Jo's News & Views No 8 August 2026

5 hours ago

4 min read

Hello Everyone

Thankfully at the end of August the drought ended and we had some rain, lots of it. My photos were taken before this so it will be interesting when I go back next week to see how well the garden has recovered.

The Arboretum looked like the African savanna, photo 1. Luckily most of the trees have survived. Many have dropped their leaves already as a means of coping through the drought. The Pinus montezumae 'Sheffield park', a Pine tree planted by our own Liz Macnicol seems to have thrived in the heat, photo 2. Also in this area is the Fraxinus angustifolia 'Raywood', the Ash tree, photo 3. It looks as though it has kept enough leaves to give us some Autumn colour .... hopefully! On the edge of the Arboretum I saw a tree I haven't mentioned before. I believe it is a wild stone fruit tree. Maybe a Prunus domestica, photo 4. These trees are extremely common in the wild hedgerows and produce small round blue-purple stone fruits which are similar to Sloes, photo 5.

Opposite the Visitors centre is the Tilia x europaea, a Lime tree, photo 6. There is still a lot of mistletoe, not as much as usual so it could be struggling. I found out two interesting facts about the Lime tree recently. First of all it is not related to the Lime fruit tree and secondly the wood from the Lime tree was commonly used by the Vikings in their shields!

On the Front Lawn the Cedar Tree was looking magnificent, photo 7. It was smothered with new pine cones.

At the side of the house in front of the Old Conservatory I was pleased to see the border there still looking lovely, photos 8 and 9. The Zinnias are definitely on my planting list for next year as they have thrived in the hot weather. Inside the Old Conservatory I found the Senna septemtrionalis, known as the Arsenic bush, had started to flower, photo 10. It is such a pure shade of yellow so more of this one next month.

On the Tulip Terrace the Summer bedding was looking lovely, photo 11. The silvery grey plant is Cineraria and usually sold as annual bedding. However I find it is happy to carry on growing for several years and has lovely yellow flowers and as it has silvery grey foliage it is drought resistant.

At the end of the New River Lawn are the Ostrich. This one was trying to hide in the Gaura lindheimeri, photo 12. Gaura is another plant that does well in hot conditions so that is on my list too.

In the Kitchen Garden the Verbascum olympicum were losing their flowers but were still standing tall amongst the pumpkins and squashes, photo 13. In the Glasshouses there was a lot to see and as always they were in great condition. The Aristolochia grandiflora, or Dutchman's pipe was covering the glass roof and still had several flowers on it, photo14. The Begonias were in perfect health and it was difficult to choose a favourite, photo 15. In one corner was the Spanish moss plant and the Justicia carnea, the Brazilian plume, photo 15. The pink flowers of the Justicia carnea were just going over but still looked fabulous, photo 17. Outside near the fruit cage was this gorgeous group of Sunflowers, photo 18. Then amongst the vegetables was this clump of Ecballium, or Squirting cucumber, photo 19. When the round fruits are ripe they burst and squirt out a mucilaginous liquid containing its seeds as a means of seed dispersal. Some gardeners play tricks on children and say 'look, touch this' and they then get squirted.

Moving onto the Pond I stopped to admire one of my favourite trees, photo 20. I don't think you'll recognise it straight away as it's wearing its Summer dress and I normally feature it in the Autumn when it is clothed in shades of green, yellow, orange and red. Yes, of course, it is the Liquidambar styraciflua, the Sweet gum tree.

Walking around the back of the house I saw that there were a few flowers left on the Campsis radicans, the Trumpet vine, photo 21. Most of the flowers were over and the seed pods were now taking over, photo 22. I was intrigued by the pods and wondered what the seeds looked like so I took one home. Sorry Julia! I thought they were like broad beans and would have 6 to 9 beans inside but, no, they have small seeds and there were hundreds in side (slight exaggeration there), photo 23. No wonder in some places they are considered invasive.

Now for the fauna. I haven't seen any birds or butterflies in the garden at Myddelton as I am probably there at the wrong time of day. However, I can share with you some photos of the delightful flock of Goldfinches that frequently visit our garden. I thought you'd like to see the detail of the bird's feathers, photo 24. They visit every day for food and drink, there's actually 20 birds in this tree, photo 25. Then 8 young Goldfinches enjoying a drink from our pond, photo 26.

I hope you have enjoyed this wander around the garden with me.

Best Wishes

Jo