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Weekly catch up with garden & propagation
POSTED 27th November 2025
Garden Team
Suddenly we’re at the end of November and bulbs are already staring to pop up in the Woodland and Water Gardens, which means it’s time for us to start cutting back.
We start in the Water Garden as the beds are more difficult to access after Christmas when the lawn is frosty most days. We cut back perennials and put the material to the side in order to weed the beds. Then we cut the material into smaller bits and sprinkle it back onto the beds where it acts as a nice mulch around plants and bulbs. This saves us trips to the compost heap and as it breaks down the plant material adds lovely organic matter to the soil.
In the Woodland Garden we have more ground covering plants, so there’s no need to cover the ground with mulch. Instead we collect the material for habitat piles or compost it.
This week we’ve waved goodbye to the pigs that have helped us clear our new land adjacent to the garden. They’ve done a fantastic job and now the area is ready to be sown with wildflower seeds - we look forward to showing you our new meadow next summer!
We were excited to sit down with Cathy who is back after spending a week at Great Dixter House and Gardens for a work placement. It’s wonderful to keep up the links between the two gardens, from the friendship between Beth and Christo, to the continued plant fair visits and enduring relationships between the gardens - it’s all about sharing the passion for gardening!
Propagation Team
Our bulbs are coming along brilliantly. We have a whole host of bulbalicious goodies to share with you all. A great variety of allium, camassia and tulipa are already looking strong. Just look at the roots of this Allium 'Summer Drummer'! This is an extremely tall and later flowering allium, sporting spherical flower heads of small, pale purple flowers, borne on sturdy stems. It remains in bud for months, before releasing its individual flowers, creating a real stop and stare point within the garden.
Emily has been busy propagating a customer favourite, Aeonium 'Zwartkop'. This evergreen succulent will gift us with tiny yellow flowers in early spring, but it's the deep blackish-purple leaves which makes it one of our most loved plants.
Aeonium 'Zwartkop'
The stockbed team, Miya and Sean, have been in out in force, planting and mulching. Sean was lent a hand by Mattie and Ed, where the focus was on reducing the size of some areas which were creeping a little too far over into their neighbours plot. Some plants who were served their boundary restriction notice were Lysimachia clethroides and Salvia verticillata 'Hannay's Blue'.
The rest of the team have been busy preparing our plants for the colder, damper months ahead, as well as picking and packing your orders which we are always grateful for. I also spotted our two horticultural experts, Steve and Beth recording our stock plants, making plans for next year when spring arrives!
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