A supersoft September ushers in the perfect start to Autumn
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Coming in after a final tour of the gardens tonight at the
ridiculous time of 9.50 pm in shirt sleeves on a balmy night
with the remains of the Harvest Moon overhead, shrouded in flying
insects attracted by my headlight (compulsory attire now it is dark
by 7.30pm) I was struggling for a Headline for September News. Then
it struck me - it was all around. The masses of flowers, the lush
green, the flying insects, hundreds of worms on the lawns, the owls
hooting from a nearby chestnut tree - all brought about by a truly
special September.
Warm sunny spells punctuated by just the right sort of soft
rain, often at night, little wind apart from one night when
capricious gusts from the south west blew the top out of a badly
sited catalpa (Indian Bean tree) which has been struggling for
years, but no other damage elsewhere so I will live with it. No
sign of any early frosts yet so no manic rushing around with
horticultural fleece in the dark trying to cover everything
remotely tender just to hang on to things for just a bit longer. If
it were possible to design a perfect month this would be
it.
Just to give you a flavour of what it looks like these pics will
say it better than I can. Sorry they cannot convey the scents, the
atmosphere and special light, but I think you will get the general
idea and I hope the month has been as good for you as it has for
us.
A river of aster frikartii "Monch" and a waterfall of
clematis viticella "Huldine"
This unusual form of evening primrose oenothera
versicolour "Sunset Boulevard" whose flowers change
colour as they age, in form looking like an 18" crown imperial
fritillaria
Begonia grandis ssp. evansii, a hardy begonia with
drifts of cyclamen hederifolia
Since being voted "Plant of the Century" at the
centenary Chelsea Flower Show in May, geranium "Rozanne" has won
many plaudits and sold like hot cakes. Although undoubted a fine,
long flowering form, there are others which flower from June until
the frosts, and these below which have similar colours to
"Rozanne"belong to G. wallichianum "Buxtons Blue" with
beautiful definition in the petals. Look out too for a form called
"Chris", slightly smaller flowers but even sharper petal
definition.
Weather
Warmth was the predominant weather feature during the month with
10 days above 20C (max 23C on 4th of the month). Most nights
relatively mild with a min of 7C. Enough rain, much of it
overnight, drying up by morning - how many times do we wish for
this?
For me the weather feature of the month was the magnificient
skies we experienced, surely the best free show on earth if you see
what I mean! Late afternoon and evening was the best time the
setting sun suffusing the whole sky with ever changing shades of
pink. Breathtaking!
Kniphofia uvaria var. nobilis is impressive enough at
over 6' tall but even more so when set against such a
backdround.
Garden update
Grass is growing like mad as the result of the warmth and timely
rain, and the not inconsiderable addition of 16 - 16 -16
fertiliser, twice the strength of normal growmore! Handle with
care!! It certainly greened the lawns up quickly and with the high
concentration of nitrogen stopped the red thread disease in its
tracks. On the basis that you don't need a lot of it I shall
certainly be using it again next year. From now on any feed will be
low nitrogen and higher phosphate to boost root growth and
strengthen the grass for the rigours of winter. The final lawn
treatment of the year was a recent full scarifying and top dressing
with sharp sand and grass seed. Thanks to my friend and lawns guru
Rob I think I may have cracked the secrets of a fine lawn after
over 40 years of gardening. If you would love a nice lawn and like
me you have struggled for years it is essential that you find your
own guru now!
Vegetables have continued to be superb in a wide variety with
over 20 kinds available for harvest. Very little in the way of
pests and diseases and there have been no instances of clubroot in
the brassicas that has plagued me for the last few years. Part of
this I am sure is due to very heavy limimg of the plot last autumn,
and especially an application of calcifeid seaweed prior to
planting out in the Spring. This is supposed to stimulate
beneficial soil microbes at the roots and also degrades the
pathogens in the clubroot. All my vegetables have had a dose of
calcified seaweed and root crops especially carrots and beetroot
are the best we have had for many years. This was discussed at
Medwyn Williams' Masterclass Weekend I attended last November
so it shows that I did listen to all the good advice I had
from the champion growers who were there and very grateful I am
too. The joy of gardening is that there is always something new to
learn. It is a very different situation from last year when I am
ashamed to say that I was forced to buy in vegatables - but don't
tell anyone!. The only downside has been that all the runner beans
cropped at the same time in spite of staggered sowings and are now
coming to an end - if this is all I had to worry about each year I
would gladly accept it. And we do have some late purple podded
climbing French beans to enjoy - from an Italian seed supplier!
I was intending to show a pic. of a selection of my
veggies but when I saw this magnificient basket at Malvern Autumn
Show I didn't feel my artistic style could compete with
this!
Many flowering plants are going on and on and some early
flowering ones like campanulas and hardy geraniums are having a
good second flush after being cut back in July. Clematis have been
a bit of a disappointment, plenty of green growth but not many
flowers. Most of the forms we grow are later flowering types like
viticellas and texensis hybrids which only in the last 2 weeks have
started to bloom. a month later than usual. Those that have done
well are C. rehderiana, much loved by bees, C. tangutica "Lambton
Park", and C, triternata x rubromarginata small flowers but masses
of them and a great scent coming for one of its parents
c.flammula.
C. tangutica "Lambton Park"
The fine weather has made it easy to dry off a good crop of
shallots and onions and ripened seed on all manner of plants for
storing to sow next year, to share with friends and offer to the
Hardy Plant Society as part of their seed exchange programme. There
also many dried berlotti beans for soups and stews and if I get
round to it this year they make the best baked beans in the world -
sorry Heinz!
Like all other areas of the garden the weeds too have enjoyed
the good growing weather and in spite of the close packed planting
in the borders a few determined ones always manage to sneak in - an
embarassing sow thistle 5 feet tall in the Red Border only noticed
when showing a group of visitors around and the ubiquitous bitter
cress the bane of my life! Even the Paddock Pond doesn't escape,
the Canadian Pond weed has again gone crazy choking areas of
the pond so that too has to be cleared - see August News I cleared
it just a month ago and it is back worse than ever!!. A nice job on
a warm day at eye level with the fish and some seriously scary
dragonflies.
Yours truly up to my neck in Canadian
pondweed!
What's looking good?
Don't expect me to include everything because there is just too
much but already there is good leaf colour on some of
the trees and shrubs, earlier than for some years. The real stars
however can be simply categorised as "buttercups and daisies" but
many of them not quite as you would expect them. The pictures below
give some idea of the staggering range we have in flower at the
moment. I just wish the aster nova belgii would get a move on -
they have taken ages this month to colour up and are still to reach
their best but other members of the genus have stolen the show. No
mildew on any of the more prone forms of aster this year - what a
joy!!
Daisy family member rudbeckia "Berlin" which is
relatively new in cultivation and supposedly hardy.
Not such an obvious daisy but it is, achillea "Cloth of
Gold" a rather old fashioned traditional border stalwart which has
been in perfect condition since June and none of the flower heads
show any signs of ageing.
Actaea simplex "Pink Spike" lovely bottle brush
flowers and intoxicating scent. You would never guess it but it is
a buttercup family member
Another actaea the name of which is confused
Commonly know as a.rubra alba the 2013 Plant Finder lists it as
a.pachypoda. Who cares?!! Lovely dolls eye berries.
Tender perennials in the salvia family have responded to the
shortening days and lower light levels and are now putting on quite
a show, and some like salvia involucrata "Bethellii" have proved to
be reliably hardy over many winters in spite of what the books may
tell you. My friend Tony always says that it is just as well that
plants can't read!!
A much loved salvia x jamensis "Hot Lips" with dark blue
s. corrugata in the background
There is a great late show on the brugmansias in both the
tunnels and pots around the gardens in shades of white, yellow,
pink and flowering for the first time a double pink the name of
which is unclear.
Reach for the sunglasses; lobelia x speciosa "Ruby
Slippers" 4 feet tall and a very valuable
perennial for late summer borders. Try also
"Hadspen Purple"
The hydrangea paniculata flowers are now entering the red/pink
phase and still making quite a statement, with a few new white
flowers still opening. Great value plants especially if your
hydrangea macrophyllas and serratas get frosted every spring so do
not flower.
Finally roscoeas (members of the ginger family) in a variety of
forms have bridged the gap betweeen late summer and early autumn.
The most desirable of these is R. purpurea "Red Gurkha" the seed of
which can produce many hybrids with flowers from deep purple to
lavender with bronze stems and bronze streaked leaves perhaps
coming from a form called "Peacock" All are very choice, long
flowering and quite expensive unless like me you have a very
special and generous nurseryman friend like Tony.
Tony at Malvern Autumn Show with his little helpers
Sylvia and Moira
Wildlife and countryside
Butterflies, moths, bees, and and huge range of insects continue
to be attracted by all the flowers in the garden but some of the
poor butterflies are looking rather dishevelled; these will
probably not make it through the winter. Tortoiseshells are
the most common with a few Meadow Browns now putting in an
appearance. At Iford Manor earlier this month (see Visits below) we
saw an unusual moth basking on one of the many stone walls. It was
later identified for me by Julian from Gelli Uchaf, the "Moth Man",
as a Red Underwing, rarer in Wales than in parts of England
It was good to see my first mistle thrush for many years in the
gardens recently, feasting on the ample crop of honeysuckle
berries. I hope it stays around to give us some of its lovely
music.
Herons and kingfishers are regularly seen in the vicinity of the
Paddock Pond but the scary dragonflies just frighten them away (and
don't think I am joking!!) When clearing out the pond
recently it was good to see so many larval forms of dragonfly which
will secure for the future, the good populations we already
have.
There is a lot of activity on local farms with a second crop of
silage, probably better quality than than in July when the drought
took is toll on the grass. There are always lots of birds in and
over the fields once they have been cut and this morning we were
treated to the sight of 9 Red Kites over The Lodge, the most we
have ever seen at one time since we have lived here.
Fields need to be cared for just like lawns. Usually this means
spreading farmyard manure or high strength nitrogen rich
fertilisers, but also sometimes in an acid soil area like ours,
lime. It is quite an operation and a very messy one!
Looks like autumn mists rolling into the valley but in
fact is the lime dust blotting out the sun!
Funghi update- last month it was Puff Balls and this month it is
well - more Puff Balls but lots of other varieties of funghi too.
If I wasn't such a whimp I would get the mushroom book out and
start learning to enjoy them even if I might be dead the next day!
One superb form of edible mushroom is the Parasol Mushroom now
springing up in shady situations but as always extreme care is
needed to ensure it is identified it correctly. Never take a chance
and don't rely on these notes as evidence of positive
identification.
Visits and visitors
Our opening season has now come to an end and it has given us
the chance to get started on essential autumn tasks and
repair/maintenance work. When there are just the 2 of us with no
other help, it is hard to keep the garden up to scratch over a 4
month period with dead heading every day, lawn mowing at least 4
times a week and lawn edging once every 10 days or so in addition
to all the other everyday chores. Weeding also is a major task as
is managing the nursery. Weather too makes an immense impact on the
condition of the gardens. We are sorry that occasionally we have
not been able to accommodate some potential visitors but hopefully
there is always next year when we shall be opening for the 15th
time for The National Gardens Scheme from June until September.
Early bookings would be much appreciated.
Thanks to everyone at home and abroad for visiting us this year
and for giving us the confidence and energy to continue opening our
beloved gardens. Thanks too to Myddfai Hall and Visitor Centre for
supplying teas to several of our Groups.
We have found the time to squeeze in some garden and
nursery visits this month to Iford Manor, Derry Watkins "Special
Plants" nursery near Bath (an absolute must for the plantaholic),
Llanover House and Rare Plant Fair near Abergavenny and the end of
season Malvern Autumn Show.
Iford Manor parts of which date back to the Middle
Ages
and an atmospheric corner of the gardens based on
classic Roman lines
A traditional fairground one of the many attractions at
Malvern set against the background ot the beautiful Malvern Hills.
Almost unchanged since Edward Elgar live near here.
A visit of a different kind, but fitting in the digital age, is
in the course of preparation. We are off to America in November! We
have been invited to be featured as Garden of the Week in the
Daylily Diary, a regular online publication managed by Charlotte
Chamitoff a member of the American Hemerocallis Society which has
had over 1.5 million hits and has about 3000 hits for each Garden
of the Week feature. We have already supplied Charlotte with a
protfoilio of pictures and will supply a text item during the early
part of October. I will keep you informed of the progress and
provide a link to the website when the article is
published.
In the meantime enjoy all the pleasures of autumn and let us
hope the frosts stay away for as long as possible. Hope you like
this final pic - the entrance to Malvern Showground: a consummation
of the best of autumn's harvest.
