Apple Tree Border

The Apple Tree border lies on a gentle slope, and this side faces the Pond Paddock - and the sun. Things are forever changing in this garden - I can't decide whether it should be shrubby or flowery!

 Shrubs have grown - and the flax is bigger.
Apple Tree Border - Spring 2008

There are large clumps of beautifully mature hostas in here, plus groups of daffodils which shine in spring. I've tried edging the corner with Iris Japonica, growing it in a curve underneath the cream and green flax, only to rip it all out. I can't settle on the feel of this garden at all.


apple tree border - spring 2003

The apple trees themselves don't seem to notice - they keep on growing, with their resident Moonlight roses scrambling up, up, and away. One year I missed all the apples - I was only away for ten days, and on my return the birds had cleaned up all the fruit. Oops!

Flower Colour

In the year 1998 the border was full of flower colour - it was a relatively sunny space, and the plants in the middle of the slope (a flax, a miscanthus and several pseudopanaxes) were smallish. This archive photograph shows the plantings in the Apple Tree Border in the summer of 1998. The tall plants with fat green leaves are Nicotiana sylvestris, and the New Zealand flax is the variety Cream Delight.

lots of contrast of foliage and form
apple tree border - summer 1998

That big clump of blue leafed hostas in the middle of the picture is well overdue for dividing.