A blAze of glory A mature garden in Norfolk provides a source of delight all year round for its artist owner but it is in autumn, when transformed by fiery foliage, bright berries and an abundant harvest, that it is at its most magnificentwords by Paula McWaters | PhotograPhs by Maxine adcock

from far left Liquidambar with ripe crab apples; dawn

redwood Metasequoia glyptostroboides; bronze

Vitis vinifera foliage

As the season advances and the temperature

begins to drop, a kaleidoscope of colour

emerges. Late flowers, such as brilliant pink nerines

and mauve autumn crocuses, come into play and the garden takes on a

brilliance all of its own 34 october 2012 countryliving.co.uk

gardening

W hen Australian artist Leonie Woolhouse first came to Britain, it was the English spring she loved

most but, as she and her Norfolk garden have matured, it is autumn that now really captures her imagination. “On a windy day it can seem as though it is raining leaves here. As they begin to fall, everything appears brighter and lighter,” she explains. “You can see through things and new views open up. Autumn brings out unexpected features in plants. The colours of the foliage are even more vivid than flowers.”

Leonie’s late husband, the renowned botanist and academic Harold Woolhouse, was the driving force behind their Norfolk garden, created from rough pastureland on the edge of the market town of Wymondham. But it wasn’t until after his death in 1996 that Leonie took up her trowel in earnest, continuing to plant varieties he would have enjoyed.

“Harold loved this time of year,” she says. “It was by far his favourite season and he deliberately chose many of the old-fashioned roses that we have in the garden, like Rosa pimpinellifolia, R. virginiana and R. moyesii, for their colourful hips as much as for their flowers. Others, such as ‘Meg’, ‘Highdownensis’, ‘Wickwar’, ‘Scabrosa’ and ‘Cupid’ all add their differently shaped forms well into autumn.

Leonie laughs as she remembers how Harold would scour the plant catalogues in search of, say, a crab apple tree, and end up choosing five or six. Fortunately, they had room for them. “We have Malus ‘John Downie’, ‘Harry Baker’, ‘Veitch’s Scarlet’, ‘Crittenden’ and one called ‘Wisley Crab’, which is a cross between a dessert apple and a crab.” Leonie makes crab-apple jelly but many fruits are left on the trees for the blackbirds and waxwings to enjoy.

This is an exceptionally good garden for wildlife, with gently rotting branches that edge the planting beds providing nooks and crannies for bugs, and plenty of seed heads left standing for overwintering insects and birds. Leonie doesn’t go in for ‘putting the garden to bed’ before winter. Instead, she cuts back in very early spring, chopping up what’s left and leaving it on the earth as mulch.

The soil here is a mix of loam and peat overlying gravel, being part of the e

this page Jewel-bright crab apples glow in the light of glass

lanterns. opposite, clockwise from top left cercis canadensis;

an apple tree laden with fruit; a rustic mode of transport

for pumpkins; colourful chrysanthemums; the squash

harvest arranged by the house

36 october 2012 countryliving.co.uk

gardening

this page An abundance of quinces, medlars

and persimmons provides Leonie with the ideal

ingredients for jam making

floodplain of the River Tiffey. In fact, the garden is surrounded by water on three sides, although the dense trees and shrubs disguise the fact. Springs keep two small bog gardens wet and there is a meadow area, part of which Leonie has turned into a mini-arboretum with trees valuable for their autumn colour, including the claret ash (Fraxinus ‘Raywood’), pin oak (Quercus palustris), American hop hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana) and the glorious Persian ironwood (Parrotia persica).

Elsewhere, there are several species of prunus, which Leonie enjoys both for their early flowers and their colourful leaves. The Japanese apricot, Prunus mume, is one, along with P. incisa and P. serrula. “I wish I had thought of planting more trees 20 years ago,” she says, acknowledging the great pleasure they now bring. In Harold’s time, quince, persimmon and medlar trees were put in, so Leonie always has a good stock of fruit for jam making. “The bright orange persimmons hang on long after the leaves have dropped – they’re so beautiful,” she says, “and the round yellow quince perfume a room.”

Gourds are a big feature and each year Leonie likes to try new ones. “I find that the Japanese types, such as Cucurbita maxima ‘Black Forest’, green-skinned ‘Kabocha’ and flame-hued ‘Red Kuri’, are particularly good,” she says.

When the summer days shorten, late flowers come into their own, with a mass of vibrant pink Nerine bowdenii crowding under the changing leaves of Vitis coignetiae. The mottled, goblet-shaped flowers of autumn crocus Colchicum agrippinum push up among their old brown leaves and the seemingly frail yet quietly tough autumn snowflake Leucojum autumnale appear from bare soil at the base of some birch trees.

“As the temperature begins to drop and the season advances, a glorious kaleidoscope of colours emerges,” Leonie explains. “Hostas die rather nicely, with their foliage turning yellow, and Actaea spicata, which is pretty enough in the summer with fluffy flowers and cut leaves, acquires the most extraordinary shade of royal purple on its foliage.” With the backdrop of the colourful trees, the garden takes on a brilliance all of its own, particularly after a shower of rain when droplets hang like tiny fairy lights to catch and delight the eye. e

clockwise, from left Sorbus sargentiana in all its fiery autumn glory; cornus nuttallii; the decorative purple berries of callicarpa bodinieri var. giraldii ‘Profusion’; freshly picked climbing French beans; Sorbus sargentiana

gardening

1 tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica) Glossy dark green leaves become brilliant yellow, red and orange. 2 Pacific dogwood (cornus nuttallii) Foliage turns orange and crimson, and red fruits that resemble strawberries appear. Lovely white bracts in spring. c. ‘eddie’s White Wonder’ (cross between c. florida and c. nuttallii) tends to be longer-lived.

3 transcaucasian birch (betula medwedewii ‘Gold bark’) Handsome and rare, bushy variety with golden-brown bark. Large leaves turn golden yellow. 4 ornamental vine (Vitis vinifera ‘Purpurea’) Bronze foliage deepens to a stunning dark purple.5 Maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba) Leaves turn a brilliant golden yellow. e

Five Favourite AutuMN LeAVeS

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1 Malus tschonoskii Greenish-yellow fruits tinged with red, and bright orange, red and purple autumn foliage. Flowers are white from pink buds.2 M. ‘John Downie’ Probably the best for crab-apple jelly with bunches of glossy fruit running through orange to scarlet. The leaves on this small to medium upright tree turn yellow and burnt orange in autumn. Small pink-budded flowers open white.

3 M. ‘Harry baker’ The ruby red fruits on this small tree last well into winter as does the reddening autumn foliage. Spring flowers are dark pink and very large.4 M. ‘Wisley crab’ Compact with bronze foliage and dessert apple-sized, dark crimson fruits, which are good sliced and dried (Leonie does this using her Rayburn range). Red-purple blossom in springtime. d

Four FruitFuL crAb APPLeS

clockwise from right A cheery display of pink

nerines stands out against a backdrop of climbing

Vitis vinifera near an old barn; corylopsis sinensis;

cucurbita maxima ‘Gold Nugget’; the turning leaves of amelanchier and betula

bring a burnished burst of colour to a border; a

plentiful crop of glistening, rain-washed crab apples