With temperatures rising outside and steadily increasing up to 40 degrees centigrade inside the glasshouse, it is time to move the plants out. Over the next few weeks the team will be planting out all the bedding plants for the summer display, leaving an empty glasshouse behind them. There are numerous large specimens that need to be moved and great strength is needed to get them off the floor and through the glasshouse doors; Ady, Graham and Joe were the strong men today. 
It's that time of year again, when the winter bedding has to be ripped out and replaced with its summer counterparts. Joe and Simon remove all the bedding from the border at the bottom of the front quadrangle, some of the Myosotis are replanted on the broadwalk, the remainder are taken to the compost heap.
Graham, Josh and Ady rip out all the Wallflowers and Tulips from the corner border by the Nuffield lawn and prepare the bed for the next display. This bed is known as the Tropical bed, due to its summer display, but this year, it is time for a change. All I can say, as seen by the photo below, is that a bench has been placed where a tropical plant would have stood in the summer months. Keep on reading the blog or visit the garden during July and August to see what surprises are in store. 
In the blog for the 24th February 'Rosa banksiae Lutea', I mentioned that unlike many other roses, this rose was pruned after flowering and that pruning with the other roses would remove all the flowers. Well, it is absolutely covered in small, double, pale yellow flowers glistening in the May sunshine.
Flowering alongside this rose and around the front quadrangle, Provost's garden and to the rear of the cottages, numerous Wisteria can be found, their blue flowers cascading like a water fall. The harsh winter has had its rewards, the floral splendour around the college is the best for many a year.
Today is the day for the 'Great Unveiling'. Back on the 19th November 2009, the blog entry 'Wrap It Up' was about the Musa basjoo located on the herbaceous border and the need to wrap it up to protect it from what ever the winter may throw at it. Little did I know, when writing that entry, that we would experience the worst winter in thirty years.
After that terrible winter, our worry is that, should the banana plant have survived those extreme cold temperatures it may now be sweating under all that wrapping in this very hot May. The descision has therefore been taken to remove all of its protection and check for signs of life.
We need not have worried as to its fate, two new leaves growing from its trunks, a great survivor of extremes, during which time many plants have died. 
The college grounds cover a vast area, 26 acres, and along with other sites, the gardening team is always kept busy. Some areas are regularly maintained, whereas, others are dealt with less often. Over the last two days, two of these areas have been tackled by the team and brought back in to a tidy, managed order.
The second area, in need of much attention, borders the college boundary line behind the Casson Building. Simon, Ali and Joe join up with the others as they finish the first area and all move on to this area. Two foot tall grass, four foot high nettles and weeds, a number of very large over grown shrubs and litter are cleared from this site and finally some semblance of order is returned to a forgotten area of the college.
Back on the 19th April in the blog entry, 'Tulips', I mentioned that we were waiting for the Wallflowers to open in the Tropical Bed, hopefully, creating a bed of stunning contrast. Well, they are now in flower and the result is as we had hoped, the deep rich crimson flowers of Wallflower 'Vulcan' contrasting with the large lilac-purple blooms of Tulip 'Passionale'. We love it when our plans work, but six months is a long time to wait to find out. 
Not all our gardening work is carried out within the college grounds. Today the team visited two college properties to tidy the gardens. Splitting into two groups, Ali and Lucy went to one garden to weed, hedge cut and tidy, leaving Joe, Simon, Ady, Graham and Josh to work on the other.
After a very hard mornings work, the groups reunited to remove all the rubbish and tools transporting them back to the college. As can be seen by the photo's, the lads group worked miracles on their garden, rejuvenating it back to a lovely, orderly, back garden. 
Gardening and weeds go hand in hand, even when a plant won't grow you can be sure that the weeds will. As with plants, some weeds are annual, new plants growing each year from seed and some perennial, surviving year to year from underground stems or roots.
A week ago the roses in the college grounds were pest free, but within that week the white, green and black fly have been breeding at an alarming rate, especially on the roses found on the top terrace of the front quadrangle.
The plants arrived last week and the border was prepared in January, it is now time to plant up our new winter themed border. Ady, Graham, Joe, Simon and Ali, along with our student volunteer, Johnny, transport the plants from the nursery area to the border ready for planting.
Once planted, a mulch is added to the border, the paths swept and all the plants are watered in. Two other borders were worked on today, Ali finished creating a border at the end of the Serpentine bed in the Ruskin Building area, whilst Ady and Graham started to renovate an old border in the Canal Building car park ready for planting tomorrow. Three borders in one day.
With the renovation of the glasshouse completed in the middle of April, it is time to start moving the young tomato plants into their new home. The varieties grown this year are Sungella, Harlequin, Harbinger and Ruby, 27 plants in all.
