New Year, New Faces

Hello, fellow plant lovers, and welcome to my first blog since taking over from Martin Brandom as Head Gardener in January. I’m not the wordiest person, preferring to be working outdoors with the plants. Speaking of which, I have noticed the spring bulbs slowly beginning to show, after some severe frosts in December and January, which set them back by several weeks. The winter aconites are putting on a display of vivid golden yellow under the beech tree next to the Howard Piper Library. If you wander to the wilderness areas, you’ll find charming snowdrops hiding, and breathing some much needed life into the edges of the College grounds . Although there is not much colour yet, things are beginning to flower. Recently there has been the scent of Sarc   ococca filling the air, which always cheers me up on a rainy or especially cold morning. Icy nights and frosty mornings aren’t all bad though, as they naturally keep fungus under control and stop worms creating cast on the lawns.

We are already starting planning for summer and have ordered our seeds and plant plugs ready for sowing. This is an exciting time for me and the team, as we can let our creative juices flow, and hopefully we will not disappoint with our bedding and border displays. 

Each time Martin updated this blog, he liked to choose a plant of outstanding beauty that was preforming particularly well at the time of writing, and this time, mine has to be the hidden gem Parrotia Persica (commonly called Persian Ironwood), located next to the fern beds on the main lawn. It is a deciduous tree in the family Hamamelidaceae, closely related to the witch-hazel genus Hamamelis. It is native to Northern Iran and Southern Azerbaijan, as its common name suggests. Its understated flowers are blood red and are reminiscent of the much more common Hammamelis. It also puts out fantastic autumnal displays of burnt reds and orange leaves, just before they drop. It is really worth seeking out whilst taking a leisurely stroll round the grounds.

In Martin’s Swan Song, he expressed his wish for the next the Head Gardener to take up the challenge of continuing the blog. I think this an excellent way of bringing the team’s efforts and toil to light, and sharing the results with you. I hope that it will also spark people’s passion and interest in gardening and St Hugh’s grounds themselves, and you all will eventually be as excited about plants as we are in the Gardens Department. This is my first posting as Head Gardener, and it’s an absolute honor to take on the position: something I only dreamed about whilst turning over the smelly compost heaps as a trainee at Trinity College, all those years ago. But, like any Head Gardener, my efforts are nothing without the hard work and care of their team. I feel that I have inherited an excellent one.

Cheers for reading,

Ed