The Mount Aso Garden

In the winter of 2023 a huge Cedar began to topple in the shrub garden; and a storm brought down together a substantial apple tree and its immediate neighbour, an impressively old double-flowered Cherry. We found ourselves with a big empty space just south of the fence.

I wanted to do something for the very earliest months of the year, as winter can be so long here. So we put in a circle of lawn and planted a semi-circle of Salix gracilistyla 'Mount Aso': a variety of pussy willow with buds that are pink instead of the usual grey, to crown the top of it. The idea is for the pussy willow to make a pink haze in February. Behind that is a general planting of shrubs and trees, mainly pink and white, including two types of pink-flowering crab apple: Malus 'Indian Magic' and Malus 'Profusion'; Magnolia sprengeri var.

'Diva", M.J.C. Williams, and M. Milky Way, and the pale pink-white flowering cherry

"The Bride'; as well as Halesia carolina and various viburnums and hydrangeas, some of which were already there. Many of these have good autumn colour, so we hope the garden will have two seasons. In front of the grass circle, flanking the path, we have a pair of variegated Cornus Controversa, a group of the deciduous and scented rhododendron

R. 'Daviesii, and the dwarf round-Icaved rhododendrons R. 'Moonstonc' and R. 'Cowslip'-the second of which is something of a theme around these gardens. At the back are Acer rubrum October Glory and two birches with shiny peeling orangey-pink bark: Betula utilis subsp.albosinensis 'China Ruby.

One day, they'lI be big trees.

Every year we'll plant different tulips along the stepping-stone path, among the tiarellas and the iris "Sparkling Rose'. I's a work in progress, and Jonathan and I will be adding to the underplanting as time goes on. At the moment we have heucheras, libertias, polyanthus, the spotted Persicaria 'Lance Corporal", Tiarella cordifolia, and Brunnera macrophylla "Mr Morse'. Is all it too pink? We shall see.

This garden is a work in progress - photos to follow.