Head Gardener’s Notes: February 2026
First published 26th Feb, 2026By Ben Barker, Head Gardener
February’s been a wet and windy month in the park. Undeterred, we’ve been cracking on with a number of jobs, waiting for spring to start in earnest.
The Blackfriar’s Friary beds have been given a new boundary hedge of Yew after the Box was removed last month. The newly planted shrubs will be left for a year to settle and grow before we start training and cutting it to the desired height. In order to keep it nice and tight we may do an extra cut early in the growing season where the Box was just cut once.
Tree planting has been in full swing, and while fewer than in previous years, we have added some new varieties we’re excited to watch mature, including Cercis canadensis ‘Zig Zag’ and Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’.
We’ve also been busy planting bulbs ‘in the green’, which are lifted while actively growing and replanted elsewhere. The benefits of doing it this way should ensure higher success rates and allows us to be more precise with planting positions. We’ve added Galanthus nivalis, Fritillaria meleagris, Tulipa sylvestris and Leucojum aestivum to our new bulb maze just next to the Visitor Centre path, which is in its infancy but slowly starting to come into flower.
Look out for: Camellias
The Camellias blooming make for a fantastic photo on a rare bright day.
