November 2007

The House and gardens have closed for winter after an amazing year. We had 42,362 visitors who saw the gardens looking at their best.

Fergus and the team have begun work in the Exotic garden removing tender plants and storing them. Elsewhere areas of perrenials are split and replanted incorporating tulip bulbs.

In the nursery, Michael and Kathleen are busy taking orders for mail order plants and tools.

The gardens will next be open for the Christmas Fair on the 1st and 2nd of December. This will give visitors a rare opportunity to see the gardens in winter.

December 2007

Now that the colour and foliage has gone from the borders for the winter months, the strength and beauty of the architecture at Great Dixter comes into its own. Not only with the house but the topiary, york stone paths, dry stone walls, brick arches, yew hedges and rustic out buildings.

It really is a garden for all seasons and the preperation for spring is still in progress. Tulips and lillies are still being planted, with self sown Forget-me-nots being thinned so they don't crowd out other plants.

Tom and Matthew are carting Hornbeam and Ash firewood with our vintage Massey Ferguson tractor, to make sure the open fires at Dixter keep burning.

January 2008

Despite a considerable amount of rain (134.25mm), work in the garden continues. Tara has planted cyclamen under Hydrangea villosa in the barn garden. The Brunswick figs, a signature plant of Edwin Lutyens on the back wall of the north barn have been pruned.

In the nursery Michael has been taking hardwood cuttings of Sambucus (Elder), Viburnum, Ligustrum and Perovskia. Michael has researched a number of new plants for sale in the nursery and use in the garden.

Fergus, Kathleen and Michael have now completed updating the nursery plant catalogue for 2008. This list contains approximately 70 new additions, and is available by post. If you would like one please send a request along with 5 first class stamps. Alternatively the catalogue is available online from the nursery page.

February 2008

The garden is pregnant with anticipation, as fresh green shoots begin to peep out of the soil in response to light and warmth. We also realise we don’t fall about anymore in darkness like drunken sailors come the end of the working day.

The battered remains of dead plants are cleared away to make way for emerging young foliage. Heleniums and Phlox stems snap off like cheese straws. We lift, split and before replanting, nourish the soil generously with compost. A well-prepared bed looks and feels good enough to lie on

It sounds sacrilegious, but we have almost become accustomed to snowdrops, though not yet sated by the sight of crocuses lighting up the meadows. It’s only a matter of time before the daffodils break out of their straight jacket. Right now the clumps look like green blisters on the landscape.

March 2008

Except for a couple of broken Dutch lights, the storms which swept through southern England the first week of the month have not adversely affected the garden. This is fortunate considering the fact that the house and garden will be open for the first time this year on Good Friday March 21st 2008, the same day BBC Gardeners’ World features Great Dixter.

March sees Narcissi merrily lighting up the fields and flower beds, injecting vigour into a colour scheme which have so far remained calm and collected. Preparations for the opening are proceeding at a frantic pace, as we repair worn areas with new turf, weed under the hedges as well as finish the last of pruning and cutting down of spent vegetation.

April 2008

Walking through on a sunny spring morning it’s hard to believe only a week ago the garden was looking more like a Christmas scene. Spring bulbs bowed their heads under caps of snow as we wondered if they would ever recover. Now they are coming into their own as the tapestries of colour reveal themselves. Young fresh foliage making fantastic foils for the tulips rich hues; as purples, pinks, reds and yellows light up the borders.

The cherry blossoms add to the spring exuberance, in the barn garden Prunus tenella makes a pretty pair with delicate Narcissus ‘Hawera’. The globes of Magnolias give an air of elegance as the primroses, our native woodlanders peep out from below, hopeful that spring is finally here.

Click photo for video clip

June 2008

The torrential rain and black clouds of a summer thunderstorm add brief drama to the June scene in the garden. The borders have the wonderful softness of early summer; globes of Allium christophii, spires of foxgloves, with roses and clematis tumbling through the trees.

The statuesque forms of the self sown Verbascum, filling us with anticipation by growing taller and taller, are now beginning to flower, punctuating the ever filling borders.
A favourite combination of bright pink Geranium psilostemon, red Lychnis chalcedonica and purple Salvia x superba ‘East Friesland’ backed by glistening Stipa gigantia puts a smile on your face when walking through the Orchard Garden; reminding us to always maintain our sense of fun!

JULY 2008

As late summer approaches, the garden is really beginning to mature and our last wave of bedding is starting to develop in the Solar garden, with the bright red Tagetes ‘cinnabar’ is in colourful contrast to the dark foliage of dahlia ‘twynings after eight’ and the spires of salvia ‘confertiflora’.

Our final layers of planting has been completed in the Exotic garden and although this space will be in its peak late August, the contrasting shapes and forms of the plants are beautiful in their development.

Many of the herbaceous perennials are at their peak, perhaps one of the most eye catching, is the breathtaking bright yellow daisy flowers of Inula magnifica, planted in the long border and in the meadows, a truly picturesque time of the year and still with the promise and excitement for the end of the season.

 

August 2008

The wildflower meadows have now almost all been cut and stacked high for composting. We leave this job until we are sure that in particular the seeds of orchids have ripened and self sown onto the meadow area. Some of the cuttings are strewn elsewhere to encourage seed dispersal.

Dixter's Exotic garden is looking voluptuous and with this cool month will be at its best going into September, to accompany the Indian Summer we deserve. The translucent leaves and showy flowers are a marvel at a time when many gardens have already peaked.

September 2008

Despite the grey summer, the Exotic Garden has been cheering the weather-induced and economic gloom with its usual riot of colour and growth. Old favourites such as cannas, tibouchinas and ipomoeas have been supplemented by a few new faces, including Dahlia ‘Magenta Star’ and D. ‘Dove Grove’. ‘Magenta Star’, a dark-leaved lilac-pink single flowered dahlia, has looked marvellous between velvety Colocasia ‘Black Magic’ and creamy striped Arundo versicolor.

Cocking a snoot at the weather is our biggest specimen of Musa basjoo, the Japanese banana, currently sporting a hand of tiny (alas, inedible) bananas! Enough to bring a smile to your face.

October 2008

Autumn has well and truly arrived in the nursery when the Vitis coignetiae scrambling up an Ash tree burns with fiery red hues. The big tidy up begins after a busy summer; and it's now the mail order starts in earnest. We are great believers in autumn planting when the soil is warm and a plant can get settled before the onset of winter. With herbaceous material dying down and leaves falling now is the perfect time to be looking at the structure of your garden. Why not plant some evergreen shrubs to see you through the winter? Aucuba 'February Star', a spotted laurel has a spectacular display of red berries in February; Mahonia 'Lionel Fortescue’ is a statuesque shrub which will fill a winter garden with scent. Our catalogue is now online and orders can be phoned through, emailed or use the order form.

November 2008

When the garden closes, the process of lifting tender plants and summer bedding and planting for the spring really begins. The cacti on the circular steps are always fun, using thick gloves and newspaper to avoid the perilous thorns, whilst repotting and placing the plants in the glasshouse. Forget me knots and Tulipa ‘Princess Irene’ replace the statuesque forms for a more informal spring display.
Pockets of the long border are gradually cleared as cannas, dahlias, tender Salvia ' Indigo Spires' for example are lifted for winter. Young lupin plants are then lifted from the vegetable garden where they have grown for the summer; cut back and planted into the freshly dug ground. The lupin leaves then act as a wonderful foil for the Tulipa 'Red Shine' planted in between.

 
More photos here

December 2008

Using tender plants as we do at Dixter, the right kind of winter protection is essential. The most tender, such as Begonias are lifted, potted up and placed in the glasshouse heated to 10C, keeping them in growth. Frost free glass or cold frames protect cacti, summer bedding and salvias. The lifting and storing of all the cannas and dahlias can take us up to Christmas. They are cut back, the soil knocked off the tubers, placed into crates and covered with a mix of old compost and bark. These then fill the cellar of the house, kept slightly moist until spring. We try to leave a few plants outside as experiments with varying degrees of success.

January 2009

This month has brought home the true meaning of winter. We have experienced snow, fog and extremely cold nights with frosts lasting for several days. Work on the ground has been hampered considerably but the big Quercus Ilex hedge at the back of the Blue Garden has had its annual cut, with a truck load of trimmings collected by London Zoo which will be fed to their Giraffes.

Fergus and Tom have been going through a pile of seed catalogues and their notebooks as they make a list of seeds to be ordered for the spring and summer show. As well as working in the High Garden stock beds, lifting and splitting perennials for propagation and transplanting in the borders.

 

February 2009

The first two weeks of the month brought fairly heavy snowfall which meant that work in the garden was restricted to pruning of the wall trained figs and our roses. The cold and wet will have damaged Melianthus, Kniphofia and Cordylines.

Since the thaw work in the borders has resumed, splitting herbaceous plants, weeding, thinning self sowers, splitting and spreading Snowdrops which are plentiful now, to make the garden ready for opening on the 1st April. There is a wonderful display through the garden of Snowdrops, Crocus and Hellebores their numbers built up over many years and added to annualy.

March 2009

This month we have completed the preparation of the Long Border. Splitting perennials which have been replanted in re worked soil and the spares potted for sale in the nursery. Self sowers have been thinned to ensure there is no risk of overcrowding as one forget-me-not can grow to 24 inches wide.

Pots of tulips, hyacinths, narcissus and crocus have been placed in the entrance to the front porch and the meadows have been carpeted with the same plus dog toothed violets, snakes head fritillaries and many varieties of daffodils.

 

April 2009

April has been the month when the Tulip has stolen the show and as the garden has hit a spring climax they have done well to be so outstanding. Fergus and the team made an early morning inspection to review and plan improvements in the Tulip planting for 2010.

There is a definite buzz and energy, with the house and garden opening, the nursery being very busy with sales and seedlings emerging then moved on to larger pots and again the meadows constantly changing with camassias taking over as the plant to be noticed.

Tender plants in the tropical garden have been unwrapped as their new growth begins, with our bananas leaves shooting up 24 inches in one week.

June 2009

A wide array of poppies – both perennial and annual – come into their own this month. Their ephemeral display is fleeting but sumptuous, not unlike the brief but brilliant lives of the likes of Otis Redding and Jim Morrrison; artists who dazzle with their genius but were whisked to an early grave by fate.

Poppies bridge the gap that often occurs between the general end of the spring floral display and before most perennial herbaceous plants have garnered enough oomph to flaunt their assets. Papaver bracteata ‘Goliath’ never fails to stop people in their tracks when she unfurls her blood red silky petals, which are nothing short of sexy. Papaver somniferum ‘Lauren’s Grape’ is different. She smoulders with promises of unmentionable things.

July 2009

This is the month that most herbaceous perennials reach the climax of their performance and the garden glows with the vibrant colours of their blooms. In addition, annuals which have been bedded out are also getting into their stride, filling their allotted spaces with fresh foliage and flowers. Dahlias, cannas which have been nurtured back to life from dormancy under the protection of cold frames are big enough to be released into the open ground.

The Exotic Garden is clothed with the sort of plants which have, up till now been cosseted in the greenhouse and would relish the freedom of fresh air and heat that July affords. A week of intensive activity takes place as key plants are placed, planted, fed and given a very generous drink to help ease them into their new home. All that remains is patience as the drama of growth unfolds.

August 2009

August sees the Exotic Garden get its act together as the planting scheme knits together and merrily grows away skywards and sideways. The meadows on the other hand look tired and shaggy. However, appearance does not dictate the timing of when the meadows are cut, no matter how badly the tidy-minded of us are itching to start up the Trackmaster. It is to the cause of increasing biodiversity that determines when the meadows are cut – we wait until the orchids have ripened and shed their seeds, bird and invertebrate activity to cease – around mid-August.

The first area to be cut was the front of the house – in terms of haircut style it went from dreadlocks to skinhead. A convenient fringe benefit is that now the ground is practically bare, the autumn crocuses (when they come) can flower unimpeded. Although for now, I shall leave (the chilly implications) of autumn aside and concentrate on the fact that as far as the garden is concerned, the show is far from over.

September 2009

It is late September, and although we have had more than our usual share of fair and warm weather, it not possible to deny the presence of autumn any more. It is no longer light when I have to get out of bed, and there is a definite nip in the morning air. Plants which have up till now been ‘asleep’, suddenly wake up to the fact that they better get their act together of else… Practically all the grasses, fuchsias, asters and salvias fall into this category, and are flowering their socks off now.
Thanks to them, the garden looks as fresh as a daisy even this late in the season. However, even with these late developers jostling for attention, Cotoneaster horizontalis, a common as muck ‘landscaping’ shrub, more usually found in vandal ridden car parks steals the show at Great Dixter. Perfect red berries adorn each herringbone branch cascading over a wall and transform a hitherto invisible shrub into one that is drop dead gorgeous.

 

October 2009

There is so much of interest and beauty in the colours and textures through October. Add in the mellow sunny good-to-be-alive weather we have had and the garden is as beautiful as any other time.
Every season there will be a group of plants that seems to be outstanding – due to some trick of weather, growing conditions, light, or even just a change in your tastes. This autumn, I’ve been struck by the beauty of the grasses at Dixter, particularly the Miscanthus species. Their rich feathery plumes glinting in the low sun just ask to be stroked.

Defying the shortening days and catching the eye of so many late season visitors have been two gems of tender plants: velvety violet-blue Tibouchina urvilleana, and Salvia leucantha, thick with woolly mauve flower spikes.

November 2009

The garden closed and the work began. Gabbi and Jean Michel have been digging the vegetagle garden incorporating vast ammounts of home made compost. This is made from our meadow cuttings and plant prunings. The compost they use is two years old and dug out from the centre of the heap before turning the less rotted outer layer in to break down further.

Ben and Alex have almost completed the hedge and topiary clipping which normally takes one person forty days (between rain showers).

The upper moat which was drained when the Lloyd's took over Dixter and meadow areas have had one last cut before winter, to ensure that next years snowdrops and crocus can show-off their dainty flowers.