Garden News | December
Winter at Leonardslee
The festive season is upon us and winter is officially here as we enter the final month of the year, but that doesn’t mean that the gardens has any less to offer our visitors or that there isn’t plenty for the garden team to be getting on with right now.
It’s been such a wet autumn this year, which is hopefully not a sign of things to come. The rain washed some of our paths away on several occasions and even overloaded the lakes so that they broke their banks a few times too. The garden team here are certainly looking forward to a new season! Jack Frost could well be nipping at our noses, finger and toes of course, but the frosty winter wonderland that this creates is truly a sight to behold here in our Grade I listed historic gardens. Ice-crusted seed heads on the herbaceous plants we’ve left standing in our beds and borders for example, and frozen berries, such as the holly trees behind the Rock Garden, make great photo opportunities. As well as holly, see if you can spot any ivy and mistletoe around the garden when you’re next here. We certainly have other festive plants on display, such the Christmas Rose (or Hellebore) which you’ll spot dotted through the areas near the house, and Christmas Box (also known as Sarcococca). This is one of my favourite plants at this time of year. Covered in sweetly scented flowers, you’ll find a number of varieties in and around the Rock Garden, in the house borders and also further afield as you explore the Loderi Garden for example. It also makes a great cut stem to bring into the house if you have any at home.
While you’re exploring the garden, make sure you get down to the lakes in the bottom of the valley this December as they reflect the skeletal deciduous trees and evergreen conifers that surround them. Did you know, that if you wanted to keep warm this month and walked round the perimeter of all of the lakes here at Leonardslee, it would take over 3700 steps and would burn nearly 250 calories?! That’s the equivalent of a large slice of Christmas cake or a couple of small mince pies! I think I might have to do a couple of laps, personally!
Talking of keeping moving when it’s cold at this time of year, if you haven’t ventured up to the Pinetum in the Deer Park before, now is a perfect opportunity. A Pinetum is a collection of any type of conifer, be it pine, fir or cedar for example. Conifers look great throughout the whole year, particularly when covered in cones, but in December they really stand out and offer an added interest that other trees that have lost their leaves do not.
The original Pinetum at Leonardslee was planted by Sir Edmund Loder in the early 1900’s up near the Top Garden, but most of this was unfortunately lost in the 1987 great storm. Sir Edmund’s Great Grandson Robin Loder then re-planted the current version exactly 100 years later. Some of my favourite trees in the Leonardslee Pinetum include Cryptomeria japonica ‘Sekkan Sugi’ with its bronze winter foliage, Thujopsis dolobrata ‘Variegata’ with it multi-coloured flattened needles and the Black Spruce (Pinus mariana) which has stunning small purple cones. There are plenty of conifers that you could call ‘Christmas Trees’ in the Pinetum too, which all adds to the festive spirit here in the garden.
Garden Team Highlights
The garden team will no doubt be wrapping up warm this winter while we’re working in the garden, but we’ll also make sure some of our more tender plants are well protected at this time of the year too. This might involve a good mulch with well-rotted organic matter over the top of underground Dahlia tubers or around Canna crowns for instance. The mulch will insulate the soil and stop it becoming waterlogged after rainfall. Another method of winter protection is to wrap a plant in horticultural fleece. We’ll do this on the likes of our tree ferns (Dicksonia antarctica) in The Dell to stop them from suffering too much frost damage. Once wrapped, the crown can then be packed with straw as a real ‘belt and braces’ measure to prevent the ill effects of wet, icy weather. There are some plants that we have to bring indoors entirely. Our banana plants (Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’) from around the house for instance, are being dry stored this year. We recently dug them up, washed the soil off their roots and then removed all of their fleshy leaves and central stem. After propping them upside down in the glasshouse for a fortnight to allow the excess moisture to drain out, this month we’ll store them in boxes in a cool, dry dark place until their start to sprout again next Spring.
Other jobs for my team this month will include the huge annual leaf clearing job, final spots of bulb planting, putting the herbaceous borders to bed, strimming and cutting bracken and brambles etc as well as getting the seed and plant catalogues out and planning for next year’s display.
So as you can see, there is plenty for you to see and plenty for us to be doing in the garden during December. I hope you all enjoy the Leonardslee Illuminated event this year and have a fantastic Christmas. Stay healthy and we look forward to seeing you here again in 2023 for another exciting year in the garden!
Jamie Harris
Head Gardener
