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December 2024 Update - Garden
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At the end of November we enjoyed the first hard frost of the season. I always welcome these events initially, especially at such an appropriate time for the year. It is the late spring frosts that I am not so keen on. The Garden looked magical suspended in its icing coat.
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We don’t grow many tender perennials here mainly because they don’t really fit into our naturalistic, English Garden style. I love the jungly look of bananas and cannas and remember Carolyn trying to incorporate these into her designs. It didn’t work, she abandoned the idea, and I could see why.
In 2014 I was working at the Chelsea Physic Garden where we grew a lot of Echium pininana. The bees swarmed around these intense blue flowers, and I absolutely fell in love with them. I raised some from seed and gave a plant to Carolyn who I knew would appreciate their value to pollinators. She tried them in various places and settled on the courtyard gardens as they are the most sheltered. They have since seeded around the Garden with varying degrees of success. They are susceptible to rotting off in cold wet weather and, as it takes them around three years to reach flowering size, they are not the easiest plant to keep alive throughout the winter.
We have been nurturing a particularly fine Echium plant in the Sun Dial bed that now looks large enough to flower next year. Harriet and Alison recently created a fine protection structure for it giving us high hopes for a tower of blue flowers next year.
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I hope that you all managed to watch the recent Gardener’s World episode featuring Bates Green Garden and Beatons Wood. It was rewarding to have the hard work and dedication of the Gardens Team recognised. If you didn’t see it, then follow the link here to watch on BBC iPlayer
bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0024zzc/gardeners-world-winter-specials-202425-episode-1
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The list of workshops for 2025 is now published and bookings are open. There are limited spaces available so if you are interested, early booking is advised.
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We would all like to wish those of you who celebrate the forthcoming festival a very merry Christmas and hope that all of us can enjoy a peaceful 2025.
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Emma Reece - Head Gardener
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This message was added on Sunday 8th December 2024
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