Cutting back our privet hedge in the back garden, to reduce the height and width has worked wonders! Shrubs that were leaning towards the light have been given a new lease of life this spring and are growing straight for the first time! The Buddleja in the green and white border has really taken off and will soon be covered in scented flowers to tempt butterflies and bees. I prune this vigorous shrub hard each spring once the new growth has started and it seems to grow back even more strongly!
The Mock Orange (Philadelphus) too are looking much better for higher light levels and both plants are bristling with green flower buds that will soon open to their deliciously scented delicate white flowers. Our Choisya ternata was badly damaged by winter winds and has put on a brave show, producing a few clusters of white flowers. A year ago the plant was the best it had ever been and now it is in need of a hard prune back to the new shoots to try and regain its vigour.
The Fatsia japonica never ceases to amaze me! It has come through the winter with hardly a mark on the huge glossy leaves – a real winner for an exposed garden even on the coast! The curious Ivy-like flowers, hanging on from the late summer, did get damaged in the first of the strong winds last December but the leaves really are unscathed.
We have a large Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis) that was a tiny plant seven years ago and has been gradually clipped to make a pyramid about 180cm high. This too suffered in the strong winds but is now growing away and gradually shedding the old leaves, replacing them with soft new growth that will harden and turn deep green as the summer progresses. I love using Bay Laurel to decorate the house at Christmas and it is a stalwart of Mrs McGregor’s flower arrangements.
With the damage of the winter storms I have been reminded that gardens are never finished – they evolve. We lost trees in our shady bog garden; the wet soil is not a good anchor for them but the plants growing there seem to love the new influx of light and are looking the best they ever have. The Candelabra Primulas are full of flower - a haze of gold and green to the front of the border - and the giant Gunnera manicata which was a seedling from a much lower growing plant is already towering over the area, creating its own shade with huge umbrella like leaves. The mild weather this winter has helped this plant – often the early leaves are scorched brown on the edges by late frost but this year they are perfectly unharmed. Like all of the perennials, this plant was tucked up asleep through the worst of the weather and so has grown away this spring oblivious to the destruction of the winter storms!
