The last four years have not been easy in the garden. First there was Covid to cope with: skeleton staff and no volunteers; plans laid aside; and a wilderness of weeds. In 2021 Storm Arwen took down the champion arbutus tree and a large conifer in the garden and had a devastating effect on theContinue reading “Let’s celebrate”
Author Archives: smbenno2003
Summer school
All through spring and summer I have been watching the eryngiums. There are quite a few different species growing at Crathes and although few of them are labelled I am making headway with some of the names. Stace (New Flora of the British Isles) names four different species, two of which are likely to beContinue reading “Summer school”
Such a pleasure
As July slips away we know we need to make the most of summer living, but while the rest of the world seems to be experiencing a heatwave, here in the North-East of Scotland we are wondering whether to put on the heating. However, the sun shone on the opening day of the Rose Garden.Continue reading “Such a pleasure”
Bloomin’ lovely
The country lanes around Torphins are full of loveliness in June as wild flowers clothe the roadsides with cow parsley, campions, vetches, dog roses, foxgloves and many many more. Walking up the Crathes drive the other day and seeing the bright clear blue of the germander speedwell, Veronica chamaedrys, growing in the grass, I gotContinue reading “Bloomin’ lovely”
Mostly native
The family walk was looking unhopeful with miserable weather – drizzle and low cloud. By the time we got to the start, just a few miles above Torphins in the Corrennie hills, there was thick fog. Other than the occasional tree looming out of the mist there was nothing much to be seen. Nothing toContinue reading “Mostly native”
Renewal
It’s a glorious time of year. Walking up the Crathes drive to the accompaniment of a mewling buzzard, I take in my favourite cherry, Prunus yedoensis near the Millpond; I note that some of the beech and horse chestnut buds are bursting and in the native woodland area I find a new spring flower. It’sContinue reading “Renewal”
What price a tree; what price a garden?
March has almost passed me by. It isn’t that I haven’t noticed it, but more because it seems to have travelled in the fast lane whilst I was dealing with domestic concerns such as new heating systems. So here we are with the clocks changed to summertime, the chionodoxa blue covering the Crathes walled gardenContinue reading “What price a tree; what price a garden?”
1066 and all those rabbits
The cute little rabbit with its impressive fecundity is devastating the walled garden. Problems regarding invasive species is a recurring theme at Crathes and the recent works on the entrance building (with its alternative access), the rose garden (with a temporary hole in the wall), and the current replacement of the Croquet Lawn wall haveContinue reading “1066 and all those rabbits”
Blowing hot and cold
It was a bonny cold January day as I walked up the Crathes drive. A white frost lay across the fields, but the highland cattle are hardy beasts with thick coats well able to cope with the cold. In the walled garden the frost was not so intense. The gardeners were busy on their variousContinue reading “Blowing hot and cold”
New Year Resolutions
As winter takes its turn I see the garden from a different perspective. There are plants that I have never noticed before – how can that be that I have walked passed the Japanese beauty berry, Callicarpa japonica, hundreds of times with blinkered eyes? Now I see that it has delicate mauve berries. I mustContinue reading “New Year Resolutions”
Notes from Crathes 