Garden News | March 2025
Is the long, cold Winter finally over?
Let’s hope so! I’m always excited to welcome in the new month of March to my garden and here at Leonardslee is no exception. It’s that time when we can hopefully start to shake off the frosty, soggy, wind-swept shackles of Winter and embrace the new hope of the coming Spring. Across the garden, bulbs will continue to pop up everywhere and showing off their pretty heads while the trees and shrubs will be continuing their early tentative attempts at coming into leaf and flower. The more frequent and longer mild, sunny days will also provide the opportunity for an increasing range of gardening tasks, some of which I’ll tell you about below…
One of the key features of an historic woodland garden is the masses of flowering bulbs on show. Leonardslee really starts to come alive in March and our extensive bulb collection plays a big part in that. Snowdrops will still be enchanting visitors in areas such as Snowdrop Bank on the west side of the middle lakes, behind the Engine House Cafe and under the shrubs in Camellia Walk for instance, as well as in the Rock Garden. Their pure, delicate heads are always a sight to lift the spirits and we have plans to add to our snowdrop collection later in the year in a number of areas, so watch this space.
It will also be the turn of our many daffodils to take their moment in the spotlight. Daffodil Lawn, just north of the Mansion, is the obvious place to start to enjoy these displays. The lower section in particular will be absolutely covered in a mesmerising carpet of yellow, although we do plan to bulk up this area again even more this coming Autumn. At the bottom of Daffodil Lawn you’ll find the Rotunda. This affords fantastic views down the valley, across the lakes and over to Mossy Ghyll where you should be able to spot over 5000 white ‘Thalia’ daffs that were planted recently. I’m also really looking forward to seeing the collection of dwarf and species daffodils growing in the raised brick beds beneath the Red House. Again, we plan to continue to add to this collection over the coming years.
And talking of raised beds, make sure you take a good look at the ones outside our retail building. These will be bursting with the likes of Iris reticulata ‘Blue Note’ and Crocus speciosus ‘Albus’ to name but two this month. As hinted earlier, it’s also worth wandering through the Rock Garden at this time of year where you’ll be able see beautiful cyclamineus daffodils (the ones that look like rabbits with their ears pulled back!) as well as some newer additions such as Puschkinia libanotica with their delicate pale blue and white stripes and various Muscari and Erythronium for instance.
Although we’re only just getting into Spring, some of our world-famous collection of rhododendrons and camellias will be flowering already. If you head to the Loderi Garden for instance, you’ll be able to marvel at the likes of Rhododendron ‘Cornubia’ with its luxurious velvet red flowers or Camellia ‘Cornish Snow’ which has pretty white blooms marked with pink splodges at the base. Obviously there is much more still to come from these types of shrub across the whole garden but it’s fantastic to see these early signs and a taster of the full Spring display on the horizon. Camellia Walk for instance has had a few early flowerers during February including Camellia japonica ‘Variegata’ and C. japonica ‘Little Bit’ for instance while C. x williamsii ‘Cherub’ has been busily blooming down in Camellia Grove for a number of weeks now. ‘Cherub’ is especially interesting because it was bred by Sir Giles Loder during his time at Leonardslee and is unique to us so make sure you catch it while you can.
The big job in March that we’ve all been waiting for is the green light to start our renovation pruning of overgrown rhododendrons and camellias. A few years ago we would have waited until after flowering to start this important restoration process, but the thinking now is that doing the work in March gives the plants the best chance to recover quicker and flower again sooner, hopefully even next year. Admittedly we’ll lose the flowers for this year on the plants we choose to tackle, but in the long run this method is much better for the plant itself. We plan to carry out this work in areas such as the entrance to Camellia Walk, along Cox’s Walk and in a number of locations down at the lakes including the continued phased process in Camellia Grove. In some cases we’ll be reducing the size of the plants dramatically so we’ll give them a good feed and mulch afterwards to make it as unstressful as possible. The result of this work will be to either bring flowers back down to eye level, open up lost views or simply to stop the shrub becoming too large for the area.
March is also the month when the lawns will begin to think about growing again so we’ll be busy tackling some turf tasks. Before we start actually mowing later on in Spring, perhaps even by the end of the month, we’ll get on with plenty of re-seeding and re-turfing now that the risks of frost are becoming a little less likely. The temperatures will be increasing slightly in March but there will also be plenty of moisture in the soil so March is an absolutely ideal time to apply grass seed on bare patches such as on the Mansion Lawn and along Interlude Drive for instance. We’ll also use fine, sandy soil to fill in any dips and divots as well as repair any damage to our lawn edges. Spring is also a great opportunity to apply a fertilizer to underperforming or hard-worked areas. At this time of year, a nitrogen-heavy feed will encourage leafy growth to make the lawn appear lusher. Feeding your lawn will also increase vigour and help prevent weeds and moss from establishing. Fertilisers should be applied when the soil is moist, or when rain is expected, hence why March should be perfect.
So as you can, lots to enjoy here as you take in the gardens at Leonardslee and lots of hard work for my team to be getting on with. By the way, there are a couple of general garden tours that you can book onto if you wish this month on March 3rd and 19th. Either way, I hope you enjoy your next visit and that we see you all again soon…
Jamie Harris
Head Gardener
