DEEP IN THE WOODS - SIX ON SATURDAY

This six on Saturday has a woodland theme.  

1. Mulberry

Standing under the Mulberry tree this morning, the sun came out for a few brief minutes.  The leaves are becoming translucent and paling to yellow .

2. The Arboreum

This is the area of the garden that we joking refer to as the Arboretum.  It has a group of fir trees at one end.  Perhaps they were planted to harvest for Christmas trees and were never used, or maybe to provide fire wood?  

Further down there are some more ornamental trees - a couple of flowering Cherries, a line of Silver Birch and a Robinia.  Elders and stinging nettles carpeted the area between the trees, and these have been gradually cleared.  The ground is still covered in ivy, though this is gradually being removed too. It's slow work.  

3.  Holly

There was a lot of self seeded holly among the trees.  These seemed ideal for planting along the boundary fence, so this morning I started transplanting them.  Some are quite small but if you peer very carefully you can see where the bamboo canes that they are tied to.

4. Toad Lily (Tricyrtis formosana)

I'm now looking for interesting plants for the woodland.  I first saw this at Cottesbrooke Hall, and as is the way with these things, have since seen it mentioned a few times in other places.  I've bought one, but I'm not sure whether to plant it out just yet.  I'm a little worried lest it gets lost in a jungle of spring germinating weeds.

5. Cyclamen hederifolium

Not in flower for me this year, but these corms were transplanted from my parents garden a couple of months ago.  I'm pleased to see that they have settled in and produced a handful of leaves at least.

6. Photinia Red Robin 

In other news this week, the Photinia in the knot garden got trimmed back to neat mop heads.  This area of the garden was planted just under two years ago and each Photinia should eventually be surrounded by a dwarf hedge.

That's all from my garden this week, but to see what's happening in other gardens from around the world visit The Propagator who kindly hosts Six on Saturday.