Hever Castle Gardeners – June Update

June 08 2017 | Garden What's on

As summer plays peekaboo with the UK, the Hever Castle gardeners are hard at work maintaining the award winning gardens.

The summer bedding plants are going in around the grounds, and Pompeiian Wall is bursting with life. The old winter bedding will be composted on site and the tulip bulbs will be re-planted in the grounds in readiness for next year’s Tulip Celebrations event in April 2018.

The current moist, warm conditions mean the grass is growing fast and the gardeners are regularly mowing and edging the lawns. Growth will slow down in a month or so and they will be able to mow less frequently.

Box Yew – Italian Garden

The young box yew in the Italian Garden were affected by a light, late frost in April which turned some of the new shoots yellow. The surprise frost also affected some of the topiary along Topiary Walk which had been enjoying sending out new growth in the mild weather.

Head Gardener Neil Miller recently inspected the box yew and commented: “there is plenty of new growth at the base of the plants and most of them will be absolutely fine. We’ll just leave them as is and the new growth will come through – there’s no need to prune out the frost damage. A dozen or so of the hundreds of box yew may need to be replaced, but the vast majority will be right as rain.”

Roses

The fragrant walled rose garden is awakening for its summer display, and around the grounds thousands of roses are starting to bloom.

Don’t miss the gorgeous Anne Boleyn roses around Half Moon Pond. Newly planted for this season, they boast stunning pink flowers and a delicate scent.

To nurture the rose bushes, the Hever Castle gardeners are this year using a foliar feed called Uncle Tom’s which is a high potassium feed that is sprayed on the leaves every two weeks. On the alternate weeks the gardeners spray for diseases.

The Hever Castle gardeners don’t spray for aphids and instead leave Mother Nature to do her bit. Neil Miller said, “Aphids provide food for other animals and are part of nature’s circle of life – if you’re bothered by the aphids you could consider picking them off by hand.”

He further advised rose owners to “dead head your roses as soon as they have gone over to improve their appearance and encourage more blooms.”

Summer Garden Event

June culminates with Hever Castle’s annual summer garden event Hever in Bloom which takes place from Saturday 26 June – Sunday 2 July. Visitors can enjoy the stunning roses, guided garden tours, gardening talks and English floral displays in the Castle.