A cold slow spring
Sunday, May 1, 2016
You can more or less guarantee that if there is a mild
winter we will have a late spring and so it has happened again this
year. Too cold to plant out or sow vegetables, too wet to turn over
beds, and overwintering nursery plants have had to remain
under cover for much longer than usual,creating congestion in
the tunnels and cold frames. The only upside is that early bulbs
have stayed in flower for much longer than usual, providing some
welcome colour, and magnolias without any penetrating frosts, have
put on a never ending show.
We can't however boast anything as special as this
superb magnolia sargentiana robusta alba at Hergest
Croft
My reduced workload since my illness has meant that we have had
the opportunity to go garden visiting in April, unheard of for the
last 17 years of opening for the NGS - every cloud has a silver
lining!
Part of the large beech woodland at Coton Manor with
bluebells just coming into their prime.
Weather
Like most parts of the UK it has been a most unseasonal
April. As so often happens after a mild winter there is usually a
sting in the tail when spring arrives. April has been colder than
March with lower than average temperatures especially at night when
we have experienced 25 night time temperatures in single figures, 9
air frosts with a minimum of -3.5C on 28th. A few warmer days
were welcome with a max of 16.3C on 20th. No really significant
rainfall (which is not unusual for us in April) and with a
northerly or easterly air stream for large parts of the month the
ground dried out for the first time since last November.
Garden update
The garden has reflected the weather with very slow growth
everywhere which was a blessing given the cold nights. The
horticultural fleece was however called into use in the latter part
of the month to protect the slowly breaking hostas and hydrangeas
especially which are particularly susceptible to late frosts,
damaging the leaves of hostas and the nascent flower buds of
hydrangeas. But with over 200 hostas and 50 hydrangeas it is
impossible to cover them all - just the very special or rare ones.
And podophyllum "Spotty Dotty" which takes some years to reach its
full size so that always get special treatment of two hollow crates
covered with several layers of fleece
Emerging hosta pips on the last day of the
month
Border perennials are very slow, but undaunted by the
cold, lilies in the borders are well up and most pleasing of all
there are cardiocrinum regenerations from established plantings
some of which may flower later this year. Their shiny glossy leaves
and vigour are an encouraging antidote to the lack of real growth
elsewhere.
Thanks to more help in the gardens the border tidy up and
weeding has been completed. The lawns are being mowed twice a week
and the grass continues to look well even though growth is fairly
slow. A little gentle scarifying and another feed in early May
should set them up well for the summer.
In the vegetable garden the beds were rotovated in the last few
days of the month by our dear friend Robert who has been
tremenously supportive in so many ways. We had 3 x 150 metre
beds which were getting a bit too much for us over the last few
years, so we have decided to reduce them to 2 and grass over the
other.
It will be quite a change to have to buy some vegetables
during the summer and autumn, but by not growing maincrop
potatoes which take up a lot of room, we will not
substantially reduce our capacity to grow a reasonable range
of other vegetables, particularly those like runner, french and
broad beans, togther with sweetcorn and courgettes which need
little attention once they are planted.
In the tunnels and nursery I have sowed only a fraction of the
seeds I usually do, which has substantially reduced my workload
even though there are still plants to prick out and pot on. There
is the never ending watering to do as we have so many large and
well established plants in pots including Moira's succulent
collection which now fills a whole 4 x 1 metre bench, many of them
having been purchased over the years in very small 7 or 9 cm
pots.
One thing we will not be growing this year, much to my regret,
is the hanging baskets which for nearly 40 years have graced the
arches of the verandah and have been much admired by garden
visitors and passers by. Watering and dead heading daily involves
climbing onto the verandah wall and carrying heavy watering cans
around something which in my condition is now beyond me. And it
takes an average of 40 minutes to complete each day! Moira has a
cunning plan to provide a maintenance free alternative- more on
this next month!
What's looking good?
As usual and in keeping with my strategy to reduce the
workload! no long text, just pictures to give a good impression of
the stars of the moment in one form or another, and trust me in the
conditions we have had in April, I am really struggling to find
many!!
Lysichiton amaricanus
A nice alternative to the robust and smelly skunk cabage
is this slow growing and dainty form from the far east Lysichiton
camtschatcensis`
Magnolia lobneri "Merrill"
I spotted this beautiful sport of a celandine in a
bank along the stream bed containing a range of named and wild form
- will it become as well known in time as "Brazen Hussy" found in a
hedgerow many years ago?!
Another unusual find was this emerging late
spotted orchid in the Paddock Garden which has taken on this
amazing leaf variegation. It will be interesting to see if it keeps
it as it grows
Perhaps the best of all are these 2 magnificient
flowers from a couple of plants in a sowing last year of
aquilegia longissima seeds which as usual produced a range of forms
and colour. They are still in pots in one of the polytunnels hence
the early flowering
Wildlife and countryside
Plenty of bird activity with nesting now well under way, a robin
having chosen an unlikely spot in a 1.5 litre plant pot at the back
of my pot store. Not the best constructed nest you will ever see
just a mass of spagnum moss with 5 eggs (now chicks - I don't like
to disturb them to count if all the eggs hatched) at the back of
it. The parents have strange feeding habits as unlike some birds
(blue tits in particular come to mind) they aren't back and
forward all day long, just one random visit every now and again. I
just don't have the time or patience to count the visiting
intervals.
Still on the subject of birds the call of a cuckoo from the
beech wood across the valley was a welcome sound on 17 April, the
first I have heard here for some years. As it hasn't been heard
again since then it may have moved on.
The first sighting of a single swallow was on 27 April with a
few more coming since then. Like everything else this spring, much
later than usual.
In the Paddock Pond there were scarcely any toads sighted just
the odd one or too forlorn figures looking for a romantic liaison -
a far cry from 10 years or so ago when I would regularly go out
after dark with a torch and gather literally bucketfulls from the
adjoining country lane.
Although there was a good spawning and hatch of frog spawn,
there are few identifiable tadpoles in the pond but as there is so
much pond weed and and other deritrus on the surface it is no
surprise that they are difficult to spot.
Some good wildflowers now in road verges and native woodlands.
Bluebells are still slow, but primroses, cowslips. oxsilps and wood
anemones are putting on a great show and along the M50 corridor in
Gloucestershire, staggering displays of native daffodils everywhere
you look - shame there is nowhere to stop to admire and photograph
them.
This magnicient stand of cowslips on a sunny bank at
Coton Manor interemingled with violets, the whole scene enhanced by
an overpowering scent on a warm sunny day.
Somewhere along the M50 I tried a picture from the car
- use your imagination what it must have looked like in real
time! Next time I wll use a sports setting on the
camera!!
As always at this time of year the surrounding countryside rings
with the sound of lambs and ewes calling to each other. or to
signal the arrival of a quad bike bringing rations of nuts to
supplement the shortage of grass in the fields.
Not much sign of growth on native trees or in the ornamentals in
the garden - a far cry from the situation we viewed around the Wye
Valley, Evesham and especially from Oxfordshire all the way to
London,
Visits
These were undoubtedly the highlights of the month as it is such
a novelty for us, during April!!, to take time off from our own
garden to see others in a wide variety of locations.
We also took in the RHS Show in Cardiff.
A wonderful display of daffodils from R A Scamp of
Quality Daffodils, Cornwall
A novel way of exhibiting a display of primula sieboldii
from a National Collction holder
Nerines in April -amazing
I have given many talks to clubs, societies and at
shows, but never with such an effective and imposing background as
this lucky speaker had
I
Count how many miniature hostas ar displayed in this
small bowl. They may look small but the prices are anything but
that.
One of the captivating owls for children of all
ages on a stand with a collection of a wide range of a much loved
bird.
Two of our very favourite gardens are Hergest Croft in
Herefordshire and Coton Manor, Northamptonshire.
Hergest Croft
Images of the garden on a cold damp day.
An attractive and traditional way of supporting this
emerging paeony much nicer than my rusty iron supports
The gardens boast a superb collection of trees and
shrubs with several National Collections. Emerging growth on sorbus
megalocarpa from western China. Many trees have been grown from
seed
For all the many treasures elsewhere in the gardens one
plant stood out for me. Just a small plant a few inches tall it
really captured my attention as I could not think what it was and
neither could several of my knowledgeable gardening friends. The
owner of the gardens kindly named it for me as aristolochia
steupii, very rare in cultivation and collected by his father
in Georgia during the 1970's. Part of the "Dutchman's Pipe" family,
I never realised there are hardy forms as well as the more commonly
encountered carniverous forms often seen at the major flower
shows
To find out more about Hergest Croft go to www.hergest.co.uk
The two gardens share similarities, not so much in style and
layout, but in that they have been developed over many years by 3
generations of the same families and the love and care of
successive custodians has ensured they stay true to the spirit of
the gardens. There are also valuable histotrical records and plants
still in existence that go back to the plantings of the original
creators of the gardens.
Coton Manor only came to my attention last year and
having visited it last summer and this month I can vouch for its
qualities at different times of year.
It must be the only garden in the UK to have
flamingos wandering freely in the grounds and where the colour
scheming has to be planned so as not to clash with
them!
It is however a serious plants persons garden with a
wide range of treasures and superb planting combinations around
every corner - and a marvellous nursery full of plants showcased in
the gardens.
To learn more about Coton go to www.cotonmanor.co.uk
A novel twist on the garden visiting theme came with a trip to
the Royal Academy in London to see the outstanding exhibition
entitled "Painting the Modern Garden from Monet to Matisse" which
deservedly had rave reviews. 230 pictures in total and two hours of
sheer delight and inspiration with lots of ideas and new
dimensions to muse upon.
To find out more about the exhibition go to
www.royalacademy.org.uk/painting/modern-garden-monet-matisse
Walking back to the car after the show we came across
this public house tribute to The Bard, quite fitting just 2 days
before the 400th anniversary of his death
