Earlier in the winter I posted a blog about the value of coloured stems in our garden. We have lots more up in the community gardens on our allotment site, Bowbrook Allotment Community. Now we have a little sunshine brightening our days I thought it would be interesting to see the colours in Cornus (Dogwoods) and Salix (Willows) that we have accumulated in our 4 year development.
First though a look into my sketchpad.
We put together a collection of stems of all the different Cornus and Salix that we grow in the communal gardens and photographed them on a rare sunny day.
Think of January in the garden. Could you put together a bouquet? This is my new monthly garden blogging challenge, and starting in January most certainly throws me in at the deep end. But here goes…………………
Here are the first couple of pages of my sketch pad for the new year.
In this cold month colourful flowers can be used to create a bouquet, but you can also experience and enjoy a bouquet of scents.
So firstly what is delighting us with colour?
The rather inappropriately named Prunus x subhirtella autumnalis, with blossom of the palest pink, stunning against a pure blue sky.
The perennial wallflower, Erysium Bowles Mauve flowers in almost every month of the year, but is very special in January.
The first flowering bulb of the year is the Winter Aconite, Hyemalis, with its buttercup flowers close to the ground. The Flowering Quince, Chaenomales greets visitors to “Avocet” with its bright sun-set red flowers giving a warm welcome alongside the gate post at the bottom of the drive. The Cornelian Cherry, properly called Cornus mas dominates the “Freda Border” at the top of the drive. It is covered from head to toe with bunches of acid yellow umbels. They are little nuggets of gold.
White is appreciated more in the dark days of winter. The pussy willow’s furry white blooms huddle along the black stems of our Violet Willow by the wildlife pond. As grasses reach their end, prior to me pruning them back to the ground, their flower heads are white and silver.
And who keeps us warm with their scent in the cold? Sarcoccoca, Witch Hazels, Viburnum and the first Daphne of the year Daphne bhuloa “Jacqueline Postil”. She glows pink, a unique pink with hints of blue and violet. Her scent is mesmerizing.
Jaqueline Postil – what a beauty and what expensive perfume she wears.
But think of January blooms and we must not forget the first Hellebores.
In the first few months of each new year the garden treats us to a colourful show of bright and varied coloured stems of shrubs. The most colourful are the dogwoods and willows of which we grow several specially chosen for their coloured stems. They glow in any bright days at this time of year.
This selection of stems cut from our garden include dogwood, Kerria, willow, bamboo and Winter Jasmine.
The first pair of photos shows Cornus, the first is “Midwinter Fire” which we grow alongside our summerhouse just where it gets backlit by the winter sun, the second is “Cardinal” of which we have several specimens around the garden as they look good in any light.
Below is neither a dogwood or willow but an extremely red stemmed Acer called “Sango Kaku”, which we have planted alongside Cornus “Midwinter Fire”. We look forward to seeing them grow together.
The Cardinals in our front garden grow in front of our White-stemmed Birch, Betula utilis “Silver Queen”.
We keep adding shrubs with coloured stems and yesterday I took these cuttings below off gardening friend Pete’s fiery willow.
Sometimes the coloured stems are made even more special with the addition of flowers. The willow below with its black stems glow with the emergence of its white flowers at this time of year.
I shall finish with the photo of a bunch of stems cut from our bamboos.
Close to Welshpool, just a half hour from home across the Welsh border, are our favourite nursery and garden centre, The Dingle and The Derwen, part of the same family. They sell unusual trees and shrubs and many good-value perennials all locally grown. But hidden away in the Dingle nursery, through a little wooden gate is a wonderful sloping garden. The garden is mostly a wonderful collection of unusual trees and shrubs on a gentle slope down to a lake, so a visit in the autumn is an assault on the senses.
The nursery which is now over 40 years old, grows thousands of plants on its 150 acres of Welsh countryside. We rarely come away without a gem – and they give free coffee away too!
The garden itself extends to just four acres, but those four acres feel much larger than expected with a complex network of paths which give occasional views which are wide and stunning. This is good garden design.
As the paths take us around corners they feature interesting, colourful shrubs and trees to delight the eye before enticing us to find out what is around the next corner.
Being on a slope, the garden’s many seats are most warmly welcomed by aching legs.
Some of the seating provides cover which proved useful a few times as showers burst from the dark sky just visible through gaps in the trees.
Coloured, textured foliage and bark keep the interest of the plant lover in us going strong and enticing us around each corner.
As in any good garden little cameos stop us in our tracks and catch the eye.
The lake at the lowest point of the garden, provides a restful place – restful to the eye and restful to the legs.
Strong contrasts in foliage colour show up in the brighter weather as we work our way back up the paths to the gate.
As in any garden specialising in trees and shrubs the stars of the autumn are the Acers.
Back up the top of the garden we pass through the little wooden gate and are tempted for a perusal of the colourful nursery beds.
The lighting on the day of our visit to Durham Massey recently was amazing for taking photographs. It was a sunny day with a bright blue sky above. The light acted light a spotlight shining just above ground level. It lit up leaves, tree trunks, flower petals. And it shone in “The Undergardener’s” eyes!
Peeling bark and Snowdrops.Winter light reflected in the glossy bamboo foliage.Back-lit Hydrangea seed heads.Twiggy highlights like spiders' webs.Long shadows of the White-stemmed Birch cross the carpet of Snowdrops.Winter light turns Cornus mas flowers into gold along the orange peel bark.Orange stems and yellow foliage enriched by the lightLooking out from the shadows.Curling silhouettes of an old gnarled Rhodendron bush.Fence shadows.Snowdrops and moss.Sparkling Hydrangeas.Into the light.Fallen rotting tree trunk looking like a huge tuning fork.Jewel coloured Bergenia leaves.Sparkling Lake
We visited the Winter Garden at the National Trust’s Dunham Massey just after it opened, so we returned this week to see how things had developed. Wow! This is some Winter Garden. The National Trust enlisted Roy Lancaster, one of my gardening heroes, to help with its design so there is some interesting planting. We wandered around it for hours trying different routes through it which afforded us the opportunity of seeing each bit of planting in a different light. This is a garden for all the senses, our eyes, noses, fingers and ears enjoyed every moment. It was busy but the design and quality of planting seemed to make everyone remain quiet. Quiet enough to hear the birds, bees and insects at work.
A winding path lead us through an area of mature trees underplanted with miniature daffodils, an area where the trees’ long shadows cut across the Daffodils, beautifully lit by the low sun and shining like gold, and soon we glimpsed the massed planting of white barked Birches.
There were two distinct areas of Birch trees, single stemmed specimens one side of a path and multi-stemmed on the other. Betula utilis “Doorenbos” was the chosen variety and their trunks were a clear crisp white.
As well as the usual winter flowering bulbs such as crocus, snowdrops and daffodils there were several different coloured varieties of Iris reticulata those tiny bulbous plants with over-sized flowers in shades of purple and blue, all with yellow beards.
In some areas of lawn these diminutive Irises have been naturalised under trees. We had never seen this done before and have to say it was very effective.
It was so heartening to see and hear bees, hoverflies and other insects at work around the flowering shrubs, Lonicera fragrans, Cornus mas, Daphne mezereum “Alba”, Viburnum bodnantense and Viburnum tinus.
Lovely as the flowers of winter are, sometimes the colours, textures and shapes of leaves can be just as impressive – Bergenias, Liriope and variegated Ilex for example in their many colours.
We cannot ignore the snowdrops though, and here at Dunham Massey they have been so thoughtfully placed, at the bases of trees or shrubs.
The textures and colours of bark add another dimension to this winter garden, peeling bark, shining bark, bark like snake-skin, red stems, contorted stems, curling stems, shimmering stems.
In the photo below the ginger-coloured shining bark of Prunus serrula shoot upwards from the golden leaves of Liriope.
With all the new season’s flowers, the colourful stems and bark, and the scents it would be too easy to miss the effect the winter light can have as it plays across the seed heads of last year’s flowers and stems. Giant lilly stems with their huge seed pods towering up above a sea of desiccated flower heads of a variety of Hydrangeas stopped us in our tracks.
When the wind blew these seed heads rustled gently, temporarily drowning out the sound of the Blackbirds turning over the mulch of bark and throwing the dried leaves fallen from trees last Autumn over their shoulders. The gentlest breeze set the bamboos swaying and rustling but it took a stronger wind to move the conifers overhead and start their music making. Over our heads in the mature tree canopy we could hear the calls and songs of Goldcrests, Nuthatches, Coal Tits and Blue Tits occasionally drowned out by the drumming of Great Spotted Woodpecker, all proclaiming their territorial rights in their own unique way.
There was so much to appreciate in the Winter Garden at Dunham Massey that it is hard to leave. But it had another surprise around another corner, a beautifully woven willow den, created from many coloured stems. Jude, the Undergardener, as usual could not resist, so a quick exploration was called for before coffee and cakes called even louder from the restaurant!
As part of the development of the shared community spaces at Bowbrook Allotment Community we have created “Gardens of the Four Seasons”. We did this with the support of “The Peoples Postcode Trust” who awarded us a generous grant for the purchase of plants. In early 2011 we began work on the Winter Garden and now we are beginning to see some results of our labours. The work was carried out by allotment holders who attend regular working parties (look out for future blog about our working parties) and the gardens are maintained by members. Much work is also done outside working parties by individuals or small groups.
I designed the garden and presented the plan to the management committee and informed other members by e-mail, asking for comments, further suggestions and ideas. The basic idea was to create a garden full of trees, shrubs, grasses, bulbs and perennials that looked good in the winter, for their stem colour, bark colour and texture, their flowers, their scents. Movement and sound was also considered so we included many grasses and some trees with rustling stems.
It is now a year since we began the groundwork. The preparation was completed by the end of February 2011 and the main framework of planting by the end of March.
The first step was to rotovate the land, almost triangular in shape, in the corner of the site furthest from the huts, about 10 x 20 metres. We then added manure and rotovated once more. We dug out a path shaped as a serpentine curve, which cut the border in two, edged it with logs and gave it a deep layer of bark. It proved soft and comfortable to walk on. A thick layer of compost was added to the planting areas and raked level and we were prepared for planting.
Our Winter Garden is situated in a corner of the site. A water-butt is ready to be placed conveniently for watering in dry periods. In front is one of our wildlife banks.
Trees and shrubs were delivered by The Dingle Nursery from Welshpool, who had proved so helpful in helping us to select the best when we visited them to place our order. Unloading the truck and unpacking the plants was an exciting time, full of anticipation. Transporting them across the site took longer than expected involving three plot-holders with wheelbarrows. Some of the trees were just too long to stay put. After an hour of laughter and regular rescuing of dropped goods, we finally began planting. It was to take a few days.
Trees in place.
Bulbs and herbaceous plants arrived by post and were added to our structural planting of trees and shrubs. a selection of grasses was added later. We now had trees with coloured bark, shrubs with coloured stems and a winter flowering time, perennials such as Hellebores and Pulmonaria and grasses to give movement and beautiful seed heads.
Plot holder Pete busy planting.
In pride of place are our three silver-barked Birches, Betula utilis “Jacquemontii” planted as 3 metre tall specimens, along with similarly sized Prunus serrula with its shining gingery-bronze bark. Smaller specimens of Acer davidii (a snake bark maple), Acer griseum appreciated for its peeling red bark and a selection of variegated Hollies completed the structural planting.
Key plants in place.
For bark colour we planted dozens of Cornus, Salix and Rubus tibeticanus to give an airy network of colour all winter and early spring. We interplanted these with patches of Lavender to give some summer interest, to attract butterflies, bees and hoverflies and to provide gentle bluish foliage colour all year. For winter flowering interest and scent we planted Cornus mas and Viburnum bodnantense “Dawn”.
In order to maintain all year interest with greatest emphasis of interest we added evergreens. As well as the Hollies we included Viburnum tinus and several conifers chosen for the variety of foliage colour, texture and habit of growth – Picea pungens Procumbens, Pinus sylvestris, Chamaecyparis “Boulevard” and to top it off John, our committee’s chairman donated a lovely specimen of Cedrus atlantica glauca. As a contrast we also planted a Larix decidua a conifer that is deciduous.
When we planted the trees and shrubs, following the allotment site’s organic policy, we gave them a sprinkling of bonemeal in the planting holes and top-dressed with blood fish and bone fertiliser before mulching with manure. We plan to give the bed regular mulching of compost and manure to give a slow-release nutrient regime.
Working parties and individual volunteers worked throughout the year to keep weeds at bay.
Volunteers at work tidying and weeding.
By late summer the garden was showing lots of healthy growth and we could see much promise for the future.
Full of promise.
In the autumn we gave the garden a mulch of chipped bark to protect it from the ravages of winter and to slowly break down releasing nutrients and improving humus levels ans soil texture.
This week three of us weeded the bed over, tidied, pruned and loosened up the soil. It was amazing to look at progress and realise how the garden had developed in less than a year. Bulbs were flowering, the trees and shrubs have made good growth and in particular the willows and dogwoods are showing strongly coloured stems.
Winter sunlight through Miscanthus and Cornus.Stripes of fence shadows fall across a variegated holly.Blood red dogwood stems.Peeling bark like brittle toffee.Green flowered hellebore with striped shadows.Premature bud burst on Viburnum.Striped snake bark maple.
With so much to see after such a short time, we can but wonder at what our Winter Garden will bring us in the future. It was great fun creating it and judging from comments from plot holders it is already bringing much joy!
A bright sunny day! And mild too! We just had to spend it in the garden clearing away old leaves and flower stems of perennials, finishing pruning the climbing roses and as the grass was dry giving it a quick skim over with the mower. A bit of early Spring cleaning. As we worked our way around we sere periodically stopped in our tracks by the sight of colourful flowers.
A good clump of pale mauve crocus in the Rill Garden.Hidden inside is a rich deep yellow.A classic February pairing of snowdrops and winter aconite.Primrose yellow hellebore.Close up the hellbore shows hints of green.Speckled pink hellebore.Perfect cup shaped hellebore bloom.Dark secrets inside a bud.The delicate pale Ipheon.Tiny flowers - powerful scent!Perennial Wallflower "Bowles Mauve" - always in flower?Cornus mas - acid yellow scented flowers.Looking for the magic inside a Snowdrop!Out of season Ribes speciosum - flowers like red droplets.White and green - a most subtle hellebore.
As I decided to create a blog at the beginning of each month illustrating what is going on in our garden, so I have also decided to publish a blog in the middle of each month to show what is happening on our allotment site.
So today we braved the cold and went for a wander. The weather although cold, at five below, was bright sunshine in a clear blue sky. the air felt freezing as it entered my lungs but the sight of the lotties cheered me. As we stepped from the car a kestrel was hunting low between the sheds in search of the abundant field voles. A day never goes by without seeing at least one kestrel quartering the site. A buzzard soared overhead in the thermals created by the warmer air above the cultivated plots.
First job was to fill the bird feeders at the two feeding stations. They were busy with blue tits, coal tits and great tits feeding from the hanging feeders and blackbirds, dunnocks and robins beneath picking up the feed dropped by the clumsy birds above them. All the while we could hear the call of nuthatches in the site’s mature oak and sycamore trees.
Frost sits on the bare ground and helps the gardeners by breaking it down and improving the texture in readiness for a final preparatory rake over. The fine tilth can then be home to seeds.
The plots themselves look very sad at this time of the year, drooping brassicas, frosted leeks and steaming muck heaps and compost bins, the warmest spots of all. The scarecrows have fallen in the recent strong winds, their clothes wet and bedraggled and their structures weakened. Frost emphasises leaf structures, settling deepest along the veins.
The strongly veined wrinkled leaves of the Savoy Cabbages withstand the cold wrapped into tight balls.
Kale defies the cold and stands upright and proud even with ice droplets and frost splattered on their tightly curled leaves.
Sunlight makes the old runner bean pods translucent as they hang on the dead remnants of last year’s plants.
On our own plot the rows of Mooli, Broad Beans and Leeks look delicate in the frozen soil but will sit until spring arrives when they will have growth spurts and give us early crops.
Plastic bottles on canes support last year’s netting and still protect any overwintering crops from hungry Wood Pigeons.
Blackbirds move low across the lotties settling onto any sun-warmed soil and dig for grubs, but this one sat looking sad.
We took a leisurely walk around the “Interest Trail” which took us through or close to most of the community gardens – the orchards, wildlife borders, seasonal gardens and meadows. Near the car park the first green bursts of new life have appeared, the leaves and catkins forming on the birches. The young catkins stand bolt upright at this stage but will soften in colour and structure when they dangle down in the spring.
The purple catkins of the alder sit on the branches with the darker cones.
In the Autumn Garden seed heads of Asters remain long after the flowers of autumn, like tiny dandelion “clocks”.
In the first orchard th frost still lingered strongly on the logpile especially on this old chunk of bark.
When we reached the Spring Garden we were struck by the contrasting leaf texture, shapes and structures.
At the back of this garden the silver tassels of the Garrya hung in profusion and the new buds of the Amelanchier promised early flowers and foliage.
Further round the trail we arrived at the “Winter Garden” where the low rays of the sun sent long shadow lines of the fence right across the border between the coloured stems of the Betulas and the Dogwoods. It also illuminated this peeling bark, giving it the impression of slithers of orange brittle toffee.
The blue spruce looked bluer than ever with the whiteness of the frost laying on its needles.
Our Winter Garden has so much of interest that I shall publish a blog just featuring it within the next few days, so for now we shall move on to the second orchard where the golden fruits of Malus “Evereste” have escaped the attentions of the winter visiting thrushes but I suspect they will soon be discovered and devoured. The insect stack in the orchard is there to attract beneficial insects who provide our very wildlife-friendly pesticide. The stack should give them some shelter to help them survive the winter cold and wet.
As we wandered back towards the car park we passed through the wildflowers meadows long since cut to the ground, but showing promise for next summer in its tiny seedlings. One lone flower braved the cold – a pale blue cornflower. Leaving the lotties we noticed promises of flowers from the bulbs in the car park border and in the half-barrels in the gateway.
This is the first in a series of blogs which I will write at the beginning of each month through 2012, and will show what is going on in our garden at that time – a sort of record of garden highlights.
So the new year has arrived. January 1st was a dull overcast day, with unbroken deep grey cloud and regular periods of drizzle. But at least it was warm with temperature holding up in low double figures all day. But not a day to perform a photographic wander.
So here I am on the 2nd January with camera in hand to record what’s going on appreciating a blue sky, but well wrapped against a freezing wind. Buzzards are sharing my joy of seeing a big blue sky as they are soaring silently above the garden with none of their usual sad cries. The garden is noticeably quiet, the bird feeders far less busy than they usually are in January. There is just the constant quiet, barely perceptible winter song of the Robin who follows me around and the equally gentle twittering of Goldfinches, Blue Tits and their long-tailed cousins.
Enjoy a walk around with me and my camera, as we take a tour …………
The newest addition to the garden, just planted today, is the dark foliaged Euphorbia "Redwing", spotted with fresh rain drops following a shower.This brightly flowered quince, Chaenomeles "Fire Dance", glows at the drive entrance, providing a cheerful welcome.
This clump of bell-shaped flowers of Arbutus unedo, the Strawberry Tree, overhangs the roadside verge. We are so grateful for its performance as it only just survived the onslaught of the last two winters. We rescued it with heavy pruning.Orange stems of Cornus "Cardinal" with the white stems of young Betula utilis in the newly planted Shrub Garden.Sea shore find amongst Euphorbias.Terra-cotta pots and the pink flowers of Bergenia sit at the feet of Miscanthus and driftwood.The yellow-faced blue Violas flower in pots by the front door.In the Rill Garden two very different Hebes with colourful foliage sit in front of an orange-stemmed dogwood.The low light of winter turns the cut foliage of the purple-leaved vine blood-red.The creamy-yellow berries of the Cotoneaster rothschildianus hang in clusters covering this small tree.The flowers of this pioneering Primrose appear too delicate to survive the cold of January.Warm brown seed heads give so much to the Chicken Garden in winter.The grasses throughout the garden catch both the winter light and the gentlest breeze. The curly seed heads of this Miscanthus napalensis are soft to the touch.In the Secret Garden the cream metal seats become more dominant just when they are too cold to sit on.In the Japanese Garden the blooms of our pink version of Prunus autumnalis subhirtella are a joy to look at.Move in close and appreciate the pink glow.The hottest of the coloured stemmed dogwoods must be Midwinter Fire - ours grows on the bank bordering the wildlife pond.The white-stemmed Rubus sits alongside Midwinter Fire on the pond bank.The fruit of our apple "Pixie" remained too tiny to pick so we have left them for the birds, who so far have ignored them.
Jasminum nudiflorum has been flowering by the chicken's run now for four months and is still going strong. What a star!
The mad seed heads of the orange-peel clematis, which I grew from seed, never cease to amaze me even though I see it each morning as I collect the chucks' eggs.
We seem to have calendula flowers somewhere in the garden every day of the year.
One of five Achillea still flowering away in January, this variety "Biscuit" is in the Secret Garden.
'The most important and informative publication on wildlife of our times' - The Independent. This blog is a member of The UK & Ireland Natural History Bloggers group: www.uknhb.blogspot.com
greenbenchramblings 