End of month view 1-9-2017

I was going to skip this month, but the meme has a new host and I received a reminder, so here I am, a day late.

A few days ago we were looking at a large Magnolia that has been near the centre of our garden for about twenty years and had reached perhaps 22 feet in height. First thoughts were to trim some branches to reduce the amount of shade it was casting, but after a closer look, we decided that was impractical and made the decision to remove it. It has now mostly gone.

I suppose because it was a magnolia, there was, and still is a certain amount of soul searching about whether it was the right thing to do. Had it been Sycamore, that would not be the case. The only questions would be be why it was planted in the first place and why it had stayed so long. It was planted early on in my enthusiasm for Magnolias and had I known then what I know now, would not have been the variety I would have chosen. Looking on it as an honorary Sycamore wasn’t so hard.

The improvement in light level across a large tract of the garden is massive, including getting dappled sunlight into the conservatory at the back of the house in early evening, something we have not had for years. At the back of my mind when I take drastic action like this is a garden I do occasional work in where the owners have failed to make tough choices over a long period and now have loads of massive conifers below which nothing will grow.

The Schefflera and Pittosporum in the foreground will become small trees in time, but will not shade the garden, being at the northern margin.

Elsewhere in the garden, it is the season of late summer colours, with Dahlias and Heleniums doing most of the work. Helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’ is all but over and has been superseded by ‘Chipperfield Orange’, ‘Monique’ and ‘Feuersiegel’, all quite tall varieties. Dahlias ‘Red Velvet’, ‘Orange Cushion’, Hayley Jane’ and ‘Gerry Hoek’ are excellent but there are lots of other good ones as well.
Japanese anemones of various sorts are doing their stuff, with ‘Loralei’ and ‘Bressingham Glow’ standing out. Fuchsias are flowering too, but are less impactful, flowerwise.

In the greenhouse, Scarborough lilies are centre stage; We have Cyrtanthus elatus, the red species, and C. elatus ‘Pink Diamond’, which is earlier flowering and pink.

A number of these plants are due to feature in tomorrow’s “six on Saturday”, a different meme, so if you want pictures you’ll get them then. I’m glad that the end of month view is to continue. My next port of call is https://glebehouse.wordpress.com/2017/08/31/end-of-month-view-august-2017/ from where Steve is now hosting the meme.