Snow in the garden

Now winter is here and all memories of autumn colour are long fogotten.

This morning we woke up again to a blanket of snow, the snow came down vertically so my bamboos (Phyllostachys nigra) in the front garden where almost horizontal from the weight of the snow. In addition to clearing the driveway I also had to rescue the bamboos.
Later on the sun came out so I couldn't resist this picture of snowy Rosa 'Malvern Hills' against the blue sky.

Happy New Year

Autumn

Autumn has come suddenly this year, about two weeks ago.

We had a warm and dry autumn followed by a short cold spell, which makes for particularly good autumn colour.

This morning looking out from our dining romm window, the whole garden had a golden hue about it. I hope I managed to capture it.

It's interesting to see that not all trees turn colours at the same time. While the Liquidambar started showing signs of autumn right after the cold spell.

Some of the acers for example Acer Palmatum 'Seiryu' only just started showing their autumn colour. Perhaps because it is growing near the north wall of the house.

And then, there are those just at their peak.

Acer palmatum 'Sunset'

I suspect the leaves will mostly be gone with the next windy day we have, so I try to enjoy them while they last.

Glorious September

August was a fairly dull month, the roses were between flushes and the dahlias were eaten by slugs so many times, that there were hardly any flowers on them.

But, with the warm September came a new flush of flowers, most roses are again in full bloom and looking great.

Rosa 'Raphsody in Blue'

I guess cutting the roses back quite hard when dead-heading them keeps the shrubs neat and tidy, just the way I like them, but delays somewhat the next flush of flowers.

Unknown white rose saved from the original garden

Unusually the spring flowering viburnum also flowered, though it's already showing the beginning of autumn colour.

Viburnum 'Watanabe'

Global Warming?

This year was not particularly warm, with the exception of one hot week temperatures have been pleasant or below.

True, we had no spring frosts this year but could this explain the phenomenon?

Clematis Armandii

Clematis Armandii, which normaly flowers in March, in flower at the end of August. It is growing on a warm garage wall, but then it's been there for 5 years and it never flowered in August before.

First Signs of Autumn

It's August and the weather has been great in the last few weeks, but the first signs of Autumn can be seen in the garden already.

The Katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) is showing it's first colours.

While in the wild, in it's native Japan, this tree can reach 45m, keeping it in a pot reduced it's size considerably. It's been living in this pot for 3 years and looks happy. I will be cutting back the roots next spring and repotting it with new compost.

Out of Date Green Shoots

It's been a while since last post, but life got in the way.

I had a post all ready in my mind as soon as the first Dahlia shoots appeared in May, green shoots being such a popular phrase ....

My very first post almost two year ago was about Dahlias. I reported then that I do not dig them up in autumn. With the borders bursting with plants it would be quite difficult. After the freezing winter we had this year, I had my doubts, but, I am happy to report there were no casualties in the garden. While I missed the green shoots, some of the Dahlias are now in full bloom.

Dahlia 'White Perfection'

This year is the first we opened for the NGS, and we had excellent response. We had a total of 330 vistors, some coming from far away such as Devon and ... Sweden. The weather was good on both weekends and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

I look forward to next year's opening.

Dahlia 'Penelope'

Best in April

One of the highlights of the garden during the last month has been our flowering cherry (Prunus 'Shirofugen'). I always wanted a flowering cherry in the front garden, where the Japanese theme is stronger*, but was always unsure which one to chose.




Two years ago while in Malvern for the spring flower show we visited a tree nursery in the area. (Ornamental Tree Nursery in Herefordshire, they also have a good collection of Acer palmatum).

After a long drive we arrived to what seemed a fairly modest establishmnet, only to be surprised by the size of the place, and the huge selection of trees. We spent the afternoon walking between the rows, as we came upon the perfect flowering cherry, in full flower.
In the following years the display was not nearly as spectacular. Probably because of the late frosts.

This year was different, April was mild, and it hardly rained. The tree was full of flowers for almost a month, starting white, then turning pink before blowing away in the wind.

While the flowers are the main feature, this tree also has redish new growth, good autumn colour and an elegant form in winter.

* The Japanese tradition of 'Hanami' or Flower viewing is centruries old, and almost always means viewing of cherry blossom or 'sakura'.

Spring is Here to Stay

It looks like after a proper winter comes a proper spring. It came gently this year, in March, and unlike previous couple of years it did not go away again.
This means that we managed to complete Vi's garden at a leisurely pace, in preparation for our open garden in June.


The deck is comlete and the area between the deck and the border is covered in gravel over a layer of sand covered with weed suppressing fabric.
Most of the planting is also complete. The only major job left is completing the pergola over the deck.

Spring was generally warm and not too rainy so compared to previous years plants have put on good growth. The tips of the hostas are already showing and there are already buds on some of the roses. All acers are covered in beatiful spring leaves.
But the highlight in the garden in the last couple of weeks have been the tulips:

A mixture of orange (Tulipa 'Ballerina'), dark orange (Tulipa 'Abu Hasan'), white (Tulipa 'Spring Green' and lilac (can't remember the name ...).
The tulips were planted quite late last year (early December), and because of the mild spring they started flowering earlier then previous year, and lasted longer.
I don't intend to dig up the tulips after flowering. They are planted quite deep and if we have a relativley dry summer I am hopefull they will come back next year.

Is it spring yet….

Not much has happened in the garden during February. It snowed a few times and the garden was covered in snow for most of the month.

It was also colder then usual, and I feared some casualties. But there was surprisingly little damage to deal with. The greenhouse came out of the cold unscathed (which is probably reflected in our electricity bill). And in the garden the only casualties were a couple of Hebe. While most are hardy, it seems there are a few varieties which are not, which is not always clear from their labels.

As soon as the snow subsided we resumed work on Vi’s garden, starting by digging the electricity trenches. So we have proper sockets in the greenhouse and by the new deck.

A New Year

I did not write a post since October, because winter came quite suddenly and early this year, and not much happened in the garden in the last months. We had our first snow when the leaves were still on the trees

as well as spectacular autumn colours, probably as a result of the frosty nights.

December was very cold, dipping down to -6C on some nights, and staying bellow freezing during the day as well on some days. Not really gardening weather. The frequent frost did lend itself to some beautiful photographs.

I can count on one hand the number of days when we could actually work outside, and we used those to setup the frame for the new deck in Vi's garden. I will post some images on our progress in my next post. Meanwhile I wish you all a happy new year, cross your fingers for a real summer in 2009.