GINA PARKINSON tackles the leaf nuisance that autumn brings and welcomes in a splendid buddleja.

AFTER being unable to get out into the garden for more than a month, last weekend I finally started on some of the autumn jobs that had been piling up. We were slipping through fallen leaves to get to the front door and they really needed to be swept away.

So brush in hand on a calm and sunny Sunday morning, I gathered three wheelbarrow loads of ochre and burnt sienna foliage to go into the leaf bin. Then the wind started, I got up and glancing out of the window later in the afternoon, the leaves were back and it hardly looked as if any work had been done at all out there.

Guess what the job of choice was on Monday?

Even when there has been little rain for a few days, the October garden is always damp so the next job on the list, grass cutting, was quite an effort. Mild weather and lack of recent attention had left the lawn lush and the grass collector on the back of the mower filled within minutes. Still the lawns looked neater and leaf free for, oh, seconds.

Something a bit more sedate was required after that and I went to tidy a buddleja. We have a few buddlejas in the garden, mainly davidii with the long clusters of flowers so loved by butterflies and other nectar-seeking insects.

The one that had attention this time, however, was the splendidly named Buddleja globosa. This straggly plant carries, as its name suggests, globular-shaped flowers in May and June and is sometimes called the Orange Ball Tree.

Ours had been randomly dead-headed after flowering in July and I noticed that these particular stems had gone on to produce a further crop of blooms. There weren’t very many and they were small, but the sunny spot that this plant inhabits had attracted a few bees and it was good to see they had something to feed on at this late point in the year.

Buddleja globosa will grow three metres or so tall and is a semi-evergreen shrub that does best in full sun.

Most of the leaves that have grown this year will drop and be replaced by new growth along the stem and it is these small felted leaves that are carried through winter and give the appearance of an evergreen shrub.

The flowers aren’t really orange, rather a beautiful deep custard yellow, an unusual colour in the garden. It is a twiggy specimen that can look a little careworn if grown as a specimen shrub, but put amongst other items of a similar size it looks fine. Ours grows with winter honeysuckle and Jerusalem sage underplanted with Michaelams daisies and protected overhead by a huge purple smokebush.

The moral of this story is to do a better job on the summer deadheading of Buddleja. The autumn rewards are well worth this effort.

 

Weekend catch-up

IF THE weather is mild in October, as it has been this year, I do a final sprucing of the hedges to leave them neat for winter. It’s not necessary to cut them hard back, but a good overall trim with sharp shears or hedge trimmer does wonders for their appearance and gives the garden a strong framework for the winter.

Most will stay as they are for the next few months with no new growth, but some more vigorous specimens may carry on growing slowly for a while longer especially if the winter is as moderate as it was last year.

 

Chrysanthemum show

A REMINDER that the 67th Pocklington Open And Members’ Chrysanthemum Show will be held next Satruday at Burnby Hall, The Balk, Pocklington. Cups and prizes will be presented by Mayor of Pocklington Councillor Paul West at 5pm so if you fancy displaying your prize blooms then why not go along.

There are plenty of classes to take part in as well as the chrysanthemum ones including baking, floral decoration, vegetables, fruit and children’s classes. For schedules and entry details please contact the society secretary Sheila Smith on 01759 304036.

 

Gardening TV and Radio

Tomorrow

6am, BBC2, Great British Garden Revival.

8am, BBC Radio Humberside, The Great Outdoors. With Blair Jacobs and Doug Stewart.

8am, BBC2, Gardeners’ World. Autumn tasks in the garden.

8.30am, BBC2, The Beechgrove Garden. A visit to a couple whose back garden is an old quarry.

9am, BBC Radio York, Julia Lewis. Gardening related news and features from around North Yorkshire.

9am, BBC Radio Leeds, Tim Crowther with Joe Maiden.

2pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Chairman Eric Robson and his panel of horticultural experts meet gardeners from Findon, West Sussex.

Friday

3pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Chris Beardshaw, Christine Walkden, Bob Flowerdew and chairman Eric Robson answer questions from an audience in Cambridge.

9.30pm, BBC2, Gardeners’ World. In the last of the series Monty Don continues his the winter preparation at Long Meadow and Carol Klein celebrates her wildlife hedge.