The Designer Gardens

Despite the worst winter in decades, and despite its malign effects on the cordilyne population, the prunus blossom this spring is terrific. There’s a great variety of prunus in and about Henley and one of the delights at the moment is to be caught by surprise when turning a corner or catching an unexpected glimpse of clouds of blossom ranging from white to light to definite pink.

Among our ‘legacy’ trees in the garden is a pink prunus which in previous years has produced only very sparse flowers. This season it’s doing better than we’ve ever seen it. So maybe the hard winter has stimulated exceptional flowering.

The prunus isn’t the only legacy plant: at the front there is an exceptionally nice forsythia. It has unusually large, buttery flowers which are more interesting than the less florid ones found on the regular forsythia. We had one of those at the back of the house but I eventually removed it as it was more of a nuisance than a benefit to the garden. I would say that the best use of the regular forsythia is as a hedge, as trimming it keeps it disciplined (the one I removed was rampant) and it is functional as well as, briefly, decorative.

The daffodils are also providing a splash of sunshine. In the autumn I potted up daffs and narcissus and tulips and the daffs are now in flower—in fact, some have already started fading. I always pack these bulbs in layers so as to really cram the pots full and this gives a good show of blooms. This year I did some mixing as well so that in some pots there are tulips coming on to replace the daffs when they fade. And in one or two pots I mixed tulips and allium. It will be interesting to see how these combinations work out.

Meanwhile, the south facing border has really sprung to life. It’s amazing how quickly dormant plants like the hardy geraniums start putting on new foliage. And in my mini greenhouse the seed trays are sprouting. Lots of pricking out to do soon! I’m being very ambitious this year with some annuals, like cosmos, to fill in late season gaps. And I’ve also potted up some dahlias and some crocosmia, none of which will usually thrive in the border. So there are many new things to look forward to in the garden later in the season and when blossom time is over, the colour will move from the trees and bushes to the borders and to the patio.

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• Potting up plants
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