Jo's News and Views No 3 March 2025

howardhollands
Jun 5
3 min read

Hello Everyone

Welcome to Spring. The garden at Myddelton has continued to delight everyone who has visited it this month. The flowers and blossom are in abundance everywhere you look so without further ado let us have a look.

On the Front Drive is the Cornus mas, a Cornelian cherry, which has continued to flower all month, photo 1. The tree looks as though it is a big bright yellow lollipop however the colour is made up of tiny flowers that appear all along the branches, photo 2.

Walking down the path in front of the house the borders are full of Euphorbias which were dancing in the breeze, photo 3. Every where you walk there are spring flowers so I hope your favourite is among those that I am including. The hellebores are having a wonderful time and continue to flower well, photo 4. They have now been joined by Pulmonarias, or Lungwort, photo 5 and Primula vulgaris, the common primrose, although I do not think that there is anything vulgar or common about this delightful little flower, photo 6. In pots and displays are these beautiful pansies, photo 7. What an amazing colour!

In Tom Tiddlers Ground the snowdrops are slowly disappearing and the blossom on the trees is now the main event. In photo 8, you can see, left to right, Prunus cerasifera 'Pissardii', the Cherry plum 'Pissardi', in the background another Cornus mas, the Cornelian cherry, In the centre is Fagus sylvatica 'Black Swan'. This is a weeping beech tree that has very dark purple, almost black, leaves. Then on the right there is Prunus persica 'Purpurea, the Peach 'Purpurea'. The white blossom on both of these trees is very pretty. Photo 9 is the Prunus cerasifera 'Pissardii' and photo 10 is the Prunus persica 'Purpurea'.

Moving on to the Rhododendron Walk I found everything here in flower too. The Rhododendron taking up most of the space was so beautiful, photo 11. The flowers are a wonderful shade of cerise, photo 12. In the Rose Garden the Clematis armandii is taking centre stage, photo 13. To the left the Magnolia soulangeana, the Saucer magnolia had begun to open its flowers, photo 14. Also, opening its flowers is the other Magnolia soulangeana here. This is quite unusual as it is shaded by the Holm Oak and quite often takes longer to impress us. Perhaps it is the prolonged sunshine we have had this month that has helped it along.

Now for the Rock Garden. There were more surprises there too. At the beginning of the month the snowdrops were still covering the banks, photo 16. However two weeks later they had to make way for the scilla, photo 17. This was the story with the Magnolia stellata, the Star magnolia too. It had started to open its flowers on the 10th March, photo 18 and by the 27th it was a mass of beautiful white flowers, photo 19 and 20. Also here in the Rock Garden were many daffodils, photo 21. The Alpine Meadow was absolutely full of them along with more scilla, photo 22. Not to be out done on the walk back to the main garden I stopped to admire this beautiful Chaenomeles speciosa, the Japanese quince, photo 23. The flowers always open first so there is no competition from the leaves.

So on to the fauna in the garden this month. I spotted the gardeners nemesis, the Rose-ringed or Ring-necked parakeet up in a tree. They might look pretty but they have become pests as they eat all the new shoots and cause quite a lot of damage to the plants in the garden. On the pond were Dennis and Dilly duck, photo 25. These two mallards come back every year. Well, I think it's the same pair? Enjoying the early nectar in the Rock Garden were hundreds of bees. Here are two of them which I believe are Honey bees, photo 26. The sound of their collective buzzing was so loud you could hear them as you walked around the pathways. Also in the Rock Garden was this Comma butterfly, photo 27. Finally, a Blue Tit looking for bugs high up in a tree amongst the blossom there.