Garden News | September
It’s hard to believe that another summer is starting to morph into another autumn as we head into September again. Obviously it’s been such a dry summer this year here at Leonardslee and across the country and that will have a knock-on effect for our garden and the plants here, more of which below. In the meantime, there is still plenty of seasonal floral interest to enjoy on your next visit until we enter autumn ‘proper’. The borders around the Rock Garden and the Mansion for instance have lots of late Summer colour including the likes of Sedum, Echinacea, Dahlia, Canna, Lobellia and a whole range of Salvias such as ‘Amistad’ and ‘Black & Bloom’ to name but two in full flower. Dan’s containers all around the café and mansion courtyard will continue to bloom late in the summer too so make sure you check them out also.
So the big question is whether the record-breaking summer we’ve just experienced was a one-off or a sign of things to come? It was certainly nice in some ways not to have to experience the stereotypical drizzly British summer of my childhood, but the endless dry days and extreme temperatures were an endurance test at times for my garden team and the precious plants in our collection. If you’ve been reading or watching the news recently you may have read reports of a ‘false autumn’ happening across the country. This is where drought-stressed trees have entered an early survival mode with leaves dropping and changing colour in an attempt to reduce water loss and enter an early dormancy. I can confirm that we’ve seen signs of this here at Leonardslee with some Acers starting to show autumn colour last month in August. We’ve also found that we’ve had to get our leaf blowers out more often as our trees and shrubs have been shedding onto the paths much earlier than we would expect. This means that the famous Leonardslee autumn firework display might come early this year unless we start to get some persistent rainfall this month so make sure you keep an eye on our social media channels for the news and updates.
September is a very busy time for the garden team here at Leonardslee. The days may be getting shorter but that doesn’t mean we’ll be working any less as the focus of the work shifts slightly from finessing presentation standards to more structural restoration work. An important part of the conservation work here in the garden for instance is maintaining our historic hedges to keep them looking crisp and to control their size. We’re not short of a few hedges here at Leonardslee, from formal Box (Buxus sp.) around the Mansion and Yew (Taxus sp.) topiary on the Crystal Palace lawns to the rows of Rhododendron hedging alongside some of the paths and lakes. The growth of these plants will slow as the temperatures and daylight hours drop, so now is a great time to tackle hedges with powered hedge-trimmers in most cases, or hand shears for more fine work. Hedges here help define paths and boundaries as well as offering aesthetic structure in winter.
Whereas much of the summer is too hot and dry to be placing tender, young plants in the ground, as autumn starts to creep into view, now is a great time to plan any replanting jobs. The soil will still be warm in September and early into autumn, which will aid root establishment, but it will also be moist from the late summer showers. This means that the plants will be less likely to suffer from drought stress. New plants will have a couple of months to get their roots down and tap into the soil nutrients before winter hits and growth stops. We’ll be planting, planning, ordering and quarantining plants for a number of areas here at Leonardslee this month including more ferns around the mansion, additions to our species foxglove collection and some new specimen trees further afield across the garden for instance.
We recently had confirmation from the Tree Register Of Britain and Ireland of a further 11 trees in the garden that have been recognised as Champions. For those who aren’t aware, a Champion Tree is one that is either the tallest or widest recorded of its type in either the county, England or the UK. There are now 3 more British & Irish Champions (making 29 in total), 1 more English Champion (making 4 in total) and 7 more county Champions (making nearly 80 in total). We’ve added blue plaques to them all and will be offering a Champion Tree leaflet, map and trail in the future so please look out for news on that.
Plenty to be getting on with then and plenty to see and do here as we head into September at Leonardslee. We look forward to seeing you here in the garden again soon, perhaps on one of our members’ garden tours held every first and third Monday of each month, or on Elliot’s tree walks which happen on the middle Wednesday of every month.
Jamie Harris, Head Gardener
