The gardens are bursting into bloom

With Easter around the corner, the gardens are looking truly lovely. Fresh shoots pushing through the soil, blossom opening, and that unmistakable feeling that spring has finally settled in.

I'm often ask which part of the garden is my favourite and I find it an impossible question to answer. The truth is, it shifts constantly as the seasons turn, transforming the gardens. Each moment brings its own magic. Still, there are certain times I wait for with real anticipation each year – moments when a particular plant steps into the spotlight and, for a while, transforms the whole scene.

In early spring, it’s the dog’s tooth violet, Erythronium dens-canis. Just for a moment it adorns the edge of the path along the Grassy Walk, its rose-pink petals curved backwards like cyclamen in the sunshine. As April leans towards May, the Judas tree, Cercis siliquastrum, makes a breathtaking sight in the Reservoir Garden, its bare, sculptural branches smothered in pink blossom.

In early summer, I eagerly wait for the moment the pointed olive-green buds of Tulipa sprengeri - the last of the species tulips to bloom - split open and reveal the bright scarlet petals. A month later or so, the long, wispy awns of Stipa barbata, begin to sway and shimmer in the slightest breeze, giving a fleeting performance in the Gravel Garden before the wind carries away the ripened seed.

In March and April the garden shifts almost daily, with fleeting moments that can pass in a blink. Now that the blue carpets of Scilla sardensis have faded in the Gravel Garden, other plants step into the spotlight. Bergenia, those indispensable Elephant’s ears - read our blog about them HERE – along with Anemone pavonina and luminous, acid-yellow Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii now take centre stage among the green and silvery mounds of lavandula, cistus, santolina and Pseudodictamnus mediterraneus. Throughout the year those evergreen shrubs hold the space, a steady presence, letting drifts of annuals, perennials, bulbs and grasses weave their shifting seasonal displays around them.

By contrast, the borders in the Water Garden undergo a far more dramatic transformation. In late winter, once the perennials have been cut back, the space appears flat and bare. Yet within weeks spring-flowering bulbs emerge, followed by the bold foliage of gunnera, ligularia and lysichiton as they begin to frame the ponds. By late summer, the lush growth has formed a screen that nearly obscures the water from view as one enters the garden.

 

 

 

Being able to enjoy the gardens through every season is a true gift, seeing how they shift and change with each season.

 

As I write this, Amelanchier lamarkii is poised to open its delicate buds, just as the young coppery foliage unfurls, later maturing to a fresh green. Beth loved this tree, repeating it throughout the gardens. With a little cooperation from the weather, its star-shaped flowers will form delightful white clouds just in time for Easter.

 Åsa, Head Gardener