Kerria Week

This blog celebrates its first anniversary this week, having become a regular publication one year ago. Amelanchier rotundifolia is still looking gorgeous when week 2009/17 begins on Sunday but has practically vanished by the Wednesday as rain brings an end to three weeks of drought, and knocks the petals of many of the flowering Magnolia. The Tulipa have already peaked too. Rhododendron russatum is a touch more predictable, offering a fine covering of purplish blue as an offset to the neighbouring orchard full of apple blossoms, nodding white Narcissus, clouds of Forsythia and the delicious pink of a Prunus serrulata 'Kanzan'. This sort of scene illustrates the acme of what a succession gardener is trying to achieve: eyecatching colour standing out from a neutral background to create a delight for the eye. It's no use playing with mono-colour gardening schemes because you have to use a modest amount of bloom to achieve a big effect. So the succession garden is a piece of subtractive planning. You have to consciously tone down the visual fireworks of spring, save some dramatic effects for later and always keep that neutral background in mind. Such a garden not only needs a wide cast of "starring" plants to keep up the delivery of colour in the summer and autumn, but also those "chorus line" plants to provide a leaf-and-bark background to whatever plant currently has the starring role. It's also important to remember one of the emotional effects of succession: the sense of season. A good succession garden should impart the feeling that something went before (and has faded) and that the time has yet to come for other plants which still look dull.