Plant of the Month – Fritillaria melagris

Daffodils brightly herald the start of spring, but the subtle charm of the Snakes head Fritillary is hard to outdo. Each slender stem of this spring bulb carries a hanging bell-shaped bloom, heavily chequered with dark purple and white squares, an effect rarely seen on petals.

Also available is a sub-species with pure white flowers (FRITILLARIA meleagris ssp. Alba).
Unfortunately these hardy wild flowers are becoming increasingly rare in the countryside due to modern farming methods, but the few protected sites in Britain really are a wonderful sight in April.

They are easy to grow in a border or pot, and look stunning naturalized in grass, either in sun or partial shade.

Plant of the Month – Dryopteris filix-mas

The native Male Fern is an elegant addition to the winter garden. It serves as a green backdrop to flamboyant summer flowers, but comes into its own during Autumn and Winter, with its structural shuttlecock shape. It has robust mid-green foliage and can withstand drier soil and sunnier spots than other ferns, although equally happy in damp shade.

Its foliage lasts well into late winter, when at some point the leaves will fold down, forming natural protection for the crown of the plant during the wet and cold winter months. Its best to leave these until early spring, when they can be removed completely to make way for the fresh new leaves (known as fronds) to elegantly unfurl.

Plant of the Month – EUONOMUS alatus

Pronounced ewe-on-i-mus ah-lah-tus, the Winged Spindle bush, which is the common name, can be relied upon to provide rich, striking autumn colour year after year.

During October and November, its small deciduous leaves change from dark green, first to rosy pink, then to a more vibrant crimson, clinging to the branches for ages.
It is a bushy dense shrub, relatively slow-growing, but when mature reaching 8 feet (2.5m) high and wide. Adapting to most conditions providing there is reasonable drainage, and will tolerate either sun or shade.

The inconspicuous greenish flowers in summer are followed by purple and red fruits with scarlet seeds, but one word of caution though, all parts of this plant are toxic.
Once the leaves have fallen, it has a winter skeleton of branches with conspicuous flattened ‘wings’ suggesting its common name.

The Regal Crown Imperial (Fritillaria imperialis)

I think one of the more unusual bulbs we have in the spring garden is the regal Crown Imperial. Its flowers are bold, bright, and indeed very stately. Standing tall at about 3 feet high, the colours stand out from the rest of the emerging leaves and bulbs in the borders, and if they are near a path the pretty flowers can be inspected at close quarters.

Each petal has a large droplet of nectar hanging from its base, and if you are brave enough, dip a finger in and taste it - it is incredibly sweet. Which got us gardeners wondering - what kind of flying animal/insect would pollinate the frittilaria imperialis? After a little while on google, the incredible answer was revealed....

A botanist working in Cambridge has shown that a European flower is pollinated by a bird. The flower, the crown imperial fritillary, Fritillaria imperialis, which is common in European gardens, is pollinated by the bluetit. You can read the full article here

Drawbacks of the crown imperial? this would be the pungent smell, which occurs when the plant is touched, or even when the strong spring sunlight heats the leaves - not sure how I would describe it, but I have heard it likened to the smell of foxes, but not sure what thats like either....!

Climbers for winter interest

Walls and fences can sometimes be overlooked in the garden, and are incredibly useful for supporting climbers and trained shrubs. These add an extra dimension to your garden – a horizontal one! As plants with winter interest need selecting carefully, I have listed a selection of plants which provide either flowers, berries, or evergreen leaves during November to January.

An evergreen Clematis which flowers in the winter is Clematis cirrhosa. There are a few varieties to choose from, the flowers are pale cream, sometimes spotted red, and hang delicately like small bells. Another evergreen is Clematis armandii, with large leathery leaves but this doesn’t flower until spring.


Cheerful yellow flowers can be found on bare branches during late winter covering a couple of wall trained shrubs. Forsythia suspensa has bright yellow blooms, while the delicate looking pale yellow flowers of Chimonanthus praecox are strongly scented. Popular Jasminium nudiflorum, the Winter Jasmine is a tough shrub and easy to grow.

Berries will provide winter colour along with food for the birds, and evergreen Pyracantha’s can easily be trained along fences and walls. They will flower and fruit well even in positions which receive little sun, and varieties are available with orange, yellow or red berries. Cotoneaster horizontalis can also be used to similar effect with bright red berries.


Evergreen Ivys (Hedera) can be used as a backdrop with summer flowering climbers twining through them, as can Garrya elliptica, the Silk Tassel Bush with its dangling catkins throughout winter. Normally seen as a shrub, Lonicera x purpusii ‘Winter Beauty’ can be wall trained, and is worth seeking out for its sweetly scented white flowers.

Liriodendron tulipifera - aka the Tulip Tree

Toddington Manor has a wonderful backdrop - many established specimen trees planted by the previous Victorian inhabitants. One of these is a fine example of a Liriodendron tulipifera, you can see how large it has grown in the photo. It is on the right hand side, on the left is a wellingtonia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) and a Red Horse Chestnut (Aesculus x carnea). It has now finished flowering, but many visitors merrily walk past it without looking up, missing the hundreds of flowers tucked between its leaves. As they are a similar shade of green as the leaves, from a distance, the flowers just look like browning leaves.

But up close - wow!

Immediately you can see where the common name originates from. The flowers last for just about a month during June and are about the same size as an average tulip flower.

Also worth mentioning are the unusual leaves, with lobes and a notch at the tip which makes it look like it has been cut off. These turn a lovely buttery yellow in Autumn.

Paeony 'Duchess de Nemours'

One of our many Paeonies, the white cultivar 'Duchesse de Nemours' just opening in the morning sunlight.

Geranium magnificum and Paeony

You can't get a more sumptious combination than this!

Iris Sibirica 'White Swirl'

A wonderful clear white, with a hint of yellow at the base. This iris prefers
damp soil and some shade.

Angelica archangelica

Angelica archangelica flowerheads add a lovely structural element to the herbaceous borders

Helleborus orientalis still looking fabulous

Our 100 metre long herbaceous borders have drifts of hellebores positioned just behind the hostas flanking both sides of our old stone path. Before these unfurl during spring the hellebores are the highlight of the borders.

They have been flowering for about a month already, but as the 'petals' are not really botanically correct, rather they are sepals - which are far more weather resistant (you can just see in the photo the true petals peeking out from the dark centre around the stamens).

We have a creamy white variety for most of the borders, but in the middle beds a riotous mix of cream, pink, purple and nearly black, all with various spots and streaks.

The white ones do have a certain air of dignity about them - but you really can't beat the mixed colours against a clear blue spring sky.

Osteospermum 'Glistening White'

Seed sowing is continuing throughout March, as space becomes available in the heated propagator. This heat is required for germination in some seeds, but the greenhouse is heated so for many seeds, this is warm enough.

Pictured is Osteospermum 'Glistening White' one seed per module, this was then covered with a very light dusting of compost. Thoroughly watered, the clear propagator top went on, then left on the greenhouse staging to its own devices. Around 10 day later we have over 100 healthy seedlings germinated, no need for the propagator top now, or you risk etiolated seedlings - long, leggy plants reaching up to the light.

PS We have now renamed this variety to 'Gusting White', after Rachael misread the label. A far more interesting name, we thought.

Chimonanthus praecox, or wintersweet

Nestled on the brick wall in the rose garden is a wintersweet, also known as Chimonanthus praecox.

It is in a sheltered spot, and grown as a wall shrub for that little bit of extra warmth throught he coldest months. Once the sun has risen and warm the bloows, a delicious scent is carried on the air, a well chosen common name is wintersweet.

Looking closer, the petals are almost translucent, so delicate they really don't look like they will withstand any frost, but they keep on flowering. This is the first year we have had a really good show on this plant, as they take a while to settle in, but after about 5 years, looks like there is no stopping it now!