Welcome Back, Chris

New blades have been put on our pruning knives and the ladders got out ready, yes, it must be apple pruning time again. For those of you who have been following our blog for some time, you may remember Chris from Waterperry Gardens, our apple pruning expert, see entries for 2009, 28th Feb and 14th Sept. Well, he has made another visit to our gardens to continue over seeing our pruning programme and to offer us more advice and guidance in pruning our trees. Tomorrow the pruning will be left to us, we had better pay attention.

The Answer To Our Question

The photograph is not one I have taken, but this is the sight that is waiting for you if take a walk by the lake. The twitchers amongst the team have been asking themselves, why have we seen so many sighting of our Kingfisher recently?, well, the answer is, we have a pair. Spotted today, for the first time, were a pair of Kingfishers flying just above the lake. A sight to behold, not just one, but two flashes of blue.

First Day of Spring

We have been advised by all forms of the media that this winter has been the coldest in 31 years, since 1978/79, with the Met Office's records showing an average temperature of just 1.5C, that's 2.2C below the norm. However, today, the 1st of March, the daytime temperature has reached 10C and the gardeners have all taken their thick winter coats off. They have joined the butterflies, such as Brimstone and Peacock, seen for the first time this year, warming their newly formed wings in the sunshine along with daffodils that are beginning to open their flowers. Today must surely be the 1st day of spring.

The first day of spring also means a spring clean and for us this means clearing out the old greenhouse which, as the photos show, contains no plants, just rubbish or items wanting a new home. When cleared and the broken glass replaced it will be used to grow plants once again.

Snowdrop Day

This is the time of year when the Galanthophiles, an enthusiastic collector of snowdrops, get very excited by the tiny white flowers that have emerged from the earth beneath. Today, three students, Hannah, Hannah and Kate joined the team and helped us move hundreds of snowdrops from the path to the Canal Building to the Nuffield Lawn. Although it is slightly too early to move the snowdrops, the best time is when they have finished flowering and still in leaf, known as 'in the green', we have still moved a large quantity to their new home creating an even better display for years to come.

Rosa banksiae 'Lutea'

The last of the climbing roses was given a light cut today rather than a hard prune, which we have done to all our other climbing roses. Rosa banksiae 'Lutea' is unlike our other climbing roses as it flowers on last years growth, so to cut it now would remove all the flowers. (Now we know why we have had very few flowers over the last two years.) It is a very vigorous, thornless, climber that is best trained on a fence or wall. It has small, double, pale yellow flowers which are slightly fragrant and will flower through May, giving a beautiful display with the blue Wisteria on the adjacent walls. We will now be pruning this rose in June, but before that, we still have all the fruit trees in the orchard and roses in the Provost's Garden to prune.

Gloucester House

Over the last few weeks the gardening team have been busy tidying up the last few remaining gardens that were not done before the Xmas break. The last area is the Mediterranean garden in front of the Gloucester House buildings, which was left due to the number of seed heads on the grasses, Calamagrostis 'Karl Foester', Deschampsia caespitosa 'Morning Dew' and other plants, Echinacea purpurea, Eringium pandanifolium, Eringium bourghatii and Dierama pulcherrimum. Under the recent snow fall theseed heads have now collapsed, leaving a very messy area in need of a thorough tidy.

Same Time Next Year

For those of you who have following our blog since its beginning last year, you may remember the blog entry 'Where Are They?' dated the 16th February. Back then two very happy twitchers, Ali and Mickey, were over joyed at the sighting of four female and one male Goosander. Well, they are back, the same week as last year, but only two on this occasion, one male and one female. These birds are only seen in the south in the winter so lets make the most of them. See you same time next year, Goosander?