A New Pattern On The Quad Lawn

Straight lines, diagonal lines, circles, all have been seen on the quadrangle lawn over the last four years, now it's curves, sound waves, ripple effect and, some have even said, the wifi symbol!

The most important tools to start this new design, as always, is a long piece of string and a tape measure. The length of one end was measured and divided by four to find the quarter mark. A stake was then placed in a corner of the quad lawn and a piece of string, measuring the length of the quarter, tied to it with a sharp object at the end. Carefully moving the string across the lawn, the grass was lightly scored to mark out where the first curved edge would start and, once marked out, Joss guided the mower across the grass creating the new design.  

Pruning The Plum Trees

Kieron pruned the plum trees today, the largest being Prunus domestica 'Opal'. The trees were not pruned over the winter with the other fruit trees in the orchard as plums are prone to a fungal disease called Silver Leaf. This disease produces its most infectious spores in the autumn/winter and, if pruned during that time, will leave the open wounds from the pruning cuts exposed to these spores. Having waited for the trees to finish flowering, and the risk to Silver Leaf reduced, it was given its annual prune, removing any dead branches and, as plum trees are heavy croppers, reducing the length of larger branches to prevent any breakages when full of fruit in the summer. 

Pricking Out The Seedlings

The seeds sown over the last month have been germinating rapidly in the warmth of the mist unit and are ready to be pricked out. Returning from the Easter break, Graham, Simon, Kieron and Ady pricked out hundreds of seedlings that will be used to help create this year's summer display. Choosing the largest, strongest seedlings from their overcrowded pot,s they gently eased them from the compost using a dibber, pencil or plant label whilst holding onto the seed leaves as they lifted, transferring them into individual pots or single cell seed trays.

Tulips And Wallflowers

The 300 Lily Flowered Triumph Mixed Tulips planted last November in the border at the bottom of the quadrangle are now in flower amongst the wallflower 'Sunset Primrose'. The "explosion of colour" that the team were looking forward to has arrived and is all they had hoped for.

The display seen in corner border is also, if not more than the team had hoped for when they planted it out last year. The summer display was removed in September, see blog entry 'Before Construction, Comes Destruction' and the Wallflower 'Sunset Orange' planted. The royal blue Forget-Me-Not, Myosotis, was added in October, blog entry 'Adding The Royal Blue To The Sunset Orange' followed by the planting of the yellow tulip 'West Point' a month later, blog entry 'Queen Of The Night, West Point, National Velvet and China Pink'. This week, in the warms spring sunshine, the college gardens are a blaze with colour which the students will be greeted with when they return on Easter Sunday. 

Tulips In The Rose Garden And Herbaceous Border

A few hundred additional tulips were planted in the Provost's rose garden last autumn to boost the display seen at this time in previous years. The result, a truely beautiful show of pink and rich, velvet red.

A display that was changed from last year can be found on the herbaceous border. Last November, 750 tulips were planted in the border, see blog entry 'A New Colour Scheme Of Tulips' 14th November, and now these bulbs are flowering. Tulips 'Black Hero', 'China Pink' and 'Purple Dream' are creating a new, softer pallet of colours compared to the previous colours, the red tulip is being removed as it flowers, see blog entry 27th April 2010 'Tidying Up The Borders'.

Tulips In The Orchard

Last November, Kieron and Ali planted a further 100 tulips in the orchard to extend the area of display.  The two colours, 'National Velvet' and 'China Pink', have been in the orchard since they were first introduced back in January 2011, blog entry 'Not Long Now', and created such wonderful comments when they flowered for the first time in April of that year, blog entry 'Accident or By Design'. This year's display is even better than that first time three years ago.

Magnolia 'Elizabeth'

The River Of Blue, 1st April 2014

The Ruskin Building quadrangle garden, known by the team as 'The Serpentine' was officially opened on the 28th April 2009, see blog entry 'The Official Opening'. The planting has matured over the last five years with the Muscari, Grape Hyacinth, providing a gentle, meandering river of blue around the box balls at this time of year. Also, the four Magnolia trees, that were planted in the spaces created by the meandering shape of the border, have matured into beautiful specimens. These four trees, Magnolia 'Elizabeth', are covered in fragrant cup shaped, primrose yellow blooms. This stunning display is further enhanced by the ivory and green flowers of Tulip 'Spring Green' flowering in the border below.

Magnolia 'Elizabeth'