Autumn: Fagus sylvatica - common beech

 Fagus sylvatica hedge (right), and the north-facing hedge flower borders

When we first viewed our home, one of the things that quickly won me over was the beech hedge separating our garden from our neighbour's. Unlike a fence that blocks out light, a hedge allows light to filter through, even in the middle of winter. So it means that my hedge borders, which are north-facing, get a lot more light all year round, giving me a wider variety of plants I can grow in that space. Which is great, but in late autumn, it's all about the beech leaves for me.

And even on cold grey days, the colours still offer a warm glow like an open fire, and welcome colour.

And a beech hedge has the bonus of retaining it's gorgeous orange-brown autumn leaves right through until the next spring, only dropping them when the new green foliage comes through.

As is so often the case, common means beautiful.

* * * * *
This is the last in my Autumn series. Other posts in the series:
  Autumn: Acer palmatum 'Sango-kaku'
  Autumn: Prunus mume 'Beni-chidori'
  Autumn: in the Peak District
  Autumn: Salvia 'Amistad'
  Autumn: Cornus 'Norman Hadden'

Autumn: Cornus 'Norman Hadden'

My friend Kate, and I, took a stroll/roll* around Sheffield Botanical Gardens the other day. As always, there was something interesting to find in the gardens. This time, it was this 'shrub', Cornus 'Norman Hadden'.

As you can probably tell, it's a rather large shrub. In fact, it can grow to between 4-8 metres! And wow, see that fruit?!

Yes, this is the fruit, AND it's edible. Apparently the skin isn't so nice but the flesh inside is rather good. I didn't try one, because it wasn't until I got home and looked it up that I found it was indeed edible.

As you can see, it's a rather large 'shrub'. It's too big for my Forest Garden Border, but I have my eye on it for another corner of the garden.

But I think I'll have to go back to the gardens and sneakily pick one of the fruits and give it a try first ;)

Either way, what a fine tree, I mean, shrub.


*she strolled, I rolled on my mobility scooter

* * * * *
Other posts in the series:
  Autumn: Acer palmatum 'Sango-kaku'
  Autumn: Prunus mume 'Beni-chidori'
  Autumn: in the Peak District
  Autumn: Salvia 'Amistad'
  Autumn: Fagus sylvatica

Autumn: Prunus mume 'Beni-chidori'

The second in my Autumn series, is Prunus mume 'Beni-chidori'. This is a small (up to 2.5m) upright tree which I've planted in a pot. Whilst it's only about 3 years old now, the idea is that, along with the other plants in pots next to it, it will filter out the messier storage part of the garden from view. Because every garden has a messy storage area.

The autumn leaves change from darker green to orange-red.

To fully red. Though maybe there is a pink tinge to that red.

It looks good hiding the messy corner, and looks magnificent against the blue Autumn sky.

Filtering through the sun brings up the intricate detail of the veins of the leaves.

And in Spring... Yes, that flower is simply stunning. It also has a beautiful fragrance. It's also a great plant for pollinators in late Winter.

I've admired this tree for a few years in other gardens and finally obtained my own earlier this year. I feel it's a most worthy and beautiful addition to the garden. Plus, who cares about a bit of mess with those colours?!

* * * * *
Other posts in the series:
  Autumn: Acer palmatum 'Sango-kaku'
  Autumn: in the Peak District
  Autumn: Salvia 'Amistad'
  Autumn: Cornus 'Norman Hadden'
  Autumn: Fagus sylvatica 

Autumn: Acer palmatum 'Sango-kaku'

As Autumn is now in full swing, I thought I'd do a short series on some of the plants that I think really shine at this time of the year. First up, Acer palmatum 'Sango-kaku', and it most certainly shines!

It's young branches really show off the reason for it's common name, the coral-barked maple.

And I'm very pleased with how under-planting it with Heuchera 'Paris' has worked.

The leaves are now changing from a softer orange-yellow, to rich and buttery.

It glows in the autumn light.

It's a slow growing tree. This one is about 10 years old and has been moved twice. It's really taken off in this garden, so I think I've found it's happy place.

* * * * *
Other posts in the series:
  Autumn: Prunus mume 'Beni-chidori'

  Autumn: in the Peak District
  Autumn: Salvia 'Amistad'
  Autumn: Cornus 'Norman Hadden' 
  Autumn: Fagus sylvatica

Driving Miss Juneberry*

Back in April, after a visit to the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens, I decided I wanted to get myself an Amelanchier tree. One common name for Amelanchier is Juneberry, another being Service Tree. Here's a reminder of what they look like in Spring.

Beautiful, aren't they.

I have a section of my Long Shady Border that is crying out for some editing (begging for it...!) and have just the place for the tree. I did a lot of research and decided that the particular Amelanchier that would most suit this site would be Amelanchier laevis 'R.J. Hilton'. It's a smaller variety, liking moist acid soil - perfect for the damper end of this border.

It took quite a lot of research and many phone calls to finally find a nursery that sold this tree, one over in Retford, 34 miles away. The nursery owner had an 8ft tree. Excellent. The thing is, we only have a small 3-door car, and they didn't do delivery to Sheffield.

I wasn't to be deterred. I thought about it and came up with an idea of how I might safely transport an 8ft tree home. Carefully wrap it up in fleece, tie the fleece, the carefully position it in the car, with me stuck in one corner of the back seat looking after it whilst Kevin drove.

And that's just what we did.

Me with the carefully wrapped up tree

We then artfully put it in the car.

Back end

Front end

You can see from the front end why i was so concerned about wrapping up the tree. I knew we would have to hang part of the tree out the window and by doing so, the high winds whilst driving up to 50 mph could risk damaging the tree.

Driving Miss Juneberry home:

And that's how you transport an 8ft tree in a small 3-door car.

So what does the tree look like now at home? Well, you have to wait for that. I've finally found a gardener to help me out but he cannot be here until end September/early October, so it won't be planted in the border until then. So you'll have to stayed tuned for the next episode.


*Full credit to J-P over at Next Square Metre for coming up with this in a tweet. It was too good not to nick.