Winter garden

1st December and 18 different plants in flower ths morning - including 5 different roses. Weird!

 

I wish i could say the same Hornbeam.My front patch looks like a tornado`s hit it.I should really be out there sorting it instead of sitting here on my backside.Maybe this afternoon i`ll feel like tackling it??? :rolleyes:

 

The snapdragons are flowering again, the spring bulbs are peeping through the soil and the roses are still flowering and there is mud everywhere!

 

some of my dwarf irises are coming up... :rolleyes:

 

Crocuses coming through the lawn, Daffodils nodding their heads......,and Snowdrops just flowering (I can dream while I'm lying back waiting for the cricket to start again)

Soon be spring..................

 

Too true Chobart, its only three weeks to go, before the days start getting lighter.

 

I still have loads of ox eye daisys out even though we had frost in october,,i have just taken a photo of this one excuse the quality its sunny and very windy...

 

And i also have mallow still in flower..

 

Abutilon orange bell flowering in December ???

 

Here's some of the Mahonia stuff I said I'd download for HB. Photo-thing is currently operative!!!

I took these today, and they do not give a straight example of the difference between pruning and not pruning; so you will have to read between the lines. None-the-less they are interesting for a couple of reasons and do illustrate my point.



Above is is an old, established, and barely pruned x Charity growing in a pretty shady location. The straggly growth is clear and whilst this is obviously exagerated because of the conditions it shows the nature of the plant..



Above is a comparison of this plant in the foreground, with a Mahonia 'Winter Sun'. The latter I planted this spring in a group of 3 around the M.x Charity in order to beef it up. It has been pruned fairly heavily in the nursery last year, and also lightly by me this spring. The plant's growth shows it is reaching for the light, the density of growth and body of shoots in comparison with the older plant is however clear to see. Remeber that pretty much all the leaves on the plant are from its growth this year.





The above two are front on views of a couple of the 'Winter Sun' in the same group to show the effect from the front.

What I get from this is that

1/ the pruning efffect on growth clearly shows.
2/ The difference between x Charity and 'Winter Sun' is striking - and favourable to the latter (although it isn't a very fair comparison as the Charity has had a harder life..).
3/ Winter Sun is obviously more advanced wrt its flowering time.

Here below is the original x Charity plant as selected by Eric Savill for the garden at Windsor. I happen to know that he did cut this pretty hard and pretty frequently in order to keep it bushy and dense. It shows what the cultivar can aspire to (rather than what my example has so far become).



Hope this informs HB. No other piccys so far but I will supply ones as and when I can.

 

Thanks Jazid. I guess stressing a tree or shrub stimulates flowers and seed so that should be the case with mahonias too. I'm going to leave my mahonia unpruned in the back garden and prune the one in the front after this year's flowerng. They both get similar sun and shade.

 

Don't think its the stress thing here HB. The plant still only produces one inflorescence per stem. Its just that the habit is - to my mind - more useful. If it was stressed it wouldn't be producing as many leaves of evidently greater luxuriance and healthier colour (although they are different cultivars of course - no science here!).

With regard to pruning one sometimes reads that the plant responds more to the balance of growth on root and shoot than to absolute growth, as though it tries to achieve an equilibrium between the two. When one side gets cut down it grows extra to get back to that root/shoot balance. I don't suppose its got much science behind it but I do think it is a useful yardstick for looking at plants in the garden and pondering when they should be fiddled with.

Whatever the case in some circumstances hard pruning keeps woody plants young and prolongs their vigour: The beautiful trees of Hatfield (in your manor if I'm not mistaken) bear testimony to that, as do coppice forests over the whole of Europe. Good husbandry and good ecology all at once!

Mind you I am no evangelist of chopping things or hacking them about just cos the book says so. If it is happy without, and so are you, then that turns my dial just as much. Que sera, sera.

 

I tend to think that pruning has got a lot to do with garden size and whether you want a large shrub or something more compact - ground cover even. Is there any evidence that hard pruning of buddlia actually improves flowering? Percy Thrower and co. always said so, but were they right or just tidy?

As regards trees - yes coppicing and pollarding greatly prolong life, but when carried to extremes, we get the horrible suburban lollipops

In a natural forest, old trees need to die to make a break in the canopy so that young ones get sufficient light to grow. On balance, I prefer my shrubs and trees to grow naturally without any lopping or pruning. But that's just my preference. I don't say it's the "right" or the "wrong" way to do it.

 

Hi All

Not been on for quite sometime, but thought I'd post a picture of the lone Arum lily in my garden, picture was taken on Sunday 3rd December

 

Here's Clematis cirrhosa 'Freckles' which is flowering nicely in one of my gardens at the moment:



And here's what I believe to be Clematis cirrhosa ssp semitriloba, though it could be another form of balearica - note the recurved petals, purple stripe markings near the base, and green filaments.



I personally prefer the 'Freckles' as a garden plant as it is less err..discrete shall we say. There is no point to either plant if you can't walk underneath them to see up into the flowers.

'Old Faithful' Cotoneaster horizontalis doing its thing:



And here is Mahonia aquifolium as a ground cover. This hasn't been cut for two years now, and is starting to bud up. I will cut it in the spring to the ground - giving the underlying bugle a fine chance to spread! I know its not much of a photo, indeed possibly not much of a topic any longer (!) but for completeness sake it is included.



Tee Hee...couldn't resist...



:D