A celebration of early autumn
Monday, October 3, 2016
What would life be without the 4 seasons? Vivaldi thought they
were so special that in the 17th Century he wrote one of the most
popular pieces of music ever about them. We are so lucky in
this country that we have defineable seasons which shape our lives
throughout the year. Our gardens too reflect the seasons with a
wide range of plants that have evolved to cope with the extremes of
the weather and to provide interest in all but the coldest of
winters. The seasons do of course vary from year to year especially
with the impact of climate change, but this year September
has been a very traditional one in this part of Wales. Masses of
flowers that we always associate with early autumn are at their
best now with the promise of yet more to come in October, frost
permitting.
3 stalwarts of early autumn that need no introduction
from me
Trees starting to show autumn colour, ripe apples falling to the
ground, cobwebs laced with dew, owls hooting at dusk - a magical
sound across the valley, the nights noticeably drawing in, preceded
by that low soft light which epitomises the month.
Strange in such a moist month that there are few
funghi in the nearby fields. but this lovely parasol mushroom was
found recently at the side of our lane
A collection of pumpkins and squashes from
the walled garden at Penpont a country estate near Brecon. More on
this next month.
With my health condition (which is still stable I am pleased to
say) the good start to autumn seems more precious than ever as I
look forward to a very slow march towards winter.
Weather
A mixed bag with some hot days and some very wet and windy
weather. A feature has been the incredibly mild nights with night
time temperatures often exceeding the average daytime max for
September. Fortunately this year there have been no early
frosts which can often be a problem and create a lot more work in
having to cover the more tender plants with fleece.
15 days with rain, 8 completely dry sunny days and the rest a
mix of sun and showers. Min 5C on 22nd and 4 other nights below
10C. Max 25C on 7th and 3 other days over 20C. Max overnight
temperature 18.4C on 7th
Garden update
Plenty of good things to enjoy with all the late perennials
putting on a good show, although the rain has been a bit too heavy
at times for some members of the daisy tribe. Staking is essential
for the taller asters, sanguisorbas and aconitums.Lower
growing plants too sometimes need a litle helping hand either from
stakes or more upright border companions.
Red dahlias are the mainstays of this border with dark
leaved shrubs and sedums
The Paddock Garden shade border with tall white
sanguisorbas (staked to within an inch of their
lives!)
Helianthus "Lemon Queen" and aconitum carmichaelii
lift the Picket Fence border at the entrance to the
Lodge
Hardy fuchsias tumbling over the other end of the Picket
Fence. They have really enjoyed the mild moist
conditions.
Impatiens
omiaena acting as support for colchicum "The Giant". Both shade
lovers they complement each other very well. When the colchicum
flowers fade the yellow flowers of the impatiens take
over.
There are many aspects to consider when designing and
planting borders chief of which are pleasing colour combinations,
form and habit, ( flow and harmony as Gertrude Jekyll succinctly
put it), planting for continuity and refreshing the border as
necessary with annuals, bulbs and later flowering tender perennials
such as salvias. The border also needs to be maintained with
regular dead heading to encourage more flowers, cutting back of
spent flower stems, weeding and keeping a good straight edge on any
lawn adjoining the border. All this should ensure a good late show
to rival anything that summer can
offer.
3 Views of the same border taken from different angles
creating different perspectives
The heavy rain on and off during the month made it difficult at
times to keep on top of all the necessary garden tasks but I have
managed to make a final cut to all the hedges and to scarify the
lawns which now need to be top dressed with sand and grass seed to
establish before winter.
I finally braved the colder waters of the Paddock Pond to remove
the excess pond weed that had all but choked the pond just 4 months
after I last cleared it and it is good to see clear expanses of
water again and to better see the large populations of fish.
Veggies have given us a good range of quailty produce,
especially pleasing as I started sowing and planting in late April.
Our third sowing of runner beans ("White Lady") have cropped
better than the 2 previous ones, and courgettes have been
very productive with no cold weather to slow them down. Successive
sowings of mixed salad leaves have been well judged this year so
that we have a good selection for picking now and some late sowings
still bulking up.
Tomatoes "Rosada" mini plum and "Gourmet" the best
flavoured standard size in my opinion and why else would you grow
them?
The star vegetable however is the sweetcorn with large cobs on
all 65 plants (about half of which have now been eaten! - such an
uncomparable taste of creamy sweetness). The rain has
produced well filled cobs of juicy corn. I always use the variety
called "Swift" which is ideal for climates like ours and is very
early to crop. I make 2 sowings in 9cm pots under protection
starting in the middle of April with a second in the first week of
May to spread the cropping time non stop from August to
October.
It wouldn't be gardening however if there was not a problem
sooner or later and this year the pesky pests have done their best
to drive me up the wall. We have been plagued with whitefly both in
the tunnels and outside (especially on the courgettes). Although I
have used a variety of sprays nothing has knocked them out. Red
spider mite has defoliated a range of plants in the tunnels
including brugmansias, salvias, dahlias and passifloras and hitched
a lift on them to other nearby plants like tender bananas. There is
not much available to amateur gardeners and the only hope if you
can introduce them early enough, is to use biological
controls. Another pest which has had a longer season
than usual is the capsid bug which affects a wide range of outdoor
plants (in particular dahlias, fuchsias, brugmansias,
impatiens and hydrangeas) They fall onto them from overhead
trees or shrubs and even now I am noticing new signs of
infestation. You can at least us sprays which are readily available
from garden centres etc.
Even outdoors this sad looking brugmansia is riddled
with red spider and capsids
Natural ageing on many hostas is always evident at this
time of year as in this hosta "Yellow River"
But some like "Krossa Regal" still look good except for
the slug damage which has been a major problem this year year on a
wide variety of plants.
What's looking good?
A wide range of mighty impressive plants that draw you in with
their structure and vibrant colours. This is their moment and
they make sure that you will notice them!
Fascicular bicolour is a half hardy bromeliad which in a
sheltered, well drained position is a half hardy bromeliad but ours
stay in pots to bring out in September and placed in a prominant
position where they can be admired. Superb leaf and flower
colours.
Fascicularia bicolour
The last of the kniphofias to flower is "Rooperi" with
many roundish flowers to 5 feet into October. Here with a
background of fennel
Less conspicuous than the kniphofia but nevertheless
making quite a statement in part shade, is the wood aster, a.
divaricatus which makes clumps with masses of long flowering, white
flowers that blend into the gravel path it tumbles
over.
Cool and sophisticated white Japanese anemones with seed
heads of veronicastrum "Fascination" Seed heads if not cut back can
continue to provide interest in the border well into late autumn.
If they are prone to vigorous self seeding however, they are
best cut back. None are worse in my experience than all forms of
echinops, the so called globe thistle.
Of course nothing surpasses the massed effect of tall
asters nova angliae and nova belgii which following a re-naming
within the genus we must now call symphiotrichum. Perhaps we should
go back to calling them "Michaelmas daisies" which tells you all
you need to know!!
We have some nice ones here but having visited the
National Collection at Old Court Nuseries last week, I think theirs
look even better than ours!!
Having grown from seed this interesting spider form of
daylily. I can vouch for its provenance which came to me from The
American Hemerocallis Society. It is the latest flowering form I
have ever encountered
My best new plant in 2016 came from a Wyevale Garden
Centre - a most unlikely source of an unusual or rare plant.
Only a couple of nurseries in the UK stock it and it is a beauty.
Ageratum pedataum is a half hardy? perennial that has quickly
made a clump 2 feet wide and almost as tall, plastered with china
blue flowers and is a favourite of butterflies. It has not been out
of flower since May and if anything is getting even better. Sun and
good drainage essential.
But when you look more closely there are also many unsung
heroes doing their stuff as underplantings, many of which are their
best now. I always used to encourage visitors to look deeply into
the borders as they are packed with treasures waiting to be
discovered. It is also important to look upwards too at the shrubs,
some of which are adorned with climbers including late clematis,
eccremocarpos scaber, dicentra macrocapanos, honeysuckles and a few
others that aren't true climbers but use their border companions to
elbow their way up to 5 feet tall.
Begonia grandis evansiana backlit with late
evening sunshine - no flowers needed to make an
impact!
And a newish and rare form of b. evansiana
"Snowpop". All this group need shade and some moisture to
show their full potential.
Like many shade lovers actaea rubra alba
sits quietly in the background with insignificant white
flowers in late spring and then suddenly in eary autumn it produces
these fabulous berries on long stems up to 3 feet. There is also a
red berried form.
L
Late arrivals are always welcome and nymphea
"Texas Dawn" with scented flowers sent up its first flower
after being planted in the Paddock Pond 2 years ago.
Another welcome late arrival is an unusual
perennial to 5 feet in part shade, strobilanthes rankanensis, with
its strange hooded flowers. Note too at the front one of several
flowers of geranium "Salome" hitching a lift rather than creeping
across the ground which is its usual habit
Trycyrtis (or the so called Toad Lilies) are underrated
stalwarts of autumn for a moist, part shady spot and will reward
you with long lasting exotic looking flowers in a variety of
colours. They like to lean gently on their neighbours for support
or to trail along the ground.
Cautleya spicata in shade with orange yellow
flowers in summer, later on produce lovely grey blue berries formed
in the faded red flower bracts, This is the first time this plant
has produced any berries.
One perfect rose in autumn is worth 20 in high
summer. This one from the Delbard nursery in France is an unusual
lilac shade and like all roses from this nursery, has strong stems
with black spot free leaves and a good repeat. Strong scent too -
what more could you ask?
Plants which look good from May to October are really
valuable and include artemesias in variety, which with their
strong silver foliage, make a big contribution to the borders,
going well into autumn and intergrating beautifully with anything
that you plant them with. Astrantias too with a little break at the
end of July. have a second flush in August until early October and
are totally trouble free and long lived. And where would with be
without many forms of geraniums and violas and their seemingly
never ending flowers.
Artemesias with roses and salvias
A genus that does exceptionally well here is impatiens,
otherwise known as balsams, "touch me nots" or busy lizzies.
Thriving in our moist climate and in partial shade, they are as
long flowering as any other plants in the garden. They have proved
to be remarkably hardy although a few do need the protection of a
winter mulch. Although there are many species and cultivars,
many are tender or not readily available in the UK. We have so far
amassed a total of 16 and are always on the look out for new ones
for the collection.
Impatiens flanaganae a tuberous form to 3 feet may
need a winter mulch
Imatiens stenantha a rare and very hardy form that
needs plenty of shade and soil that does not dry out. Good leaf
colour and highly floriferous from May until the
frosts.
Impatiens arguta totally bomb proof and long
fowering with puce flowers over a long period. The white form is
nicer in my opinion
The only annual in this gallery is impatiens
scabrida a rather impressive form to 2 feet with large yellow
flowers over a very long period. Will seed around but easy to
control if you want to.
Impatiens puberula has a lovely exotic looking
flower on a somewhat weedy plant but flowers patchily (is that a
word?!) over a long period but is surpringly hardy for such a
delicate looking plant. A collectors item.
And if you want an impatiens to turn your world
upside down then look no further than Himalayan balsam (impatiens
glandulifera). A very vigorous balsam now overtaking large
swathes of the UK especially alongside streams as in this pic of a
huge drift in a garden not far from us. If you let this get a hold
in your garden you will never get rid of it. Sad because it is a
gorgeous flower in a range of colours.
Wildlife and countryside
There is just one item that overshadows all the other news. I
lived in Gloucestershire until I was 28 and in the latter years of
my time there was painfully aware of the impact of Dutch elm
disease, spead by a beetle, on the majority of the elms that were
the most widespread field and hedgerow trees. Whole landscapes
changed in just a few years from the late 1960's and although there
has been some regeneration the impact of the disease is still
painfully obvious.
I had hoped I would never again see in my lifetime, similar
devastation to our native trees, but sadly this summer I have
witnessed in this part of Wales, from a disease commonly known as
ash dieback, the demise of many ash trees which along with
oak are the main indigenous trees here. I had observed
symptoms over the last 2 years with leaves dropping earlier
than normal and ash keys (seed pods) staying on the trees well into
the following year. It is so sad to see trees of all
ages from saplings to majectic 200 year old trees succumb to this
fungal disease for which there is no cure. Some people are hopeful
that the trees may come back next year but all the indications are
that this will not be the case. Carmarthenshire is one of the worst
affected areas of Wales but other areas of the UK especially along
the east coast are badly affected too. For more information and
maps of infected areas go to www.forestry.gov.uk/ashdieback
The corvid tribe of birds (crows, jackdaws,
magpies etc) are making a takeover bid and are a confounded
nuisance with no natural predator apart from the odd peregrine or
goshawk. In a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock film this is just a
section of them on a telephone wire at twilight - cue suitable
menacing music!! Be very afraid!!
On a brighter note we have at last seen a few more
butterflies and other flying insects including a few of the larger
dragonflies. With lots of insect friendly plants to choose from it
is interesting that the large headed sedums attract less
butterflies than aster frikartii "Monch" which seems seems to be a
special favourite of "Tortoiseshells", and that hive bees prefer
the sedums.
It is "tupping time" for sheep with the rams busy all day long
(no pictures so as not to offend those with a delicate
constitution!). Because of the poor weather the grass harvest was
much delayed which made it difficult for some of our neighbouring
farmers to find enough grazing for their stock. so we had the
unusual sight in fields across the road from us of large numbers of
cattle making the most of what available grass there was.
Daisy and Dorothy were very proud of their
earrings until they realised everyone was wearing
them!
And finally I am pleased to say that the mole problem we had
last month has been resolved - it is amazing how much earth one
small mole can move!
Visits
With new central heating being fitted this month and many
essential garden tasks to do and log splitting, there has not been
time to get out and about so there was just time for the annual
pilgrimage to Malvern for the Autumn Show which as always was the
best of British and the joys of autumn in all its many guises -
plants, fruit and vegetables, animals of all kinds, shopping and
food, old vehicles and vintage collections. The highlight for Moira
was a guest appearance of Anton du Beke from "Strictly Come
Dancing" which, with what seemed like thousands of others, she
thoroughly enjoyed. if you had told me I would have spent an hour
watching his engaging and good natured dancing masterclass I would
never have believed you! Especially when there were lots of plant
stalls to explore!!
On the way home however we made up for that with a visit to Old
Court Nurseries in Colwall and the magnificient National Collection
of asters they hold. The superb gardens have been augmented with an
extended shade area and some outstanding ferns and other treasures.
Well worth a trip and lots of asters for sale you can't buy
anywhere else.
Autumn colour next month - always something to which to
look forward. Enjoyo as we say in Wales!