Garden News | April 2024
Ready for spring!
I don’t know about our visitors, but I’m thoroughly ready for spring to start springing now! The end of the wet, grey, dreary days cannot come any sooner. I’m sure our poor soggy soil would agree with me too! As a gardener, April is probably one of the most exciting months of the year for me. There’s obviously the general promise of regrowth and renewal that Spring brings as everything emerges from the horticultural winter slumber, but if you’re a keen gardener or visitor of gardens, there is even more to get passionate about; whether it’s the wealth of new flowers coming into bloom or the interesting projects that the garden team can get stuck into, April certainly promises to be an exciting month!
What is a Woodland Garden?
As predominantly a ‘Woodland Garden’, Spring is one of the most important seasons for us here at Leonardslee. But what actually is a ‘woodland garden’? Well, commonly found on acidic soils, they tend to be formed in layers from the ground cover plants below to the tree canopy above. They are usually vast in size and use a clever combination of informal, natural design but with exotic, unusual plants. Common features include grand views and vistas, large bodies of water and carpets of naturalised bulbs. Sound familiar? We certainly have all those things here at Leonardslee. The term ‘woodland garden’ became popular in the early 20th century but was a direct result of the English Landscape Movement before it that covered everything from Capability Brown to William Robinson and that in itself was a reaction against the preceding European formality including the like of French parterres and Italian topiary.
So, what is there to see in our Woodland Garden this April?
It's been well documented the weather has been warmer than usual during February and March this year and that it has caused many plants to flower earlier than they normally would. If you’ve visited Leonardslee during this time you cannot have failed to notice the wealth of blooms on show, particularly the likes of our Camellias, Magnolias and Daffodils for instance. Although these displays are already well underway, our historic collection of woody plants will still be bursting with colourful blooms well into April and beyond, don’t worry!
For Camellias the key places to head are obviously Camellia Walk next to Leonardslee House where the oldest specimens in the garden can be found, some over 100 years old, or Camellia Grove down at the south west corner of Waterfall Pond. However, you’ll find plenty of other Camellias dotted throughout the garden as you explore, particularly on the upper slopes of the west side of the valley, such Camellia saluensis below the Courtyard Café.
As for Magnolias, they are many people’s favourite tree and I can understand why, particularly at this time of the year. From the Magnolia campbellii County Champion found in the Dell, one of the first of its species to ever flower in this country back in the early part of the 20th century, to the M. sprengeri ‘Diva’ near Daffodil Lawn, they are breath taking whenever you come across them so make sure you catch them while you can. As we move through April the smaller but no less beautiful Magnolia stellata types will come into their own too. We’ve also planted some unusual yellow flowered specimens near the visitor entrance building such as ‘Golden Pond’ and ‘Yellow Bird’ recently, as well as another variety called ‘Blue Opal’ which has striking blue buds, so I’m looking forward to seeing them bloom properly for the first time with any luck.
Rhododendron Collection
April is also when our world famous Rhododendron collection really starts to steal the show here at Leonardslee. There have been plenty of early specimens flowering during March and even February this year, but when spring arrives properly the rainbow explosion of Rhododendron flowers really begins! Everywhere you walk during April and May, and even into early June, you’ll be almost assaulted with colour as more and more Rhododendrons start to do their floral thing. The horticultural highlight is obviously our legendary collection of hybrids bred by Sir Edmund Loder found most noticeably in the Loderi Garden and Coronation Garden, but you’ll stumble upon rare and unusual examples of every size and colour no matter where you wander during spring.
Our flowering bulbs will continue to dazzle and enthral our visitors in spring too. Daffodil Lawn will perhaps be the most obvious early April display but around the lakeside banks will also be carpeted in dazzling yellow and white hues. Elsewhere the lawn opposite our new play area, which was planted with thousands of bulbs last autumn and has already been awash with daffs and colourful Crocus, will be studded with three different types of Camassia, namely ‘Quamash’, ‘Blue Heaven’ and ‘Alba’. Our redesigned raised beds at the visitor entrance are also full of a revolving door of different bulbs so make sure you have a good look at them as you arrive too.
Spring also signals a new list of jobs for the garden team here at Leonardslee to be getting on with. We pruned our Hydrangeas during March and made a start on some restoration pruning on our Rhododendrons and Azaleas too, but that work will continue throughout April as well as some similar restoration work on our Camellias in Camellia Grove for instance. Many of our historic feature shrubs have either outgrown their space or gotten to a point where the blooms are too high above head height. This fairly hard prune will only be done on plants that we know can both tolerate it, and which will benefit from the work. We’ll make sure to give a good feed and mulch after the pruning so that it is not too stressful a process for them.
The lawns will start to take up more of our time again too in April. We’ll be finishing up with any feeding and seeding as well as getting our newly-serviced mowers up and running in earnest once more. April is also an ideal time to divide any herbaceous perennials. This stops old clumps becoming congested and weak in the centre as well as providing us with free plants to place elsewhere in the beds and borders! And while we’re on the subject of herbaceous perennials, now is a great time to finally cut back any leggy, woody or overgrown Salvia, Penstemon or Fuchsia for example, now that the risk of major frosts has hopefully passed – fingers crossed!
We’ll also be carrying out some replanting work in April. Although the best time for planting is probably autumn when the plants can get their roots established in the still warm soil while entering dormancy without the risk of drying out, spring is the next best time. It’s also when more plants are available from the nurseries and suppliers again. We’ll be adding new plants around the house, in the Herbaceous Beds, the Rock Garden, the Red House border and the newly cleared bed opposite or Hub building for instance in April, just in time for the new season.
I could go on but hopefully that gives you a taste of what you can expect to see here at Leonardslee this month and what sort of work me and the garden team will be getting on with.
Don’t forget that our monthly Tree Walks are available for booking onto where Elliot from the garden team will be sharing his knowledge on some of our most important and interesting trees all across the garden.
This month he will be giving a talk on April 17th. I’ll also be leading a Head Gardener walk on the 24th.
Members tours also run every first Monday and third Wednesday of the month and are led by our fantastic volunteer tour guides. We look forward to seeing you here again in the gardens at Leonardslee very soon…
Jamie Harris
Head Gardener
