Flowers in December

I can always find a dozen plants in flower in the garden on Christmas Day but was surprised to find many of them already in flower this year.

A very early primrose enjoying the warmth.


Rhododendron Yellow Hammer, a hybrid rhododendron which delights throughout the year. 

A number of other rhododenrons also have a smattering of flower.

Mahonia japonica, the Japanese Mahonia, beautifully fragranced, an asset for the winter garden.

Hamamelis mollis, the chinese witch hazel, already showing colour.  The flowers produce a glorious scent in the winter sunshine.

I also found flower buds on Magnolia grandiflora Goliath. 

End of Season

Betula utilis with Nyssa sylvatica in the back ground

 END OF THE 2014 SEASON

The end of the season is always a time for reflection.  We miss our visitors but at the same time we have space to plan for the next season.
Planting will be going ahead in the next few weeks mainly out in Tank Meadow, where Russell and Balint will be planting two small copses and a number of specimen trees.  Two more Prunus will be added to the exisiting collection along with three Betula costata.  The plan is to add to the autumn colour already there provided by two young Nyssas and three
Carpinus with another Carpinus and an Acer Sacchrum.  The Prunus have also been chosen
with autum colour in mind.

Acer palmatum and Magnolia grandiflora, top right

 

Some of our visitors this year have been very complimentary comparing High Beeches to Sheffield Park.  Thank you to all of you who have visited and enjoyed the garden this year.

I took these photos today with the exception of the fourth which was taken a week or two ago.
There has been heavy rain in the last 24 hours but the sun came through just before the light started to go.  There was a beautiful sunset.

Miscanthus sinensis malepertus

The Garden will be open from 28th March until 1st November, 2015, 1pm - 5pm every day except Wednesdays.  Coaches welcome by appointment at any time.




A particularly good Acer seedling, Sorbus sargentiana, Pinus Montezuma with a background of Fagus sylvatica

Autumn Yellows

Aesculus parviflora

THE AUTUMN YELLOWS are lighting up the garden.

Many of the great Fall trees put on a beautiful display of yellow before taking on their more familiar spectacular reds and oranges.

Decaisnea fargesii

 

Fothergilla major

Liquidamber styraciflua

Nyssa sylvatica High Beeches

Disanthus cercidifolius

Disanthus cercidifolius, a member of the hamamelidaceae family, is lighting up the garden with the spectacular colour of its heart shaped leaves.  A native of Japan and China it was introduced to the UK in about 1893.  It is a woodland plant, an acid soil lover and fairly hardy.  There are seven plants flourishing in the garden at High Beeches.

Seeds and Berries

Early signs of Autumn

Sorbus hupehensis

Early Autumn is bringing a taste of the spectacular colour to look forward to.  The acers are starting to turn yellow, orange and red.  The liquidambers and parrotias are already showing signs of colour.  The grasses are looking good too.

It is the time of year for berries and seed and this is a particularly good year.

Sorbus hupehensis is covered in bright pink berries.  A Rowan native to central and western China.  It was discovered by Ernest Wilson in 1910.

Acer caudatifolium

Acer caudatifolium, a beautiful snake bark maple from Taiwan.

Symplocos paniculata

Symplocos paniculata a delightful deciduous shrub with white, fragrant flowers in June and bright blue fruits in autumn.  A native of China, Himalaya and Japan.  First introduced to the USA in 1871 and then to England.

September Wildflowers at High Beeches

SEPTEMBER WILD FLOWERS 

There are still many wildflowers to be seen in the garden at High Beeches.  It is a particularly good year for the Devil's-bit Scabious, succisa pratensis which is flowering freely throughout the meadows and garden.  The Devils-bit scabious, a beautiful lavender blue, was used to treat Scabies and is a good source of nectar, it is also a food plant of the Marsh Fritillary butterfly

There are large clumps of Common Fleabane, Pulicaria dysenterica, to be found, its name comes from past use as an incense to rid the house of insects and it was also used in the treatment of dysentry. Water Mint, Menta aquatica, grows in the ghylls, a valuable source of nectar for bees and butterflies as well as a food plant for caterpillars.

Lesser Skullcap, Scutellaria minor and Cow Wheat, Melampyrum pratense are also flourishing.  Cow Wheat is an ancient woodland indicator and its seed is attractive to wood ants.  It is also a food plant for the caterpillars of the Heath Fritillary butterfly.  The delicate Skull cap is semi parasitic on other plants and was used in traditional medicine.

Lesser Skullcap

Devil's-bit Scabious

Common Fleabane

Water Mint

Cow Wheat

Woodland Gentian

TheWoodland Gentian, Gentiana asclepiadea,

 is established here at High Beeches and in August the gentians flower throughout the garden.  High Beeches is the only known site in the UK where these gentians are naturalised.

The Woodland or Willow Gentian is a perennial and is a native of central and southern europe and is usually to be found in woodland mountain areas.  It is a beautiful plant with elegant arching stems and bright blue trumpet like flowers.

Stewartia sinensis

 STEWARTIA SINENSIS

The Stewartias at High Beeches are in flower.

A small genus of ornamental trees and shrubs related to the camellia.
.

Stewartia sinensis has attractive peeling bark and good autumn colour.  A native of central China and introduced to the UK by Ernest Wilson in1901.  A highly desirable ornamental tree but rare in cultivation.



Quercus oxyodon

A rare oak, Quercus oxyodon, is flowering at High Beeches.

Although evergreen Quercus oxyodon sheds its leaves in the spring and then flowers before producing new foliage in the summer.  It is a low growing tree of up to 10 metres in height with wide spreading branches.

 A native of China and probably introduced by Ernest Wilson in 1900.

The tree at High Beeches is an old one.  There is another at Caerhays planted in l919 but there is a debate as to whether or not they are the same plant.
A small number of other gardens have young plants, including Nymans and Chevithorne Barton.

Liriodendron tulipifera

LIRIODENDRON TULIPIFERA, the Tulip Tree

 

 

A large tree of up to 30 metres in height.  The tulip tree has very distinct foliage, which turns golden-yellow in autumn.  It flowers in June and the flowers are not unlike tulips hence its name.  It is an early introduction to this country from North America, the first record of at Tulip Tree is from 1688 and it may well have been introduced earlier.

 

The magnificent Tulip Tree at High Beeches grows on the bank between the road and the car park and was probably planted in the early 1900s.

 

In praise of buttercups and Ox-eye Daisies

The Ox-eye Daisy, Moon Daisy or Dog Daisy Leucanthemum vulgare , a member of the Asteraceae family, is the largest native daisy and a familiar sight brightening many a road side verge.

The daisies and buttercups turn the meadow at High Beeches into a haze of white and gold in June, particularly beautiful in the evening light.  They attract, along, with the other wildflowers, a huge number of insects and butterflies to the meadow.

 Mysteriously the number of daisies in the meadow fluctuates every year.  They are perennials and seed copiously and as the meadow is managed in the same way each year, the reason for fluctuation in numbers must be down to changes in the weather.

,Both the Meadow Buttercup, Ranunculus acris, and Creeping Buttercup, Ranunculus repens are to be found in the meadow.  Lesser Spearwort, Ranunculus flammula grows in wet places in the garden.  Recently Arthur Hoare of the Sussex Botanical Recording Society has also identified the Bulbous Buttercup, Ranunculus bulbosus, also growing in the garden.

 

 

 

Luscious Loderi

The beautiful Rhododendron Loderi are at their best at High Beeches Garden now.  Covered in large highly scented blossom they dwarf the azaleas.

Rhododendron Loderi is a hybrid (Rh fortunei x Rh. griffithianum).  It was raised by Sir Edmund Loder of Leonardslee, uncle of Sir Giles Loder of High Beeches.

Towering rhododendrons, beautiful davidias and a riot of colour

Bluebells, Rhododendrons and Azaleas

Amongst the riot of colour provided by the many azaleas are  gems such as the Davidia, or handkerchief tree, also the red Crinodendron hookerianum is coming into flower.   The towering Rhododendron Loderi are smothered in flower adding to the perfume in the garden.

Rhodo Loderi

Davidia involucrata vilmoriniana