Out & About Spring 2019

GARDENING

YEAR-ROUND COLOUR Plan ahead for the changing of the seasons and choose a combination of plants in your garden to ensure year-round interest.

Choisya Aztec Gold With its gold architectural leaves, this is the perfect evergreen shrub. It has a roundish style, with leaves split into slender, pointed segments which are rich-gold towards the tips and a slightly lime-yellow towards the base. Attractive, almond-scented white flowers first appear in spring and early summer followed by another flush in autumn. Happy in any reasonably well drained, fertile soil, the brightest leaf colour develops in full sun. Hebe Caledonia This evergreen climber thrives in plenty of sun and can flower for what seems like all summer. Once established, the profuse white star-shaped flowers produce a sweet scent, followed by rich-bronze autumn tints to the leaves. Plants can easily be trained to cover a whole fence or trellis to make a green wall of foliage, which apart from rampant ivy, no other evergreen climber can achieve. For best results grow in well-drained soil in full sun or partial shade with protection from cold, drying winds. Leucothoe Little Flames

Garden by design Bloom Gardens is a local company that offers qualified horticultural support to garden owners looking to give their garden a bit of extra sparkle. Maybe the garden has been neglected and needs taking in hand, or has just never made you smile like you hoped it would. Perhaps recent building work created a new view onto a part of the garden which needs some horticultural fine tuning to complete the project. You might want to create new borders or improve existing planting and could use a fresh pair of eyes and impartial, professional advice. Using a combination of RHS training, creativity and experience, Bloom Gardens will help you make the most of your garden, large or small. Contact Hannah Fraser on 07768 041929, email:hannah@bloomgardens.net

Caledonia, with its profuse violet flowers that appear from spring to autumn, is a compact variety, with young, wine-red leaves that fade to a ball of dark green. It’s also popular with wildlife, as the violet flowers are very attractive to pollinators. Thrives in any fertile, free draining soil. Trachelospermum Jasminoides

Making a dramatic container plant, the young leaves of this compact evergreen shrub appear to dance like small bright orange-red flames over the darker green foliage below. Providing attractive, trouble-free gardening, this plant tolerates most conditions, but thrives in a moist soil. Effective as a very low hedge, it also has an added bonus of being deer resistant. Acer Sango Kaku

Offering all year interest, this popular tree deserves its RHS Award of Garden Merit. The show starts with bright coral pink growth leading to deeply lobed yellow- orange foliage in spring, turning lush green in summer and then striking soft yellow

Before

in autumn. Once the foliage display is over, the bare branches take centre stage. Triggered by a cold snap, the stems and bark become a stunning winter focal point, turning a vibrant coral red. For best results, grow in a moist but well-drained soil in partial shade and protect from the harshest winds, which may cause leaf scorch.

After

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