Saturday 19th October 2024

While the autumn weather continues to be a mix of wind, rain, sunshine and wind, Saturday (after a slow start), offered some blue sky and most welcome sunshine which the garden and especially the grasses took full advantage of.

By the middle of the afternoon the low sunshine lit up the Decennium border, which became alive with a heady mix of graceful grasses, autumnal foliage from the spindle trees, and later season flower from asters and verbenas.
Earlier in the day, the morning saw a rather misty start which seemed to enhance the vibrant colours of the autumnal performing spindle trees. Top left is Euonymus Pillar Box, top right is Euonymus Verity while the smaller spindle bottom right is the still young but already impressive Euonymus alatus. The pink foliage and fruits of Euonymus hamiltonianus are front left while the orange brown foliage in the centre belongs to Koelreuteria paniculata.
Euonymus alatus has only been planted for a few years but is already showing how beautiful it can be, with the low sunshine highlighting the almost translucent bright red leaves. It is framed with silvery miscanthus flowers behind and the fluffy bottle brush like flowers of the newly launched Pennisetum Black Arrow at the front.
The rather lovely flowers of Aster Ice Cool Pink are very effective as they emerge from the Poa labillardierei that make up the base planting of the Dry Meadow.
While the cutting back of a large shrub at the bottom of the Dry Meadow has opened up a previously unseen view across to the Long Walk and its rather taller plantings of multiple miscanthus and panicum.
In the Dragon Garden the rather impressive honey brown and orange fall colours of the upright Molinia Overdam seem only to intensify as the autumn progresses.
Molinias are native plants that can all offer some quite fabulous autumn colours. A form of the tall purple moor grass, Molinia Skyracer, one one side of the Lower Lawn never fails to draw admiring comment at this time of year.
The last rays of afternoon sunshine highlighting the amazing silvery white flowers of Miscanthus Memory and the dried heads of teasels in the Mill End borders.
The tall, and now silvery, flowers and orange red tinted foliage of our newly launched Miscanthus Sunset enjoying the sunshine in the Decennium border.
Most miscanthus perform well at this time of year and Miscanthus Malepartus is no exception. Offering an upright habit and initially dark red flowers that will gradually dry to an impressive slivery white as they age.
Asters are such a useful group of plants which provide masses of later season flower. Aster Silver Spray is a most lovely selection that offers simply masses of tiny soft blue flowers which provide a near perfect foil for most grasses including miscanthus and pennisetum.
Earlier in the day, and while still covered with the morning dew, the flowers of our recently launched Pennisetum Black Arrow growing in the Decennium border seem especially effective.