October already: it can be the most beautiful month when the garden is full of seasonal colour, from grand trees to tiny bulbs and everything in between. It’s time for the last harvest and final flowers from late summer, fiery foliage and gentle swaying grasses.
Battleston Hill, the Wild Garden and the Pinetum are full of autumn colour, with acers providing it in the earlier part of autumn. Don’t forget the Arboretum either where there are groups of trees that help to show off the characteristics of a genus. The liquidambars are especially good in October and November.
Flowers still bloom in profusion in the around the garden, with many asters at their peak now. For at least the early part of the month look out for Japanese anemones, dahlias, sedums and Verbena bonariensis. Until the first frosts kick in, dahlias are in colourful abundance on the Trials Field too.
It’s not all grand scale autumn colour, some of it comes in tiny doses. Look out for the small-scale autumn-flowering bulbs and corms, including Crocus nudiflorus, and C. cilicium in and around the Rock Garden and Alpine Meadow. Cyclamen hederifolium AGM flowers for most of the autumn, and brightens up the woodland floor of Battleston Hill and towards the Pinetum.
In the Walled Garden and on the Mediterranean beds the hardy Nerine bowdenii presents its pretty pink flowers. In the Glasshouse Gallery we feature the similar Nerine sarniensis with seasonal displays of a number of different cultivars, with special lights to show off the irridescence of their petals.
Famously, Wisley is the home of the Nyssa sylvatica 'Wisley Bonfire'. For a few days during October (depending on the weather and season) this pyramidal broadleaved tree produces the most vibrant colour as its leaves prepare to fall. Head for Seven Acres to see our best specimen.
We’ve been growing plenty of pumpkins and an abundance of apples, some of which you can sample and buy at our Taste of Autumn Festival from 17–21 October 2012. Our very own wine, cider, juice, jams, jellies and chutneys will be available too.
The fruits on Sorbus and Malus trees and Cotoneaster shrubs are eye-catching, although eventually the birds eat them. The young Cornus kousa collection by Bowles Corner is producing bright red fruit. Beside this, the Bowes-Lyon Rose Garden is entering its second autumn, and is still full of a surprising amount of colour, including beautiful grasses like this month’s Plant of the Month Pennisetum 'Fairy Tails'.
There are some flowers that come into their own at this time of year, and the toad lily, Tricyrtis formosana, is one of them. This intricate flower is well worth looking out for on Battleston Hill and around the Glasshouse Lake, with its delicate structure and pretty purple spots.