Saturday 28 November 2015

The Golden Globe Award!

 One tree I would always make room for in a garden is a Malus (Crab Apple).
The one in Our Garden@19 is Malus 'Golden Hornet', which I planted after reading 
Rosemary Verey's recommendation in her book 'The Garden in Winter'.

Once mature, I have always pruned it to maintain the bowl shape you see below, in blossom...


...this photo shows it with fruit and new growth, that would have been pruned back during the winter.
We visited Highgrove Garden (sorry about the name drop) in 2014 and I noticed, in the vegetable garden, the Malus Golden Hornets ( Rosemary Verey advised Prince Charles in the early years) had been trained into a coronet shape.


I thought a coronet was a little too pretentious for here, whereas a globe would be acceptable.
Instead of cutting off all the new growth, I tied the majority in together to form the basic shape and then spur pruned the remainder as usual.
This picture shows the pruning finished with some of the old fruit still on, which is left for the birds during the cold weather.
The one drawback with 'Golden Hornet' is the yellow fruit turn brown during the winter. 


Looking better in the spring with some leaf growth...


...and even better when in blossom...


...which is a very attractive flower.


In summer the apples develop...


...the lovely colour from which the name is derived...


...thereby creating a Golden Globe...



...and some where to hang two bird feeders.


...The Golden Globe illuminated at night.


One of the joys of visiting other gardens, however large or small, is that they can be a source of inspiration.

We will be opening Our Garden@19 again next year for the NGS. Their yellow book is a great source of gardens open to visit throughout the UK.
What have you been inspired to create after a garden visit?

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Monday 23 November 2015

In a Vase on Monday. 23/11/15





Sunday's glorious weather gave me the opportunity to finally complete my bulb and wallflower planting for this year.

While enjoying the sunshine I collected a few flowers for today's In a Vase on Monday.


The Worcestershire Weeping Standard Rose has taken on a new lease of life and started flowering again and...


...joining it in the vase are the annuals, Calendula officials and Centaurea cyanus ‘Blue Boy.'
The foliage is provided by Erica arb. 'Albert's Gold', I do like its acid green colour, along with fallen leaves from the Liquidamber slyraciflua 'Stella'.
I have added some pine cones, from our neighbours trees, that came down in the recent gale 'Barney'.


The Worcestershire Rose.


Please visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden Here to see what other bloggers have In a Vase on Monday.

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Monday 16 November 2015

November Colour?


The weather recently has not been conducive to strolling around the garden. 
Venturing out on Sunday to check for any wind damage and relieved to find everything intact, I fetched the camera to record what was flowering here in November. 
The Cobaea scandens, which I have posted about before, is still rampantly growing in all directions. This stem is half way up through the cherry tree by the patio. the majority of the blooms have been purple, it is nice to see some white ones.


The other rampant annuals are the Nasturtiums, this one has self sown from last year.


The Hakonechloa macro 'Aureola' adds a splash of bright green in a pot on the patio...


...also in a pot is the non stop flowering Geranium 'Rozanne'.


The evergreen Viburnum tinus provides a flowering screen to the water buts at this time of year.


Through the Vitis 'Spectchley Red' covered arch...


...to the mixed border where the late flowering Eupatorium macula. 'Chocolate', with its chocolate coloured leaves and white flowers...


...and the Hydrangea 'Blue Wave', whose white flowers have a faint hint of blue in our soil, providing the only flower colour in this area.


It is amazing when walking around your own garden, how you can miss a plant in flower, I suddenly noticed the flowers on the Viburnum f 'candidissimum'...


...I  don't think I have seen so many flowers on it before...


...close to the buds are little, tight clusters of scent.


Writing a garden blog, along with taking photos, encourages you to look closer at your garden, it is easy to just go out and work in your own garden and not stop to look around.
I have observed since writing about Our Garden@19 how some colours appear to dominate at different times of year.
In these photos white is, perhaps, surprisingly the main colour.


What colour dominates your garden at this time of year?

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Wednesday 11 November 2015

Tree Following November 2015 (Acer negundo Flamingo)



The  Acer negundo Flamingo I have been following this year has now lost all its leaves, if you haven't visited before it grows in our small Oriental Garden.


The stems come into their own this time of year with their slate & blue colouring...


...growing in the centre is a small amount of moss, which I had not noticed before.


This photo was taken, at night, from out side the Oriental Garden, with the garden light on and the camera flash turned off.
A White Wisteria, whose leaves are just changing, is trained over the arch behind and then along the bamboo fence underneath the tree.


The tree following meme is now hosted by Pat please visit to see what other trees people are following this month.

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