Category Archives: Gardening Thoughts

Spectular Autumn, October 2015

I am sure like me you have all been glorying in the wonderful autumn we have had. This autumn seems to have been particularly specular with our deciduous trees and shrubs giving us a lengthy show, due to mild weather and a lack of autumn storms.

From motorway embankments ablaze with the reds of deciduous cotoneasters and cornus, to the dripping berries of street Sorbus to the mixed woodlands of the Weald and the ornamental park landscapes of Westonbrit and Sheffield Park and everything in between, it has been a visual delight over many weeks.

Obviously we do not all have many acres to play with, but even a small town garden can have it’s own autumn blaze.

Trees: the fiery reds of Rhus, are an eye smacking treat, as long as you can cope with the suckering habit, there is everything to love about this tree with a good architectural shape (as long as it is not pruned too insensitively) and long pinnate leaves and it’s velvety cone like fruits are a tasty food for many birds. For an extra twist plant R.tinus ‘Lacinata’ with it’s extra ‘toothed’ leaves.

R. 'Lacinata'

R. ‘Lacinata’

R. 'Laciniata'

R. ‘Laciniata’

Also Sorbus gives you a double autumn hit with great leaf colour and berries in hues from pink, to yellow and red. There are many smaller varieties like S. ‘Joseph Rock’ and S. ‘hupehensis’ which are very suitable for the smaller garden. They do struggle on very chalky soils.

S. 'Joseph Rock'

S. ‘Joseph Rock’

 

Shrubs: For a big punch and a large space one of my favourites, Parrotia persica. The leaves of different hues from buttercup yellow, flaming orange, to cardinal red all at once, it takes your breath away. It has a wonderful shape, a Martini glass with no stem, elegance, with or with out leaves.

P. persica

P. persica

P. persica

P. persica

Now a shrub that punches well above it’s weight and is not planted nearly enough in my mind. Once you have seen it, it will never be forgotten. Callicarpa bodinieri ‘giraldii’ a medium size shrub a little slow, but worth the wait, for maximum effect plant at least two, to get good berries. The delicate foliage turns a pink/purple which matches perfectly the clusters of small round purple berries they look as magical as cake decorations. It is a stunner and to get the full effect of the berries once the leaves have dropped, give it a good evergreen shrub backer. Well worth the planting space in anyone’s garden. Also C. bodinieri ‘Profusion’ for an even bigger berry hit.

C.bodinieri 'Giraldii'

C.bodinieri ‘Giraldii’

So now the temperatures are finally cooling to the seasonal norm and the autumn gales have started and the trees and shrubs are nearly naked of their leaves, while your head is down working hard raking them and turning them into leaf mould and no doubt the task seems endless. Do not forget the visual delight of the past 6 weeks. Get enthusiastic, start planning with winter planting of trees and shrubs that will give you all that autumn spectacle to be enjoyed next year.

If you need help? I know a woman who can! Give me ring, I will be delighted to discuss your new planting with you. Tel:01273 470753

In wonder of the June Garden

Mid- summer is the height of beauty for a traditional English garden. June is the month of busting pastel shades and heady scents, the breaded Irises have a few splashes left, dripping wisterias hang heavy with purple racemes and the full nodding heads of pink and magenta peonies exude summer richness, but it is the rose in it’s full unbridled glory that takes the garden to heavenly heights.

Now is the time of year when even the hardiest of garden cynics can not help but have their heart melted by the profusion of colour, and perfume.

Even a short stroll to work or school will take you past front gardens over-flowing with an abundance of mid-summer charm. Carpets of pink and purple hardy ground cover geraniums, banks of green foliage and trumpets of yellow and orange day lilies, climbing roses skirting their way round door frames, and heady honey suckle tumbling over fences.

Garages and sheds disappear under a riot of sugar pink clematis and shocking pinks of rambling roses intend on covering all before them. Window boxes are crammed with geraniums, which tumble forth in frothy scarlets and pinks and Pub fronts drip in vivid hanging baskets that gently sway in the summer breeze.

Who could not be in love with the great out doors in June, whether enjoying a pint of Harveys on a summer evening in the pub garden or having a tea time picnic in Grange gardens or just peaking over the fence to admirer the fruits of someone else’s hard labours.

By Emily Blake-Dyke

The Triumphant Tulip

Tip-toe through the tulips… a walk round Lewes.

The crisp Spring air and the bright yellow trumpeting daffodils have now left us as April fades. May arrives with the promise of longer days, warmer rays and the brilliant colours of late Spring in the garden.

Tulips are a late Spring delight for keen gardeners and garden pleasure seekers alike; from the brilliant butter yellow stalwart T. ‘Big Smile’, to the brash cardinal red of T. ‘Kings blood’, under-planted with the jewel-box colours of mixed pallet wall flowers as seen in many Lewes District public planting schemes. Many a Lewes front garden features groups of ivory tulips like T. ‘White Trumpeter’, interlaced with the dark velvety richness of T.’ Queen of the Night’, or the subtle beauty of T. Shirley with its white and purple streaked petals. Grand pots either side of many Lewes front doors are planted with tall pink and purple combinations of the elegant lily-style tulips T. ‘Barcelona’, who’s petals gently reflex outwards producing a delicate flower. On Lewes twitterns and terraces, old tins and boots recycled into planters are bursting with the vibrant yellows of T.’ West Point’ a superb lily tulip and the deep glowing orange of T. ‘Ballerina’.

Then there are tulips immortalised by the Dutch masters; blousy, over-the-top and oozing glamour, these are the haute couture of the tulip world. Parrot tulips, from single feather-edged creations like T. ‘Oviedo’, to doubles T. ‘Rai’ which produce a flower that is almost frilly. Many forms are bi-coloured with a basecoat which is crossed with thin crazed lines T. ‘Estella Rynveld’, others have an almost shimmering hue with their feather edges dipped in a contrasting tint T. ‘Davenport’.

There is just so much to love and admire about the tulip. No matter what your taste there must surely be one to excite the pallet of everyone. During May revel in the many delightful varieties by taking a stroll through Grange Gardens; as the days lengthen so do its opening hours, until twilight. Enjoy!