What We've Been Up To This Winter

Winter affords our Gardens Team the time to complete the larger scale jobs in the Gardens, especially those which would be unsafe to tackle around members of the public.

Aside from our heavy cut of the yew hedge along Jubilee Walk and at the back of the Italian Garden, you can also see evidence of a rather large scale cut in the Nut Garden, where our Kentish cob nuts have been topped and levelled. These bare branches will, in the warmer months, become swollen with lush green foliage. As the trees have become larger with each year, less and less light and air has been reaching the rambling roses, clematis and wisteria that trail along the pergola that sits within the cobnut trees. This fresh cut will ensure those plants now have better access to vital nutrients, as well as ensuring symmetrical regrowth for our cobnuts when the leaves return in spring.

Elsewhere, new tulips have been added to the Grey and White Garden, and many more of our favourite pink Rosa Surrey are now in the Italian Garden beds ready for their bloom in the summer. In the Orchard, more apple trees have been added to replace the older varieties we had to remove last year. You may remember us sharing how some of the heritage varieties of apple were no longer coping with the ever rising temperatures of our summers, and so these have now been replaced with varieties that are not only better suited to our climate, but are also related to the heritage varieties we had to remove.