April 2025
Hello Gardening Friends,
I'm starting to write on a rainy Easter Monday morning. As gardeners we are always pleased to get rain, but it's time for a pause. Besides, it's too wet to garden without compacting the soil. A good time for seed sowing, reading and reflection, and reading a newsletter from Frensham.
As I have a new shade house we are planting a lot of seed this year; some bought, some collected from the garden and some given by friends. What an exciting time it will be as I watch new growth unfurl, or maybe not! Around the base of the northern and western sides of the shade house we have planted bearded irises.
I have become interested in annuals, many of them being varieties that were grown generations ago, and these will be planted in the revamped potager, or in other garden areas, especially amongst perennials.
Because of the weather conditions this year we have been able to complete many projects, most of which involved moving plants to better spots for either colour preference or more suitability for growing. There will be a lot of weeding now which is made easier by the well-watered soil and perennials will be left until August before they are cut back.
Photo 1: A much admired tawny-pink chrysanthemum in the foreground which will be given away as it has such a leggy form. Fortunately we have a dwarf form of the same colour in another part of the garden.
Photo 2: Sheltered from the weathers.
Photo 3: Bay trees bowing to autumn colour and in the front right hand corner is Miscanthus ‘Morning Light’.
Photo 4: Soft images of Salvia involucrata 'Bethellii’ and Sanguisorba officinalis. The sanguisorba, which takes two to three years to establish, is giving a soft wispy look to this garden as I wanted the garden to look less formal.
Photo 5: The richly-coloured leaves of Fothergilla minor. Many visitors ask me if it is a witch-hazel (Hamamelis). It is the family of plants most closely related to witch-hazels. I have three Hamamelis “Diane’ growing and they are colouring in a very similar way to Fothergilla minor.
We have three trees that we are moving shortly. Two Liquidambar ‘Worplesdon’ and one Calycanthus raulstonii ‘Hartlage Wine’. When I first planted the liquidambars about three years ago I realised that there wasn’t enough room for them to grow fully but I was keen to have the autumn colour of these trees. Fortunately, since then, we have moved rows of our peony roses to the paddock near the Moorpark apricot trees which fruited well this year, considering it was only their second season. The liquidambars will go near the apricot trees. I call my Calycanthus trees, when in fact they are shrubs, but like many shrubs in our garden they have been limbed up to look like trees. I think in this case, to enjoy the flowers even more, we won’t limb up any further but I’ll keep the shrubs thinned out as time goes on.
My current reading is Gardening in New Zealand , published in 1895 and illustrated by M. Murphy. F.L.S. It must have been a popular book as I have the fourth edition.
Very best wishes to you all,
Margaret
