KentGardener's Galanthus Blog 2013

[KentGardener]

Sunday morning found me on a train a little before 08.00 off to meet Arthur and Jennie for the journey to Bennington Lordship.  A great write up and photo log of the day has already been written about the meeting at Bennington by Jennie and Gail already on another thread - so i shall keep this entry mainly to the photographs.

1 -   The group has gathered and are just about to set out on our guided garden tour.  (left to right: Vic, Ali, Richard (with Simon Hiding behind!), Alan, Jennie, Chris, Gail, Arthur).

2 - Snowdrops and Aconites

3 - Crocus

4 - Pruned and trained trees (and the only Pic of Simon from the day!)

5 - Jennie (in an Emma T creation), Ali and Alan admiring some drops.

[KentGardener]

1 - the apple tree bank that Richard has been planting up for the last few years.

2 - the long summer borders (that are slowly getting more drops planted in them  )

3 - Washfield Colesbourne

4 - Diggory

[KentGardener]

The final few from Bennington.

1 - the Moat in one direction

2 - the Moat looking the other way

3 - Jennie and Arthur in the moat (they were a few minutes behind us as they managed to walk straight past the entrance to the moat as they were too busy chatting!  Then had to double back to find where the rest of us had disappeared to.  )

4 - A view up the moat side

5 - My lasting memory of this meeting is going to be how many times we all laughed.  (And Simon managed to hide again!  But you can see his arms!.......    )

[RichardW]

Last photo is great 

[Maggi Young]

 

Last photo is great 

Isn't it?     I thought for a moment that Ali was sporting a rather odd new hat.........

[kentish_lass]

John - what a busy weekend you had.  Great accounts of two totally different types of garden and I enjoyed them both very much. 

It must have been exciting to see the National Collection and I imagine your 'wish list' must have grown a bit after your visit    It is fascinating to see how the collection is grown and it looks a lot of work.  It's a great idea to have the netting to pull over them to keep the dreaded NF out and I hope to rig up something similar myself for the potted plants.

It was a really good day at Bennington Lordship with lots of laughing as you have captured in the photos.  Richard's friend Victor was a hoot although I did not agree with his method of keeping squirrels off the bird table    It was strange being in the garden after it was announced that the Eagle Owl had been spotted near the moat - I did find myself looking up from time to time!   Wonderful day & wonderful people.

[KentGardener]

After leaving Bennington on Sunday there were still a couple of daylight hours remaining.  Arthur had forgotten to hit the record button for the 4pm football match on TV so our first stop was his house.  We managed to get there a few minutes kick-off so Arthur was happy not to have missed anything.  We then continued the short distance to Jennie's house.  Sadly we only had an hour of daylight to try and cram in as much of Jennie's garden as possible - so I have not taken as many photographs as I would have liked and the ones I have taken it was difficult to get the contrast good.

I must say that after reading some of Jennie's post's about Galanthus problems and losing various plants since last year I was kind of expecting a wilderness devoid of snowdrops.  How wrong I was!  I would guess the garden is over an acre with it split into various areas.  All around the main part is the track of a ride on miniature railway complete with 30ft of tunnels.  It must have been such fun growing up in a garden with it's own railway!   

1 - Some of the train tracks going past a colourful stand of Cornus.

2 - Jennie and Arthur next to the first snowdrops we saw.

3 - A metal bridge over the railway.  You can just see the tunnel entrance in the background.

4 - A clump of viridapice.

5 - A rather nice hybrid Hamamelis (that I think was called 'Rhubarb and Custard'?) 'Strawberries and Cream'

[KentGardener]

1 - A small part of the woodland area that Jennie has started planting up in the lasts few years.

2 - Fruit tree area with snowdrops in the foreground.

3 - One of the many borders containing snowdrops.

4 - One of Jennie's own Hellebore crosses.

5 - We were then shown the potting shed (complete with desk, fridge and sofa!).  And  big surprise was when a door was opened at the back of the potting shed to reveal part of her Hemerocallis collection.  You can just make out my host and Arthur in the picture for scale!

Sadly the hour of daylight went very quickly and there was so much more I could have taken pictures of.  This garden is definitely going on my 'wish to visit again when I have more time' list.

[art600]

5 - A rather nice hybrid Hamamelis (that I think was called 'Rhubarb and Custard'?)

It was 'Strawberries and Cream'   

If anyone can advise on how we could take cuttings from this magnificent tree, John and I would be very grateful.

[johnw]

I think you'll have to resort to grafting the Hamamelis Art.

johnw

[Maggi Young]

I think you'll have to resort to grafting the Hamamelis Art.

johnw

Might it work from an air-layer?

[Sean Fox]

I was going to suggest layering Maggi, as they are a little tricky to strike.

[Tim Ingram]

I spent my childhood playing with trains - but indoors - how incredible to have a railway in the garden! There is a good precedent, Alan Bloom at Bressingham!! I would still have to scratch my head if asked to choose between an Alpine Show and a Model Railway exhibition - so much skill goes into them.

[kentish_lass]

Wish I had known you were coming John - in every photo I want to reach in and move a plastic pot or cut back a Hellebore stalk!  However, it is a big garden and it takes a lot of getting on top of especially at this time of year.  The daylily field is now half tidied and looking much better - next to weed the woodlands to make new beds.....not so easy
Considering the time of day and lack of daylight time I think you managed to get quite a few decent photos.  It was a very mad quick dash round and was getting very cold.  You are welcome to come back (and anyone else that would like to visit) when the daylilies are flowering - it is quite a sight around mid July.

Here's a photo of a small section of the field in mid July.....

[Maggi Young]

Here's a photo of a small section of the field in mid July.....

 Oooh!  VERY nice!