Countryside walks rewarding right now

Busy as life in the garden is at present, we recently took time out to visit a few local hot spots renowned for autumn colour and rediscovered the joy of driving along the tree-lined country lanes.

Walking through a woodland, arboretum or estate is also rewarding and visiting gardens such as Alnwick, Howick, Wallington and Cragside, dishes up a real treat. Current tree and shrub attractions cover a diversity of ornamental flowers, fruits, bark and foliage.

Dahlias and chrysanthemums, Michaelmas daisies and fuchsias are but some of the lingering autumn blooms currently joined by hardy, all winter favourites, jasmine, viburnum and cherry.

Some birds have already started feeding on fruits in the countryside, parks and gardens.

Their current berried menu features rosehips, haws, rowan and pyracantha, but it’s only a question of ripeness and time until those on the holly disappear. They leave some ornamental crab apples as a new year treat.

Walk around the Ornamental Garden in February and you’ll see them feasting on Malus ‘Evereste’ and ‘Red Sentinel.’ Several variegated shrubs illuminate the garden year-round but become stars over winter.

Elaeagnus, pittosporum, euonymus and choisya are favourites, but they have other uses.

The occasional snipping of stems brings some indoors as an addition to vase arrangements.

Highlight of November gardens is the colour change in deciduous species as precious elements in the leaves are salvaged by the parent plants.

Shorter days and falling temperatures are the catalysts that start this chemical process which I always see as nature’s firework display. But it lasts much longer than fleeting incendiary devices.

A run of cool, sunny days will intensify the colour and keep this show on the road!