On a chilly overcast day in mid-March we decided to use the morning to wander around the garden at Oakgate taking photographs and identifying changes from the previous month.
Low growing herbaceous plants were giving such cheerful bright colours, especially those related to our native Primrose. There was such a variety of colours and several different forms of this family of plants.
Other low growers added interest beneath the many shrubs and trees. several flowering bulbs grew alongside pulmonarias and hellebores.
Of course these low-growers only look good when situated below interesting shrubs and trees, and Oakgate has a healthy supply of those.
Spiraea are such versatile little shrubs and being deciduous means that fresh growth appearing about now is so colourful. Hence we grow several different spiraea at home for just this reason and here at Oakgate they do the same.
I must admit that neither I nor Jude the Undergardener are fans of cammelias, their flowering period being so short and often shortened even more by a frost which turns them brown and forces them to drop. Once they have flowered the green glossy foliage is totally static and uninteresting. However I think we are in the minority so I shall feature some of those flowering at the moment at Oakgate.
In the hedge along the outside of the garden different cultivars of flowering quince, Chaenomeles superba were flowering along side a solitary winter flowering honeysuckle.
March has proved to be a colourful month for the gardens at Oakgate Garden Centre and Gardens, which bodes well for the spring and summer.
greenbenchramblings 