Emu Valley Newsletter – August 2024

• Date: 6th September 2024
• author: Neet

AROUND THE GARDEN

A continuation of cold starts but reasonably sunny days have been pretty handy when we have so much to achieve before the Spring rush is upon us. The plant hut has kept us busy the last few months which has been fantastic. New indoor stock arriving all the time and we hope to have a Spring collection of plants arriving next month so make sure you come and check us out.

Flowering has started early again this year, so it appears. A few of the big leaf rhododendrons that are more protected around the garden started flowering at the beginning of July which is roughly 4 to 6 weeks earlier
than normal for this variety here at EVRG. The biggest concern for these massive beauties is for the flower truss to be ruined by frosts and therefore they become spoilt looking and the petals turn brown which ruins the overall look. I guess we can’t help what the weather throws at us.

In our Nepalese section, which is up behind the nursery, you can see mass planting of Rhododendron arboreum ‘Stowport’ which is also flowering now and is usually one of the earlier rhodos to flower. The original plan back in May 2015, was for this bank to be covered in red flowers which could be seen from
the cafe by all of our visitors and guess what, they have finally got a bit of height and are all happily flowering all together now. This area will be quite the sight in years to come. It is already adding colour now, but just imagine looking up there and seeing a sea of red covering the bank, just perfection!...

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