Jo's News and Views No 9 September 2023

Hello Everyone

Autumn has arrived with rain, wind and occasional sunshine. The nights are drawing in and it is time to think about tidying our gardens for the winter. However, there is still lots of colour in the garden at Myddelton so here are the highlights.

The Front Lawn never fails to delight. The sun shining through the trees catching the colourful leaves on the acer always pleases me, photo 1.

Walking along the path here on the left was the Berberis 'Georgei' covered with the most striking yellow-orange berries, photo 2. Nearby the Cedar tree and the Phellodendron amurense, known as the Amur Cork tree, were standing proud, photo 3, and the trees lining the path down to the pond looked lovely too, photo 4.

Early morning is always a good time to visit the garden as the sun shines through the leaves on the trees inviting you to stop and stare. The border on Bowling Green lawn does just that, photo 5. The Catalpa bignonioides 'Variegata', Indian Bean tree certainly caught my eye with its big bold golden yellow leaves gleaming in the sunlight.

There are Colchicum autumnale, Autumn crocus, everywhere in the garden, photo 6. A welcome addition to any border through the Autumn. Also, all the Yew trees in the garden are covered with berries, photo 7. They were almost translucent in the Autumn sunshine.

In the Kitchen Garden the pumpkin patch was full of squashes and pumpkins ready for Halloween, photos 8 and 9. In the Annuals Flower bed on the south side of the Glasshouses I spotted this white cosmos, photo 10. I am sorry I don't know the name of it but it has a very faint tinge of pink in the petals, very pretty. Further along this striking Verbascum looked as though it had had a rough night, photo 11. It looked perfect against the wall.

In the Pergola area of the Rose Garden is this red vine, Vitis vinifera 'Purpurea', a tenturier grape, photo 12. The leaves turn wonderful shades of red in the Autumn and are best viewed from behind so you can appreciate their beauty when bathed in sunlight, photo 13.

As always the Old Conservatory looked good, photo14. I always stand still here for a while as I can imagine Mr Bowles pottering about tending to his precious plants whatever the weather.

For my fauna offering this month I have this lovely big bumble bee which I think is a buff tailed bee, photo 15. Then this Large White butterfly settled nearby and I was able to take some close up photos of it, photos 16 and 17. Then the star of the show was this Red Admiral. First with its wings open, photo 18 and then closed, photo 19, showing the intricate pattern on its underwing. Nature is so amazing!

I hope you have enjoyed this wander around the garden with me, more next month.

Best wishes

Jo