Tag: arboretum

Queenswood Arboretum – Part Three – the Redwoods

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 9, 2014
2 Comments on Queenswood Arboretum – Part Three – the Redwoods

As we left the Oak Avenue behind and after we had enjoyed a quick look at the small Betula collection, we made our way slowly back to the car park. The sky began to get darker and drizzle began to fall. In the first shot included here you can see the bright autumn colours of the Birches through the line of huge pines. Many of them were small and still strongly guarded from the gnawing of the resident deer flock. I have also included a photo of one of the excellent, informative labels which is a great feature of this arboretum.

As the drizzle intensified we found some shelter under the older taller trees. We are not fans of conifers but we found this one fascinating with its long drooping needles. Pinus patula, better known as the Spreading Leaf Pine. Close by the strange but utterly beautiful cerise-flowered Euonymous europaeus glowed in the dull light.

Felled tree trunks afford the weary wanderer a resting place and wildlife a place to search for food. The cut ends revealed the ages of the trees when they were felled, the number of rings now exposed by the chainsaw give away its secrets.

We continued to come across interesting Acers such as this Red Snake-Bark Maple, Acer capillipes and we passed many other fascinating specimen trees on our way to the stand of Redwoods.

We were fascinated by the fruits of the Oriental Hornbeam and the Handkerchief Tree, Davidii involucrata. These two special trees were both fine specimens.

We followed the path as it dipped beneath the branches of the Handkerchief Tree and found ourselves in a different world, a darker world where light failed to penetrate. This meant that nothing grew beneath these Redwoods, giants of the tree world. We walked on a deep soft carpet of needles. The needles were gingery orange and seemed to glow in the gloom.

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A drainage ditch cut through the Redwoods. It must have recently flooded badly and eroded away soil exposing the roots of trees growing alongside on its banks. Some creative visitors had found a way across by using some ingenuity and creativity – they had built a bridge from branches.

Below are two pictures showing some unusual wildlife living beneath the Redwoods, on the left a mother bear searching for her youngster climbing a nearby tree and on the right a very rare Tree Hugging Jude the Undergardener.

After exploring the dark world under the Redwoods we were glad to get back into daylight. Even though drizzle continued to fall and grey skies hung heavy it seemed so much brighter under the deciduous trees. The final Acer we passed looked as if it was on fire. A fitting finale to our day at Queenswood. As I always write when we have discovered a new exciting place to visit, “We will definitely be back!”

So that is Queenswood, 64 acres of wonderful trees from all over the world. Follow any of its waymarked trails and you will discover such a huge variety of trees, varying in size, growth habit, leaf shape, bark texture with some bearing flowers followed by berries, seeds or nuts. The bird life keeps you entertained too, singing and calling in the tree tops and undergrowth and flitting from tree to tree seeking out this vast array of food. Throughout our walk Ravens cronked overhead in unison with the gentler mewling of Buzzards. Whenever you visit there will be birds to entertain you and trees to delight the eye.

Tags acers., arboreta, arboretum, autumn, autumn colours, autumn leaves, Herefordshire, ornamental trees, Redwoods, woodland, woodlands

arboreta autumn autumn colours colours garden furniture garden seating light ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture trees woodland woodlands

Queenswood Arboretum – Part Two – the Oaks

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 3, 2014

Having enjoyed the Autumn Garden we found a sign indicating a footpath to an “Old Orchard” and the “Readers Chair” which naturally took us in the opposite direction to our planned route. Diversions are good for you! Just see what we found by following this one!

We followed the path beneath tall slender trees and found an orchard of ancient fruit trees.

When we reached the centre of the old orchard with its sweet scent of rotting apples and fallen leaves we found out what the Reader’s Seat was. It was really a large piece of outdoor sculpture which was also a seat. I imagine the wood it was constructed from was oak as it was weathering to the most beautiful and palest of silver. The carvings were so beautifully sculpted into each face of the uprights which made up the canopy over the circle of seats.

We sat a while appreciating the craftsmanship of the seat with its carvings before exploring further the old orchard itself.

But where we we headed before the wooden sign post persuaded us to search for the Old Orchard and Reader’s Seat? We were off to find the Oak Avenue. We expected this to be a shaded walk between tow tall rows of ancient native oaks. How wrong we were! What we actually found was a small field with two rows of oaks from all over the world. Tall ones, short ones, fat ones, thin ones and even a shrub like one. There seemed to be an Oak from every corner of the world. But to get there we wandered through Cotterill’s Folly where huge Beech trees towered over the path and covered that path with their waxy tough leaves.

Our first oak surprise was this narrow-leaved tree with slightly pendulous branches, aptly called the Willow-leaved Oak. Its foliage looked so fresh and full of vitality, which was in stark contrast to the Armenian Oak we looked at next. This oak had large leathery leaves already coloured for autumn.

Our next oak was a small tree with leaves like those of a Sweet Chestnut.

One thing that all oaks attract is lichen and we soon found this stunning glaucous example shaped just like stags antlers.

Our next Oak looked just like an Olive tree – it was just the right size and shape with glaucous leaves just like those of an Olive. But when we got closer and noticed its bark we knew straight away it was some sort of a Cork Oak. The label informed us that it was a Quercus variabilis, a Chinese Cork Oak.

We were so surprised to see the next of our Oaks as it was just four or five feet tall, a small shrub rather than a majestic old tree. Nuttall’s Oak, Quercus texana surprised us again when we noticed its beautifully shaped leaves, somewhat reminiscent of a Liquidamber.

Close by we found another shrubby Oak but this one had a different growth habit. It was a solid looking bush with simple leathery foliage. This was a Bamboo Leaved Oak – very well named.

This old Cork Oak had died but in death presented itself as a piece of textured sculpture. But it did frame another autumn coloured Oak on the far side of the green area.

This neat small specimen on the left was an Algerian Oak and the equally neat one on the right was a Shumard’s Oak.

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After enjoying discovering so many different oaks most of them new to us, we began to make our way back to the car park. We passed a Wild Service Tree one of our rarest native trees before moving on through a little plantation of Betulas and made our way towards a stand of Redwoods.

To share this last leg of our wander around Queenswood Arboretum just look at the third post in this series.

Tags apple trees, arboreta, arboretum, cork oak, garden seating, garden seats, Herefordshire, oak, oak tree, orchards, trees, woodland, woodland garden

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Queenswood Arboretum – Part 1 – the Acers

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 3, 2014

Late October heralds arboretum visiting time. Last year we visited Bodenham and Arley which we take a trip to most years but we also traveled a little further afield into Cheshire to the Jodrell Bank Arboretum and the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. Over the last five years we have also taken trips to Westonbirt in Gloucestershire, Bluebell Arboretum in Derbyshire.

But there is one closer to us, in fact just an hour away across into Herefordshire, which we have never visited but were reminded of as we watched Carol Klein visit it on the Gardeners World TV programme. So we made up our mind that our first arboretum visit this autumn would be to Queenswood Country Park and Arboretum. It was worth the wait! Come with us as we explore its delights on a dull overcast day occasionally dampened with bouts of drizzle.

We left the car park to follow Lime Avenue which would take us to the Autumn Garden which promised us a painter’s pallet of Acers. There is something special about the gentle scent of woodlands in autumn, comforting and warming, but this was interrupted by the more aggressive unpleasant odour of foxes whose tracks crossed ours periodically as we climbed the gentle slope below the huge limes towering above us. We diverted often! There were interesting trees grabbing our attention every few yards, making progress slow. Tree silhouettes, bark textures, leaf colours, leaf shapes – all there to distract and attract.

The trees had plenty of autumnal features to attract and distract tree lovers such as Jude the Undergardener and I. Berries, peeling bark, silvered leaves, brightly coloured leaves, black branch silhouettes ……………….

When we reached the area called the “Autumn Garden” we were blown away by the collection of Acers with their striped barks, their red and yellow leaves and their sculptural trunks curling away below their leaf canopy. Part way through the Autumn Garden we found this plaque on the “Dendrology Stone” which was presented to Queenswood Arboretum in 1981 by the International Dendrology Society recognising the quality of its young trees, layout and public access. There only 19 arboretum worldwide which have received this award. This emphasises just how important this 47 acres of country park actually is.

But there was far more to see here with trees and shrubs to discover around every corner.

But let us enjoy a journey around the delights of the Acers before we get distracted further.

We enjoyed a well deserved coffee break on one of the many benches we found within the glade of Acers with a wonderful view. We sat to enjoy our coffee and listened to the Woodpeckers and Nuthatches in the tree canopy. Jays entertained us collecting up acorns, beech mast and sweet chestnuts. This is the view from the seat we chose to take our coffee break sat on. How good is that!

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In part two we shall be seeking out an old orchard and the “Reader’s Seat”.

Tags acers., arboreta, arboretum, autumn, autumn colours, autumn leaves, Herefordshire, leaves, native trees, ornamental trees, trees

colours garden design gardening ornamental trees and shrubs shrubs spring gardening trees village gardens

Fresh Foliage – our Acers

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 23, 2014

Over the last few years w have been gradually adding a selection of Japanese Acers to different areas of our garden to add year round foliage interest but with an emphasis on the spring and autumn seasons.

We already had a few different acers only one of which was a Japanese variety. The largest is a beautiful snake bark maple which looks over our Rill Garden and is a great all year round tree absolutely full of interest and it always receives admiration from any visitors to the garden.

In mid April when I took these photos the flowers were just forming and the leaves just unfurling. The while pencil thin lines show up clearly on the smooth green bark.

I took a mid-morning stroll around our garden with camera in hand to record what our Japanese Acers were up to. It is amazing how they are all at different stages of opening their foliage, with some almost fully out and others still in bud with only a hint of activity from within. Please come with me and enjoy what my camera saw. When I had finished my wander I realised just how many acers we had planted over the last few years, which was far more than I thought.

Tags acers., arboretum, foliage, garden photography, gardening, maples, ornamental trees, shrubs, snake bark maples, textured bark, trees

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The National Memorial Arboretum Part Two

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 10, 2013

We return in this second post about the National Memorial Arboretum where we left off.

This was a quiet place, full of bird song and the quiet voices of the visitors deeply affected by the sense of the place.

Seats to sit upon

to sit and think

to sit and to remember

lost ones.

Share now a few images of the place to show its variety, its beauty and its sadness.

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We walked slowly up a gentle sloping path giving us a spiral route to the “Armed Services Memorial” with a solemn “wall of names”. The sculptural pieces here were astonishing, powerful and thought provoking.

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Below, the sculpted hand indicates the place where a shaft of sunlight pierces two slits in two walls. They line up on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month each year the time when the First World War ended. It is the time the nation remembers each year the members of the armed forces lost serving their country.

A massive curving wall has carved into it the names of all armed service personel who have died in service since the end of the Second Wall War. To see all these names together illustrates the futility of war so clearly. Worst of all was the huge area left blank as space for those yet to die. The United Nations should hold their meetings here and every Member of Parliament from every nation should spend some time here at the beginning of every session of their parliament. I wonder if it would make any difference?

We found smaller memorials which were more specific and sometimes outside the realms of armed conflicts.

The essential work of the Bevin Boys, the miners who kept the mines open during WW2 was celebrated in these wonderful relief carvings. Powerful just like the Bevin boys themselves.

Men who lost their lives building the railways in the Far East as prisoners of war were commemorated by a garden of many varieties of Sorbus growing around reconstructed sections of railway lines.

A few of the gardens help us remember the loss of lives of those serving the nation but not in the armed services. Here we celebrate the bravery of the men of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. A sturdy figure carved from stone reflects the strength of character of these people as he looks over a seaside landscape.

One of the most incredible memorials was a tribute to the men of the railways.

We even found a memorial to the soldiers from our home county of Shropshire.

The Jewish Memorial was a truly beautiful piece of art as well as a moving memorial piece.

As the light faded over the memorial arboretum the trees tops began to fill with the sounds of starlings settling down to roost. To the birds this garden is a home giving them shelter, food and a place to nest.

I will leave you with a few deeply moving pictures.

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And finally a picture of the Bazra Wall to illustrate that we never learn. With all the waste of lives over the centuries it still goes on.

Tags arboretum, memorials, ornamental trees, outdoor sculpture, remembrance

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Trees to remember by – The National Memorial Arboretum – Part One

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 8, 2013
1 Comment on Trees to remember by – The National Memorial Arboretum – Part One

Wendy, one of our allotment friends, told us all about her visit to the National Memorial Arboretum near Lichfield and she thought we would like to visit too.

I arrived with expectations. I envisioned a collection of trees with large areas given over to formal memorials. These areas I thought would have a cold atmosphere like an empty church and I felt the whole place would possess the deep silence of a “Poppy Day” remembrance ceremony around a village war memorial.

I was so wrong.

It was an amazing place. But not a place to enjoy as such but a place with an atmosphere that you feel deeply. It was such an emotive and wonderful experience that emotions engulf you. It has a its own special atmosphere, an atmosphere that is hard to describe as the right words are impossible to find.

Close to the chapel near the entrance is a small garden with a beautiful armillary sundial at its centre, while the pillars holding up the covered entrance display a sense of homour in the carvings.

We explored the site following avenues of acers and cherries leading to small wooded areas and copses mostly of native deciduous trees. A simple arrangement of closely trimmed berberis spheres form the Garden of Innocents.

As we wander around please join us, as we appreciate the beauty of the trees and the calm of the spaces. There were signs of the recent Remembrance Day Ceremonies throughout the site, some at the base of memorials others blown into hedges and trees.

Amongst the memorials dedicated to various sections of the armed forces were other memorials or areas of celebration. The photos below are of a golden garden dedicated to couples who had celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversaries. Trees had yellow fruit such as varieties of Malus or golden stems such as the Yellow Ash.

The next memorial was for Polish servicemen who had lost their lives fighting alongside British armed forces.

We moved on through woodlands showing autumn colouring interspersed with memorials until we came across a most disturbing area, called “Shot at Dawn”.

This area was to help us remember the men shot at dawn by their own comrades under orders from commanding officers. We were deeply moved here as the cruelty of man at war and the needless waste of young lives were clearly displayed. How could officers in the First World War believe they had the right to order soldiers to kill their fellow men? The “crime” that these young soldiers were found guilty of was “cowardice” – surely they could be forgiven for fear and for not being willing to kill. The true cowardice here lies with the officers who used their rank and “superiority” to make others kill colleagues. Each post represents a real person and each post holds a small sign. Each post a brother, a son, a father, a best friend ……………..

This was a sad place!

We left in silence and deep anger to find a way marker close by on a pathway crossing through the arboretum which acted as a reminder that we were in the National Forest.

This unusual garden was dedicated to members of the Fairground Entertainers hence the horse from a “Gallopers” fairground ride.

As we turned a corner I stopped in my tracks. We were facing a memorial with the badge I knew so well. As a child I remember seeing it on the front of my father’s army cap. My stomach felt empty and my heart skipped beats. Suddenly it seemed very close to home.

My father survived the war but its effects could be seen hanging over him, the shaking hands, the sudden bouts of anger, changing temperament, the hatred of loud noise and the dislike of time wasting.

Next was the memorial to the paratroopers, a beautiful sculpture displaying strength and bravery.

We shall continue our journey around the National Memorial Arboretum in my next post, but please share a few words we wrote as we sat quietly over coffee at lunchtime.

Peaceful place to celebrate waste

Lives wasted in war

Trees peacefully grow in lines

Celebrating soldiers’ short lives

Trees giving hope for a future

Tags arboretum, memorials, ornamental trees, remembrance, shrubs, trees, woodlands

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

Another Day at Bodenham

We have shared a visit to the wonderful arboretum near Kidderminster in Worcestershire before but we visited again this autumn and were equally enthralled by the collection of trees, common, less well-known and even rare. So come back with us now on our return to Bodenham. Let us simply celebrate in photographs!

It is always good to find a tree you do not know, one you have not got the faintest idea what it might be. At Bodenham on this visit it was the Wingnut Tree.

Tags acers., arboreta, arboretum, trees

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Telescopes and Trees – part two

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date November 28, 2013
3 Comments on Telescopes and Trees – part two

Back at Jodrell Bank as we explored the arboretum nestled amidst natural woodlands, we looked forward to finding our first Sorbus. We were surprised upon finding them that several had already lost all their foliage and some had dropped all their berries too. Luckily the majority still looked good.

Sorbus “Leonard Messell” was a good one to start off with. Its berries were the palest of pink with a deep blush and they were enhanced by finely cut foliage.

With larger berries in a coral pink Sorbus yunanensis looked a distant relative. Its leaves were much larger and far less divided.

Sorbus kewensis was a tall stately specimen of a tree.

Where trees had lost all foliage and their berries hung on bare branches they looked very stark against the clear blue autumn sky.

There were more to be found around each corner as the path took a turn, each with its own special colour, size and shape of berry.

After enjoying so many wonderful berried trees we left the arboretum and spent the last hour left to us while the site remained open enjoying a closer look at the telescopes and the parkland in which they sat. These massive creations of man certainly lacked the delicacy and wonderful colours of Mother Nature’s creations but they did have an attraction of their own when set against the clear blue sky.

Tags arboretum, rowans, sorbus, telescopes

arboreta Banbury countryside garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public hardy perennials meadows National Garden Scheme NGS ornamental trees and shrubs Oxfordshire trees woodland

Broughton Grange – the outer edges.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 6, 2013
1 Comment on Broughton Grange – the outer edges.

Back to Broughton Grange and we can go through the piece of garden architecture, the stumpery arch and find that it becomes a whole garden growing around stumps on the other side. Old stumps were beautifully planted with varieties of Hostas, Ferns and Alchemilla.

Beautifully curved paths presented us with rich choices. Each path led to interesting specimen trees. Of course I had to start by following the route to the chestnuts, their deep salmon coloured towers of flowers covered even these young trees.

Cut through the arboretum were straight avenues each featuring a different variety of tree, such as chestnut and lime. This was a an effective contrast to the sinuous paths wriggling through the meadows growing under the young trees throughout the arboretum. These avenues gave long views to the Oxfordshire countryside beyond the boundaries of the garden and parkland.

So if you like good garden design, interesting plants, trees, meadows and of course the obligatory coffee and cakes and want a good relaxing day out keep an eye on the website for Broughton Grange and make sure you go along and see it for yourself.

Tags arboretum, avenues, chestnuts, garden photography, gardening, meadows, ornamental trees, Oxfordshire, trees, woodlands

arboreta garden design garden photography gardening gardens open to the public ornamental trees and shrubs photography trees Winter Gardening winter gardens

Betula at Bluebell

Back to Bluebell Arboretum for a look at their collection of my favourite trees, the Birches. Browse the photos below and you will see why.

Betulas are particularly popular at the moment because of an interest in coloured and textured bark. This is coupled with a surge of interest in the creation of winter gardens within major gardens open to the public, an interest influencing plantings in smaller private gardens. I thought a gallery of our favourites at Bluebell would show the amazing variations.