Blazing October at Exbury
19th August 2008
Autumn is the new spring at Exbury Gardens this year, where brilliant colour is the eye-catching theme.
As the hundreds of Japanese maples turn to blazing autumn fire in the wooded walks and by the cascades and ponds, there’s also a glittering display in the Gardens’ Five Arrows Gallery when the spectacular Diamond Lilies go on show.
Exbury’s head gardener, John Anderson, predicts a showy October this year.
“We’ve been planting more trees for late colour and they’ll be coming into their own this autumn,” he said. “Exbury covers a huge area, so we can plant a lot of trees and shrubs for a massed show but even if you have a small garden you can come and get ideas for what looks really good at the end of the year.”
The Festival of Autumn Colour, with special trails to the hot spots of blazing reds, bright yellows, purples and oranges, runs from October 11 to November 9. Families following the autumn trail, devised to show the best of the developing autumn colour, will be able to see the tupelo trees (Nyssa sylvatica) by the Jubilee Pond and along azalea dive. Other trees and shrubs to look out for on the trail include the swamp cypress (Taxodium distichum), the sweet gum (Liquidamber styraciflua), the scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea) and the shrubby Disanthus cercidifolius with its heart-shaped leaves that blaze crimson in September and October. More eye-catching colour comes from clumps of Enkianthus, a bushy shrub with dense clusters of leaves that glow purple-red in autumn.
Exbury now holds the NCCPG National Collections of Nyssa and Oxydendrum, the latter a rarely seen tree that turns crimson and gold.
The Exbury collection of Diamond Lilies or Nerine sarniensis, will be displayed throughout October in the Five Arrows gallery. Their colours range from their original oranges, scarlets and whites, through purple, pink, red, scarlet, copper and bronze. All have sparkling crystalline flecks in their petals. The collection is displayed in a ‘theatre’, lit to show off their extraordinary beauty to best advantage until Sunday November 2.
Running alongside is an extraordinarily fine display of drawings and paintings of mushrooms and fungi, many of which grow at Exbury. The artist, Peter Thwaites, is an acknowledged expert on fungi.
Children will be welcomed into the Gardens without charge on the 11th and 12th of October and encouraged to join in the Big Draw, when they can collect leaves and berries to make a colourful floral collage.
And, later in the month, early morning Breakfast Walks and Fungus Forays explore those parts of the Gardens not always reached by visitors.
The sixth Exbury celebration of Steam takes place early in October when many steam engines line up in the Gardens, there are exhibitions in the engine shed and Exbury’s own steam engines take passengers through the colourful autumn colour.
And steam engines play an important part as October draws to a close. The Exbury Ghost Train rides again with its complement of ghosts, ghouls and scary stories to celebrate Hallowe’en. Tickets can be booked now for rides from October 27-November 2. There’ll also be a Spooky Tree Trail to follow.
“October is a very busy month at Exbury,” said Nigel Philpott the Gardens’ commercial and marketing manager. “We have fantastic colour in the Gardens and a lot going on, culminating in the ever-popular Ghost Train rides.”
More information about these events can be found on www.exbury.co.uk or by ringing 023 8089 1203.