In the bleak midwinter.
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Call me Mr Grumpy but I just can't wait to see the back of this
December! The weather has been horrendous with frequent torrential
rain and howling gales and there is no sign of it coming to an end
anytime soon. At least we have reached the shortest day and from
now onwards the nights will start to get lighter.
Some rare blue sky but it was still gloomy
Many of the Christmas cards pouring in through the letterbox
have a scene that would make you believe that December is a cold
and snowy month and we all love that image. In truth most years it
is a wet, windy and murky month. Bleak yes but not in the way that
the famous carol describes it. No earth as hard as iron nor water
like a stone - I wish there was! Since 2nd November we have not had
one rain free day.
It is always a struggle at this time of year to find any
newsworthy events and although there are less than normal I have
still manged to find a few to share with you. Thanks for visiting
the website and if you visited the garden in 2015 many thanks for
your support.
Weather
Apart from the endless rain and gales it was actually an
incredibly warm month more like early spring with no frosts and
night time minimum temperatures higher than the normal daytime
average temperatures for December. Min 0C max 14.5C with 10
days over 10C Although our small river has reached the top of the
bank on several occasions it has not, as yet, overflowed which
would have put parts of the lower Paddock garden at risk.
The small stream running through the garden had plenty
of water in it
showing off the waterfalls to good effect
Garden update
The gardens are soaking so it is best not to walk on them
any more than necessary although with the grass stll growing well.
I managed to mow the lawns in a window of drier weather on 9
December.
There is new growth on certain herbacous plants,
hydrangeas and some clematis which will all be setback when the
colder weather comes. I have cut back a couple of the borders
nearer the house and finished the final clear up of the leaves.
Work continues in the polytunnels where botrytis is a major problem
in the humid atmosphere, and I have started to pot on the spring
flowering plants in the nursery.
Flower buds on clematis "Prince Charles" normally a
summer flowering form
A few remnants of plants and flowers are still hanging on
from the autumn and some late winter plants are coming into bloom
ridiculously early.
Asplenium scolopendrium Cristatum Group. This marvellous
form of our native fern is winter green in all but the most severe
winters
Iberis "Betty Swainson" is surely one the longest
flowering perennials in the gardens
The very last rose in flower is "Gentle Hermione" -being
battered all month she hasn't lived up to her name!
Even when there are no flowers to admire the
remaining seedheads come into their own none better than the
Himalayan lily cardiocrinum giganteum
Brassicas continue to thrive in weather much to their
liking and we have a range of winter forms including kale,
savoys, January King, white storing cabbage, the great winter
stalwart "Tundra", cauliflower and tenderstem broccoli that we are
pleased with, having a great flavour and a cut and come again
habit. The Christmas special - sprouts everyone's favourites! (even
featured by the BBC this year as the Festive screen saver), and we
have a good crop on the later sown form "Brilliant"
What's looking good?
Only one serious contender and that is my all time
favourite - I give you the hellebore. Loudest applause
please! Already there are 57 in flower all over the gardens. They
are good month earlier than they should be but are so welcome in
such a dull and dismal month. Hoorah for Hellebores!
Always the first to flower in any year is H. odorus a
scented species form
A superb floriferous clump of h. x hybridus, the so
called Lenten hellebore
A delicate pure white this is an anemone centred
form
A complex hybrid in the ericsmithii group is "Winter
Moonbeam" with superb foliage coming from the H.lividus part of the
cross.
H. niger, the so called "Christmas Rose" never in my
experience flowers for Christmas even in a warm December like this
one - lots of buds to come though
The beautiful architectural form of h. foetidus; an
unfortunate name for a tall elegant underrated
hellebore
Although I normally cut off all the old leaves from over 200+
plants that we have throughout the gardens as part of my post
Christmas regime, taking care not to cut off the emerging flower
stems in doing so, this year I have had to get on with it sooner.
The reasons it is recommended to do this are: to prevent the spread
of blackspot on the leaves to the new flowers, to make it easier to
see them, and to remove places for rodents to hide which are
voracious eaters of the developing flowerbuds. Some years ago,
before I had time to cut the leaves back, I lost the majority of
flowers to rodents, but a few late ones came towards the end of the
flowering season in late March. I also have pots of hellebores in
the nursery to attend to.
Leaves before cutting back
6 hellebores revealed after the cutting
back!
Wildlife and Countryside
Apart from our year round resident birds (robins, wagtails and
tits of various kinds and of course the red kite) there is little
other wildlife to be seen. Since putting up the electric fence
around the Paddock Pond there have been no otter predations but I
did see flying overhead recently a cormorant - we are 30 miles from
the nearest coast. They are known to move inland during the winter
and you certainly don't want one of them in your fish pond!
Hopefully the Koi carp are safe in their protected
pond
I suppose the countryside "highlight" was the flowering of a
couple of celandines along the stream bed.- that shows how
desperate I am for news! But it is exceptionally early for a plant
that normally comes into bloom in February
Visits
A short break in the Cotswolds early in the month was a great
antidote to the bad weather and incredibly we had a couple of dry
days and even saw the sun - remember that? Based in The Lords of
the Manor Hotel with a Michelin* restaurant we revisited some small
towns that we haven't been to for many years including Stow-on
the-Wold, Moreton-in Marsh and best of all Chipping Campden which
is the archytipal small Cotswold town. There are of course plenty
of others too.
Chipping Campden - the town seems to be on a slope
in this poorly composed picture! Only the flag post is upright -
something wrong there!!
Whilst in Chipping Campden much to our delight we found the
memorial garden to Ernest Wilson, the famous late 19th early 20th
Century plant hunter who was born in the town. Collecting primarily
in China he introduced around 1,200 species of plants, trees and
shrubs in particular. For more info go to www. wikepedia.org and
search for Ernest Henry Wilson
Pictures taken from the very informative information
board at the entrance to the garden
Perhaps his most exciting discovery in 1903 was lilium regale
which were found in rocky terraine in great numbers. Just imagine
what impact the sight and scent of these wonderful flowers must
have had upon him.
Sadly after collecting as many as could be carried, his leg was
broken in a terrible landslide and for the rest of his life he
walked with what he called his "lily limp".
The inviting entrance to the intimate
garden
And to bring me up to date with modern day plant hunting I
attended a talk in mid month given by Bleddyn and Sue Wynne Jones
the owners of the world famous Crug Farm Nursery.
They have been plant hunting for 25 years in locations all
around the world and they are still finding plants that have never
previously been collected. The subject of their talk was "Plant
Hunting in the Northern Mountains of Vietnam". Illustrated with
superb pictures and packed with fascinating plants many of which
were entirely new to me and most of the rest of the
audience.
This is the handout for the talk, If you can read it see
how many of the featured plants you recognise.
Their passion and knowledge was infectious and they were
generous with their time to answer questions long after the talk
ended. It was a memorable experience and shed a light on all that
is involved in providing gardeners around the world with new
plants. Visit their wonderful website www.crug-farm.co.uk for a
voyage of discovery and the mail order plant list - you will be
mesmerised! The perfect antidote to the Christmas TV
schedules.
And for my final "Visit" item and as a little Christmas Quiz,
this is about a man who so far as we know, never left these shores
but his work has been all around the world. He was born and died on
the same date 23rd April - a true Englishman and next year the
400th Anniversary of his death will be celebrated. Who am I talking
about?
A few pictures to give you a clue
The entrance to HSBC Bank in his home town
His marital home
In the kitchen is the original floor he would have walked on
every day (you wanted to kneel and kiss it!!)
A fine building in his home town of
Stratford-on-Avon
Surely by now you will have guessed the identity
of The Bard - the one and only William Shakespeare. It was great to
go back to Stratford after an absence of 18 years when I saw
"Twelfth Night" there.
So to finish on a seasonal note.
Mistletoe on one of the many apple trees in the
immaculate gardens of "Anne Hathaways Cottage"
And window dressing in Chipping Campden
Seasons greetings and let us hope for a better
gardening year in 2016 and the best of health.
Keith and Moira