A perennial grown for it lovely winter and early spring flowers.  Most of the deciduous species retain there old leaves over winter and should be cut off, I usually do this in December but as long as they are done before the flowers show as it it much more difficult otherwise.  It is a plant that is excellent in woodland as it likes half shade and moisture retentive but well drained soil.  Easy from seed but it does need to [...]

We have a little culture here at Goltho at the moment as we have an exhibition of metalwork done by a local blacksmith, which are for sale if one or more of them take your fancy, they are placed in strategic places around the garden. I have been busy beavering  whenever the weather permitted, the rose garden is now finished being weeded and I have also got some potting up done ready for our re-opening on Friday 3 February. Also [...]

This weekend was spent repairing the arches in the Rose Garden as over the years they have started to rot.  This is Sean just tightening up the nuts to stop the timbers falling off.  I then have to finish painting them with creocote,  they now look as though they have always been there.  Today was spent pruning and re wrapping the roses around them,  hoping they will grow well this year to fill in some of the spaces the pruning [...]

All  December I was redecorating the main hall and one of the Bed and Breakfast rooms, that took up most of the month together with Christmas of course but now we are into the New Year and the garden beckons again. I have been out there in this awful wind weeding away, it was good to get out and start again.  We have our first daffodil out it is an early one but the rest of them are still a [...]

Not a plant picture for December and January, but a winter picture, to remind us what the weather was like last year.  This is the family dog Raffy out in the snow, he thought it was wonderful, we still did at the time!

We have finally got the culvert finished this week, so now waiting for water to come through it, I am really wondering if we will ever have enough rain to get enough to do that.  The ponds are at least eighteen inches down from the top and there is no rain in site.  It has meant that we have got a lot of weeding and cutting back done ready for next year. We have also cleared out the barn ready [...]

Bergenias are a much under rated plant they are no trouble and very nearly pest free.  They are a genus of evergreen perennials with thick, usually large rounded to oval even spoon shaped leathery leaves with indented veins that make ideal ground cover.  Most varieties a hardy but there are a few that are tender, they will tolerate sun or shade and any well-drained soil.  On poor soil especially they can go a rich red colour in the winter and [...]

I have not added anything to this area recently as I can only say the same thing over and over, all I have been doing is cutting back, weeding and then spreading manure and you can only talk so much about manure, but last weekend and this we have done some work on one of the colverts. It had got very overgrown with large plants which has nearly hidden a very nice view of the ponds so we set about [...]

I have just got back from two weeks holiday in the south of France the weather was brilliant, but now I can not wait to get cutting down ready for winter.  The weather last year really caught me on the hop so to speak, so I am not going to get caught again this year, I have already started with the cutting back and weeding as it had been really windy while we  were away quite a few plants have [...]

Cotoneaster is a genus of deciduous, semi-evergreen or evergreen shrubs grown for the foliage, flowers or as in this picture berries.  Some species may be used as a specimen plant others for hedging and still others for ground cover.  Deciduous species prefer sun but the evergreen species are quite happy in part or even complete shade.  Non of them like to be water logged and so can be quite happy in dry soil and so are most useful for some [...]