Another Autumn as we head into September again

It’s hard to believe that Summer is starting its creep towards another Autumn as we head into September again. This Summer has been very different to last, with lower temperatures and more rainfall – a bit like the British Summer holidays I remember as a child in fact! While this has meant that there’s been less need for irrigation of our important plants for instance, it does mean that the transition from one season to the next might be more gradual this year perhaps. In the meantime, there is still plenty of seasonal floral interest to enjoy on your next visit until we enter ‘proper’ Autumn. Read on for more details…

The Herbaceous Beds opposite Leonardslee House will have an abundance of late season colour, with perhaps the Salvia collection in here being the most obvious. Salvia nutans (or Nodding Sage) and Salvia patens ‘Cambridge Blue’ are two new favourite additions of mine for this year, joining the likes of Salvia ‘Amistad’ and ‘Black And Blue’. If we keep deadheading them they should flower until the first frosts. Also in these borders you’ll be able to see late season Sedum (Ice Plant), Cleome (Spider Flower) and the delicate white flowers of Persicaria alpina, another new addition for 2023.

Around the house there will also be a huge range of late Summer colour in the form of purple-leaved Canna, Ricinus communis (Castor Oil Plant) and Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurellii’, the Red Abyssinian Banana, for example. Once the frosts hit both these areas we’ll cut back the spent herbaceous material and mulch the ground ready for next year. Some of the plants may have to be brought inside for protection but fingers crossed this Winter won’t be as harsh as the last where we had extended periods of minus temperatures for days on end.

Although the explosion of full Autumn colour won’t hit its peak until October

Although the explosion of full Autumn colour won’t hit its peak until October most likely, there will early signs in September with Acers such as the cut-leaved aconitifolium or Acer palmatum ‘Seiryu’ both good examples of early colour. Both can be found in the Rock Garden for instance where you’ll also be able to enjoy the Katsura Tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) start its season turn to shades of yellow and orange. In the same area, Rhododendron ‘Yellow Hammer’ often gives a second floral flush in early Autumn to look out for that towards the end of the month too.

Around the lakes there will be lots of late Summer wildlife still busying away. Common Darter dragonflies and Willow Emerald damselflies are both very active in September for instance. And talking of wildlife, Elliot from the garden team will be leading another Wildflower Walk on the 29th of this month. There will still be plenty of wildflowers to learn about on this tour, including perhaps Devil’s Bit Scabious and Goldenrod for instance, and as it’s the last walk of this kind this year, make sure you book your place. Other interesting garden walks this month include the latest Tree Walk on the 20th and our first guided Fungi Walk on the 26nd.

Hopefully you can join at least one of these. And don’t forget that our dedicated team of tour guides also offer general garden tours on the first Monday and third Wednesday of each month too.

While we’re on the subject of trees, we recently had TROBI (the Tree Register of Britain and Ireland) award us a further 4 British & Irish Champions and another 7 County Champions after their last measuring visit. This brings our current total of Champion Trees (either the tallest or widest recorded examples of their kind) to 33 British, 6 English and well over 80 County champs. Make sure you pick up one of our Champion Tree trail leaflets when you’re next here to find out more. Another award we recently received was the People’s Choice award in the 2023 Plant Heritage Threatened Plant of the Year competition for our Rhododendron ‘The Dowager’ plant. From our National Collection of Leonardslee Rhododendron hybrids, we could have chosen over 30 that have been designated either Threatened or Endangered by Plant Heritage. We selected a shortlist of 5 for submission that we felt had the most merit or interest and ‘The Dowager’ was the plant that was selected by the panel. A cross between R. ‘Muriel’ (another rare Leonardslee-raised hybrid of falconeri x grande, with currently only a single specimen found in the garden) and R. arboreum, it was raised by the Dowager Lady Loder, Sir Edmund Loder’s widow who managed the Leonardslee estate from his death in 1920 to 1945 when her grandson Sir Giles Loder took over. It was named ‘The Dowager’ in honour of Lady Loder by Miss E. Godman of the South Lodge estate on the other side of the road from Leonardslee. The two estates often shared plant material and the two families were good friends. Miss E. Godman introduced the plant in 1968 and it received the Award of Merit in that year. At Leonardslee we have only a single specimen of this hybrid too and it is unlikely that any plants exist elsewhere. Thanks to everyone who voted for us in this competition!

September is a very busy time for the garden team

September is a very busy time for the garden team here at Leonardslee as we start to switch from presentation tasks like weeding and edging to bigger restoration work including hedge cutting and deadwooding. Planting is another great job that ramps up again from September. 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 plenty of trees and shrubs that will continue to increase our seasonal offer outside of Spring. Watch this space for more details.

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…

Jamie Harris, Head Gardener