude) for about 3-1/2 years.  Their saying was, "If you don't like the weather, wait an hour."  How lovely that Daturas would bloom in the winter there.  I have one Brugmansia (a close relative to Datura)that blooms at Christmas time.  It is a double white, very fragrant form, and the blooms hold for days in a vase and look splendid mixed in with a few evergreens and red Nandina berries.  I just moved it this year out from under the shelter of my covered back deck, however, so I may not be so fortunate this December!  Your development situation seems to parallel ours here in the foothills of the Sierra Mountains.  We live in a lovely community known for being a part of the original 1849 California Gold Rush Settlements.  Very quaint and quiet.  It has been a very safe, close-knit community with a high level of involvement, but the developers have targeted us as being close to the state Capitol so the housing market has grown out of control, schools are becoming over-crowded and traffic has become a problem where it never was before.  They make a show of protecting our waterways (We live by a large lake and associated river) and recreational parkways along those waterways, but time will tell if those efforts prove adequate.
 
It makes me long for another trip to England to see your lovely isle!  Perhaps someday. Anyway, of your sites, I think only the first one was produced by my search, and possibly the one about the festival was a link.  I shall take a little time to peruse the others.  A Botanical Garden!  That's all it takes to make me happy!  Some years ago, by request, I celebrated my 40th birthday with a picnic with family in the Strybing Arboretum in San Francisco.  A blissful day.  It sounds like you've found yourself a little piece of heaven right there in the U.K.
Cheers!
Karrie
----- Original Message -----

From: Rowan Adams
To: Reid Family
Cc: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2005 3:05 PM
Subject: The lovely Isle of Wight...

Dear Karrie (and all)

The IW is small, but we still get local weather variations. Ventnor's one of the sunniest places on the IW, and most of the town is on a landslip below a south-facing cliff, so the microclimate is very warm and humid. Frosts are much less common and lighter than elsewhere on the Island, let alone mainland Britain. When I visited Ventnor Botanic Garden soon after I moved here in Dec 1997 I was amazed to see Daturas flowering outside. I was used to behaviour like a friend's in London - she moves them into her spare bedroom for the winter.
We're only a fringe "mediterannean" place here, even In Ventnor. I'm afraid I don't know the actual weather records, and though there are people who take local measurements I don't think the info is available online. Even the Met Office's site won't give very much detail - without money, anyway! (Maggie Thatcher has a lot to answer for...)

Yes, it certainly was raining here today. Lovely sunny morning, then it darkened over and the rain came down. Then the sun came out again. Then the skies darkened again and down came the rain. And the hail. Then the sun came out again... All in a space of about four hours! British weather is very entertaining.
We've mostly had sun this summer - the Isle of Wight is one of the sunniest places in Britain - and we've had some periods without rain for several weeks. But no, nothing like no rain for almost three months. And yes, the air is more humid here than inland, even when the ground is parched and clay soils are cracking. So maybe Eau de Cologne mint wouldn't be too happy in California after all. But it survives here in positions where other mints would shrivel up and die.

The websites you found aren't lying about how lovely it is here! There are politicians (and sadly some residents as well) who would like to see ugly developments take over the towns, and they've trashed quite a bit, but there are still some lovely townscapes. There are some farmers who've ripped out hedges and who plough slopes and destroy soil, but the farmed countryside's better than many places in Britain. (There's a big debate over wind turbines at the moment - I'm for, but some strange reasons are made against by people who should know better!) And the countryside managed for wildlife and landscape is mostly gorgeous. Well worth a trip, if anybody's visiting Britain.

I'm a gardener, funnily enough. But that's only in the last two years, when I went self-employed. I used to be a landscape architect and then a tree officer for local government in various places around Britain.

Best wishes,
Rowan.

I wonder which websites Google found for you? Here are some I've got in my own favourites:
http://www.iwight.com/ - local council site
http://www.wightaonb.org.uk/ - Area of Oustanding Natural Beauty
http://www.botanic.co.uk/ - Ventnor Botanic Garden (excellent place)
http://www.aftonpark.co.uk/ - Afton Park Orchard and Nursery
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server.php?show=ConProperty.205 - official page for Osborne House, which doesn't do justice to the garden
http://www.naturenet.net/ - fab website on wildlife, set up and run by my ex-boss, the local council's Countryside Manager
http://www.hwt.org.uk/ - Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust
http://www.wightsquirrels.co.uk/ - Wight Squirrel Project - we're one of only places left in England with red squirrels
http://www.iowrock.net/ - Vaguely Sunny Productions, a local music promoter
http://www.isleofwightfestival.com/
http://www.bestival.net/site/news/index.php?articleId=79

On Thursday, Aug 25, 2005, at 02:44 Europe/London, Reid Family wrote:

Hello:
I am responding from another hot inland Zone 9 California location.  I was prompted by your email to do some googling.  I have heard of the Isle of Wight, of course, but I realized I knew absolutely nothing about it except that it was part of the UK!  One website said it was raining there today, which would really set it off from California since we haven't seen rain since very early June.  I wondered if being on the south side of island affected the rainfall you receive as compared to other places on the island, or is it small enough that if it rains, it rains everywhere?  Anyhow, I can imagine that mints would be fine in a coastal climate in the sun, as it never gets quite as hot or the humidity as low as we get it.  What is your average summer high temp. and how often do you get rain in the summer?  Just curious. 
 
The tourist websites make it look like a lovely place to visit, like Catalina Island here.  What do you do for a living there and have you lived there all your life?
 
Karrie Reid
Folsom Foothill Gardener
Zone 9

----- Original Message -----
From: Rowan Adams
To: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 1:33 PM
Subject: Re: Spider Mites on Mints ?

Mentha x piperita citrata, Eau de Cologne mint, grows well here on the Isle of Wight in Britain in full sun and in hot dry soil. Don't know if it'd do so well in a Californian's idea of hot, though!
Rowan, Ventnor, isle of Wight.


On Saturday, Jul 9, 2005, at 01:59 Europe/London, maria guzman wrote:

Dear Richard, I am in Zone 9 California - southern Sierra Nevada
foothills at 1000 foot elevation - hot, dry and windy too. Earlier in
the year the mints were in part shade and we had an unusually wet spring,
but the sun rose in the sky and put the mints in full sun. The mites are
so bad I may scrap all four pots and get new potting soil and plants and
then watch them more closely this time. I have had so many projects
going this year and with harvesting my lavender, I haven't had time to
keep an eye on my plants as much as I usually do. Linda Starr
Springville Lavender Gardens Zone 9 California


I don't know of any mints that grow in full sun - especially in California!
(There is a field mint: Mentha arvensis (?) which grows in dry, mixed grass
pasture, but IIRC it hasn't much odor.) I've lived in the foothills (Yuba
Co.) at a higher elevation than yours, and summer sun and temp's are often
extreme.
Mint may be easy for Richard in N. Carolina with its high humidity, and
coastal California may favor mints in sun, but your particular efforts
speak for themselves. Mints, at least those I'm familiar with, develop a
very large root system as well and would do better in a wooden half-barrel
I should think. Keep them constantly moist with only filtered or early
morning sun. If you have any compost or rotted wood duff add that.
Sterilized potting soil or special pampering is not necessary.

Maria


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