Blog - Botanical

An Australian colleague of mine has recently moved back down under, and before he departed I asked him what he would most miss about living in the UK.

Yesterday was my second guided walk. A different topic this time and I couldn’t have thought of a better way to spend 2 hours in the sunshine than looking at wildflowers.

The sun has come out and the weather has warmed up - and most importantly, the spring colour has bounced into life!...

Westonbirt’s bright pink symbol of spring – the 24 metre tall Magnolia sprengeri ‘Diva’ has finally flowered - a month later than last year due to the cold start to spring.

People say "funny kind of spring, isn't it?" to which I usually reply, "Not really, just like all of them, different from any other!" That's just the way it is in this part of the world.

Isn't it funny how normally familiar surroundings can appear very different throughout the seasons...

For a long time we assumed that all the plants growing along the edge of the Old Arboretum were rhododendrons, but during recent clearance work we rediscovered a calico bush...

Take a look back over the previous twelve weeks of this year’s Spring Colour Watch Blog, and you’ll see a succession of bold colours.

The current red and pink leaves of some of Westonbirt’s Japanese maples tease of autumn colour – but the sea of bluebells underneath reminds us that it is spring.

Spring colour is abundant amongst the tree collection at the moment.

This week we have really been able to start to revel in the heritage of some of Westonbirt biggest and brightest spring blooms, the rhododendrons. All of the pictures in the blog were taken this week, from 30 April onwards.

This week the Old Arboretum offers some spiky spring specimens, lovely scented blooms and some historic rhododendrons which are getting a little bigger than the arboretum's creators intended.

There has been rather a lot going on as far as spring colour watching goes this week. Here are two takes from two members of the Forestry Commission team at Westonbirt on the best of what our 240 hectares have to offer right now…...

Bluebells are the spring buzzword of the moment – and they are out now in Silk Wood!...

Magnolias are still out in abundance. Although our famous 'Diva' and some of the other earlier flowering specimens have for the most part dropped their flowers, on Specimen Avenue and elsewhere, there are blooms aplenty with many buds still to open.