The Old Vicarage B&B, Little Ouse

This old apple tree is well past its prime and as we are not looking for it to produce apples (though it does produce a very small sweet apples). The choice was to either leave in the middle of a lawned area, or use it as a feature and plant around it.

As the trunk of the apple tree is at a sloping angle an Albertine climbing rose has been positioned on one side, to grow up and through the canopy. At the back of the sloping bough, if you look carefully, you’ll see a bamboo cane. A clematis has been planted here and it is hoped that this will also grow through the canopy. With luck, after the apple blossom there will with be at points a flowering of clematis or roses or both.

The flowers in the canopy are pink (the rose) and a variegated light purple to. deep purple (the clematis). Around the base I have placed purple Verbena, French Lavender etc. To contrast this I have placed a number of white bedding geraniums. There are a couple of exceptions, in that there is a yellow germ and probably a pink lupin mixed in. But as I had them handy and the space, I’m sure they won’t look too bad.