An album of pictures from my visit to National Trust property Mount Stewart on the Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland!
I return for the Planters Seminar in September!
Thanks to Neil Porteous for having me over :)
Mount Stewart
This was where I talked and ranted about the wonderful misunderstood Dandelion!
The main event was the Gardener’s Question Time recording (BBC Radio 4) with Bob Flowerdew and others
Foraging with the chefs from The Merchant Hotel in Belfast…here picking sorrel
….and Gunnera!
As Head of Gardener Neil Porteous who brought me over said humorously, the walk and talk took on biblical proportions :) Far too many people logistically :)
After my walk, talk and forage, the tasters prepared by the chefs were popular
After my walk, talk and forage, the tasters prepared by the chefs were popular
Foraged edimtentals included day lily buds, Hosta flower shoots and peeled Gunnera leaf stems. The chefs raved about all 3!!
The Gunnera was eaten raw dipped into a sauce…
Various edibles I spotted in the next pictures: Rheum palmatum?
Aralia cordata or californica?
Yucca (the flowers are edible)
Wisteria
Oxalis corniculata?
A double Camassia
A double Camassia
Rubus spectabilis with white Hesperis
Eucalyptus globulus
Himalayan lilt , Cardiocrinum
Smilacina racemosa, false solomon’s seal
Naturalised Camassia?
My day at Mount Stewart started before 8am accompanying Neil Porteous collecting plants introduced by famous Scottish plant hunter George Forrest for an exhibit to accompany a talk by Matt Biggs about Forrest. Neil is Head of Gardens at Mount Stewart and also the regional Gardens & Parks Advisor for NI for the National Trust
Mount Stewart has a mild climate and specialises on plants from the Southern Hemisphere…here two Maori food plants, Phormium (NZ Flax) to the left and the broad leaved mountain cabbage tree (Cordyline indivisa). Phormium nectar was commonly collected by the Maori as a sweetener. It was mixed with a meal from the root and stem of cabbage trees and also used to sweeten bracken fern roots! This was before bees were introduced to NZ by the Europeans!
The broad leaved mountain cabbage tree or tōī.(Cordyline indivisa) on the right with more common in cultivation Cordyline australis (ti kouka). The cooked roots of all cabbage trees were eaten by the Maori, but it was the roots of non-native Cordyline terminalis (ti pore) which was cultivated that were most highly prized! The core of the trunks were also sometimes eaten. They were best in spring and young trees were mostly used (less than 2m)
Davidia involucrata (handkerchief tree)
Neil Porteous with a handful of handkerchiefs…Davidia involucrata (handkerchief tree) for the George Forrest exhibit
Edible Hostas and Ostrich fern
A good sized Gaultheria shallon from western North America (maybe there’ll be fruit on my return visit in September?)
Gunnera
A nice pink flowered form of Cornus kousa!
One of the world’s most spectacular edimentals was in flower at Mount Stewart in Northern Ireland at the weekend! Related to other great edimentals like Agave and Yucca, the Mexican Lily or Patleamole is sadly not likely to be hardy in my part of the world (Yucca filamentosa is hardy though!). Beschorneria is a small genus consisting of seven species that range from the southern US, Mexico and Central America. Mexican lily’s habitat is rocky massifs and cliffs in canyons and ravines from 2600 to 3,400 masl in pine-oak and fir (Abies religiosa) forest (Ref. 1). In the same reference, it is noted that “….the flowers are edible, after being boiled and fried.”
Decaisnea
Neil pointed out a Sonchus arboreus (tree sow thistle) that had survived the winter).
…and Neil was proud to show me a fine udo (Aralia cordata)!!
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