Garden News | July 2026
There’s no better place to spend a balmy Summer’s day than in a beautiful historic garden and they don’t come much more beautiful than our 240 acres of Grade I listed gardens here at Leonardslee. We’re often lauded for our Spring displays, and rightly so, but the Summer months can be just as enjoyable here too. Whether it’s taking a shady stroll through our woodland paths to escape the July heat, marvelling at some of our historic trees and beautiful wildlife, listening to the bird song or taking pictures of our fascinating flowering plants and stunning views, there’s something here for everyone. If you’re a nature lover for instance, there is no better place for a stroll in July than down by the lakes where you’ll be able to catch the likes of dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies becoming more active as we shift into Summer gear.
Hydrangeas Take Centre Stage
July is also the month when another of Leonardslee’s other feature plants stake a claim for ‘star attraction’. Although the Magnolias, Rhododendrons, Azaleas and Camellias have mostly had their moments in the spotlight for this year, now it’s the turn of the Hydrangea. The Cornus, or Flowering Dogwoods if you prefer, started their floral explosion in June but should hopefully continue their display well into July if the weather is kind but the hydrangeas will certainly be hot on their heels. As we’ve discussed previously, everything is at least three weeks ahead of schedule this year and the hydrangeas are no exception with some starting to flower as early as mid-June. A warm Spring has allowed most plants in the garden to get a head start without the fear of frost knocking them back, while the sporadic bouts of heavy rainfall have given plants a vital boost at key times too, so let’s hope our hydrangeas benefit from this also. Luckily, they have a long flowering season so fear not, there’ll be plenty still blooming this month too.
We’re hoping that 2026 follows suit from the last few years which were the best for the floral feast of hydrangeas since I’ve been here at Leonardslee. We’ve been pruning our hydrangeas slightly differently over the last few years, straying from the advised RHS method as well as our own previous experience with working with Hydrangeas, and instead only pruned them back to the top fat buds rather than down to the lowest double set as is usual. This was done back in April and was swiftly followed by a good organic feed and mulch. Either way, it seems to have worked and we’re crossing our fingers for another bumper season. You’ll find our Hydrangeas in many shades of pink, blue, purple and white near the new retail building, around the Rock Garden and below the Clocktower Cafe for example. In future we hope to plant more unusual hydrangea shrubs across the garden but we need to tackle our rogue deer population before we do that as they are quite prone to munching on hydrangeas!
New Planting and Summer Colour
Talking of new plants and planting schemes, as you wander around the top areas of the garden at the moment you’ll spot plenty of interesting new flowers and foliage to admire. Our displays around the house and in the Herbaceous Beds opposite are into their fourth year now and I’m really pleased at how these areas are filling out. In the borders around the hotel and Interlude restaurant for example you’ll find the likes of Sambucus nigra ‘Black Lace’ climbing the walls, the stunning Alstromeria ‘Indian Summer’, the unusual orange foliage of Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Amber Jubliee’, the alien-like seed pods of Melianthus major as well as an array of Ricinus, Euphorbia and exotic banana foliage so name but a few.
The herbaceous beds to the east of the Rock Garden really come into their own in July. Here you should look out for Aclepsis incarnata ‘Ice Ballet’ with their fluffy white blooms, Acanthus mollis ‘Rue Leden’, a range of unusual Eryngium and Echinops and perhaps most excitingly, the large drifts of Lobelia tupa (aka Devil’s Tobacco) that will have their bright red exotic flowers on display once again this year. We’ve added a few new plants in these beds too including the likes of interesting Salvias such as S. bethellii ‘Involucrata’, a range of interesting dahlias and also a selection of Asters. These normally flower later in the season, often from August until October, but with the flowering times so out of kilter this year, we might see some blooms in July too?
Our Senior Gardener, Dan, has also been creating some fantastic container displays around the cafes and welcome areas this year and they will be a riot of colour throughout the whole Summer so make sure you check those out too. The sweet pea pyramids alone are worth getting up close and personal with just for their amazing heady scent!
Caring for the Garden During Summer
As lovely as a British Summer can be, the hot weather isn’t without its challenges for the garden team however, as watering some of our plants becomes a priority. Some plants start to wilt when the amount of water they lose through their leaves (known as transpiration) is greater than the amount they can draw in from the soil through their roots. Established trees and shrubs and long-standing perennials should have an extensive root system to tap deeper water, but any newly planted specimens, such as those mentioned earlier, will need keeping an eye on. Our pots and containers will also need regular watering as the volume of compost in them can only hold a limited amount of water.
Sustainable Watering Tips for Home Gardeners
You can reduce the amount of mains water you use at home by harvesting rainfall in water butts, adding moisture-retentive granules to pots and containers, mulching around the base of plants after a heavy rainfall to trap the moisture and watering in the evening or very early morning or when the border is in shade to stop the moist soil being dried out by the sun. You can even save the water from your washing up bowl to use on your plants, particularly if you use an ecological brand of washing up liquid. If you want to be even more ‘green’ you can use waste pasta water on plants too as it adds various nutrients such as zinc, calcium, phosphorus, iron and potassium to the root zone!
As well as watering and the usual weeding, mowing, strimming and edging work, other jobs we’ll be tackling here in the garden at Leonardslee include bracken control across the wider estate, particularly around Oak and Maple Walk and in the Deer Park, continued Rhododendron luteum hard pruning to open up views and paths and also looking after the bees in our five beehives in the new orchard opposite the wallabies.
Discover Something New This July
So, as always, lots to see and do in the garden here at Leonardslee. There is something new to stumble upon somewhere every day, so get out there and explore! There will be volunteer-led garden tours on July 6th, 15th, 20th and 27th this month, so if you haven’t already been on one of these, please book up if you can. Don’t forget, you can also see the wallabies being fed at 12 pm every day. I look forward to seeing you here during July.
