Winter coming to an end!

When I think about February I usually look ahead to winter coming to an end and the transition into a new spring season. However, as I write this I have just driven into work with my car displaying a temperature of -8C, so it feels like we might be in for a few more chilly days in store! On a bright, sunny, cold, crisp day however, when the blue skies and the pure white frost dazzle and amaze, there are few better places to enjoy the views than here at Leonardslee, so hopefully you’ll be able to take advantage of that this month.

In last month’s newsletter I reviewed the year in the garden during 2022 and promised that this month I would let you know about some of our horticultural plans for 2023. So, never a man to willingly break his promise, here are some of the exciting plans we have as a garden team over the coming months…

Garden Management Plan

One of the main priorities in our Garden Management Plan is to increase our summer interest for visitors. We all know what a fantastic display we have in spring and autumn of course. Summer is still a beautiful time of year to visit and enjoy the tranquil lakeside walks or spot the many wildlife and wildflower species throughout the garden for instance. However, we would like to improve the floral interest during the summer months, but still not do anything that goes against the aesthetic of a woodland garden. We wouldn’t plonk a rose garden in the middle of the valley for example! Instead we plan to introduce more summer flowering trees such as Hoheria, Eucryphia, Styrax and Tetradium plus increase the number and variety of flowering dogwoods in our collection. We also plan to add new species of Hydrangea shrubs on the banks around the lakes as well as the likes of Agapanthus, Rodgersia or Astilbe. Up around the mansion we’ll continue to add to the existing summer herbaceous exotic displays but also start growing some climbing plants on the walls of house such as Campsis or Clematis for instance.

Looking further ahead, once we’re happy with our added summer interest we hope to introduce more winter colour in the garden with two possible sites potentially earmarked for a winter garden area down at the north end of the lakes and a Winter Walk nearer to the mansion for those who don’t wish to venture that far. Phase three for this seasonal uplift will be to improve and add to our autumn colour even more with the addition or key specimen trees and shrubs, but we’re talking several years down the line for that project. Watch this space…

We’ll continue to add to our bulb collection in the garden too this year. There are a few areas where we’d like to plant more Spring bulbs including at The Dell and in a newly exposed and restored spot near the Coronation Garden perhaps. And talking of the Coronation Garden, we’ve read recently that there used to be a Magnolia Walk here so we’ll make the first steps towards introducing some new and interesting Magnolia trees here too.

I discussed before how we’re very proud to have been awarded a National Collection status for our Loderi and Leonardslee-related Rhododendrons. As well as creating a trail and map for these specimens this year, we make sure we provide them with some extra care and attention this year in terms of their health and their local growing conditions. We’ve also been notified that a number of the plants in this collection are unique to Leonardslee. That means we are the only location in the UK, and in some cases the World, that you can see these plants! With that in mind we’ve recently entered into a relationship with the Duchy College laboratory in Cornwall to get 40 or so of our rare Rhododendrons micropropagated. This process involves created new seedlings using bud tissue culture at a microscopic level. This will help to ensure the continuation of this rare and famous collection. We’ll have more news on this process as the year continues.