Little drops of green & white

Does any flower give more hope than snowdrops!

Pure white modest flowers with a chaste beauty, that belies there tough nature.

There they are each January, bravely emerging between the fallen leaves and ivy tendrils.

They are of course hardy, but they are not the fastest of bulbs to colonise a woodland or river bank.
Where you see drifts of snowdrops you are looking at decades or even centuries of growth.
Such plantings are some of the loveliest sights you will see.

Snowdrops are often found in burial grounds, and such plantings must be for hope and memory.
I have seen snowdrops in well kept town cemeteries and on wind blasted burial grounds full of old graves, and they always stir the heart.

In Drumnadrochit, a village close to Abriachan there is a very special area of woodland at the confluence of two rivers, called the Cover.

The Rivers that flow through the Cover to Loch Ness have regularly flooded in the past and have brought down plant material from gardens.
Hence we have had Japanese Knotweed (thankfully, hopefully eradicated now) and raspberry canes, but the one intruder I think is wonderful is the Snowdrop

Undisturbed under the trees they have multiplied and now give a lovely show each year.

I was there on Sunday, a lovely mild day with the feel of the approach of spring.

For anyone with a new house and garden, wait for the first January, February and see if you have snowdrops if not, then buy some, and as with tree planting it is for the next generation.

The magic of Witch Hazel

Witch Hazel, I remember it from my childhood…..a transparent liquid in a half pint bottle, administered when I can home bruised after a day at the local park, a not infrequent event.
I think it is still around and I remember keeping a bottle in my fridge for years when my children were small.

Witch Hazel, Hamamelis mollis is a wonderful shrub, a thing of legend.

These beautiful shrubs flower on bare branches before the leaves.

Hamamelis mollis Pallida is a lovely sulphur yellow variant that flowers in the icy grip of January. The spidery petals are long and with a delicate perfume that rises when in the warmth of a room.
There are darker coloured variants, two of which we grow. Jalena with coppery yellow flowers and Diane, a coppery red.
They are very nice shrubs , but as they flower later in late February/March they somehow don’t seem to make the impact of the early flowering Pallida.
All make an impact in autumn with wonderful rich yellow and red colourings.

Witch hazel is one of those glorious shrubs that you dream of having in your garden.
At Abriachan we had the chance and we planted Hamamelis mollis Pallida about 15 years ago. It is not exactly slow growing, but seems to take to time and it is only this year that I have felt confident to take a branch or two for the house.

I love it, a beautiful, classical beauty.
M

Badger Shenanigans

After much mud, sweat and tea (rs), the 2012 plant catalogue is off to the printers.
This years front cover shows the local badgers cavorting on the beehive during one of their midnight raids. 
Does anyone else have badgers making themselves at home in your garden?

Cat

Winter woodland walk

Since we have returned from New Zealand I have walked through our garden and woodlands most days. 
It is usually late afternoon before I start up the hill, well wrapped up against the cold with fleece and my wonderful possum hat from New Zealand.

Daylight is drawing out markedly now. I am still finding the mornings very dark, but the evenings are stretching nicely and it is now well after five before it is dark. Hoorah!

This late afternoon light is special.
We are having a quiet cold spell just now and the light on Loch Ness is great.
I always think of Loch Ness as steely grey and it looks wonderful, arctic cold glinting in moonlight and mirror glass calm by day. 

December was very wet and the footpaths are still greasy in places
The last of the leaves are brown and damp and the air is heavy with the humus smell of woodlands.
Bark and branch dominate the foreground, with pockets of dark holly and Blechnum spicant; the elegant hard fern; on dry banks.

Of course snow drops are through and the garden looks well, temperatures have not been below -4.  Fingers crossed.

M

Rose Discoveries - Beauty in a Shattered City.

If you know Christchurch as we do, it is very sad just now to see the cleared sites and demolition work that followed the Earthquakes earlier this year. However, walk down to Hagley Park, their botanic gardens and it is thriving.
In Mid December we walked into their rose garden and I was blown away. I am still seeing images of the garden in my mind's eye.
Usually, I walk into a rose garden and what do I  see? Well it can be lovely , but all too often the garden can be dry soil, defoliation, spotty yellow leaves far too much bare earth
Not an enthusiast then?? Well all changed now. Christchurch showed me how it can be done,

Look at these arches, look at these red reds.  Let me share some photographs with you.

What you don't get in a photograph, is the shimmering sunshine and the scented air around some of the rose beds...just lovely

Many Happy Returns

Large bed of  "Many Happy Returns"   white, pink bud.
It was the white roses that made the most impact. Fantastic.

Molly Kirby

Molly Kirby...a sizzling orange, clean shiny foliage.

A bright yellow bed of " Casino"

Casino.

The red voluptuous "Ingrid Bergman"

Ingrid Bergman

The roses were all looking wonderful. Why?
1.  Well New Zealand has a kinder climate. Christchurch has milder winters and hotter summers that we have in UK, and certainly more than we have in Scotland.
And Roses love warmth. We sometimes forget that and wonder why we lose rose bushes, particularly Hybrid teas in a bad winter. At Abriachan we only grown shrub roses and climbers as others just can't take the cold.

2. The roses looked well pruned and well fed. Like all plants that you want to see bloom on the new growth you have to ensure they are well fed. Blood fish and bone or dehydrated Chicken manure are my favourites, followed by tomato feed to get lots of blooms.

Nancy Hayward

3. New Zealand breeds many of its own roses and they were well chosen, but there were also very good looking David Austin varieties and old well known varieties such as "Compassion" and "Iceberg"  They looked great so I believe they are using good clean material for propagation.

Just wonderful. No wonder they call Christchurch the Garden City