As the 30th anniversary of the Great Storm approaches gardeners at Hever Castle & Gardens prepare for an extraordinary display of autumn colour this year.

As with any season, it's hard to predict the weather or what we are in for as gardeners!

This autumn is the 30th anniversary of the big storm of 1987 which saw estates in the south east devastated as trees were felled overnight.

We lost a particular beauty at Hever that year - “The Monarch Oak, The Patriarch of The Trees” - which was situated at the bottom of Lake Walk near the River Eden.

It's fabled that this tree was the very one that Henry VII and Anne Boleyn would meet beneath.

If we listen to the experts though then it looks like we are due a once in a lifetime display of autumn colour this year.

The trees certainly look like they have promise and much of the autumnal colour
will be there in the leaves thanks to the dry spring we experienced and the early summer sunny weather in June and July.

The sunny conditions in June will have concentrated the sugar in the leaves which in turn will have accelerated the appearance of red hues producing a festival of colour in October as the rich yellow, red and orange leaves of beech mingle with liquidambars, tulip trees and Japanese maples.

We have some fantastic trees at Hever, especially around the lake. We have William Waldorf Astor to thank for the collection which was planted at the turn of the 20th century.

Trees of note and interest within the grounds include the Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris) beside the lake which were brought to the Garden from nearby Ashdown Forest by Astor during the creation of the garden in 1904 -1908.

The Scots pines are particularly pertinent to Hever Castle coming as they did from the site where Henry VIII first laid eyes on Hever’s most famous former resident Anne Boleyn.

Henry was out hunting boar in the Ashdown Forest when he first met Anne Boleyn in area of Scots pines, which henceforth became known as ‘Royal Standing’.

Each of the Scots pine tree specimens were transported from Cowden Common and Ashdown Forest to Hever Castle by a team of four horses and ten men. It took four days to re-site each tree.

Astor added these mature trees to create vistas full of drama and colour within the landscape - money was no barrier for him so he was able to pick and chose fantastic specimens and get his men to transport them for him.

Earlier this year we undertook a project, following lightly in the footsteps of Astor, when we
embarked upon the creation of a new vista from Anne Boleyn’s Walk down to the Castle.

However we didn’t use ten men and four horses to move our trees, we used considerably less man-power than Waldorf and his men by employing a tree-spade.

There’s much to see in the lake land area of the Garden including the new Monet bridge, which we sited this year, as well as the Japanese Teahouse (which looks fantastic against the autumnal backdrop) and the three second world war pillboxes built to defend key crossing points on the River Eden.

The changing trees and vivid wildlife at this time of year means we get more visitors adventuring around the lake.

This year, for the first time ever, we will take visitors on guided tours around this
area - and I’m looking forward to allowing the visitors to set the agenda and let me know where they want to go and what they want to see.

Make sure you get outside this autumn and experience some of the colour on offer in the county.

Visitors to Hever Castle & Gardens can undertake autumnal guided tours with head gardener Neil Miller or self-guided trails during the month of October. For further details: www.hevercastle.co.uk

Top trees to look out for this Autumn:
Populus Deltoid (Poplar) – Used to manufacture match sticks.
Pinis Nigra (Corsican pine) – Twisted needles which look like bottle brushes. Drought tolerant.
Pimus Sylvestris (Scots pine) – These were transplanted from the Ashdown Forest.
Taxodium (Swamp cypress) – produces aerial roots along the ground.

Jobs for the team this month:
It’s a busy month for the team at Hever!
It’s tulip planting time at Hever and we’ve had a wonderful time reviewing what worked this year
and looking at new varieties for our Tulip Festival in 2018.
We have also ordered 7,000 new daffodil bulbs to augment the collection we have in Anne’
Boleyn’s Orchard and to kick-start our new Dazzling Daffodil event with bulb legend Johnny Walker
next March.
Tending and deadheading our profusion of autumnal bedding in order to get the best out of it and to extend its life.