Winter within the Gardens

Winter is officially here as we enter the final month of the year but that doesn’t mean that the garden at Leonardslee has any less to offer our visitors or that there isn’t plenty for the garden team to be getting on with right now.   

Jack Frost may well be nipping at our noses, finger and toes, but the frosty Winter wonderland that he creates is truly a sight to behold here in our Grade I listed gardens. Ice-crusted seed heads on the herbaceous plants we’ve left standing in our raised beds for example and frozen berries, such as the holly bushes behind the Rock Garden, make great photo opportunities. As do the lakes down in the bottom of the valley 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! 

Keep Moving this Winter

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.

Wrapping up warmly

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.  These plants could also be dug up and brought into our glasshouse if we were concerned that a mulch wouldn’t be enough protection. Another method of Winter protection is to wrap a plant in horticultural fleece.  We’ll do this on the likes of our tree ferns (or 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. 

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 2022! 

Jamie Harris 

Head Gardener