Growing Your Own Cut Flowers

**Happy new year! The new year has brought with it some beautiful flowers to brighten up the gloomy days. The following can all be found near the path as you walk through the Shrubbery: Above: Hamamelis commonly known as witch hazel has these spidery yellow flowers borne on bare stems. The flowers always remind me of curls of lemon rind! They prefer a sunny...

**Have you ever been scared to start a project in the garden because of the enormity of it? It happens to all of us, especially when deciding on the size of the flower beds.**: - By _Claire Greenslade_, Head Gardener_ "Have you ever been scared to start a project in the garden because of the enormity of it? It happens to all of us, especially when deciding...

"To me the sound of summer is the buzz of bees as they happily collect pollen from the plants. I have a real interest in pollinators and make sure that the plant centre stocks plants that encourage bees, butterflies and other insects. **Pollinators are important** Bees pollinate 3/4 of the world's most important crops. Sadly bee numbers have been...

**No Mow May ~ can you resist your mower for one month to help insect life in the UK?! Head Gardener Claire Greenslade sets you a challenge...**: **No Mow May** is an initiative set up by Plant Life, a charity that aims to promote the conservation of plants and habitat, and to increase awareness of the value of plants. They're asking for gardeners across...

I have mixed emotions about September. I love the light. I love the warm weather. But I cant shake off that feeling of impending doom as the nights draw in and the temperature drops - I have absolutely no love for winter! It is just too cold, and I can't even get excited about the prospect of snow. I've tried to enjoy sledging but frankly it's cold and wet...

**In 2005, Hestercombe Gardens Trust took ownership of Gotton Copse, a patch of woodland roughly 9 acres in size, but it was several years later that we started to restore the area ~ and found swathes of glorious bluebells!**: - Watch above: Ben gives a tour of the Bluebell Walk at Gotton Copse_ - by Ben Knight, Gardener_ **In 2005, **Hestercombe Gardens...

The much awaited peonies are out - about a month later than normal - but well worth the wait. The variety in the plat is 'Sarah Bernhardt'. I don't normally feel much affection for overly pink fluffy flowers but these really are an amazing and clash (or vibrate as Jekyll would say) beautifully with the delphiniums and orange tiger lillies. I took the formal...

**January is when we start much of the pruning in the Formal Gardens. This week we have started pruning the vines and the Magnolia that grow against the walls. The Magnolia is grown to provide a green leafy covering for the tall walls such as those by the South Walk and surrounding the Rotunda. The way we prune these Magnolia is to encourage this green leafy...

Hestercombe’s Wildflower meadow - showing evidence of the hot early summer (image: Ben Knight) - By Claire Greenslade_ “It has been such an extraordinary year in so many ways, even weather wise - spring was so hot that half the plants in the Wildflower Meadow germinated quickly, flowered and went to seed in a flash, and the whole site looked a bit burnt...

**If you are visiting Hestercombe over the next couple of weeks (and you must) then make sure you head to the rotunda in the formal garden to 'smell spring'. The walls of the rotunda are covered in a deciduous shrub called Chimonanthus praecox, also known as Wintersweet. At this time of year it produces these small waxy flowers that look rather like a 1930's...

In the Great Plat, as a carpet under the Glads and Cannas, we normally use pink and red varieties of Dianthus. However on Jekyll's original plan it states that we should use Phlox drummondii. In the past we have found it extremely hard to find this type of phlox available in single colours. It is much more common to buy the seed in a mixed colour packet - I...

**Head Gardener Claire explains why buying British grown or sustainable flowers is the best way to show love this Valentine's Day**: In the run up to Valentine’s Day, all the supermarkets and petrol stations are full of bouquets of flowers for people to buy their loved ones. However, it’s a fairly recent tradition to buy red roses, as historically in the...

The little daisy you see dotted around the stonework in the formal gardens is Erigeron karvinskianus. Once you get it to settle in it will easily self seed all over your garden. if flowers from early summer through to the first frosts. If left it can get a bit leggy and woody so every autumn (after it has started going to seed) it gets a big hair...

There’s little better than a butterfly fluttering past, a bee buzzing by or a dragonfly darting through when you’re pottering in the garden. You can make those chance encounters more likely by embracing wildlife gardening. Luckily, finding the balance between a wildlife garden and beautiful planting is easier than you might think. Here, we suggest five...

**Step by step advice from Hestercombe's Head Gardener Claire Greenslade on the do's and don't's of pruning apples and pears**: - Follow Claire's step by step guide to apple pruning and you could end up with a big punnet of juicy apples like we do at Hestercombe!The first rule of apple pruning is... don’t worry, it’s not that hard and it’s unlikely...

Apple pruning confuses a lot of people and it doesn't matter how many times you look at that diagram in the book, your tree just looks nothing like it! Here is my simple version of how to prune your apple tree. First you need to be aware of the reasons for pruning. - To maintain the health of the plant/tree - To control the shape or size - To encourage...

Sorry for the lack of blogs, we had a delivery last week of over 7000 bedding plants as well as our own home grown annuals to get in the ground so it has been a busy couple of weeks! Speed planting is definitely a required skill at this time of year and all us gardeners have to quickly find our second gear - there has also been a lot of early mornings and...

Pruning has been the predominant task for the Formal Gardens team over the last couple of weeks, and its no surprise when you count the number of plants that need pruning during winter. We have seven wall trained figs, five big _Wisteria, _an orchard full of apple trees, not to mention hundreds of roses! Although all these different plants have their own...

**With autumn in full swing now we are certainly finding plenty to do in the gardens! Apart from the seemingly never ending task of leaf blowing and raking we have been chopping back all the Mexican daisies that grow in the walls. This reveals the beautiful stone work underneath and shows off the intricate structure of the Formal Garden. We also have some...

The mowing season is upon us and it is a very exciting time of the year. Everything is starting to grow, especially the grass, so I thought that I would tell you about some of the different ways we mow in the Formal Gardens. **Rotary Mowing** The mower above is a Honda Izy, a four wheeled rotary pedestarian mower, but what does this mean? Rotary mowers...