June 2010

We had virtually no rain in May and that has extended into June with hardly enough rain to “settle the stoor”. The result is that we have had the driest spring in nearly 100yrs......and that coming after the coldest and driest winter since 1914!

The result of all this drought is that the gardens are probably 2/3 weeks behind an average year but once we do get rain I am sure things will catch up and anyway, there is plenty of colour and scent in the beds and borders. The main bed of roses has gone. The hybrid Ts,Top Rose, and the Standards,Golden Wedding, finally failed and their end was hastened by the return of roe deer to nibble away at them. In truth they have not been healthy for a couple of years so we thought it best to remove them and plant up the beds with summer bedding, which will give us time to decide whether we want to try another rose variety or to change the style of the beds.

The candelabra primulas,in the Japanese Garden, are a wonderful show this year. Some of them are seeding away quite well which should allow them to spread up along the burnside which was the original vision when planting them. The rhodies have also put on a good show of blooms although I would say that the azeleas have been disappointing. As I write in early July the delphiniums in the herb garden are just about to bloom. They are magnificent 10ft specimens and it is worth a visit to the gardens to see them alone, if nothing else.

As I wrote last month, six of our hatching of mallard ducklings survived the first few days of life.These six young birds have grown so quickly that they are now almost indistinguishable from the adults. They can’t yet fly but can be seen,daily, rushing up and down the lawns practising their take offs. But where are the bumbles? Normally our beds are humming with a variety of bumble bees but this year they are scarce....very scarce. I will hold back from calling it a serious situation(it has been reported nationally) as they may yet appear to liven up the flower beds. Innes

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