April Rise - if ever saw blessing in the air I see it now
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
What a fantastic month - April as it should be. Just the right
amounts of rain, sun and warmth and only one frost all month (9
last year). Plants have responded with increaing vigour both in the
gardens and surrounding countryside. Pictures say it better than
ever I can.
Amelancheir lamarckii - one of the best early spring
flowering small trees with masses of white flowers against bronze
new foliage
Magnolia loebneri
Cold frames bursting at the seams!
Approaching storm early April
Our near neighbours!
Evening sunlight on alders along the river
The first flower on a new tree peony planted 3 years
ago
And a long established favourite "Molly the Witch"
(Paeonia mlokosewitschii!)
The woodland by the Stream Garden late
April
Emerging flower head on Maianthemum racemosum happy by
the stream edge where it has been for 20 years
And in complete contrast from the driest part of the
garden the first flower of the year on the bearded iris snapped on
a windy night
We also had our long awaited trip to Dorset to give a talk to
The Hardy Plant Society there which went down really well with over
100 people in the audience. More on this under the "Visits" heading
below.
Last month I waxed lyrical about the works of Dylan Thomas whose
centenary is being celebrated this year. He has long been one of my
favourite writers, and by pure chance, and only recently did I
discover this, it is also the centenary of Laurie Lee, the
Gloucestershire poet from Slad, Stroud. I grew up with his
seminal work "Cider with Rosie" from my first year at grammar
school in Stroud shortly after the book was published. Down the
years it still resonates with me and I subsequently discovered his
poems, most of which are rooted deep in the countryside and reflect
his gift of encapsulating closely observed aspects of life
particularly in rural Gloucestershire. The headline to this News
Item is the title of one of his best loved poems, perfectly
capturing the special feeling, light and colours of an April
morning. To read it go to www.poemhunter.com/poem/april-rise/
When I can't think of a Headline title it is wonderful to have
them in the wings to provide just the right words - there will be
more in months to come. See if you can identify who wrote them.
Weather
Apart from the third week in the month leading up to Easter, it
was mild both day and night, with just one frost -2C on the night
of Good Friday. A few other nights were cold too but no frost thank
goodness. The "snowmen" (see March News) came to the rescue again!
11 days over 15C with a max of 19.2 on the penultimate day of the
month. There was enough heavy rain to keep everything looking lush
but no prolonged spells and after all the wind in winter little to
cause any concerns or damage. More of this next year please!!
Garden update
At last with the drier weather I was able to rotovate the
vegetable garden which was the hardest I have ever know it thanks
to a combination of all the very heavy winter rains, walking on
some of beds to harvest late brassicas and no sharp frosts to break
down the soil. As soon as that was done in went 16 rows of potatoes
from earlies to main crops including for the first time "Blue
Belle" which comes highly recommended as a good all rounder, but I
still stand by my all time favourite "Desiree" which can always be
relied upon to crop and store well. I also managed to sow some
small seeds, plant out some early brassicas and sow the first peas
which as always attracted mice which can do more damage in a single
night than any other pest, but this year the mousetraps were ready
for them!
I have recently begun the mammoth task of turning over
(with a garden claw which is highly effective) and feeding all the
flower borders (with a general application of pelleted chicken
manure and a more specific application of fish, blood and bone for
plants like hellebores, hostas and clematis). Rose food too for
roses and flowering shrubs.
The garden claw an indispensible tool
ergonimically designed to be kind to your back needing a simple
twisting movement to break up the top 4 inches of soil
Whilst doing this I think I have found a rival to bittercress -
honesty seedlings. Honestly!! Lovely as they may be in the depth of
winter the white seed cases are quite a price to pay for unwanted
seedlings in profusion so this year no winter seed pod show. And a
real deeprooted thug is alstroemeria aurantica a South American
species which feels very much at home in Wales! It spreads like
wildfire with deep seated, fleshy roots and is a mightmare to keep
under control. I will have to take the advice from a gardening
friend Bob Dyer who plants all his invasive plants in bottomless
pots which dramatically limits their ability to run.
Seeds in the refurbsihed propagating tunnel have done well with
little damping off thanks to being able to vent regularly and the
later sowing regimes. I believe I have also succeeded in my goal of
reducing the number of varieties of seed sown, something which
Moira refutes having done most of the pricking out!!
New rasperry canes were planted in the month (Glen Cova, Glen
Ample and Polka) as were 2 new blueberries and a few shrubs
including a stunning cornus kousa "Miss Satomi" which we fell in
love with at RHS Rosemoor last summer. Beautiful pink flowers and
fiery autumn colour. I buy new shrubs even though we are fast
running out of room for them.
Sadly it looks as though my tallest acer at the back of the
Paddock Pond is on its last legs with very few leafing branches.
The bark in the trunk at the graft union has for some time been
splitting away and without the all important cambrium the tree can
no longer survive. Shame because it is the most perfectly
place tree and will take some removing.
What's looking good?
A conveyor belt of stars have come and gone such is the
ephemeral naure of spring flowering plants. Early on there was the
later flowering daffodils especially Thalia and Pippet, a
kaleidescope of shades of yellow throughout its flowering period,
and no April would be complete without the poeticus types.
Nacissus poeticus a little battered after heavy
overnight rain mid April
Next and overlapping with the daffodils, came the epimediums
with their delicate often patterned new leaves and flowers in
various shades of yellow, red and white, and amber along with
a tawny brown form which I have had for ages and haven't a clue
what it is! a Christo Lloyd once remarked "Who cares - just enjoy
it"!!Not a large collection I accept but one I cherish every year
about this time and rarely have they flowered better
This epimedium came to me as e. rubrum - it is a real
stunner
Huge flowers on this form, variety unknown
And the most poular recent introduction "Amber
Queen"
Dicentras have enjoyed the frost free conditions, and if
it doesn't get too hot, they will continue until the end of May.
A dwarf form, "King of Hearts" an ideal subject for the front
of a border, and in some shade, can often flower right through ther
summer. A particular favourite we have had since the 1990's, which
is now making a comeback in the garden centres and nurseries after
some years in the wilderness, is D, "Goldheart" with bright yellow
leaves and pink flowers which may seem quite odd but in spring
almost anything goes!
A really good new introduction is d."Valentine" with
dusky red flowers and glaucous bronze leaf. Choice but still quite
expensive.
Acers are lovely when the leaves are just opening and in the
form "Orange Dream" they are a distinct orange especially when
caught by the late evening sunshine (what a surprise!) for a few
days before they start to fade to yellow. Other woody subjects
include viburnums of various kinds which are almost always heavily
scented, and a few dwarf rhododenrdons and azaleas around the House
Pond,
Acer "Orange Dream": individual leaf and the whole
tree
Erythroniums have done well especially revolutum which is lovely
but quite expensive to buy. I am bulking it up in pots for a few
years to split. From seed they aren't difficult as long as you are
patient as it takes 5 years or so for the seedlings to flower
Erythronium revolutum
Hostas are in that magical stage where as the pips swell before
the leaves open, they show some fantastic colours on what will be
the stems supporting the leaves when fully open, They have
however been rather patchy this spring with some particular hostas
throwing up individual leaves over a long period rather than the
even growth pattern we usually see. Some have yet to start opening
in the deeper shade areas of the gardens.
Hosta "Golden Auriole" opens this stunning yellow before
fading later to chartreuse
I still hold out hopes that one of our seed grown cardiocrinum
giganteum plants will flower this year. Most I am resigned to
having to wait another year but one particular subject now has a 3
foot stem so maybe this will be the one and if so I can't wait to
see it in flower and to share it with you.
Finally and after all I said about the nuisanace created by
honesty seedlings. we have some lovely examples of lunaria
variegata alba which have put themselves in the most perfect
places, and as an extra bonus they fill the air with scent, as is
the case with all the flowering members of the cabbage tribe (think
wallflowers or stocks for example to name just a couple).
And a couple of late additions. The wonderful emerging
stem colour on the large umbellifer peucedanum verticillare which
takes 4 years to flower then promptly dies but you do get thousands
of seeds to start the whole process again!
And in the small tunnel, a survivor of the ravages of
winter this stunning blue flower of echium candicans
Wildlife and countryside
A very busy month with bird nests all over the gardens
(blackbirds, robins, hedge sparrows, pied wagtails, wood pigeons
and magpies in a large nest in an apple tree that we could have
done without with so many other vulnerable nests all around. The
return of the swallows on 20 April, a few whitethroats and willow
warblers but as yet no sightings of any redstarts or pied
flycatchers, the latter a concern as I provided new nest boxes to
replace the much used old ones that were destroyed in the winter
gales.
A male blacbird brings in supper.
There have also been sightings of goosanders but not in the
Paddock Pond thank goodness as they are voracious predators of
fish. The undoubted highlight was the call of a cuckoo on 29 April,
the first heard here for many years. It was suggested to me
yesterday by a local forester, that the reducing numbers of
songbirds in low;land areas like ours means fewer nests in which
the cuckoos can lay their eggs, As he visits upland areas he claims
that there are many more cuckoos on the hills, frequented in good
numbers by pippits, which are the surrogate bids of choice of
cuckoos.
An exciting but not entirely welcome event in the Paddock Pond
was the arrival of a young otter on the evening of 23 April. It was
totally oblivious of me on the bank as I watched it try to get
through the thick blanketweed to the fish. In doing so he was just
like a dolphin, arching its back and trying to force the head under
the weed. Fortunately I had the camera to hand but it proved almost
impossible to photograph it, so rapid were the movements. In doing
so it came to within a foot of me! After shooing it out of the pond
I restored the electric fence that I had only taken down the week
before.
In my minds eye I had visions of winning the
"Countryfile" wildlife photograph of the year. What could be
simpler with an otter just a few feet away? As soos as it came to
capture the all important pic. a combination of the speed of the
otter and my sheer incompetence with a camera, I realised it as not
going to be! But trust me this is the arching back of an otter
about to dive again!!
The lambs in the surrounding fields probably outnumber us humans
by a count of 50 -1 and are a great source of entertainment. I
could watch their antics for ages even though they all do the same
things every year. It is like a speeded up version of our own
childhoods: staying close to Mum in the early days, making
new friends with other lambs, joining up in big gangs and racing
each other, head butting (the equivalent of fighting in the
playground) and as they get a little older they get really stroppy
and hang around anywhere except near their Mums, ignoring their
calls to come back to them. Occasionally they do some unusual
things like sleeping on their mothers backs when it is cold, or
escaping the fields onto the road and terrorising the traffic,
especially visitors who are not used to counry lanes. Sadly in just
a few short months all the abandoned gaiety comes to an abrupt
end.
Baby stage.
Growing up and looking for trouble
What do you want to do then? Racing or head
butting?"
Wild flowers have been prolific with wood anmeones, primroses,
cowslips,celandines and latterly bluebells putting on the kind of
show that no garden could ever emulate.
Celandines and wood anemones along a country
lane.
Visits and visitors
There were 5 talks during the month, all very enjoyable and
successful, two of them to new venues; one at Hermon in the
Prescelli Hills of Pembrokeshire, and the other was a first
speaking engagement in England when we visited Wimborne in Dorset
to give a talk to the Dorset Group of The Hardy Plant Society
(HPS). These events are always special occasions, usually on a
Saturday afternoon, well attended by kindred plantspeople who
really know their stuff and as members of the Society for many
years we feel instantly at home. The welcome we had however was
exceptional and the attendance of over 100 was the largest audience
I have ever spoken to. Rather than daunted I was inspired by their
enthusiasm, knowledge and the insatiabale appetite they had for all
the plants for sale we brought with us which sold out in next
to no time!
The lively and entusiastic audience. Note the empty
plants sales table at the front and all the bulging bags under the
seats.
It was memorable experience and as an added bonus we had a
special guided tour of Knoll Gardens on the Sunday by Judy, a
volunteer guide and gardener, who is also a member of the HPS.
Although not many of the grasses for which the gardens are famous
were in growth it was good to see the bare bones and in particular
the naturalistic and skillfully shaped borders. It was a surprise
to see so many fine trees although there were casualties of the
storms around the gardens. and in some sections there was some good
spring plantings which we had not expected.
Pics from Knoll Gardens
Gravel garden
Clever underplaning of carex "Evergold" under a stand of
myrtles in a very dry shade
A woodland garden was something I wasn't
expecting to see but it was well done with this
superb blue rhododendron at the entrance.
A sad footnote: this 40 year old eucalyptus, the tallest
tree in the gardens was felled by a severe gale on Valentines Day.
Moira and Judy give some idea of the size of the tree and the huge
trunk is as long again as the part you can see in the pic. With its
silvery trunk and peeling bark it makes quite a statement in a
jungle like part of the garden. Kew Gardens have advised that as
the roots are still in the ground it may sprout again.
Moira's purchase from Special Plants nursery - Dancing
Ladies! Steel garden ornaments with a patina of rust. Who was the
model?
As for visits to Cilgwyn Lodge Gardens we are open for the
National Gardens Scheme by appointment from June to September. This
isn't as stuffy as it might sound - its just to be sure that we
don't get too may visitors on any one day and that we will be
around when you would like to come. Please get in touch if you
would like to see the gardens this summer. The nursery only is also
open on the same terms if you would like to purchase from a good
range of interesting and unusual plants.
We have one special booking for May when a local couple are
having their wedding photographs in the Gardens. The third time
that the gardens have been used in this way and we are flattered to
be able to offer this facility on a very special day.