A Visit to Howick Hall Garden

VISIT TO HOWICK HALL GARDEN, NORTHUMBERLAND

My 'Six on Saturday' today aren't from my own garden but a visit I made on Friday to the beautiful Howick Hall Gardens on the North Northumberland coast.  Although the main border displays are past their best, there are lots of beautiful little nuggets to discover there. Here are six of my discoveries for you to enjoy on this Saturday. 

1. Colchicums

There is a surprising array of different Colchicums to be seen around the gardens and woodland. I particularly liked this one with the pattern on its petals rather similar to those on a snake's head fritillary.

 

2. Hydrangeas 

There were hydrangeas of various types in different locations, and it's so difficult to chose a favourite, but I've selected this blue one from the Silverwood part of the garden, simply because it is blue. My own garden is on neutral soil that contains hard fragments of limestone, so my hydrangeas are always pink, so I love to see blue ones elsewhere.

 

 3. Combinations

Finding new plant combinations is one of the joys of visiting gardens. I never would have thought of putting pink Cosmos and these blue daisy flowers together, but I think they make a great combination. I found them in Lady Howick's private garden, which is often open to visitors in aid of the local church funds. Make sure you put your pound in the box at the entrance and don't be mean and sneak in without paying.

 4. Cyclamen

Cyclamen seem to be plants that I just can't grow. In my Dad's garden on heavy clay they used to self-seed all over the place. In my wonderful, deep, fertile, moist but free-draining soil they just disappear. Perhaps its because everything else grows so well and overpowers them. So I'm very jealous of all the lovely little cyclamen currently in flower at Howick, and I love how they combine with little blue and white lobelias in the rock garden.

 5. Light and shade

I think light and shade help bring a garden to life and the hedges and trees in this scene at Howick help to make those differences. Howick really is a place for people who like trees because as well as the garden, it has a huge arboretum with trees from all over the world. Imagine what this picture would look like without the trees. 

Sadly I need to say farewell soon to two trees in my garden that I really love. Strong winds last year and this year have put a lean on a silver birch given to me as a seedling more than 20 years ago. And a Eucalyptus planted as a small sapling about 25 years ago is really outgrowing the garden. So l need to make that call to an expert in tree removal so they can be taken down safely. But they will be replaced with something else, so I will still have light and shade in my garden.

 

6. Autumn colour

Autumn colour is just starting to appear at Howick, and I hope to return again this autumn for a stroll through the woods and arboretum. But one shrub already zinging with colour is Euonymus alatus, the winged spindle tree, with the leaves having turned from their summer green to this fabulous red.

I hope you've enjoyed this little selection of six from Howick Hall Gardens. It is a garden. There is no children's playground or pedal tractors, but kids can run about in the woods and see and hear the woodpeckers, marvel at the huge Gunnera leaves by the stream or take up the Family Explorer Challenge and become nature detectives.

Another of my favourite things about the place is the Earl Grey Tea House. It is the most elegant tearoom I know at any garden open to the public, and you can't visit a garden without tea and cake!

P.S. I recommend Northumbrian Rarebit at lunch, and later a scone with butter, jam and clotted cream (but remember the 'jam first' rule, none of this nonsense of trying to spread jam on top of cream), and any or all of the cakes.

SIX PLANT MISTAKES

Most of Six on Saturday is about achievements in the garden, much loved plants or ways of doing things. But while I was down on my hands and knees on Thursday evening, pulling weeds out of a gravel path, I realised that some of them were our plant mistakes - plants we should never have introduced to the garden.
So I am using this week's six on Saturday  as a warning - do not introduce these plants to your garden, as you will come to regret it, just as I have.

1 Mimulus guttata

You can buy this *pretty yellow-flowered Mimulus (although I think the taxonomists have been at it again and changed the name to Erythranthe guttata) but it is also endemic in the wild and we obtained a few little bits from alongside a Northumberland stream where it looked lovely in the field. Planted in the shallows of our pond it loved life and seeded around - and around and around and around. It has clinging roots so that when you pull it up, it breaks, leaving bits to sprout again.
DONT PLANT IT.

2.  Lysimachia ciliata 'FIRECRACKER'

I was looking for plants with interesting coloured leves when I found this at a garden centre with nice little contrasting bright yellow flowers. it looked nice the first year, then the following year its spreading roots meant it came up all over the bed and in the path and between the edging stones. It may have an RHS Award of Garden Merit, but as far as I'm concerned it has no merit. 
DON'T PLANT IT. 

3. Bamboo - Semiarundinaria fastuosa

 We chose this bamboo for the 'exotic' part of our garden as it grows tall and was said not to be one that runs. To quote one supplier: "it remains fairly compact around the base with just occasionally straying rhizomes from the main clump that can be easily controlled."
Easily controlled! Huh! It can run like Usain Bolt. The running roots are  built just like the canes themselves and your spade will glance or bounce off them. Enough was enough when an arrow-sharp runner pierced the liner of our pond - fortunately a fraction above water level. In a massive excavation it was dug up and confined to a very strong plastic tub  but I fear it may be escaping, so that will be dug up to and it is destined for the bonfire.
DON'T PLANT IT.

4. Carex pendula

 The pendulous sedge seemed like a good idea for a marginal pond plant. with its tall flower heads to wave in the breeze. But later they wave seeds all over the place - thousands and thousands of them. And being a British native plant, when they get into damp soil, they love it.
The RHS website now says: "It seeds freely and can become a troublesome weed in damp gardens."  It certainly can and the rest of the RHS entry concentrates on how to control it.
DON'T PLANT IT.

5. Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae

I liked this in my neighbour's garden and other places where i've seen it under trees - after all it is the wood spurge. So I planted it in a shady corner and it was happy there for a few years until it decided to explore the garden and began to pop up all over the place. Despite its wandering habit, I like its dark green evergreen leaves and lime green flowers in spring - but my OH dislikes it intensely. So it will have to go.
DON'T PLANT IT.

6. Phalaris arundinacea var. picta

I should have known better! Gardeners garters (why is it called that?).We'll have just a little bit, we said, out of my father-in-law's garden, and keep it constrained in a pot in the pond, where it will look nice.
Of course, it escaped and is now a nasty big clump preparing to take over the pond (once the pendulous sedge has gone). So it is destined for the bonfire too, as I'm not sure the council's composting process will kill it.
DON'T PLANT IT.

Those are six of my mistakes, all currently growing within a few yards of each other, and about to be disposed of. What plants have you regretted allowing into your garden?

 

Six on Easter Saturday

This is my first Six on Saturday blog from my Northern Garden, where I've been gardening about half an acre for more than 25 years. I used to grow quite a bit of veg, but I haven't done so for a number of years. However, we had quite a success with tomatoes, lettuce and pot-grown potatoes in the greenhouse last year, so I'll be repeating that this year, and for the first time ever I'm growing tomatoes from seed. 
For flowers, I tend not to grow annuals or biannuals, except some that seed themselves in the garden, and don't generally do plants that need lifting for the winter, although I have succumbed to a few dahlias this year. I like growing interesting and unusual plants and like something that may be a bit of a challenge. 
But enough about me and the garden in general - here are my first Six on Saturday for this Easter weekend.

1. What's in the propagator

I haven't used the heated propagaor for a few years but it is now re-installed in the greenhouse and filling fast. On the left are four Galina seedings. It's a yellow cherry tomato from Siberia so I'm hoping for great results here in the North.
On the right are seedlings of Latah. which is said to be a super-early tomato variety that tolerates short or cool summers. It's a bush type with red 1-2in fruits.
Other pots are hedychiums (gingers).. I already grow Hedychium densiflorum planted in the garden and comes up and flowers every year, but I've sown two selected varietries of that - Assam Orange and Stephen - that have bigger flowers. I've also sown Hedychium forestii and Hedychium spicatum, which are more exotic and it will be interesting to see if I can get them to flower here Up North. The seed came from Mike Clifford. If you like tropical-style plants see him on Twitter @MikesRarePlants
Finally, in the little tray are some Trachycarpus fortunii (Chusan palm) seeds from one of my own trees. I've already sown a large tray which is on the greenhouse bench but thought it would be interesting to try them with a bit of warmth in the propagator.

2. Highs and Lows

It's been a funny week, weatherwise. We had lovely sunny spring-like weather last weekend with the temperature in the greenhouse reaching 25 deg C on Sunday but since then we've had rain and sleet, and today the garden is like a sodden sponge.
The greenhouse thermometer tells the highs and lows from Monday to Friday this week - high 19 deg C, low 0 deg C - and when this photograph was taken at 4pm on Good Friday it was only 4 deg C in the greenhouse. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Rhodo from Seed 

I'm hoping we don't get any frosts for a few weeks as my early rhododendrons are coming into flower. The 'Mini Beast' finished off some opening buds on one shrub, but the buds on this one have survived and are preparing to open.
My early ones are all Rhododendron x falconeri grown from seed bought at Inverewe Garden in the north west of Scotland more than 25 years ago. I may be daft, growing early rhodoes in the north east of England, but really enjoy them when the flowers survive the frost, and they remind us of a special day at that lovely garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Trillium albidum

 I love to see trilliums coming through in the garden in late winter. Their common name is Wake Robin. I already have dark red and yellow types planted in the garden and multiplying into good clumps.
I bought this plant last year at the Alpine Garden Society and Scottish Rock Garden Club show at Hexham. It is Trillium albidum and has a white flower which is scented. It is still in its pot and I brought it into the greenhouse a few weeks back when the arrival of the 'Beast from the East' was imminenent. As you can see, it is preparing to flower now and it also has a second shoot. I will find it a suitable spot in the garden this year, where it can settle and multiply.

 

5. Spring flowers

I always think that primroses are a real sign of spring, and while the bright mixed colours of the various types of primulas are great for brightening up pots on the patio or deck, I like the pale yellow wild primroses in the garden. We have them dotted around in various places around the garden, and they were all grown from seed by my Other Half a good number of years ago. It's lovely to see them reappear each spring.

 

 

 

 

 

6. Flowery reminders

Many plants around our garden have come from family and friends and remind us of parents and grandparents. When Pulmonaria shows its flowers, it always reminds me of my mother who used to call it 'Lords and Ladies' because the plants show blue and pink flowers at the same time.
The Pulmonaria in our garden came from her, and while she's no longer with us, her flowers appear in our garden in springtime every year.


So that's it for my first 'Six on Saturday'. Hope you enjoyed it.