Garden News | January
Is it really January already?
I can’t believe another year has gone by so quickly. And what a year it was, in more ways than one! Now seems like as good a time as any to look back on the previous twelve months and what’s been happening in the garden here at Leonardslee, as well as looking forward to what we might expect to enjoy here in 2023.
The weather here at Leonardslee alone in 2022 has been eventful to say the least. We had the worst storm in my time as a professional gardener back in February when we lost 6 major trees. We then had the hottest, driest Summer in recent memory, followed an incredibly wet and mild Autumn and then a prolonged freezing spell in December! Gales, droughts, floods and ice have kept us on our toes but haven’t stopped us achieving many exciting new developments in the garden.
SPRING 2022
Spring saw the fruits of our labours burst into life with thousands of new bulbs on display. There were Imperial Fritillaries (Fritillaria imperialis and F. persica) below the Café and many new unusual Alliums such as the deep purple heads of Allium atroprurpureum and the brilliantly hard to pronounce Allium sphaerocephalon in the Courtyard beds to name just a few. They were joined by a multitude of species Foxgloves across the upper gardens, such as Digitalis ambigua, ferruginea gigantea and parviflora for example. Next Spring you should look out for new wild tulips on Eucalyptus Lawn, improved bulb coverage in the Rock Garden and around the House, several hundred Sternbergia lutea (aka the Winter Daffodil) near the Doll’s House Museum as well as the beginnings of a dwarf species daffodil collection below the Red House.
SUMMER 2022
We started to add to and improve our Summer interest last year with new planting schemes around Leonardslee House, in our new Herbaceous Beds and in the Rock Garden. The exotic display on the south and east sides of the house was one highlight with the likes of Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’ (the Ethiopian Black Banana) and Ricinus communis ‘Impala’ (Castor Oil Plant) being particular favourites for example. The Rock Garden now has a new subtropical border on the upper eastern ridge as well as a new planting scheme outside the garden to the west as well as many other smaller improvements and additions inside. We will continue to add to all of these displays this year again as well as planting new and interesting specimen trees in key areas too.
We had our Champion Trees re-measured and verified last year by TROBI (the Tree Register Of Britain & Ireland). The results of which were that we currently have nearly 30 British & Irish Champions, a further half a dozen or so English Champions and around 80 County Champions across the garden. And in case you were wondering, a Champion tree is one that is the tallest or widest of its kind. These trees have all been labelled with blue plaques for ease of identification but this coming year we hope to add a Champion Tree trail and map for our visitors to follow also.
Another exciting development last year was the confirmation from Plant Heritage that we are official full holders of a National Historic Collection for our Loderi and Leonardslee-related Rhododendron hybrids. There are currently 40 specimens in our collection, all bred and raised here at Leonardslee. Sir Edmund Loder started this process in 1901 and his work was continued by subsequent members of the Loder family. Leonardslee is the only garden in the World that you can see these amazing plants in one place. Next year we plan to have a trail map for these important historic shrubs as well as distinguishing labels so you can seek them out easily. We’re also going to be working with the Duchy College micropropagation laboratory in Cornwall to create genetic clones of the plants in our collection in order to safeguard their future in the (hopefully unlikely) event of a major storm or disease outbreak
OTHER ADDITIONS & ACHIEVEMENTS
Other additions and achievements this year have included large scale restoration pruning on swathes of Rhododendron luteum around the lakes and at Coronation Garden which has opened up new planting pockets and revealed hidden specimen trees; continued restoration pruning in Camellia Grove to rejuvenate the plants and bring the blooms back down to eye and nose level; the rediscovery and relaying of sandstone path edging around the garden as well as path drainage and surface improvements; increased and improved seasonal container displays around the courtyard and café areas; introducing a new bloodline into our wallaby mob to freshen up the gene pool and reduce the risk of ill health; the construction of a new bird hide and viewing area on the west side of New Pond in the Deer Park; and continued work to open up a new area in the future to the east of the lakes called the Hillside Garden.
Although I’ve mentioned a few future projects here, I’ve run out of space for this month to go into much detail about our plans for 2023 and beyond, so I’ll have to leave that for next month’s newsletter. In the meantime, I wish you all a happy new year and look forward to seeing you here in the garden again soon.