Tim Marshall in the walled garden at Holkham Hall

Tim Marshall  Holkham Hall

A rare sunny day this week and Tim Marshall, Head Gardener, is welcoming visitors to the walled garden at Holkham Hall and helping with plant identification.

Plant identification

Short video taken in 2011

Schefflera macrophylla

Why is this plant so neatly and carefully wrapped up against the winter cold?
Tim Marshall, Head Gardener is keen to extend the range of Scheffleras grown in the Holkham Walled Garden. He had seen this particular one grown in his last posting at Scampston Hall in Yorkshire and was keen to give it a try. 
"Schefflera taiwanana is here already" says Tim, "This one is new to the UK,  the owners of Crug Farm Nurseries, Bleddyn and Sue Wynn -Jones are pushing the limits by travelling and collecting seeds from high altitudes that could grow well in the UK. It's unknown whether it'll work so we're protecting the plant through the winter to give it a head start"
There are sixteen different Scheffleras in the Crug Farm Nursery Catalogue with details of which countries  the plant seeds are collected from. This is what the they write about S.macrophylla, the picture in their catalogue shows the plant in Vietnam.

Probably our most dramatic hardy introduction of this genus that we will ever make. A spectacular species which we discovered in the Fan Xi Pan area of northern Vietnam, where this most architectural of the species can reach 7 meters tall with large paddle-shaped leaflets combining to form one meter wide leaves on slender purple petioles (leaf stem). You may think that would be enough, but on emerging the entire new growth is smothered in a ginger indumentum. Best grown out of strong winds in a warm site... has taken -11C unprotected for us.



Meanwhile, thirty miles inland from Holkham  is Will Giles's Exotic Garden in Norwich. Will is seen here with his S.macrophylla from Crug Farm. His blog  has a feature on the introduction of this plant into his garden. He calls it his 'spectacular monster' and has put it in pride of place in front of his house.
Roll on April 1st when the Holkham Walled Garden opens to the public and we can all see how the new arrival has fared.

Tim Marshall, Head Gardener

Tim Marshall is the Head Gardener at Holkham Hall and is overseeing the restoration of the walled garden over the next few years. Tim has worked at Holkham for nearly three years,  before that he was at Scampston in North Yorkshire overseeing a walled garden restoration there.

Tim had joined the British Cacti and Succulents Society by the age of 10 where he found out about plant collectors. For 13 years Tim has been making annual journeys to South America to collect seeds. He prefers the higher altitudes  where the seed has more of a chance in the British climate. Favourites include fuchsias, salvias, passion flowers and especially euphorbias. 


For an interview with Tim Marshall click on the link to YouTube below. If you can click on upload (usually top right of the video as it plays) it will give a smooth playback.