I’ve been both constructive and destructive in the garden this week…

Several years ago I built an obelisk for a climbing rose, it’s next to the arch in the Amber & Amethyst garden. The rose has been amazing, covered in flowers for most of the summer, however it has outgrown the obelisk, with slats pushed out and stems being damaged. This is the rose in full bloom last summer…

I’d already decided I wanted to guide the rose over the arch next to it as it was clearly wanting to reach for the sky, at the weekend I started prune some of the hedge behind it so I could access it and really see what was happening. This is a photo from last month, you can see how wonky it was…

The obelisk was in quite a sad state, I started to remove the broken slats and eventually removed the whole structure piece by piece. I still wanted some support for the rose to guide it towards the arch. So I leant two of the lengths from the obelisk against the arch and then tied them securely with some twine. I wanted to gently pull the rose over to the arch without damaging the stems further, twine would be too rough, so I found two old pairs of tights and made a couple of long ties right over the rose. I’m pretty pleased with it so far, I just need to catch down the tallest branches now.

Everything is shooting up in the garden, it’s a wonderful time of year. The camassias above have started to flower as has the pulmonaria and the geums. I got a pair of rust effect peony supports for Christmas from my daughter, so they’re both in place and at Harrogate show a couple of weeks ago I bought another two which are more of a dome shape. I think I got those in place just in time as they’ve already disappeared under the foliage.

I’ve also made another obelisk! For many years I had one by the patio, it was a big affair which had clematis growing up it. It fell down several years ago and I’ve not got round to replacing it. I decided I didn’t want a big heavy one again as it does obstruct the view of the magnolia stellata. I was having a clearout of the garden shed last weekend and came across some 6′ long hardwood stakes. I pushed four in the ground round the clematis, tied the tops together as neatly as I could and then used twine to make a framework for the clematis. My thought is that I can easily collapse it down for the winter and early spring when the magnolia is flowering if I feel it’s blocking my view, although actually because the stakes are thin, I think it will be fairly inobtrusive, The metal ball on top is one I bought a few years ago.

I’ve a few rhododendrons in the garden and two of them are looking lovely at the moment. This pale pink one is by the conservatory door…

I’ve been sorting my pots out a bit too, the acre is looking stunning at the moment, it’s nice and protected there, the one at the top of the garden has been damaged by the late frosts. The climber by the arbour is an early flowering clematis.

This gorgeous rhododendron is up by the big fence, it’s a bit hidden by the shrub in front of it at the moment but it should grow taller in time.

The view from upstairs is greening nicely though I really must get the arch at the bottom painted 🙂