Autumn 2008 at Wakehurst Place

Garden Highlights

Autumn is a season for reflection and, with spectacular colours round our water features, that’s exactly what the gardens do best at this time of year. Trees and shrubs throughout the estate change to their autumn tints until the last drops its leaves in late November or December.

North American trees are amongst the most flamboyant for autumn colour. Many of our trees from this Continent are the result of field work in collaboration with American botanic gardens and, more recently, with colleagues in the Millennium Seed Bank Project. Maples are always reliable, with the reds of the American maples in Horsebridge Wood matched by those of Japanese maples around the Mansion Pond and Water Gardens. Our National Collection of birches (Betula) includes many of those distributed through North America, such as cherry birch (Betula lenta) and yellow birch (B. alleghaniensis) in Bethlehem and Horsebridge woods. These are followed almost immediately by the intense yellow of American hickories (Carya) and later by the purples, reds and oranges of the sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) from eastern USA, grown at Wakehurst in Horsebridge Wood and by the Mansion Pond. That is not to say all North American trees outclass their Old World counterparts. The reds and yellows of black tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica) from eastern USA, growing in the Slips and Horsebridge Wood, pale by comparison with the intense red of the Chinese Nyssa chinensis, grown in the Tony Schilling Asian Heath Garden.

Why not take a guided tour with our knowledgeable volunteer guides? These run daily and take around one to one-and-a-half hours. On the second and fourth Thursday of each month at 2pm, we take a longer walk through Horsebridge, Coates’ and Bethlehem woods, to include the North American collections. This can take 3 hours or more and gives a fascinating insight into our wonderful trees.

The gardens are not without flowers either at this time of year. North America is represented by Vernonia and Michaelmas daisies in the Walled Garden. European Cyclamen hederifolium (sponsored by Friends donations) near the Visitor Centre continue to bloom into November in a good season. The South Africa lily Schizostylis coccifera flowers in the low sun, while varieties of the Asian Liriope throw up dense spikes of deep blue flowers that remain attractive for many weeks.

As we lose the autumn colours, interest centres on the giant redwood (Sequioadendron giganteum) by the Mansion, illuminated for Christmas.

With a gift of £10 you can sponsor a light on the UK’s tallest living Christmas tree (01444 894035).

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