Open Day for National Gardens Scheme. Notes for Visitors
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Introduction and review of the year to date
It is difficult to believe that it is exactly a year ago that we
had our last Open Day in the middle of a very wet spell of weather
and had to endure a torrential downpour with over 200 people in the
garden. From the weather of the last few days it appears that
history may be repeating itself but we are keeping our fingers
crossed for fine weather on Sunday 25 July from 1 - 5 pm.
It has certainly been a very challenging weather year from the
coldest winter in the 34 years we have been at Cilgwyn Lodge with
the lowest recorded temperature of -16C in January, a cold and very
dry spring, late frosts in mid May, warm sunshine and drought like
conditions in June to monsoons in July!!
In spite of all this most plants are doing what they do best -
getting on with the business of growing, flowering and producing
seed to secure future generations. The old border stalwarts like
geraniums, delphiniums, phlox, campanulas, shasta daisies, hostas
and hemerocallis have not been affected by the challenging growing
conditions and seem to be flowering more profusely than for some
years. Many of them will still be looking good for the Open Day and
with some deadheading and cutting back will continue for some
time.
We are pleased that in spite of a few losses, many of the shrubs
we feared we had lost are slowly coming back, and amazingly many
dahlias, salvias, dieramas, lobelias, impatiens especially
tinctoria and arguta, have survived in the ground and are starting
to put on a later show than usual.
What to look for in July
We have our main Open Day in July because there is collectively
more to see now than at any other time of the year. Most of the
principal borders, especially those in the Paddock Garden, are at
their best and fullest and the vegetable garden is bursting with
veg and fruit (there are currently 16 varieties of vegetable
available for harvest and the peas are particularly productive at
the moment). The vegetable garden with the current trend for home
grown produce, now attracts much more interest than was the case
when we first opened in 2000. It is no wonder that sales of
vegetable seeds in the UK in the last couple of years have exceeded
those of flowers.
The annuals we sow every year in modules under protection in
February and March are real stalwarts and include poppies of many
sorts, cornflowers, nicotianas including "Lime Green", langsdorfii,
affinis, suaveolens, and silvestris, orlaya grandiflora, nasturtium
"Milkmaid", usrsinia speciosa and this year two fabulous blue
annuals new to us, nolana and convolvulus "Blue Ensign" are putting
on a good show. We are also pleased with a candytuft, iberis giant
hyacinth flowered that is more upright in habit than most
candytufts. It has drawn many glowing comments from visitors to the
Gardens.
The clematis are getting into their stride and we grow many more
later flowering varieties than earlies. Vitcella "Prince Charles"
is looking very good with no mildew at present and lots of lovely
bluish flowers, but the current queen is a delightful
viticella/crispa cross "Betty Corning" with pendant scented bells
in a delicate shade of pale blue. We have already sold out of all
the plants of this we had for sale. The viorna group from the USA
is a large group of clematis characterised by tulip shaped
flowers in shades particularly of red and purple. We have an
expanding collection of these, including a very fine species form
of clematis texensis given to us by Keith Treadaway, a National
Collection holder, with exquisite if small flowers in a striking
shade of red. The texensis group have provided one of the parents
for all the red clematis currently in cultivation.
The complementary herbaceous borders in the Paddock Garden are
the main centre of attention with too many plants to name
individually but the overall effect of these two double borders in
a traditional style 40 yards long and up to 8 metres wide creates a
real "wow" factor as visitors enter the Paddock Garden.
The red border has attracted some very glowing testimonials and
has been favourably compared by visitors to some of the best red
borders in gardens far larger than our own. It is particularly
gratifying and humbling because it has not been easy to find red
flowered plants and shrubs that sit comfortably with each other.
Trial and error has been the only way that we have achieved this.
One of the latest additions has been an asiatic lily"Black Pearl"
in a wonderful shade of the deepest magenta and exceptionally large
flowers. It is amazing how hardy many lilies are in the open ground
and each year we plant more and more.
One final area of the garden which is looking good is the
Paddock Pond. The water lilies have been fantastic, there is hardly
any duckweed thanks to a family of mallards in the spring, and a
vigorous regime of blanket weed removal has ensured clearer and
warmer water which has benifitted the waterlilies. There are many
tadpoles hatching into frogs and toads and on sunny days the air
has been thick with dragonflies. The seats around the pond
are a great place to have a well earned cup of tea and delicious
cake before continuing your tour of the garden and the obligatory
visit to the Nursery
The Nursery
There is a wide selection of well grown plants from the garden
at very reasonable prices for sale. Cultural and other advice is
freely available either from Keith, or our friends, fellow
nurserymen and plant nuts, Tony Marden of shadyplants.com and
Richard Bramley of Farmyard Nurseries whom we hope to have selling
plants for us on Sunday. Incidentally Tony will be bringing some of
his shade plants for sale including his amazing range of arisaemas
and amorphophallus. Visit www.shadyplants.com for
further information.
Teas
Once again our teas will be served by the ladies of Myddafi WI
Regular visitors testify to the excellence of the cakes and the
range available. All are home made in keeping with the finest
traditions of the WI movement. There are two serveries in the
Gardens; one in the summerhouse in the Paddock Garden, the other
under the pergola adjoining the house. There are plenty of seats in
the garden to enjoy your teas. Why not see if you can have a piece
of cake in each of the main 5 seating areas (other visitors have
been known to try it during the course of a fine afternoon!!!)
A round up of other visits in July
We have had 9 group visits since the Gardens opened in early
June, as well as many private individual visits throughout the
period. In July we have had visits from Wales Historic Gardens
Trust, Talybont-on Usk and Ferryside Garden Clubs and last Sunday
The British Hosta and Hemerocallis Society. All were a great
success in mostly fine weather. Sadly last Sundays visit was held
in rain but it did not spoil the enjoyment of the visitors who came
from all over the UK from as far apart as Aberdeen and London
including 2 from Sweden. There were some well known and extremely
knowledgeable plants people and it was a privilege to have them
visit us. They held a good fun plant auction to raise money for
Society funds and there were some very rare hostas on offer, of
which of course we bought some!
We also had a visit from the garden photographer Charles Hawes
of Veddw House in Monmouthshire who co-produced the recent book
"Discovering Welsh Gardens", and his garden writer wife Anne
Wareham. It was pleasure to show them around the Gardens and take
tea with them.
We continue welcome visitors to the Gardens in August and
September. Just give us a call to make sure that we will be around
before setting out to visit us (please see garden leaflet or the
website for contact details). We will not be available from 26 July
until 4 August.