December in the garden

Quote of the month
in the depths of winter is when I realise there lies within me an eternal summer

It’s all change amongst the garden team, we have said goodbye to two members who have worked tirelessly to help me transform the grounds over the past few years, my three students this past year who have finished their apprenticeship are either moving on or are taking permanent posts in the garden team (very well done to them) and we have a new gardener Rebecca Voice or as she is known to us BOO.

At the salutation we are proud to offer the chance for budding amateurs to become professionals to that end every year I offer a practical horticulture qualification and a chance to work alongside our award winning team on a day to day basis, this year we have extended the training and the timetable. The new students will be with me for two years instead of one and they will spend one evening a week at college studying for the RHS general certificate as well as working full time in the garden towards their practical diploma, this for me is the best of both worlds as I don’t feel there are any college courses that give enough practical skill and theory together it’s all one or the other.

Now I know what people say, you need to go to college and learn in full time education but that’s all well but to be useful to an employer (and that’s where all this is leading) you have to have solid practical skills and be fit for the job, time and time again I see people who can talk the talk but can’t do the do. It’s hard to balance both and from my experience training people on the job it can get too much and its 50/50 if the student makes the grade and pass with us!

As the unseasonal weather continues (whether good or bad I have not made up my mind yet) the garden team are making the most of it, working on unfrozen ground is a blessing at this time of year. We are lucky with our extreme south-eastern location and the fact that the whole garden is walled and we are just by a tidal river which helps keep the worst frosts at bay but still this time last year it was -7 and the ground was frozen and making progress was slow, not so this year.

We still have cannas, hedychium and dahlias flowering and are now reluctantly lifting them for winter storage. While the warm weather is benefiting our tender friends it is playing havoc with many spring flowering bulbs in the garden which are beginning to sprout too early for my liking… I can’t help but think that they will regret their eagerness when the cold weather finally sets in, and it will!
Plants that are stealing the show now.

Viburnum farreri white or pale pink flowers of this viburnum look amazing on this large shrub with the leaves gone.

Clerodendrum trichotomum berries of this small tree are nearly pearlescent with a cerise pink star shaped hood at there base which with no leaves to speak of makes them shout look at me!

Viburnum tinus ‘Eve price’ white flowers pink buds opening to white flowers on a lush, dark green, evergreen shrub makes them stand out even more.