Category: ornamental trees and shrubs

Autumn in an Arboretum and Afternoon Tea

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 7, 2018

We were lucky to receive a voucher for an afternoon tea from our son Jamie and daughter-in-law Sam, and of course little Arabella and decided to redeem it at a hotel down in the Cotswolds, near the village of Moreton-in-the-Marsh.

We drove down early and spent time wandering Batsford Arboretum, enjoying the colours of autumn leaves before the winds blew them from the branches. It was a dull day but the foliage glowed through the gloom. Most colour came from Acers and Liquidamber of many varieties of each. The wind had already whipped many leaves from their branches.

Of course autumn isn’t complete without the red, pinks, oranges and reds of berries, provided by Sorbus, Malus and here at Batsford by the unusual tree called Zanthoxylum planispinum (photo below left).

One area of the arboretum was strongly influenced by Japanese garden styles, complete with red painted wooden bridges.

While looking at this statue of Buddha we had to suddenly take refuge in the Japanese tea house nearby from a quick but heavy shower in.

We only just allowed ourselves enough time to reach Charingworth Manor for our afternnon tea booked for three in the afternoon. On the journey there it began to rain slightly and the temperature dropped so we were glad to get inside this beautiful Cotswold manor house to the warm and dry. We sat to enjoy our tea close to a huge log fireplace of golden Cotswold stone.

What a great day we had with autumn foliage, an amble around an arboretum finished off in style with afternoon tea.

Tags arboreta, arboretum, aut, autumn, autumn colours, autumn leaves, Batsford Arboretum, deciduous trees, garden in autumn, Gloucestershire, ornamental shrubs, ornamental trees

autumn autumn colours colours garden photography gardening gardens hardy perennials ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs trees

My Garden Journal 2018 – November

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 3, 2018
2 Comments on My Garden Journal 2018 – November

This is the penultimate post in this 12 part series about my 2018 Garden Journal so here is what was happening in our patch in November.

The first couple of pages dealt with the continued redevelopment of our old hot garden. We intended to give it a completely new look including bark access paths through it.

I wrote, “The re-development of the old hot garden continued to the end of the month and into the first days of November.” The first picture shows Jude the Undergardener holding up a huge root which Ian managed to dig out of the bed. He had to cut it off at both ends as it was extending beneath the lawn in one direction and out of our garden in another. It sat horizontally in the soil just above the boulder clay layer. We have no idea what plant it belonged to originally. One of our gardening mysteries! The second photo shows Ian our garden helper raking over the soil which he had meticulously double dug after adding lots of organic compost. This first addition of compost was dug in before a second batch was added as a thick mulch.

We then laid a path of bark over membrane before getting ready to enjoy planting both our new and saved plants.

On the right hand page I looked at how Jude spent time early in the month cleaning pots, cleaning the glass in the greenhouse and putting up bubblewrap insulation. Once done this allowed us to move my succulent collection into the winter safety to be found under glass. “Jude washed and cleaned all our plastic pots so that we can reuse them. Our hot bench was cleaned up and bubblewrap put up in place as insulation. My succulent collection is now snug and secure in the sparkling clean greenhouse.”

Turning over to my next double page spread I looked at our fruit and the continuation of planting up the new border.

I wrote, “This is the latest in any year that we have harvested our crop of apples from our main trees and heritage cordons. We have used the beautiful book “The Apple Book” by Rosie Sanders to check the indentification of those apples whose labels have been lost. The apples are now ready for storage and we will hopefully enjoy them through to the end of March.”

Sometimes fruit can surprise us. “This year saw us grow the biggest pear we have ever seen. Jude has now put our apples in store and I have printed new labels for every apple tree. The next stage will be to enjoy eating our apples from storage and then next spring the blossom will return.”

My diary moved on to look at us planting up the newly created border which used to be our Hot Border, “After a few days away in London we returned refreshed and ready to continue with our new border. Planting grasses and herbaceous perennials topped off by bulb planting gave us several days work. Work we love doing!”

“We planted hundreds of bulbs and dozens of grasses and perennials, all in the dry week given to us in mid-November.”

Next I moved on to consider one of our favourite tree families the Sorbus and on the opposite page I sought out flowers choosing to brighten us up in gloomy November.

“We love Sorbus in their many guises but particularly delight in the cut leaf berrying varieties. When we lost our mature tree of Quince vranja we decided to replace it with another Sorbus to add to our small collection. November is the key month for Sorbus as the fire like colours of foliage adds another layer of interest on top of their delicately cut foliage and their colourful berries. Below are some of our Sorbus trees.

Sorbus Joseph Rock Sorbus Autumn Spire

Sorbus Autumn Spire Sorbus aucuparia

Sorbus Apricot Queen Sorbus Apricot Queen

Sorbus vilmorinii Sorbus vilmorinii

On the page opposite the Sorbus I share the flowers that cheer up the November garden.

“The flowers of November are fewer than earlier in the year but this makes every one of them extra special.”

The colour orange features on the left hand side of my next double page spread, where I look at the variety of orange featuring in our November garden.

“Orange is the dominant foliage colour in our November garden, as shrubs, trees and grasses set fire to the borders.”

Opposite the oranges was a delicate watercolour pencil sketch of a hosta leaf, about which I wrote, “Take one leaf, a hosta leaf drying out and draining of colour.”

The final page for November considers colours once again. November was a very colourful month overall.

A set of eight photos display colours from our shrubs, and alongside I wrote, “Deep into the month there is still so much colour in the garden. Some foliage deepens to rich ruby shades.”

The final photo is of the foliage of a special small tree, a viburnum with leaves which make you think it is a betula at first sight. “The leaves of Viburnum betulifolium change colour so slowly with subtle deepening from bronze to dark red.”

So there is just one monthly report left to write in my Garden Journal for 2018, December, which will be my next post in this series.

Tags autumn, autumn colours, autumn gardens, autumn leaves, berried trees, berries, fruit and veg growing, fruit., garden in autumn, ornamental grasses, ornamental shrubs, ornamental trees, sorbus

autumn autumn colours climbing plants colours garden design garden photography gardening gardens grasses hardy perennials light light quality ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs pelargoniums Shropshire shrubs South Shropshire

My Garden Journal 2018 – October

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 7, 2018
2 Comments on My Garden Journal 2018 – October

Here we are in October, my 10th visit to my garden journal this year. I love October, with its special rich light and the fire and flame colours of foliage on trees, shrubs and perennial plants alike.

The first words in my October journal were, “With October came our first signs of Autumn, foliage on perennials, shrubs and trees are all colouring up – yellows, oranges and reds. Green is becoming a far less dominant colour.” I have taken lots of colourful photos to share what we can see each time we wander out into our garden.

On the next page my photos one of the most colourful of all autumnal shrubs, the deciduous Euonymus, and I wrote, Our deciduous Euonymus are at their best in October, foliage and berries.”

Over on the next double page spread and on the following page too, I continued to look at our current projects.

I wrote, “Moving on with our project, creating a new border to replace our rather jaded foliage bed, we positioned the plants in pots, moved them around until they looked just right. The planting could then get underway.”

“We decided that for another autumn and winter task we would re-design our Hot Border which was looking a little jaded. This simple decision soon became far more complicated. We ended up making the bold decision to move the new Hot Garden to a completely different part of our patch. But first we had to finish work on the new bed featured on the opposite page. Bulbs had to be planted and an access path made along the backof the border plus a couple of Liriope muscari needed planting.”

“A selection of bulbs and a few more Carex get planted.”

“Ian, our gardener, creates a new acess path for the back of the new border.”

“Two Liriope muscari now enjoy their new home.”

Moving on to the next double page spread I share the beginnings of developing the new front border to replace the original Hot Garden. I wrote,“As Ian trimmed our Lavender Hedge, I began stripping out the original Hot Border. As I dug plants up, Jude repotted any we wished to keep, if necessary splitting them up too.”

The front border soon looked empty and Ian improved the soil by double digging and and incorporating organic compost and forking it all through. It is now easily workable and feels a perfect texture.

On the opposite page to our front border adventures I shared some of my paintings of October seedheads, created using graphite pencil and Japanese water colour brush pens.

I wrote, “When the sun shines bright on a dry October day, its rays catch each delicate seedhead atop the fine stems of perennials. The slightest breeze invite these lightweight beige, bronze, ginger and coffee seedheads to dance.”

The final double page spread brings colour back as we look at what is in flower during the last few days of the month. I wrote, “In contrast to the subtle colours of dried grasses and seed heads our late flowering climbers, shrubs and perennials are so bright!”

“Sharp contrasts give the garden added depth as the autumn sum dips lower in the sky.”

So we see the end of October with reasonable temperatures holding up and plenty of dry days to get out into the garden and get busy.

Tags garden in October, hardy perennials, light, light and shade, light quality, October, ornamental grasses, ornamental trees, shrubs and trees

autumn autumn colours colours garden paths garden photography gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials light light quality ornamental trees and shrubs Powis Powys shrubs Wales woodland woodlands

The Dingle Garden in October

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 18, 2018

October to my mind is the first month of the Autumn, whatever the metereological office says about September taking that role. We shall see what aspects of this new season we found and experienced when we took our October wander around the sloping woodland gardens of The Dingle near Welshpool.

The light was beautiful as we started to wander around the garden and it was the sort of light that lit up the colours of the foliage, emphasising that autumn had certainly arrived.

It certainly wasn’t just autumn foliage that was there to fascinate us, flowering perennials and shrubs were performing well too.

Several members of the Eunymus family both deciduous and evergreen grow happily in the woodland garden. They display such unusual berries usually orange with pink highlights.

The leaves of this fern reflected the shape of the Rhus foliage, a special variety with lovely cut leaves, Rhus typhina lancianata.

Fallen foliage beneath our feet looked like a Persian rug of many colours.

Autumn is also the season for fungi!

So there we have our look at The Dingle gardens for October, a colourful time of the year. Next month perhaps many leaves will be down leaving trees as skeletons.

Tags autumn, autumn colours, autumn gardens, deciduous euonymus, euonymus, garden trees, gardens of Powys, light, light and shade, light quality, ornamental trees, Powis, Powys, trees and shrubs

autumn autumn colours Cheshire garden design garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public ornamental trees and shrubs trees

Sorbus at Ness Botanic Gardens

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 12, 2018
3 Comments on Sorbus at Ness Botanic Gardens

As mentioned in my post about Ness Botanic Gardens themselves we were using the visit to study their many different Sorbus trees, to help us choose one for our garden. Here is a selection of those we found and liked. At the end of the post we shall share with you our shortlist drawn up during our visit.

The first cultivar which featured strongly in the carpark planting and around the garden was unusurpisingly Sorbus “Ness Pink”, a beautiful fastigiate structured tree with blue foliage and pale pink flowers. A stunning selection which immediately went onto our short list.

Next up was another neat tree with finely cut foliage and crisp yellow-orange berries, which was not labelled but later we found another that we thought was the same – Sorbus “Wisley Gold”. Another for the list!

Next ones we found in the pinetum were these deep pinkish berried trees, the one on the left is S. “Leonard Messell” and the other S.”Eastern Promise”.

We carried on in the woodland alongside the pinetum to find S. “Jospeph Rock” and S. coxii. We already have Joseph Rock growing at home and is a real favourite but we were not aware of coxii. It had the most beautiful glaucous foliage, but researching it is hard work as no-one seems to know much about it.

The pair that I photographed next were on the left S. discolor and on the right S. “Autumn Spire” which we already grow in our Avocet patch. Is a narrow upright tree with bright orang fruit looking fiery with red autumn colour.

Below are the next two Sorbus we came across and liked enough to photograph were sadly unlabelled. No help to us in seeking a selection for our garden. Good looking trees too!

We then were disappointed to find this pale yellow almost lemon berried tree had no label either. The one on the right is S. “Carmesina” a deep pink fruiting tree with pale glaucous foliage.

Two pink berried cultivars are featured next, the first with the palest pink possible, S.bulleyana, the second S. discolores with a deep blush to their pale pink.

At the end of the pinetum we came across a perfectly shaped rowan dripping with orange-yellow berries, Sorbus aucuparia “Dickeana”, a special specimen indeed.

We were delighted to discover on a grassed area on our return route to the centre among Betulas, a few more beautiful Sorbus, the red-leaved S. “Dodong Olympic Flame” and the more gentle S. Chinese Lace.

And to finish off a return to the magnificent Sorbus “Pink Ness”.

So what were the varieties that made it onto our short list? Here as promised is our selection from which we must seek out and purchase just one.

You may have guessed that Pink Ness is there, plus Chinese Lace, Dodong Olympic Flame and Wisley Gold. Great selection – hope you agree.

Tags autumn, autumn colours, berried trees, Cheshire, Cheshire gardens, flowering trees, gardens of Cheshire, Ness Botanic Gardens, rowans

autumn autumn colours Cheshire garden design garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public grasses hardy perennials ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs

Ness Botanic Gardens

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 6, 2018

We meet regularly with a group we went to teacher training college with back in 1969 to 1972, for a get together. We often meet up at a garden for morning coffee and lunch, with time to explore in between.

In early October we met up at Ness Botanic Gardens run by Liverpool University. Jude and I had visited several times over the years, so looked forward to reaquainting ourselves with this wonderful garden.

We hoped to get a good show of bark, foliage and berries from their many Acers, Betulas and Sorbus. We were particularly keen on looking at the Sorbus as we are currently seleceting a new one for our Avocet garden. We love so many and hoped this visit would help us choose.

Leaving the visitors centre we could see the strong sharp shadows emanating from trees and lying across the grass. Through these trees we were afforded long views across the lower gardens.

Beds to show the main plant families were cut into the grass and we enjoyed these before following a gravel path down the slope that took us to the wonderfully colourful late perennial borders.

The herbaceous perennial borders shone with grasses and Asters, growing below shrubs and trees displaying signs of autumn, coloured foliage, fruit and berries.

After enjoying these mixed borders we returned to the far side of the garden to explore.

We made our way back to the centre for lunch and then Jude and I carried on touring the garden in search of Sorbus varieties, while the rest of the group made their ways home.

In my next post I shall share the Sorbus discoveries with you.

Tags Cheshire, Cheshire gardens, garden photography, gardens of Cheshire, grasses, Ness Botanic Gardens, sorbus

garden design garden paths garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials light light quality nurseries ornamental trees and shrubs pathways shrubs Wales walled gardens woodland woodlands

Crug Farm – a planthunter’s woodland garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 27, 2018
3 Comments on Crug Farm – a planthunter’s woodland garden

We had not visited Crug Farm garden and nursery for several years, so taking advantage of our return journey from Anglesey we took a short detour to explore this woodland garden in Snowdonia. Driving into the little car park the yellow and orange poppies, Meconopsis cambrica, gave us a warm welcome.

I will now simply invite you to walk with us along the paths at Crug Farm sharing the atmosphere and the beautifully designed planting schemes, by following my gallery. Just click on the right arrow and navigate through using the arrows.

We left the woodland garden through a gateway that lead to the nursery set within a small walled garden. We enjoyed a walk around studying a large range of plants collected by owners the Bleddyn-Jones’. Of course we bought several to add to our shade borders.

Tags Crug Farm, Crug Farm Nursery, Crug Farm Woodland Garden, gardens of Wales, shade gardening, shade plants, woodland, woodland garden, woodland gardening

colours garden design garden paths garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials light light quality ornamental trees and shrubs Powis Powys shrubs trees Wales woodland woodlands

The Dingle Garden in July

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 24, 2018

Moving into the second half of the year, we wandered around the gravel paths of the Dingle Garden in late July. The day was dry with mixed clear skies with occasional cloud, but no rain came from them.

We immediately discovered the severe effects of this summer’s dry and hot temperatures. A mature conifer was turning shades of purple and brown as it was suffering from lack of water. Although colourful this was devastating for the tree. Elsewhere on the sloping parts of the garden the shrubs looked perfectly healthy and we enjoyed some great foliage contrasts and combinations.

Orange is a wonderfully effective colour for woodland planting, as flowers in this colour glow in the deepest shade and are caught by the sun. Yellow comes a close second!

Flowering shrubs are now coming into their own in the Dingle Garden, with Hydrangeas taking centre stage.

This is just a selection of the Hydrangeas putting on their show of blues, whites and pinks beneath the trees. We loved the variations in colour on individual flower heads.

Ferns look good almost the year through, but in the damp woodland atmosphere here at the Dingle they shone with health.

Herbaceous perennials appear in a few places beneath the trees and shrubs with Geraniums, Hemerocallis, Persicarias and Lysimachias showing well in the July garden.

Sometimes it is the little details that catch the eye when we explore gardens. On this visit to the Dingle Garden Jude was attracted to the moss hitching a lift in the fork of a Prunus. The purple spires of the Acanthus looked just right next to the sculpture of the Red Kite.

The real star of the July show was Cotinus coggygria with its deep red foliage with hints of glaucous blue and the smokey flower clouds.

So we will return next in August and see what late summer brings to the Dingle.

Tags cotinus, ferns, flowering shrubs, herbaceous plants, Hydrangeas, ornamental shrubs, ornamental trees, trees and shrubs

colours garden design garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials light light quality ornamental trees and shrubs Powis Powys roses shrubs trees Uncategorized Wales woodland woodlands

The Dingle Garden in June

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 5, 2018

As we reach the middle of the year we made our monthly visit to the Dingle Gardens, and for once the weather looked set fair. This meant that we had strong contrast between light and shade and any colour was brightly lit when the sun hit it, leaf colour or flower colour.

A Cornus kousa on the lawned area loked at its best, with creamy white bracts covering it from head to toe. The light emphasised the shapes and textures of quite ordinary trees ans shrubs lifting them above their normal character, including this tall conifer and the little Box shrub.

Hosta leaves and fern fronds looked lush and fresh and appeared in every shade of green, some glaucous and some almost yellow. Their textures were emphasised also by the light, every curl and ripple of leaf and each curl and twist of fern fronds.

Conifers are difficult to appreciate in such a heavily planted hillside garden but on this day they seemed extra interesting with extra interest in their needle shapes and colours.

Conifer foliage appeared far more textured and more varied in colour than on the dull days of our earlier visits as the bright sunlight emphasised both the colours and textures.

The shubs were flowering well on this visit and some petals became almost translucent and a few perennial plants had cme into bloom too. These flower colours had an extra element of richness to them as they presented strong contrast to the multitude of greens and greys of foliage.

Roses seemed to have appeared from nowhere. In a garden full od trees and shrubs with interesting foliage, bark and stems rose bushes out of flower really do disappear. But in June suddenly the subshine finds heir beautiful scented flowers. Most here are simple blooms including our native roses.

To finish off my post on our June visit to the Dingle Garden I shall sign off with a gallery of flowering shrub photos, which I hope you enjoy. We will be back in July for our next monthly visit to see what is going on.

Tags flowering shrubs, gardens of Powys, gardens of Wales, herbaceous plants, ornamental shrubs, ornamental trees, roses, The Dingle Welshpool, trees and shrubs

colours garden photography garden wildlife gardening gardens hardy perennials ornamental trees and shrubs roses Shropshire shrubs wildlife

My Garden Journal 2018 – June

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 1, 2018
1 Comment on My Garden Journal 2018 – June

I finished my latest entries into my garden journal just as we reach the mid-point of the year. June has once again been a month of mixed up weather and the garden plants have continued in their state of confusion.

My first words for June were positive words about the weather, a rare occurence to use such words this year. “The first week in June treated us to warm bright weather but thunderstorms, really wild powerful ones, broke the spell several times. Humidity was so high that it sapped our energy and made our joints ache.

Through all this the garden looked wonderful and full of atmosphere, with bees, hoverflies and day-flying moths adding sound and movement. The borders have filled out with fresh lush growth.”

I used six photos to illustrate this lushness.

On the opposite page I continued in the same vein using my quote this month from Dan Pearson, “My quote this month from Dan Pearson’s “Natural Selection” concerns greens and promises of the June garden.

“The June garden is still full of promise and greens remain fresh and foliage pristine. There is a quiet rush to the longest day of the year with everything reaching towards this moment. The roses are never better than with the first flowers out and the promise of buds to come.”

I followed on with another six photos.

Turning to the next double page spread I considered our roses and add a few more words from Dan Pearson.

“Dan Pearson later singles out one Rose, “Bengal Beauty”, for comment. This is a rose we grow and love it for its buds and unusual flower shape.”

Pearson wrote, “I have also set aside room for “Bengal Crimson” (or “Bengal Rose” or “Bengal Beauty”, depending where you read about it). I was first smitten when I saw it at the Chelsea Physic Garden years ago, but forgot all about it.” He recalls how he was gifted a specimen as a present for opening their summer fair.”

“Dan Pearson describes Bengal Beauty as “a delightful, informal bush and all the names describe it well – its single cherry-red flowers splayed wide and recoiled on themselves as if they were stretching are like sweet wrappers scattered over the bush.”

I then included photos of Rosa rugosa and Rosa “Summer Wine” in flower and in bud.

“Rosa rugosa”

“Rosa Summer Wine”

Over onto the next two ages I looked at Thalictrum, Centaurea and Gypsy Dianthus.

I wrote, “Thalictrum in all their guises are a real favourite of Jude, who has now brought together a good collection. The varieties include Thalictrum delavayi, T. Black Stocking, T. Elin, T. Rochebruneanum, T. Hewitt’s Double and T. flavum glaucum.”

“This Thalictrum has grown so tall it passes the apex of our greenhouse!”

“Centaurea put on a fine display throughout June, but do tend to flop if we forget to give them support”

“This biennial Dianthus has been with us for a decade or so now, but still performs reliably and beautifully.”

My next double page spread considers the colour orange in the garden and complimenting it with purple.

“Blazing orange for a blazing June. The sun lights up oranges as if they are on fire!”

“The zinc bath planted hot!”

“Geum Totally Tangerine and G. Koi

“Euphorbia griffithii “Dixter”

“Rosa Warm Welcome”

“My favourite colour to compliment orange in the garden is purple. Each colour intensifies the other in this strong partnership.”

To finish off my June entries I shared some of our cameos and combinations to be found in our garden during the month, and on the opposite page I had a quick look at “pin cushion” plants.

First here are my photos of “Cameos and combinations of the June garden.”

“Some flowers in the June garden remind me of pin-cushions especially Astrantias and Knautia macedonica. Each flowerhead is a tight circle with fine stamens, the pins.”

June this year ended with a fortnight of high temperatures and beautiful blue skies, two weeks of the beginning of a heat wave. Next time we return for a look at my 2018 Garden Journal we will be into the second half of the year. Things may have changed a lot in the garden by then. Perhaps we might even get a splash or two of rain!