From Bituwell to Stranvaesia

As you hopefully gathered, the Blogs and Forums have been ‘down’ for a few days while the RSPB’s techno-bods did some fixes and improvements, hence the lack of my Monday blog.

So I think it only fair that I offer up two quick stories instead of one. We're going from Bituwell to Stranvaesia, which sounds like a train journey somewhere in eastern Europe but is something very, very different!

Let’s start with the next little peek I’ve been given into the RSPB feature at BBC Gardeners World. We’re only four weeks away, so the volunteer team at The Lodge are carpentering like crazy.

And job-of-the-moment is this (left) – a ‘lean-to’ for the urban side of the stand (if you remember from last week, the plan is to have a ‘traditional’ wildlife garden and an urban ‘wasteland’ area, showing the value to wildlife of both).

It is being made to look like it is corrugated iron, but over the Forest Stewardship Council timber frame is actually something called bituwell (right), which is apparently much lighter and easy to transport and assemble.

I had to Google ‘bituwell’ to find out what it is – anybody reading in the building trade is probably laughing at my naivety, but apparently it is bitumen-saturated fibre sheeting. So now you know! Anyway, I reckon these guys ought to take up a career in prop design.

The lean-to will also house all the wildlife gardening information we will have to dish out to visitors to inspire them to ‘step up’ for wildlife in their garden.

Now if ‘bituwell’ was new to me this week, so was Stranvaesia. Now all you gardeners can laugh at me as well as the builders: “Well I never; Adrian’s not heard of Stranvaesia!”

I was visiting a wonderful ‘tree shop’ near Arundel, which sells whoppers for hundreds of pounds, and supplied all the bushes and trees for Big Brother.But it was a little group of bushes that caught my eye (left) because their clusters of small white flowers were incredibly busy with bumblebees. I had to find out more.

Its full name is Stranvaesia davidiana. But it turns out that it is actually a member of the Photinia family, which comes from China and the Himalayas. The common Photinia I'm very familiar with is 'Red Robin', which is a cultivar of the hybrid Photinia x fraseri. People love it because it is easy to grow, and the sprays of new leaves in spring are rich red. Oh, and Red Robin is great for bees too.

But what about Stranvaesia/Photinia davidiana? Well, it isn’t as widely available as Red Robin, but the RHS Plant Finder still lists 50 suppliers of the various cultivars. It will do fine on most well drained soils, although it isn’t so great on alkaline, and will grow to 8 metres if allowed.

What’s more, the spring flowers are followed by red berries. But are they palatable to wildlife? I don’t know, but I’m hoping one of you out there will be well ahead of me with Stranvaesia and be able to tell us all!