Gardener's Notebook: Spring Beauty
Head Gardener of Chewton Glen, Darren Venables reflects on the beautiful spring flowers.
“April was an amazingly warm and sunny month with little of the heavy showery rain we are normally accustomed to. This has been very good for us to get seeds germinating and plants planted out but brought its problems with the dry winds and sunny days meaning lots of watering to keep the young delicate plants alive. I have talked to other Head Gardeners and we are all struggling to get our heads round this very unusual spring.
Of course the lack of rain has meant that the daffodils and blossom on the trees has been exceptionally good this year which I am very pleased about, the hotel has looked amazing this spring and it is a real credit to my amazing gardeners who work so hard for me, they are an amazing bunch of people who make coming to work an absolute joy each day.
The blossom has been amazing this year around the grounds, the cherry trees dotted around have been beautiful, but most importantly the fruit trees have been full of flowers which means fruit in the summer. I think the one thing that has really struck me this spring is just how many different types of fruit we now grow on the grounds, everything from the apples, pears and plum to the soft fruit of the currents, raspberries and tayberries to the black thorns, rose hips and hawthorns that line the hedgerows to name a few the grounds are incredibly diverse and when put together form an amazing eco system.
Spring has also meant Daffodils at Chewton Glen, it always makes me smile when I drive in the drive in the mornings and see the daffodils in full flower. The hotels florists use bulbs in the hotel as potted decorations and when they have finished flowering we always plant then in the grounds to continually increase the numbers of bulbs around the estate. This spring one of the things I will be looking at is potential new sites for more daffodils, blue bells and hyacinths to plant this autumn ready for next spring’s flowers.”
This is an exert taken from Darren’s blog, read the full version here.