Whitehouse Cottages in June

Welcome once again to White House Cottages in Essex. Here's a little bit of a June tour. So those of you who have been to the garden in May will be familiar with its layout and its planting and its colour scheme, which at that time of year is predominantly green with white and a froth of blue from the forget-me-nots, which of course are all going over now. But in June something extraordinary happens. In June we get colour. The irises are up. The peonies are all out. But of course the one thing that you notice are the roses. The roses look absolutely magnificent this year. This one is Iceberg. This one is the Queen of Sweden, which I've mixed with a very, very pale iris, blue iris. I think it works really, really well. The second thing that visitors to the garden, as some of you will notice, is that the catalpa has started to leaf up. Now, as you know, the catalpa doesn't leaf until June. It lacks hot weather. So in May the garden is in absolute sunshine, whereas by June it's dappled shade, which brings another quality to it. As you can see, the peonies are going over. And the other thing that June does is it brings colour. From off the ground, which it predominantly is in May, further up your field of vision. So you get these strontias and the irises and the foxgloves, accidentally, popping up at this time. You get the nepetas with the foxgloves, which looks amazing, but also sounds incredible, because of course they're coloured. Pruning things and chopping things is another thing you want to do in June. As you'll notice, things are in the wrong place. I moved this tree pit in yesterday. It's sulked for a bit, but it's all right now. And of course we love to encourage wildlife agavel. I love a geranium. They're good doers. Once you buy them, you put them for life. This is Blushed Lizard from David Austin. Planted with a very peculiar plant I can never remember the name of. But I kind of like weed, so it stays. The colour scheme of the garden this time of year starts off as an underpinning of white and green. And as the plants develop, you get blues and palpinks and lilacs over there. Then you get this beautiful Acer over here. And as I was looking across from my generous gardener over here, before it starts to flower, its leaves are tinged in red to my Acer. It occurred to me that I could put some more warm colours over in this part of the garden. So let's go. Hey Joe! So obviously the spectacular in this part of the garden is the Acer. It really is incredible. There's some Tradescantia in here. Of course. Now this is Gentle Miley. I absolutely love how subtle that is. It's just such a beautiful, delicate colour. The rose is over our gate. I deliberately leave them long and floppy. I don't prune these too hard. I kind of like the way they sort of take over and do their own thing. Sometimes you have to do that in the garden, I think. These are exquisite. This is Generous Gardener. And I've got growing up the stable block. I absolutely love this rose. I decided to grow it as a bush as well, so I've got it here in the corner of the driveway. It requires a little bit more cunning pruning, but it's absolutely worth it. Just look how beautiful that is. The roses look amazing this year, probably because we haven't been able to do anything else. I've spent such a long time in the garden, making sure everything looks fine. Petal Wear in this garden was made by Dean Harris. He's a friend and loves blacksmiths. I do agree. It's a beautiful accompaniment to the roses. And as you can see, gardening with wildlife is not without its challenges. And I seem to spend quite a few early mornings putting the dibbets back in my lawn from the badgers the previous night. But that encounter is well worth that sacrifice. I hope you've enjoyed a quick June tour. Of the garden. We really do hope to see you next year at Whitehouse Cottages. Because it really is looking very, very nice this year. And we have missed seeing you. Be safe everyone. Bye.