Summer Flowering Shrubs

 SUMMER FLOWERING SHRUBS

There is a flowering shrub for every month of the year, and in every size from ground cover like the Rock Roses, Helianthemum to those  reaching small tree size, like the Eucryphia. Many are scented like the Philadelphus and others invaluable for climbing up trellis, fences, walls and old tree trunks such as climbing roses and honeysuckle.

The garden is enjoyed all year round and as spring flowers are usually plentiful, it is a good idea to make sure there is still room for those summer flowering shrubs.

The larger ones can provide screening and shelter around perimeters and patios. Some, such as Philadelphus, make excellent lawn specimens with the added advantage of a rich exotic perfume.

The Dundee Parks were always a brilliant place to learn all about shrubs as there wasn’t many that we didn’t grow. The nursery at Camperdown park was where we learnt how to propagate and grow them, and then in numerous other parks and outdoor landscapes we were taught how to prepare the ground, planting, spacing and after care.

However, forty odd years ago, shrub beds may have covered vast areas of park and open space land, but their function was more for weed control and easy maintenance, and to provide the gardeners with a job in winter when work was scarce. All shrubs, no matter what type, got a winter haircut at chest height. You soon became very competent at cutting cubes and balls, but pruning to induce flowering was a no go area. We have now moved on.

The design of planted areas and the selection of plants is now in the hands of our landscape architects who endeavour to select the most suitable plants for each situation and allow them to grow to their natural size. The planted areas must be functional but also attractive.

In our own gardens we must check on the ultimate size of a shrub at the selection stage so it does not outgrow its allotted space. That is a lot easier to say than practise since there are so many “must have” plants, but our garden size is limited.

Large shrubs

Eucryphia is probably a small columnar tree, but can be a shrub size for many years.

It is very reliable with a mass of white flowers in mid summer.

Buddleia is another large shrub, but is pruned to six inches from the ground every winter. It can easily grow six to eight feet in one summer depending on weather and produces a large flower spike in a range of colours, though my favourite was always the dark purple Black Knight.

For wild life lovers, it really does earn its common name of the Butterfly Bush.

Philadelphus has single or double white scented flowers in mid summer and will grow quite large. Give it plenty of room, and very little pruning and enjoy its perfume.

Escallonia, weigela and deutzia are all medium sized shrubs with white or pink to deep purple flowers. Escallonias are evergreen.

Shrub roses come in all sizes, and colours and very many are highly scented. They like deep fertile clay soils.

Low and ground cover shrubs

Hypericum, Spiraea, Choisya, Senecio and Potentilla are all very hardy and easy to grow. Hypericum Hidcote will grow up to four foot, but Hypericum calycinum, the Rose of Sharon at one foot in height is a very useful ground cover plant. However keep a look out for leaf rust.

Cistus has beautiful white to deep pink very delicate looking flowers, but needs a poor dry soil. It did not like our hard winter. Many of my Cistus were severely cut back by the cold last winter.

Fuchsia Mrs Popple is normally quite tough, but did get cut back by our winter weather.

It normally grows up to five feet tall, but at this moment in time, mine are rapidly recovering to two feet and will just keep growing hopefully. The first flowers are now out.

Lavender is almost a must for every garden, whether grown as a culinary herb, or just to enjoy its blue flowers in mid summer. The blue gray foliage has a gorgeous scent and the plant is perfect for edging borders or for a dry spot with poor soil. Senecio is also perfect for a sandy seaside garden.

Helianthemums and summer flowering heathers are more ground cover plants for the front of borders and both will smother weeds once they get established. My favourite heather is Calluna H.E.Beale with bright pink flower spikes in late summer.

Climbers

There is always room for a few climbers in every garden, but which ones do you choose.

Solanum crispum has potato like flowers and can be very vigorous. It is very attractive in flower, but it produces berries that are highly poisonous.

Eccremocarpus scaber is an evergreen with orange tubular flowers. It can be difficult to get established, but then quite reliable.

Clematis and Honeysuckle need something to clamber through, both coming in many colours, but the honeysuckle has an outstanding perfume.

Climbing roses also come in numerous colours, heights and scents, but will need a support to be tied into.

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Camperdown Park

CAMPERDOWN PARK

Dundee folk have always loved Camperdown Park. It has such a wide variety of interests for people of all ages for leisure, play, gardening and numerous events are held regularly.

You can play golf, tennis, go for a long woodland walk around the park and over the road into Templeton woods then onto Clatto reservoir. Young children have a huge play area with boating pond and a zoo that keeps getting bigger, and for those who love an outdoor career the Council employs gardeners, nurserymen, greenkeepers, gamekeepers and foresters to look after this huge country park.

History

A few hundred years ago it was quite fashionable for one country to expand into another through invasion. The British developed the Commonwealth countries and the French had a go with the Napoleonic wars. The Dutch and French began to amass a navy and made the British a bit uneasy that we could become invaded. However we had a very experienced navy involved in maritime activities worldwide, and to maintain control of the seas around our island.

Adam Duncan was born in the High Street in Dundee in 1731, educated at Dundee High School, (a grammar school then), and joined the navy at fifteen years old. He was involved in numerous sea battles all over the world and quickly rose up the ranks becoming first lord of the Admiralty.

He set sail for the waters off Holland with a small fleet of 16 ships. The Dutch fleet under Admiral de Winter was amassing a continental army to invade Britain. Admiral Adam Duncan engaged their fleet just off the Dutch coast at Kamperduin on 11^th October 1797. Instead of using the normal naval battle tactics of each ship taking on its opposite opponent in a battle line, he sailed straight into and through their line assisted by bad weather creating poor visibility. The Dutch fleet could no longer flee back to the safety of their harbour as Duncan’s ships blocked their passage, and blew a lot of them out of the water. The battle was won in just under three hours.

His success and bravery were recognised with an annual pension of £3000 and a title of Viscount Camperdown, with lands at Camperdown, Templeton and Clatto.

Admiral Duncan’s son Robert built Camperdown house in 1828, though it took four years to build. He also planted up the woodlands adding numerous unusual specimen trees to the collection.

Several generations of the family lived there till 1937 and after the contents were sold off in an auction in 1941 the Dundee Corporation bought the house and estate in 1946.

Facilities

The management of the Camperdown estate was put in the hands of the Parks Department who over time developed it into a place where Dundee residents can go for their leisure and recreation.

Fifty years ago the development work was going ahead at full speed and Dundee’s numerous apprentices all played a part. Massive mature trees had to be removed during the creation of the golf course fairways, some so big that the roots had to be blasted out of the ground with gelignite. Woodland trees were chopped down to create the woodland walk around the perimeter.

The zoo started off beside the big house with a few ducks and goats managed by one gamekeeper, and the land where the present zoo exists was a nursery with fields growing potatoes, cabbage and Swedes to feed the animals in the expanding zoo. The gamepeeper got quite alarmed when he heard there was talk of acquiring a bear and a couple of lions. The perimeter six foot chain link fence might not be strong enough to keep them in and they might not be too happy with a diet of Swedes and winter cabbage.

The walled in nursery lost its growing fields and a new zoo was built complete with bear but without those lions. The zoo has now been revamped again with modern facilities.

The golf course has always been popular with fantastic views over the Tay between drifts of mature woodland, and Children’s leisure has been addressed with a huge award winning play area, and boating pond.

Woodland walks now take in Templeton woods and Clatto reservoir. There is an excellent mature pinetum to the west of the mansion and to the east there are many mature specimens of exotic trees including cedars, giant redwoods, sweet chestnut, weeping ash and now the original specimen of the weeping Camperdown elm is protected with its own enclosure.

Nurseries

Dundee Parks dept grows its own trees, shrubs, roses, bedding plants and flowering plants for civic decoration at the glasshouses and nursery in Camperdown Park. This is an excellent training ground for young gardeners keen to learn propagation and how to grow and use garden plants.

Events

The public have really taken to Camperdown Park. It is absolutely mobbed at Easter and during the annual Flower and Food Festival the first week in September, (this year it is from Friday 2^nd September to Sunday 4^th September).

Other events from car rallies, pipe bands to half marathons are held throughout the year.

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Garden Trees

GARDEN TREES

I think I first became aware of the beauty and majesty of mature trees when I worked at Camperdown Park during my gardening apprentice days. There was a wide range of  broad leaved trees all now mature and a great mix of huge conifers, (Wellingtonias and Cedars) around the park, the big house and in the pinetum, which runs alongside the golf course first tee. There was a great pride by gardeners, groundsmen and foresters in their heritage and we younger apprentices were always being challenged to, “Name that tree” to see if we were learning anything. We would be in deep trouble if we did not know about our own Dundee weeping elm, the Ulmus glabra camperdownii and know the exact spot of the original tree now protected with a wee bit fence.

Dundee has a fantastic collection of trees of every kind inherited from the days of the Jute Barons, Scottish plant explorers, wealthy private estates and especially Camperdown Park awarded to Admiral Adam Duncan for defeating the Dutch Navy in 1797. The estate forester at the time, David Taylor found the Camperdown elm growing wild and now it is planted all over the world.

There are beautiful examples of mature specimens of oak, lime, beech, walnut, sweet chestnut, cedars, Douglas fir and even the more exotic Monkey Puzzle, Incense cedar and eucalyptus found all over Dundee, as well as those unusual forms of weeping ash, weeping oaks and upright oaks and hornbeam.

As much as I loved all of these trees, I was never going to have enough room in my small garden for even one of them, so my arboricultural plantings needed to be of a more modest nature.

Small Garden Trees

My first garden could only take a very small tree so I wanted one that would flower. At this time there was an avenue in Camperdown Park known as the Laburnum Walk which was very impressive in spring. So that was my choice, a Laburnum.

Everything was fine for a couple of years till the main stem got girdled with canker. I was about to lose my first tree, but a journeyman gardener suggested I remove some of the healthy branches and use them to perform a bridge graft over the cankered area. My first lesson in grafting worked a treat and saved my tree. I was now ready for another small tree.

I just love cherry blossom and if you can get one that is scented what more can you want. Prunus Amanogawa has these attributes and grows upright so is easily accommodated in most gardens. Gaining confidence I had an urge to go evergreen.

The huge Camperdown conifers were very stately but I just did not have room for a cedar, monkey puzzle or Wellingtonia, but I could manage a small upright golden yew, Taxus baccata fastigiata aurea. Later on I would acquire a whole range of conifers all of modest proportions suited to both small and medium sized gardens.

My favourites at this moment are Thuja occidentalis Rheingold and the dwarf form of Weymouth pine, Pinus strobus nana, and every garden can find room for at least one dwarf Pinus mugo.

Planting trees is for the long term so it is very advisable to do some research with gardening books in your library, or at a local garden centre or for the more modern gardener with a computer go onto Google. You will soon come across those trees you really like and of a size to suit your own garden.

In the past too many people just went for the cheapest available and ended up with a Leyland cypress and globally creating such a nuisance that laws needed to be introduced to tackle the problem.

Many of my garden trees started off as dot plants in a flower bed designed to add height and contrast to the flat, but bold colour display of Begonias and geraniums. Eucalyptus,  Cordylines and the date palm, Phoenix canariensis are perfect in summer flower beds, but in autumn when the summer flowers are past what do you do with these dot plants.

I always find a home for them somewhere, but remember with global warming they may survive our milder winters and put on a fair bit of growth.

Every ten to twenty years we get a bad winter, like last year, which really tests the hardiness of garden plants. My eucalyptus tree, now over 50 foot tall, got quite a fright and shed a few leaves, but it has survived. The young Cordyline just a ten foot baby survived unscathed, but my exotic date palm got cut down to ground level. It is still alive, just, so time will tell if the crown will yet again grow into another brilliant specimen. Never be too quick to give up on plants that have been frosted. Often they can grow again from the base.

If there is room in the small garden find space for a lilac which will be covered in white or lilac scented flowers in early summer. They do not grow too big.

It is sometimes difficult to distinguish a small tree from a large bush. Cotoneaster frigidus grows the same height as the lilac, but is more of a tall shrub. Then another very tall shrub or small tree is the Eucryphia Rostrevor. There is an absolute beauty in Camperdown Park near the pinetum covered in white flowers in late summer. It has a broadly columnar habit and can reach 30 feet or so depending on soil, shelter and climate.

Specimen trees

Sometimes the small garden can get a boost with a particularly good form of tree planted centrally in a lawn or other conspicuous spot.

The small garden can use the graceful silver grey willow leaved pear, Pyrus salicifolia pendula, or if there is more space the dazzling white stemmed birch, Betula jacquemontii. Then for a bright golden splash of colour all summer plant a Robinia frisia, but remember it needs good drainage.

Another good specimen tree is the weeping birch, Betula pendula youngii. It is very graceful and quite small but extra height can be encouraged in its young growing stages. Buy a young specimen and train the main growing stem up a very tall cane for a few years. I got mine over twelve feet before I let it grow as a weeping tree.

An excellent flowering specimen tree with an architectural shape is the Japanese Mount Fuji cherry, Prunus Shirotae. It is outstanding in full blossom.

Some tree species have columnar growing forms that do not take up too much space, at least in the early years. The upright Cypress oak, Quercus robur fastigiata , (several along Riverside Drive), is very majestic and quite similar to the upright form of hornbeam, Carpinus betulus fastigiata.

It is the larger gardens that have the space to indulge in the finest tree specimens from the modest Liquidambers to the weeping silver lime, Tilia petiolaris. Now that will make a statement, but then, so will a perfect specimen of the blue Atlas cedar, Cedrus atlantica glauca allowed to retain its branches down to ground level.

Apologies for all the inclusion of the boring bits, (botanical names), but if you want to make sure you get the correct plant you will need its proper botanical name. Plants usually only have one botanical name but numerous common names that differ depending on where you live.

Tree Care

It is very important that you are aware of just how big your tree will grow to on maturity so you can plant it with due regard to any future problem.

If trees are planted for shelter or screening around boundaries keep them well away from your neighbours property, and make sure they cannot block street lighting columns, road signs, and site lines at road junctions.

There is healthy debate on how close trees should be planted to property and different bodies give different views. Some say the distance should be from one to one and a half times the trees ultimate height from the base of the property. However trees all vary, and some are very little problem, whereas others such as willow and poplar should be kept at least twice the ultimate tree height and not near any known land drains as they have strong root systems that will seek out any available water.

Trees planted too close to buildings can be a big problem in dry spells as they will extract moisture from an already dry soil. On a shrinkable clay this can cause the ground to heave once the rains return. If any foundations are not up to scratch building walls can crack.

Now you know the pitfalls you can select your specimens with more confidence.

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