Gardening and dogs

Some years ago when we were on holiday  in Canada, we visited one of the most beautiful gardens in the world – Les Quatre Vent, Quebec.

One of the things that really surprised me at first glance was the sight of aqualegias and roses in flower side by side.  This is something that I had never seen before in UK.  Here, usually the aqualegias are in flower about a month before the roses.   When I thought about this though, things started to make sense.  Canadian winters are much longer and colder than those in Europe.  So, it is not surprising that the flowers that we regard as spring blooms come out quite a bit later than we are used to.

This year the long cold spring in UK has meant that most plants are very late – possibly even a month behind where they usually are.  Now, in early May, there are the first signs of aqualegia buds, but I would think we have a few weeks to wait before we get to see “granny’s bonnet” in full flower.  There are no signs of rose buds at all, but then again, why would there be – the camellias are only just in flower.

So, the question is – will this unusual weather mean that we get to see the phenomenon that I saw in Canada – plants that usually are distanced by time, blooming together?  If so, then there will certainly be some unplanned plant combinations on show this year.  Thank goodness I don’t allow yellow in my garden and so there is little chance of plant clashes!

One plant that is looking really beautiful in the garden at the moment is Exochorda × macrantha ‘The Bride’.

The beautiful pure white flowers cascade in abundance and light up a corner  of the pond garden.  The pond garden is supposed to be a flower free zone to ensure that it has a cool, relaxed atmosphere, but I can’t resist flowers sometimes.  In this case, the plant, despite its flowers, fulfils its brief perfectly.

The shrub was planted about three years ago, but for its first two years had to compete for water with the leylandii hedge on the other side of the fence.  Last year, the competition was removed and this year we have been rewarded with this fountain of flower – pretty suitable for a pond garden!

I mentioned previously that I hadn’t seen the wisteria that grows up the side of my office being pruned.  Well, today the ground staff were out pruning it.

May is obviously not the best time to prune wisteria (I do my major prune in January).  In other years it might just have already flowered, but this year swelling flower buds have become casualties in the groundsmen’s ongoing challenge to keep on top of the plants that grow on the estate.  This year’s weather has meant that many jobs are having to be performed with sub-optimal timing.

At least I now have the answer as to how the plants that grow up the house are pruned.  In the basket of the cherry picker, the groundsman had a petrol powered hedge clipper which he used to trim both the wisteria and the magnolia grandiflora that grow up the house.  They certainly didn’t have the time to worry about pruning to three buds as I can with my much smaller wisteria,so it will be interesting to see what next year’s flower is like.

At least we can see the wonderful views now that the wisteria is no longer growing across the windows!