Month: October 2025

Plas Neuadd Anglesey

Looking back to warmer months I will share a post about one of our days on Anglesey. Still on the southern coast of the isle of Anglesey but this time to the west of the bridge, we found a National Trust Property which overlooked the Menai Straits.

Plas Neuadd is sometimes spelt as Plas Newydd. It is the home of the Marquis of Anglesey and is a Grade 1 listed building which includes the 40 acres of garden and the 129 acres parkland and woodland. On this visit we were concentrating on the gardens. The gardens here enjoy the effects of the Strait giving interesting planting opportunities in the micro-climates.

The first shrub to catch the eye was Calycanthus ‘Hartladge Wine’ with its wonderful deep red flowers. Although we grow this shrub in our garden at home we always get excited finding it in other gardens.It is one of those plants that draws us in every time we see it

Our walk was soon interrupted when we noticed the views across the Menai Straits to the mainland and the mountains of Snowdonia.

Returning to the gardens we next found an ancient horse chestnut in full flower. The structure of the flowers and the palmate shaped foliage work so beautifully together.

We walked alongside a long row of these chestnuts towards what looked like quite open woodland. This group of three golden trees was our next target. A haha showed us the way.

However as we reached the area of trees we were distracted by bright red wispy flowers, which was part of a group of flowering small trees. The others had yellow flowers and chocolate flowers which made for a colourful trio.

Beneath our feet in the grass between the trees and shrubs wildflowers were growing giving delicate patches of colour.

As we neared the house and the straits we could near the sounds of youngsters enjoying messing about in the water. In reality they were highly organised and well behaved ,which they needed to be in these difficult waters.

Nearer the house there were a mixture of borders planted up with easy maintenance shrubs, no adventurous planting going on here.

As we left the garden we found this wonderful original garden bench in the garden shop. This ensured we left with smiles on our faces.

Tags flowers, garden, gardening, hidden-gardens, nature, plants, Welsh gardens

Uncategorized

Bridgemere Show Gardens September

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 13, 2025
3 Comments on Bridgemere Show Gardens September

We usually like to speculate the changes that we might notice as we drive towards Bridgemere Garden Centre’s Show Gardens, but after the strange weather we have endured in recent months we really couldn’t make any guesses. We wanted to see which plants were recovering after the summer drought and expected to find some that had succombed.

As usual we stopped at the Cottage Garden first, which looked as if it had started recovering well. Verbena bonariensis and eupatorium were giving plenty of colour and colour also came from the blushed apples that had fallen to the ground.

The Dahlias in the Cottage Garden looked as if we had never experienced a drought this summer, they glowed richly as they did throughout the gardens.

Deep red with green foliage Yellow with deep purple foliage

Alongside dahlias, asters are at their best at this time of the year so we looked out for them throughout the garden with other autumn flowering perennials.

Of course, the most obvious sign of autumn was the change in colour of tree and shrub foliage, the appearance of yellows, oranges and reds on leaves.

Another sign of this season is noticing berries, fruits, nuts and seeds being produced by trees and shrubs. There were plenty of plants busy loading their branches with these colourful additions.

We noticed among the autumnal features dominating the garden there were interesting plants with coloured foliage.

Even at this time of year flowering shrubs are adding extra colour to the gardens. So I will finish off this report of our September visit to the show gardens at Bridgemere with these three photos of shrubs in flower.

Uncategorized

My Garden Journal September 2025

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 2, 2025

September arrived with sun and clear skies, a continuation from August but it soon changed to allow more rain and cooler temperatures to take over with odd interludes when the sun returned. Strong winds have been a feature too with gale force at times. For my first page I noted that,“September has sneaked in. The first few days of the month have carried on in exactly the same way as August, hot and dry.

The Met Office tell us that we have entered a new season. Summer has given way to Autumn, but in reality there is no change. I think that September should be tagged onto Summer.”

I then shared photos of colourful plants in our garden.

On the opposite page I looked at just a few of the gardening jobs we have been working on this month. I wrote that, “Some days during August the days were too hot were too hot to do garden tasks, so now that it was slightly less hot we took the opportunity of getting on with the monthly tasks we had on our list.”

Now is the time to cut the mixed hedge – no birds nesting! We planted three astrantias below Cornus mas.

We changed the seasonal plants in our three welcome boxes, using Hebe tricolor, Dianthus ‘Red’, Ceanothus ‘Skylark’, Cotoneaster ‘Coral Beauty’ and Physocarpus ‘Diablo’. When we change the planting scheme next time the shrubs will be planted into the garden.

Turning over to the next page we find photos about roses in all their stages from buds to full blooms to mature hips.I wrote that,“September is a good month for roses as many are still flowering so buds and flowers are seen together with hips forming on some.”

Rosa ‘Summer Wine’ from buds to hips.

Rosa ‘Blush Noissette – bud, bloom, and dying bloom all together.

Bobby James, a rambler, produces plenty of hips.The second photo shows the hips in mottled light.

Rosa glauca covered in hips. Our largest hips.

Carrying on from roses my next page continued to be concerned with colour in the borders. Here I wrote, “Apart from the roses there are plenty more surprises to catch the eye. As days alternate between blue sky sunny days and dark wet days these plants look good whatever.”

Hardy begonia, tulbaghia and sedum.

Dahlia, sedum and echinacea.

Helenium, rudbeckia, achillea and patrinia.

More colourful perennials star on the following page where I noted that,“One of the shining stars of our borders this month is the Aster family. There are so many available and we grow quite a few. I still use the name Aster as I am not sure about all the name changes imposed onto gardeners by the DNA botanists. They show no respect for gardens, plant hunters and us gardeners.”

Wildlife in our garden features on the opposite page from our asters. I noted that, “As the month moves on temperatures slowly drop and are now in the mid to upper teens, which means that the number of insects, spiders, bees and butterflies reduces too. This Large White came into the house allowing us to see its beautiful markings. Small blue butterflies have been showing more than we can ever remember before. Ladybird numbers have remained high all month keeping us free of aphids. Frogs join us in the borders as we work but retreat to the closest pond when we disturb them.”

Garden Spiders come in such beautiful colours. They construct amazing webs.

It is good to get such close up looks at a wasp. Colours and markings are beautiful and they have such beautiful yellow legs.

Turning over the page and we see another of my 30 second sketches, this time the subject is one of our hardy begonias.

On the opposite pageI looked once again at plants providing colour for us and I wrote, “There are still plenty of plants flowering away strongly this month giving us colourful patches particularly the perennials. But there are still a few climbers, shrubs, and trees performing too.”

On the next double page spread I firstly share a watercolour sketch of Solidago rugosa “Fireworks”.

The final page shows us working away on seasonal tasks in our garden. I commented that, “Extremes of weather, dry, wet, windy whatever happens work in the garden goes on. We tidied up our Shrub Border, planted three different astrantias beneath our Cornus mas and the shed building moves on.”