Seasonal highlights from May to September
May
Tulips provide a magnificent and brilliant display from the purest whites to the deepest black. Carpets of aubrietia and alpine phlox form a sweep of lilac, purple and pink at the front of the house on the lower terrace. The borders are bursting with fresh acid green foliage and sparkling early performers such as euphorbia, ceanothus, dicentras, iris, clematis and alpines on the rock garden. As the second bank holiday weekend approaches, the Wisteria covers the front of the House with scented blooms set against its warm red brick and the alliums beneath stand in massed ranks of purple lollypops. The Woodland Walk is a miasma of Queen Anne’s Lace which flowers in the dappled shade of the trees.
June
Roses cover the arches with flowers and climb into an old cherry tree by the pond. The Silver and White garden is full of the scents of philadelphus and honeysuckle and the borders are burgeoning with summer perennials and shrubs. Large flowered clematis scramble up walls and over fences covering them with an abundance of blooms.
July
With July come long hot days and lazy afternoons having tea on the lawn. For those who prefer the shade, the pond side offers a cool haven and the surrounding bog garden is a mass of eupatorium, astilbes, hostas and ferns. The containers are brimming over and the corn harvest starts in the fields stretching across the valley in front of the house.
August
The Cutting Garden, replanted in May, is now head-high with sunflowers, dahlias, zinnias, cosmos and tithonias. Meanwhile, by the stream, the hydrangeas sparkle white in the shade of the old sycamore tree.
September
We work hard for this month to keep the garden “up to scratch”. There is still plenty of colour and interest in the borders provided by anemones, asters, rudbeckias, salvias and many others.
The garden is no longer open to visitors except for the National Gardens Scheme Sunday 13th September 2008. Please check the yellow book for details.
