Notes from the Cruickshank Botanic Garden

[Cruickshank Friend]

Cruickshank notes, January 2016 - from David Atkinson
So that was Christmas and a Happy New Year, with torrential rain on already sodden ground and attendant and unexpected flooding. As well as the damp, it has been strikingly milder than usual with only transient snow and not enough frost to harden up the ubiquitous dubs! The witch hazel outside our front door started flowering several weeks earlier than usual, the moss in the ‘lawns’ is burgeoning at the expense of the more sluggish grass, and shoots of precocious spring bulbs are reaching out into the drizzle.

In the Cruickshank Garden too, on a grey overcast Thursday, the end of season dampness is evident; the grasses in the bed on the left as you come in from the Chanonry, look anything but elegant as they flop about damply in front of the cut back and now resurgent rhododendrons. In the courtyard, as elsewhere in the garden Schizostylis (now Hesperantha) coccinea, the Kaffir lily, here in a strong growing pink form, is flowering away. This South African species, which comes in a variety of colours from a strong red through pink to white, needs moisture to grow and a sunny spot to flower well, but is much hardier than normally recognised growing well and flowering even in inland areas.
The buds of winter flowering Iris unguicularis in the south facing bed at the foot of the Cruickshank building are only just visible but promise future delight, if the iris can cope with the self-sown pampas grass seedlings which are in danger of swamping it. The white berries of the splendid rowan, Sorbus cashmeriana, seem not to be a first choice food for the local birds and many are brownly littering the ground under the tree here.

On the corner of the path leading to the sunken garden, the wide- spreading small tree, Parrotia persica – the Persian ironwood catches the eye. Its bark, visible through the weeping branches,is smooth, pinkish-brown flaking to leave cinnamon, pink, green, and pale yellow patches, and its flowers  are somewhat similar to witch hazel flowers but dark red; they are likewise produced in late winter on bare stems, but differ in having only four rounded sepals with no petals; thestamens are however fairly conspicuous, forming dense red clusters on the bare branches, though not in huge numbers. Various much more floriferous specimens of its cousin the witch hazel, Hammamelis cvs can be seen near this path, their branches covered with flower, whilst in the bed at the eastern rim of the sunken garden, Rhodendron mucronulatum and R. dauricum, are also sporting rose-purple flowers on almost bare branches, and Viburnum farreri, one of the parents of the deservedly common hybrid V. x ‘Bodnantense’, is wreathed in clusters of fragrant white flowers.

Another winter flowering shrub, Mahonia x media ‘Charity’ with upright racemes of slightly fragrant yellow flowers atop whorls of handsome pinnate leaves, can be enjoyed in the shrub border leading to the St Machar Drive boundary wall - there is another good specimen in the south facing border in front of the long wall. Although reasonably hardy, it needs some shelter from wind in freezing conditions and I have had specimens succumb in severe winters. The evergreen hedges round the rose garden are as beautifully shaped as ever and the newly replanted roses in the beds at the north end of this area are already growing strongly.

The paths leading down to the sunken garden look well for their recent resurfacing and the first snowdrops will soon be adorning the bulb lawn. The rhododendrons round the edge are still draped with rampant Tropaeolum speciosum, the Chilean flame flower, with its blue seeds visible here and there, showing no signs of dying down for winter yet. At this florally limited time of year the splendid greyish Juniperus recurva var coxii at the eastern end is very pleasing. This elegant conifer was introduced by Cox and Farrer in 1920 from Myanmar where its wood is burned as incense in Buddhist temples, but grows surprisingly well in our climate.

In the bed by the summer house, protected by the long wall another Chilean native, the evergreen Crinodendron hookerianum is thriving, the buds that will form its crimson lantern flowers already visible on their long stalks, whilst its compatriot and neighbour in this bed Embothrium coccineum, the Chilean fire bush, after years of thriving is continuing to look sickly. The absence of hard frosts means that the striking silver foliage of Melianthus major is still pleasing at the back of the terrace, though the once splendid Paeonia rockii, with its sumptuous white, purple blotched flowers is mysteriously dwindling too. Much pruning back has taken place in the warm border in front of the long wall and the wall mounted bronze sculpture is now pleasingly visible, flanked by two specimens of the splendid winter-flowering Daphne bholua whose fragrance can fill the air on mild days.

The grey-leaved Garrya elliptica, to the left of the gate through to rock garden, is carrying lengthening catkins, though futilely as no female plant is nearby to receive the wind-borne pollen. Clumps of Schizostylis coccinea are still flowering in beds in the rock garden and a large Viburnum tinus is full of flowering heads. A young tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera, has been planted to the east of the large birch tree. Though it will be many years before this has a chance of producing its fascinating flowers, this North American tree is well worth growing for the sake of its curiously shaped leaves and good autumn colour. In the bed under the dawn redwoods you can find theautumn-flowering snowdrop, Galanthus reginae-olgae, from the Taigetos mountains in the Greek Peloponnese. Its discoverer was the Greek botanist and poet T.G. Orphanides, who named it in honour of Queen Olga of Greece (grandmother of the present Duke of Edinburgh).

The prospect of actually gardening seems rather remote at the moment as the rain continues to teem down and new lakes slowly grow, so maybe better to browse catalogues and cultivate the imagination.
 

[Maggi Young]

COLLECTING HARDY PLANTS IN NORTHERN VIETNAM - Talk this Thursday 10th March

This is a joint meeting with the Aberdeen Branch of The Scottish Rock Garden Club.

This Thursday  FCBG welcome Bleddyn and Sue Wynne-Jones from Crûg Farm Nursery in North Wales. Sue and Bleddyn are multiple Gold Medal Winners at Chelsea and their nursery is a treasure trove of interesting and unusual garden plants. Sue and Bleddyn are also plant hunters, and for the past 20 years have made annual trips to introduce hardy plants to UK gardens. On Thursday they are talking about their collecting trips to the high mountains of northern Vietnam.



All Welcome!

[Maggi Young]

There is a chance to catch up with the lecture given in January to the FCBG by Martin Barker on  'The  Science of Colour in the Garden' :

http://www.kaltura.com/index.php/extwidget/preview/partner_id/1760321/uiconf_id/25320421/entry_id/1_h6f0zoea/delivery/akamai

[Cruickshank Friend]

The Spring Plant Sale is next Saturday ( 7^{th May} ) from 1030-1200 in The Cruickshank Garden. Please come along and support the sale – there are always interesting plants to buy.
If you have plants to donate to the sale ( and we don’t have a sale if we don’t have plants!) please bring them to The Cruickshank Garden on Thursday or Friday or before 10am on the morning of the sale.
Volunteers who are willing to help setting up and/or to give advice during the sale are very welcome.
Please help to advertise the sale to your gardening friends. We need to attract as many people as possible to come and buy plants.

[Cruickshank Friend]

 Don’t forget – this Thursday 12th May  at 7.30pm in the Zoology Lecture Theatre!!
 The Noel Pritchard Memorial Lecture
"KEEPING THE SHOW ON THE ROAD"   by Helen Dillon, Dublin

    (www.dillongarden.com )
Writer and gardener Helen Dillon tells the story of a Dublin Garden that has been made over the last forty four years. Helen wants to be a creator rather than a curator, and she explains that gardens must evolve and change. Her problem is trying to combine an all-consuming love of plants with the desire to make a good garden.
 
 

[Cruickshank Friend]

Super photos from Facebook by FCBG committee member Colette Jones on the Herbaceous borders after the rain today: trees contributing to the spectacle.

[Cruickshank Friend]

Summer  Notes from David Atkinson


So after a mildish winter with no very deep or persistent frosts and a late and coolish spring, the display from many flowering trees and shrubs has been remarkable. Many rhododendrons have had their best show for years, lilac cultivars, which are often a bit desultory in our northern clime, have been magnificent, laburnums have been dripping with yellow flower, hawthorn has been wreathed in white and the yellow on both broom and gorse on the hills has been stunning and long-lasting. After this slightly sluggish start we are now in the period when growth shifts a gear and the illusion of control is hard to maintain as weeds seem to double in number and size from one day to the next though almost every day brings new flowers to delight in.
I managed, however to choose one of the damp days to wander round the Cruickshank, the resulting raindrop damage making the already difficult task of re-interpreting my own cryptic scrawl even more challenging.
In the bed on the left as you enter from the Chanonry, self-sown aquilegias, singles and doubles in varied colours enliven the more deliberate grasses, while the quantity of blossom on the small rowan, Sorbus forrestii, prefigure a healthy crop of white berries. Its relative Sorbus cashmeriana, in the paved area in front of the Cruikshank building and usually lovely, is unfortunately looking far less healthy with whole stems dead or dying - some fungal attack? In the little bed close by Cistus laurifolius, probably the hardiest of the cistus, is full of bud. In the log-edged beds nearby amongst the aquilegias, various colours of Primula alpicola can be seen as well as a good sized patch of the bronze leaved New Zealander Bulbinella hookeri, with pleasant spikes of yellow flowers, a good hardy choice for a cool damp spot. A good specimen of the dwarf lilac, Syringa meyeri ‘Palibin’ covered in panicles of fragrant lilac-pink flowers presides over this bed.
On the other side of the path, the unusual graft hybrid +Laburnocytisus ‘Adamii’ is lovely with its mixed display of yellow laburnum, purple broom and intermediate coppery pink flowers. The display of brightly coloured deciduous azaleas in the bed beyond the charming paperbark maple, Acer griseum catch the eye on a dull day. This Chinese acer, introduced by Ernest Wilson, is rightly described by Hilliers as “one of the most beautiful of small trees” and though slow growing is a very good hardy choice even in colder inland gardens. There are a number of different meconopsis species thriving, though coming to the end of their flowering in the bed on the eastern lip of the sunken garden; M. ssp aculeata, quintuplinervia, betonicifolia and various forms of grandis while nearby another Chinese introduction - though this time by Abbe Farges - Decaisnea fargesii is adorned with numerous racemes of yellow-green flowers which will hopefully produce a fine crop of metallic blue broadbean like pods later in the year, set off by the fine large pinnate leaves.
Unfortunately the medlar, Mespilus germanica, usually a fine specimen, against the St. Machar boundary wall is also looking rather unwell, uncheered by the bright lupin hybrids which have recently been planted nearby. In the shrub border the Chilean fire tree, Embothrium coccineum is flowering well with a fine display of scarlet orange flowers - though again the other specimen by the summer house continues to suffer. The species rose in the bed at the southern end of the rose garden are already in flower, with Rosa pimpinellifolia ‘Altaica’ in creamy white and R. xanthine ‘Canary Bird’ in yellow looking particularly good. At the opposite end of this area the roses in the rose history beds which were replanted last year are thriving and on many, buds are already swelling.
The herbaceous border is increasingly colourful and the timeously placed stakes are now all but invisible. The early paeonys, bergenias, Lathyrus aureus and so on are now fading and geraniums, centaureas , Centranthus ruber , Galega (goats’ rue) and much more are taking over. Note the fine stand of the yellow flowered meadow rue, Thalictrum lucidum, too.
The wisteria on the terrace has flowered very well with long fragrant racemes of lilac purple flowers, as has its next door neighbour the Californian currant, Ribes speciosum with its red fuchsia-like flower. This last thrives on a sunny sheltered wall, but, alas, has not proved hardy enough out at Craigievar. Further along the wall, another not entirely hardy sun-lover, Abutilon x suntense is already displaying its fine large lilac blue flowers.
In the rock garden, the great spring splash of colours has receded but the there is still much of interest, both florally and structurally The three dawn redwoods, Metasequioa gylptostroboides, look very elegant as they leaf out, and the weeping Katsura, Cercidiphyllum japonicum ‘Pendulum’ elegantly hangs over the lower pond. The oldest palm of the group of three Trachycarpus fortunei in the north east corner is - ever hopeful - flowering with a long bright orange yellow spike. Next to these the Indian rain tree, Koelreuteria paniculata with very elegant long pinnate foliage has clearly enjoyed the absence of late frosts. The ginger relative Roscoea spp are appearing in a variety of colours, mixing with late aprimulas and irises. The last of the rhododendrons lighten the bed at the bottom of the slope and if you're lucky you may be able to see the last of the splendid shooting stars, Dodecatheon spp, primula relatives with elegant reflexed, often brightly coloured petals, mostly from north America enjoying coolish damp conditions in spring which preferably dry out in summer.
Let’s hope for more sunshine and an extended summer and a long period of wine and roses.
                                                                                                            David Atkinson
 

[Cruickshank Friend]

David's Autumn Notes :
Cruickshank Garden Notes - Autumn 2017

Here we are then, officially in Autumn - mists and mellow fruitfulness, nights drawing in and all that jazz - though as I write the sun is shining, skies are blue and the buddleias are alive with tortoiseshell, peacock and red admiral butterflies, oblivious of summer’s short lease. There has been plenty of moisture this summer often delivered in tropical downpours rather than our more usual, ‘I can do this all day drizzle’, which, combined
with reasonably buoyant temperatures - much better than last year, has led to rampant growth of trees and shrubs; lack of moisture clearly a check on growth in many years which is slightly peculiar given the reputation of our summers. Jungle taming with hedgetrimmers, secateurs and machetes is very much the order of the day at the moment.Shrubs and trees have continued to flower well, though it’s somewhat frustrating to see a rose bush packed with bud open to soggy mush in warm(ish) rain, though the absence of late frosts and the regular rain brought abundant crops of soft fruit. Appropriate to the season, the Cruickshank Garden is adorned with ripening berries; amongst others rowans in shades from white to red, hollies and in shady places theshining red-berried spikes of the poisonous herb, baneberry, Actaea rubra. In the bed on the left as you come into the garden from the Chanonry, Sorbus forrestii, a graceful small tree from China and named in honour George Forrest who introduced it, has a good crop of small white berries, whilst unfortunately, the Sorbus cashmeriana in the courtyard, though still carrying bunches of large white berries is clearly suffering from some disease with bark peeling and fewer and smaller leaves than usual. Here and there in the nearby beds another attractive self-seeder, Miss Wilmott’s ghost, the annual sea-holly Eryngium giganteum enlivens the display.
In the bed further along the path on the right by the corner of the Cruickshank building, amongst the winter flowering Sarcocca species, a fine large leaved hydrangea, H. aspera subsp. sargentiana, has a lovely display of large violet flowering heads surrounded by sterile white florets enhanced by its large velvety leaves. This is a fine large shrub for a sheltered moist woodland situation and indeed there are further specimens in the border at the bottom of the rock garden.On the eastern edge of the sunken garden the amber berries on the Daphne mezereum ‘Album’ are pleasing while pink Japanese anemones run through the bed. The flowerbuds on the various witchhazels hereabouts are already obvious and the pods on Decaisnea fargesii by the path will soon be turning electric blue. At the end of the shrubborder, next to the boundary wall, the medlar, Mespilus germanica which was sick lasttime I wrote, has died of who knows what! In the shrub border however a thirty foot high Eucryphia ‘Nymansay’ (probably) is wreathed in large white flowers. This evergreen, a hybrid between two Chilean species, does well in Aberdeen though it needs sun to flower well, but is not reliable hardy in colder inland areas. In the area between the shrubborder and the rose garden, another late flowerer the large pinnate-leaved Chinese tree, Tetradium danielli, will soon be scenting the air with its corymbs of small white flowers.The major show in the rose garden is now over though the Rosa pimpinellifolia hybrid , ‘Stanwell Perpetual’, is living up to its name, sporting blush pink fragrant blooms while the roses in the replanted beds at the north end are clearly thriving and should perform well next year.The herbaceous border looks very well, showing the benefit of work earlier in the year; the spreading of compost and the timely staking, well before the plants grow up is so much more satisfactory than trying to prop them up after they’ve fallen down. The Phlox paniculata forms in many colours are thriving, the blue balls of the globe thistle Echinops ritro, were alive with insects, and much more. Against the warm wall, a sweet chestnut, Castanea sativa, was just coming into flower, a little late for a crop of nuts I fear though still a fine looking tree.

So to the rock garden, where again the major floral display is over, but the sheer variety of plants and their forms still delight. The Cercidiphyllum japonicum ‘Pendulum’ which hangs over the bottom pond, looks increasingly impressive as it matures. The implausibly geometric leaves on the recently planted tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera are worth a look though I fear we may have a long wait for flowers. The large leaves on the similarly unlikely flowerer foxglove tree, Paulownia tomentosa, by the way through to the kitchen garden are very pleasing, and as a bonus enjoy the delightful flowers on Cyclamen hederifolium particularly under the dawn redwoods, laying down a carpet to lead us into winter.     David Atkinson

[Cruickshank Friend]

Friends of the Cruickshank programme to January 2017  -
 click to download  FCBG programme Sept' to Jan.pdf (109.04 kB - downloaded 258 times.)

[Cruickshank Friend]

The FCBG Lecture Programme 2016-17
 THURSDAYS at 7.30 pm in the Biological and Environmental Sciences Building
 Zoology Lecture Theatre, Biological and Environmental Sciences Building (previously Zoology Building), Tillydrone Avenue ABERDEEN AB24 2TZ map  Everyone welcome!  FREE to Friends of the Cruickshank Botanic Garden. Non-members -donation at the door.  Refreshments available in the foyer after the lecture at approximately 9pm.
 The Lecture Programme is compiled by Clare and Ian Alexander.  Save your Thursday evening on the second Thursday of the month from October to May for informed, colourful and inspiring talks!
 ________________________________________
 13 October 2016
 THE BEAUTY OF SCOTTISH BRYOPHYTES
 David Genney, Scottish Natural Heritage
 Dave will give us a photographic tour of the mosses and liverworts he works to protect as Scottish Natural Heritage's bryophyte adviser. We will hear about some of the most important habitats and some current conservation issues, but most of all Dave hopes you'll gain a greater appreciation of the beauty and international significance of these small and often overlooked native plants.
 ________________________________________
 10 November 2016
 THE STORY OF SCOTTISH BAMBOO
 Kerri Dall, Scottish Bamboo Nursery, Turriff (www.scottishbamboo.com)
 Kerri is very passionate about bamboo. She talks about their hardiness and garden potential, and gives us an insight into how Scottish Bamboo began and the challenges of running a mail order plant business in NE Scotland.
 ________________________________________
 08 December 2016
 INTERACTIONS OF BOTANIC GARDENS AND WILD VEGETATION COMMUNITIES: RISKS, REWARDS AND OPPORTUNITIES
 David Burslem, Keeper, Cruickshank Botanic Garden
 The Keeper of The Garden gives a personal perspective on the Botanic Gardens where he has had research connections, and considers how they have supported and informed his work on tropical forest ecology and conservation
 ________________________________________
 12 January 2017
 GLOBALISATION AND THE THREAT FROM INVASIVE PATHOGENS
 Steve Woodward, Institute of Biological & Environmental Sciences
 Our forests and gardens face unprecedented challenges from increasing numbers of invasive pests and pathogens arriving in the UK. Climate change predictions suggest that many additional pests and pathogens will become problems as temperatures increase and rainfall patterns change. Using examples from Europe and elsewhere, Steve illustrates the potential for alien pathogens to cause damage, reducing biodiversity and altering gardens and native ecosystems beyond recognition.
 ________________________________________
 09 February 2017
 EARTHWORMS IN GARDENS AND BEYOND
 Kevin Butt, University of Central Lancashire.
 Kevin explores the diversity of British earthworm species, their life histories, requirements and behaviours. He presents material from research projects investigating their actions as ecosystem service providers. Without the presence of earthworms - a group sometimes referred to as “Darwin’s plough” - our world would be extremely different.
 ________________________________________
 09 March 2017
 PETTICOATS AND PLANTS: THE UNTOLD STORY OF SCOTLAND'S GARDENING WOMEN
 Deborah Reid, Garden Historian
 Scottish women gardeners have largely been omitted from garden history. Deborah looks at the contribution of nineteenth century Scottish gardening women who went beyond their garden gates and achieved within the wider public sphere of horticulture in Scotland.
 ________________________________________
 13 April 2017
 DESIGNS ON THE LANDSCAPE: RESEARCHING SCOTLAND'S GARDENS.
 Marilyn Brown, Garden Archaeologist
 Marilyn introduces historic gardens and designed landscapes in Scotland from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance with a discussion of their importance and the type of information that can be discovered about them through survey and documentary research.  The lecture will include examples from monastic sites, palaces and the houses of the magnates as well as town gardens with particular reference to the gardens of the north-east of Scotland.
 ________________________________________
 11 May 2017
 The Noel Pritchard Memorial Lecture
 THE ROMANTIC HERITAGE OF SCOTS ROSES
 Peter Boyd, Shrewsbury (www.peterboyd.com)
 The first 'coloured' variant of the native Rosa spinosissima was found in Scotland in the 17th century. By the early 19th century, hundreds of single, semi-double and double 'Scots Roses' had been raised in a wide range of colours. These charming roses became particularly popular in Britain and Nordic countries but went out of fashion by about 1840. However, iconic Scots Roses were carried across the world by Scottish and Nordic immigrants to North America, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. Their international heritage is now being re-discovered, but surviving old Scots Rose cultivars, and the habitats of wild Rosa spinosissima are under threat.
 

[Maggi Young]

Interested in FCBG bus trip May/June from Aberdeen  to Kinross House in Fife & nearby Rumbling Bridge nursery?
Please send email here so they can gauge interest and arrange a bus if there's enough interest.

Kinross House Garden http://kinrosshouse.com/the-estate/the-gardens/ and http://www.countrylife.co.uk/…/kinross-house-kinross-shire-…

Rumbling Bridge nursery at http://rumblingbridgenursery.co.uk/

All day trip- 2h 30 min journey each way. Approx cost £30.

[Cruickshank Friend]

Here is a link to the winning video in the FCBG film competition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66RnzMRWNbM&feature=youtu.be

2016 Friends film competition ‘Colour in the Cruickshank Botanic Garden’ winner is Erwan Elias with his ‘sweet and tasteful’ film. Erwan wins £100 and a day at Tern Television as they film Beechgrove Garden.
 Congratulations!

[fermi de Sousa]

Seeing that blue sky at the end of the film must've been the clincher!
cheers
fermi

[Cruickshank Friend]

 Trustee – volunteers needed

Friends of the Cruickshank Botanic Garden
Registered charity SC004350 Contact: Colette Jones Honorary President Telephone: 01224 592 390 or email: colettejones@abdn.ac.uk

The Friends of the Cruickshank Botanic Garden is looking for three new trustees for the charity. A new trustee will join seven other trustees who form the management committee of the Friends. This is an opportunity for someone with an interest in plants or gardens to gain volunteering experience in a managerial role for a charity. The Friends support Aberdeen’s Cruickshank Botanic Garden, helping to bring together all those with an interest in the wellbeing of the Garden, furthering development of the Garden through fund-raising and organising a programme of public lectures.
Cruickshank Botanic Garden is in Old Aberdeen tucked behind the wall that runs east along St Machar Drive just beyond the junction with Tillydrone Avenue to the Chanonry opposite the town house. There are over two and a half thousand plants all labelled and catalogued in the Garden making an important resource for education, pleasure and research. The Garden is owned jointly by the Cruickshank Charitable Trust (a registered charity SC004654) and the University of Aberdeen who employ and manage the garden staff. The Friends charity works closely with the University and Trust and three representatives from the garden staff and Cruickshank Charitable Trust are ex-officio members of the Friends’ management committee.
The Friends has a turnover of about £7,000 a year and reserves of around £35,000. The management committee organises events to encourage interest and learning in plants and horticulture including: the programme of eight public lectures between October and May held on the second Thursday of the month from 7:30pm to about 9pm; two plant sales spring and autumn; publishes a quarterly newsletter; arranges garden visits; and on occasions contributes to University outreach activities. The Friends has about 300 members, some of whom have been Friends since the start of the charity in 1983.
The major part of the work of a trustee can be done in the volunteer’s home using a computer and corresponding as needed via email, post or telephone. The management committee meets four times a year in late January, mid-April, mid-September and late November at the University of Aberdeen Biological and Environmental Sciences Building (previously the Zoology Building), Tillydrone Avenue, Old Aberdeen AB24 2TZ. Members of the Friends elect trustees at the Annual General Meeting that takes place Thursday 13th April this year.

If you are interested and would like more information please contact Colette. Thank-you
3rd February 2017

www.abdn.ac.uk/botanic-garden/friends

 Friends of the Cruickshank Botanic Garden is a registered Scottish charity SC004350

[Cruickshank Friend]

Cruickshank notes Winter 2016 - from David Atkinson

As the metaphorical fogs of the festive season recede and real life can’t believe it has to get up so early, we can be cheered by the gradually lengthening days and the early signs of new growth. Spring bulbs lured by the essentially very mild weather are already poking through the ground, witch-hazels are flowering and buds are swelling. Snow fell in the wee small hours of Boxing Day allowing for a bracing walk in a winter wonderland but then melted in the balmy days that followed, so I now have the almost certainly illusory feeling that spring is just around the corner.

In the Cruickshank garden too there were cheering signs that cold winter’s grip was not overtight. The autumn flowering snowdrop Galanthus reginae-olgae was blooming in several places in the rock garden- though only just showing white in Craigievar several weeks later. Cyclamen hederifolium had just about finished flowering under the dawn redwoods close by, but the show was being carried forward by the Cyclamen coum, the flowers of both enhanced by the pleasing variety in the mottled markings on their leaves. The weeping Katsura, Cercidiphyllum japonica ‘Pendulum’ looms evocatively over the lower pool while on the other side, a fine specimen of the Chinese Vaccinium glauco-album with handsome grey-green leaves has a heavy crop of blue-black berries which will not replace blueberries in my diet. The redwoods themselves, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, look splendid at this time of year with the tracery of their leafless branches against the grey winter sky and the corkscrew twist of the trunks as they reach upwards clearly visible.
Though once common across the northern hemisphere, the Dawn Redwood was originally considered extinct. The genus Metasequoia was first described in 1941 as a fossil of the Mesozoic Era, and none of the fossils discovered were less than 1.5 million years old. In the same year a forester came across an enormous living specimen while performing a survey in Sichuan and Hubei provinces. Though unaware of the new genus he recognised the unique qualities of the tree. Samples were collected in 1943 but it wasn’t until 1946 that these were connected with the ‘fossil’ genus and in 1948 a team from the Arnold Arboretum collected seeds and distributed them to institutions around the world. I suspect the Cruickshank specimens must have been planted not long after this.

Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ (probably) is flowering well  by the path through to the working area of the garden; one of the most reliable of winter shrubs, this started flowering with me in October and is still covered in fragrant and remarkably frost-resistant blossom on the last day of the year and its pleated red tinted leaves are handsome too . Its cousin, the evergreen Viburnum tinus is covered in clusters of small fragrant flowers by the top pool; a reliable shrub in Aberdeen, it can suffer in exposed positions or further inland and I came across this fell warning online, ‘In south-east Britain Viburnum tinus is the principal host of the viburnum beetle (Pyrrhalta viburni), the country's "number one pest species" according to the Royal Horticultural Society.’

On the other side of the wall from the rock garden, facing south, Mahonia x media ‘Charity’ is in fine from; spikes of yellow flowers emerging from handsome whorls of spiky grey-green evergreen foliage. While further along this wall the pods of Piptanthus nepalensis cover the bush and the buds of the red-flowered Chilean evergreen, Crinodendron hookerianum, are slowly swelling as they dangle on their stalks. The swollen pods of the bladder senna hybrid, Colutea x media by the summerhouse look as much fun to pop as bubble wrap- though I resisted!
In the bed on the eastern rim of the sunken garden near the handsome rosettes of monocarpic meconopsis, Rhododendron mucronulatum is already in rose-purple flower with lots of buds still to open. This very hardy more or less deciduous shrub has an extensive distribution in Korea, Japan and China gets its specific name from the little points at the ends of its leaves, which are indeed rather small! Just west of here in the sunken garden a fine specimen of Juniperus recurva var. coxii presides over the bulb lawn with elegant grey-green foliage and shaggy peeling rich brown bark. The wood of this is burned as incense in Buddhist temples.
The weeping elm, Ulmus  glabra ‘Camperdownii’ close by, looks as elegant as ever, its flower buds already visible on the bare branches though sadly it is apparently infected with Dutch elm disease so its days are numbered. The beautiful rambling rose, R. ‘ Adelaide d’Orleans’ still had a late display of creamy white flowers and there were hips galore on the rugose hybrids by the boundary wall, while the beautifully shaped holly hedge round the rose garden gives a note of elegant formality.
So 2017 is hovering on the doorstep, lump of coal in hand and I fancy a good warm summer where I will magically have time to enact all the gardening plans I’ve made over winter.
 D. A.