A Walk in the gardens January and February 2007

Storms at the end of 2006 continued into the New Year doing a lot of damage in the gardens. Many trees were uprooted making a mess of the paths and drains as well as damaging some plants. Probably the biggest damage was to the summer house in the pond garden. A tree fell right across it smashing it to pieces. The summer house was given to Sir James Horlick by the islanders on the occasion of his 80th birthday so means a lot to the older members of the community. The garden staff has spent a lot of time clearing up the storm damage but because it has been so wet they have had trouble getting on with the routine work. 

One of the few good days in January found me out for my walk! Despite the bad weather there was quite a lot to see apart from the damage. The snowdrops were beginning to flower.  Some Camellias had one or two flowers on them. I was unable to identify which varieties they were apart from one growing on the green drive; Camellia Bow Bells.      Also flowering was Anoptera glandulosa and Sarcococca. There were two species of Sarcococca one of which had black berries on it as well as flowers. Many of the plants flowering on Christmas day were still blooming.

Again in February I picked a sunny day to do my walk. Though all the storm damage had not been cleared yet the gardeners were getting on with more routine work. The climbing roses backing the herbaceous were being pruned. During the course of this it was discovered that the posts and wires that they were attached to needed replacing. Some of the more vigorous herbaceous plants had tended to take over the borders so the plants were being lifted and the borders given a thorough digging over before any plants are replaced.

Despite the bad weather at the beginning of this year plants seem to be about 10 days further ahead this year than last year. Last year I took a photo of Prunus Kursar in full flower on February 17th this year it was in full flower on 6th February. Rhododendrons for this month are Nobleanum (red) and R W Rye (yellow).  The camellias are well out now in all different shades of pink and red. I found this Cornish snow on the back road.

One other thing that I haven’t mentioned previously is that a stone seat has been completed in a recess in the dry stone dyke on the servants walk.