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| Go greener |
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| With a growing number of gardeners eschewing chemicals in favour of natural alternatives, we can suggest some effective products from our organic gardening selection |
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| Relax and refresh |
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| Good food freshly prepared daily, aromatic coffee, chilled wine and a grassy play area for the children. What more could you need? |
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| Food heaven |
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| Our Farm Shop is heaven for food lovers! Delicious handmade food, top quality groceries, fresh fruit and vegetables and stylish cookware and gifts. |
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| The Discovery Walk |
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| As thousands of daffodils herald the spring, stroll or stride around our Walk while the youngsters enjoy the Nature Trail |
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Berried treasure!
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| Wednesday, 21st October 2009 |
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IN THE GARDEN WITH PETA MARSHALL
I actually adore autumn. Why? Well, there’s a certain kind of warmth and ‘cosiness’ to it. Apart from the fact that autumn has better TV programmes, after the summer repeats have finished, there are other seasonal assets, such as wood smoke in the air, a crispness to the mornings, the aroma of the apple shed – and kids playing conkers!
This last item gently brings me to this week’s topic. For conkers are the ‘fruits’ of the horse chestnut tree, and in our gardens the trees and shrubs are producing their own fruits at this time. I’m not talking about apples and pears (although these are of course fruits as well); I’m talking about the autumn berries. To most gardeners, autumn means the changing leaf tints on trees and shrubs, but I’m really thinking about those plants grown for their autumn berries – the jewels of the garden that are at their best at this time of year.
So which plants are recommended for their autumn shows? My top 10 for autumn berries are:
Rosa rugosa is probably the easiest rose to grow. A large suckering shrub, it requires no pruning, apart from an occasional tidy up in spring. It flowers from early summer to late autumn, and it produces big tomato-like fruits (known as ‘hips’), which well into winter. Rosa rugosa ‘Alba’ has fragrant, silky white flowers and fantastic hips, whilst ‘Rubra’ has wine-crimson flowers and large, showy hips. If you want the hips, do not deadhead these roses (unlike most other roses, where deadheading encourages more flowers).
Varieties of Gaultheria mucronata are low-growers, and thrive on most acid to neutral soils in partial shade. They supply some of the best garden berries, which last well into winter. Choose from rich red ‘Cherry Ripe’, lilac-pink ‘Lilian’, and pink with a deep rose blush ‘Rosie’.
The spindle bush (Euonymus europaeus) sometimes makes a small tree with round, green stems. The branches are curiously straight and were once used as butchers’ skewers (hence its other common name of ‘skewer wood’). In autumn, masses of scarlet seed capsules split to reveal orange seeds. This plant is equally renowned for its fantatsic autumn leaf colour in shades of red and orange.
The firethorns (forms of Pyracantha) are members of the rose family and produce a mass of hawthorn-like flowers in spring, to be followed by volourful berries in autumn. Most commonly grown as wall shrubs, many firethorns make excellent freestanding shrubs of loose, spreading habit. They’re also evergreen, and seem to thrive on almost any soil. Look for the varieties ‘Orange Glow’ (with berries of bright orange-red), ‘Teton’ (orange-yellow) and ‘Cadrou’ (sometimes seen as ‘Saphyr Rouge’, with red berries).
Closely related to pyracanthas are the cotoneasters, which to my mind are underrated shrubs for the garden. Many provide a wonderful green backdrop; many others have fantastic autumn leaf colours, and a few are grown specially for their autumn berries. Try ‘Rothschildianus’ (a large shrub with creamy yellow berries), ‘Pink Champagne’ (which bubbles with berries of blush pink), or Cotoneaster horizontalis (a wall shrub known as the herringbone cotoneaster, with masses of small red berries clothing the herringbone-like branches well into winter)!
The best shrub by far for blue berries is Viburnum davidii; it’s a low-growing evergreen with clusters of small oval-shaped berries of deep metallic blue.
Viburnum opulus is the Guelder rose, and the leaves resembles a maple, while the pretty white flowers in spring resemble a lacecap hydrangea. In autumn the leaves turn rich and dark plum-purple and scarlet, whilst the berries are ripening. Bunches of them form as translucent and bright red, like the most lucious of red currants (however they are mildly poisonous and should only be used for looking at). They last long into winter, hanging on otherwise bare stems.
If it’s purple you’re after, you could do no better than to go for Callicarpa bodinieri var. giraldii ‘Profusion’ – it’s a super shrub that loves the limelight, and in ideal conditions it produces a bonanza of funky lilac-purple berries that last well after the last leaf drops.
And the last two are garden trees:
The mountain ash or rowan must be included if you have the space. Sorbus cashmiriana is decked with countless clusters of gorgeous glossy white fruits with a pink blush, hanging on dark, pink-tinged stems; and Sorbus ‘Joseph Rock’ looks superb with its mass of pretty pale primrose fruits.
Finally, I would have to have one of the varieties of Malus (known variously as the crab apples). They all have lovely typical apple blossom in spring, and many have showy fruits – mini apples in fact – that persist into winter. Look for ‘John Downie’ (bright orange and red fruits which make good crab apple jelly), ‘Red Sentinel’ (often regarded as the best of all, with clusters of shiny, deep red fruits), and ‘Golden Hornet’ (which produces a large crop of rich, golden yellow fruits).
Keates wrote about autumn as being the “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”, but he obviously wasn’t growing any of the above plants, as they are more vibrant than mellow…still you can’t hold that against him.
Happy gardening!
This week in your garden
It’s still bulb-planting time, and there are plenty of daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, snowdrops and other to get in now for flowering this coming winter and spring.
Tidy herbaceous borders by removing any supporting canes and storing them under cover. Cut back dead stems close to the crown. Weed the soil, and fork in fish, blood and bone meal to boost growth next spring.
Revitalise lawns by teasing out thatch (dead grass leaves) with a wire rake or powered scarifier. Topdress with a fertiliser high in potash and phosphate.
Peta Marshall is the plant centre manager at Priory Farm in Nutfield. Website: www.prioryfarm.co.uk
NEXT WEEK: Plums, damsons and gages
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