with Pete
Well, we finally had a meaningful amount of rain this week, which we and the plants are all celebrating! The heavy rain didn't dampen Emily, Annie and Jess' spirits as they loaded the van full of beautiful plants and headed off to Audley End for the BBC Gardeners' World Fair plant fair this weekend. Be sure to swing by, say hello and be inspired by their stunning display garden.
Angela has brought her plant expertise to the nursery. Stocking up, making sure the display benches are looking glorious, and helping out customers with their questions and queries.
Kathy and Jack have braved the changeable weather this week to pick plants for the online orders. Callum, Kiran, Debs and myself have been carefully packing them up and sending them on their way to gardens new.
Jana has been on the stand off area cutting back and tidying up Diascia personata 'shorter form', Artemisia schmidtiana 'Nana' and Cynara cardunculus. This maintenance will produce fresh new growth and a stronger, more vigorous plant.
with Scott
We have to start this week with news of the arrival of long awaited and much appreciated rain. Tuesday brought 20mm which fell steadily all day, visibly soaking the ground and giving temporary relief to both garden and gardener. This is by far the most significant amount to fall here since early June and though not enough to end the drought, its hopefully the first of far more to come this autumn.
The early part of the week was spent planting hundreds of colchicum corms. Known as the autumn crocus, this beautiful plant flowers in September and October in a colour range from very pale pink, almost white, through lilac to purple. The new flowers start as tight goblet shapes that gently fall open over time. We had a mix of named varieties like C. 'The Giant' and C. 'Waterlily' and a collection of lost named plants we dug from stock bed due for renewal. It's so nice to see this splash of colour added under trees and shrubs around the garden.
Midweek we undertook Cathy's fern ident. It was amazing to see how many we have in the garden and how different the forms can be. I definitely need to do my homework on this test!
The second half of the week has been spent rejuvenating the bed opposite Andrew's bench at the end of the shady walk. This space had become dominated by ground covering symphytum and tangled lamium which we gently removed from the soil allowing for a fresh start.
We wanted this space to balance the bed opposite that contains more forms, shapes and textures so we spent time in our growing tunnels looking a possible options. It's a relatively dry and shaded bed so this was our starting point.
Some of the notable plants we collected were Hosta 'Frances Williams' with glaucous leaves edged with yellow, Galium odoratum - sweet woodruff giving a carpet of green stars and white flowers in spring, Tricyrtis 'Empress' the toad lily, autumn flowering with unusual speckled white and purple flowers and Pulmonaria [Opal] ('Ocupol') with large spotted leaves and clusters of pale blue flowers.
We're looking forward to it settling in and for you to see it develop.
COMMENTS