Author: HortPage 9 of 17

Flash frost

The forecast last night was for an overnight frost that would clear quickly. How right the forecast was, bright sunshine soon warmed the ice crystals with damaging consequences…

A Japanese Rhododendron

Rhododendron dauricum, in flower since mid-January. A good show of purple flowers on this native to east and north Asia, the seed from which this plant grew was…

Rampant Ivy

Two images, Ivy, Hedera helix covering both plants. The pine trunks are sturdy and it will take several seasons to smother these. The Viburnum is different, colonised at…

Prune and support

The season of gales and heavy rain can conspire to unseat climbing plants from their supports. Take a pair of secateurs and reduce the overhang growth which can…

Save a seed pod

The long arching seed pods of Glaucium flavum are splitting lengthways into longitudinal sections. The seeds long gone, now just sections of the pithy packaging remain within. Found…

Fresh and golden start to the year

During the short days it is good to have flowering plants in the garden; Lonicera myrtillus is a low growing deciduous shrub. The fresh yellow tubular flowers hang…

Review of the year 2016

January 2016 dawned with a frost, only – 0.4°c, but still a frost. This, following the wettest month for more than a century. December 2015 was also the…

The browns have it

As a base layer, the colour brown dominates at this time of year. Ideal as a foundation layer to the glitz of Christmas. Stephanandra tanakae has fine warmth…

Disintegrating seed pods

Sitting in an exposed site within the rock garden are plants of Alyssoides utriculata. This short lived woody perennial has seed capsules that resemble bladders. It is found…

Distinctly different

Two Euonymus sieboldianus are planted side by side in the Garden arising from two different collecting expeditions. They are deciduous branched shrubs covered in fruit; each plant having…

Snake bark maple

Now that the foliage is clearing from the deciduous canopies the full beauty of the trunk of Acer pensylvanicum is revealed. This seedling is now eight years old;…

Fermenting apples

Sorbus harrowiana is not the best specimen for displaying ornamental fruit but it does have a related back story. It is native to SW China where, as can…

Last vestige of autumn colour

Wrap up warmly and take the opportunity to appreciate the remainder of the autumn colour on the deciduous trees. The colder nights see the leaves dropping as the…

Styrax fruits

One of the Styrax officinalis plants growing at the west gate has produced several fruits. These hang elegantly from the previous season’s growth. The fruits resemble a grey…

Out of season Daphne

Daphne gemmata, is compact, with an inflorescence of clear yellow flowers. This species, a native to SW China where it is found growing in sun, well drained, stony…

Growing on the tufa scree with roots into a well-drained substrate is Chaenorhinum origanifolium. This perennial from Southern Europe is flowering well into autumn from a summer start….

Clematis

The Clematis akebioides growing at the east gate lodge is covered in flower. The buds are held on long stalks setting the flower out from the straggly stems….

Triangular Tricyrtis

This week sees a second member of the genus Tricyrtis in flower. T. formosana, this species standing tall and making a show in the peat walls. A profusion…

Pendulous Tricyrtis

Tricyrtis macrantha has the largest flowers of the genus; pendulous yellow tepals are stunning when shown well against the foliage. It is the inner corolla that adds interest,…

Bright and Berberis

This mottled pink foliage version of Berberis thunbergii is a cultivar known as ‘Pink Queen’. A vigorous thorn laden deciduous shrub that provides a mass of colour in…