Good old-fashioned manure.

 

 

Here you can see Karen and Carole, getting stuck in with their wheelbarrow and spades.

Our volunteers have been busy spreading this delivery of horse manure over the rose beds to add some nutrients to the soil.  It has been heavy and back-breaking work. Fortunately this pile is at the top of the sloping Rose garden, so gravity has helped a little in barrowing it downhill before shovelling it between the plants and roses. 

We hope to source another pile of manure over the next few months, once our volunteers have had a rest!

The Little Arno

 Over the last couple of years there has been growing concern over the neglected state of the Little Arno.

Something had to be done. The Council Parks and gardens team went in first to hard prune all the shrubs, shredding the prunings up and using them as a mulch around the site.  The Friends volunteers agreed to continue maintenance as long as it was all cut back to begin with. 

We were helped by volunteers from The Spider Project.  

The Spider Project is an award winning creative arts & wellbeing recovery project established in 2007.They recognise the significant challenges faced on the journey of recovery and wellbeing. Their mission is to empower individuals by providing a wide range of creative arts courses, holistic therapies, and physical exercise sessions.

They removed the bench from the site and repaired it before having it reinstalled in the Little Arno, for the public to relax on.

 There will be a second bench going in, which is on order. We are grateful to the Lib Dems Wirral Together Fund, for their donation towards part of the cost.

Our volunteers have spent many Monday morning sessions clearing brambles from the site. This has been very labour intensive and has involved lots of scratches and cuts. Now, work has begun on digging out any remaining bramble roots as they appear. Some of the Laurel bushes also need trimming back. As ever, the volunteers have kept cheerful in the face of such a daunting task.

Some of the volunteers who live nearby offered the use of their brown garden waste bins for the disposal of the brambles from the park.

Going forward, our volunteers will need to allocate time away from the Rose Garden to keep on top of the weeds and brambles. Bulb planting in the Little Arno has also been suggested in the near future to improve the park for the public to use as a quiet spot to sit and contemplate and enjoy the view from the top of Mill Hill. 

Improvements to planting areas.

 Two of our volunteers, Dave and Sian Turner, decided to tackle a shrub area on the left as you enter the Rose Garden from the Storeton Road entrance.  Underneath a mature holly tree, which already contained a few old fuchsia shrubs and mostly wild dogwoods, which had taken over, they took on the mammoth task of clearing it.  The dogwoods were hard to dig out as they were well established.  The plan was to plant some prettier dogwoods, Cornus Alba Sibirica, which has beautiful red stems which stand out in the Winter.

 The work was carried out over a month or so, digging out all the weeds and unwanted roots.  It was also a little shady, so Dave cut back some of the lower branches of the holly tree to allow more light and rainwater to reach the bed. Money had been generously donated to purchase the azaleas, which would add beautiful colour and scent in the Spring.  Altogether six azaleas were bought for the new planting area.  Due to the dry Summer we had experienced, it was decided to delay planting them until the soil had been improved with ericaceous compost and it had rained significantly.

The azaleas were finally planted and then stakes and mesh barriers placed around each one to protect them until they were more established.  The following images are the varieties used, apart from one, which was bought in a sale from Premier Plants of Ledsham, and was unlabelled.

 

 

As you can see from this photograph, the other side of this bed has also been replanted with  some red stemmed dogwoods ( Cornus Alba Sibirica ), a Viburnum Plicatum Maresii and some yellow stemmed willow, which were donated by Steve Ferguson. These shrubs are most pretty in Winter and Spring, when the Viburnum produces lovely white lace-cap type flowers on tiered branches.  

There is also a twisted hazel (Corylus Contorta) which was donated by Sian's brother.

 

The final planting was the low growing perennials dotted around the shrubs and near to the front edge of the border. Dave and Sian chose Alchemilla Mollis. Phlomis Russeliana, Sisyrinchium and Stachys Byzantina, which are mostly evergreen and will spread to suppress weeds.

 

All their hard work has made a real difference to improve the areas you see on your left as you walk along the path from Storeton Road entrance towards the rose beds.  Over time, this excellent selection of shrubs and under-planting will enhance the rose garden even more.  We hope you like the new look. Roll on next spring! 
 

 

Open Day 2nd August 2025

 We decided to hold an open day to gain more new members for our friends group. The date coincided with two other significant events. Firstly, Wirral Borough Council's  Love Parks week, and secondly, the 125th year anniversary of the opening of the Quarry as a public recreational ground in 1900.

As it was an outdoor event, we all hoped for sunny weather.  Luckily it turned out to be a beautiful, warm, sunny day.  Our volunteers started setting up our two gazebos at 09.30 on the grassy area at the top of the long border. One was for a seating area for refreshments to be consumed, with flower table decorations. A lovely touch provided by our volunteer Sian Turner. The other gazebo was our plant stall, with helpful advice available  Chairs were set out around and the shed was organised to serve teas/coffees and delicious home made cakes throughout the event, which was to run from 11am until 3 in the afternoon.  Payment for refreshments was by donation only and yellow collection boxes were on some of the tables.

 

The event began at 11am, advertised in advance on social media and  via posters. Members of the public did start to gather around from 10.30.

Tours of the Arno, describing both historical background as well as how the Friends take care of the park were popular and well supported. Peter led the first tour at noon with around twenty participants.  There followed two more tours at 1pm and 2pm, led by John Lee, with 10 and 5 followers respectively. Tours were enhanced by the sight and sound of local resident sparrowhawks, flying in and out of the mature trees.

During the afternoon, we also took the opportunity for the public to join us in raising our latest Green Flag, which we are proud to have retained for so many years. 

New memberships on the day totalled 11 ( completed membership forms). Two other membership fees were received by bank transfers with name, but no contact addresses.

Money received on the open day event came to £575, with an expenditure of £121.

It had been a lovely day, with a chance to engage with members of the public who treasure the  Arno and who had come along to show their support. Around 200 people had turned up throughout the four hours. Many had stayed for refreshments and a chat , or to buy a plant or two to take home. All in all, a most successful event.

 

This coming Saturday 1st March  is our usual morning chance for volunteers to meet at 10am in the Rose Garden to carry out jobs to keep your community green space looking good.  At the moment we are busy preparing 4 rose beds to be re-planted with new roses in a couple of weeks' time. Also, we are weeding four rose beds that were re-planted last November. Then all 8 beds can be under planted to suppress weeds and benefit both pollinators, as well as the health of the roses.

All the new roses, as well as the perennials for under planting are purchased or propagated by the Friends of the Arno and Oxton Fields.  In order to be able to carry out this work we really do need your help and support. 

You DO NOT have to be a gardening volunteer to support us.  We raise our funds through membership fees, donations and from plant sales. For less than the price of a cup of coffee and a cake you can become a paid up member and show your support. 

Just £5 for an individual, or £7.50 for a household each year will help us to continue our work.  You're just a few clicks away from becoming a Friend...it's that simple , but makes a huge difference to us in continuing these projects in the rose garden.

Become a member CLICK HERE

 

Continuing development of the rose beds

Our first trial bed was planted on February 16th 2023 with 7 Rosa Penelope shrub roses.  These were planted into cardboard boxes in the ground to allow their roots to establish without any contact with the original soil, which could have been responsible for the decline of previous roses we had put in that bed. 

The roses are bought bare-root and can only be planted in the dormant season between November and late February.  During the Summer of 2023 we observed the health of the Penelope roses.  Delighted by how they were doing, another bed was cleared, weeded and planted, using the same method, with 7 Rosa Sally Holmes. This took place in late October of the same year.

In early March 2024, two more rose beds were prepared and planted with 9 The Simple Life roses, as well as 12 of the Lark Ascending rose.  These roses were selected for their vigorous and disease resistant traits, together with their growth habits and open, pollinator friendly flowers.  During this year we also worked hard adding low growing herbaceous perennials to the newly planted rose beds.  This will create creeping ground cover and reduce the need to weed between the roses.  It also attracts insects which feed on aphids which could be on the roses, therefore helping to keep the roses healthy.  Many people had commented positively on the lavender under planting on the left side of the garden, looking down from the rose arches. The far side of the garden is more shaded and the soil is less well draining.  This has meant we had to grow, divide and also purchase a selection of perennials for under planting.  Magill's Nursery, and Rostherne Nursery, both on Leasowe Road, have grown on plants for us for use around the rose beds.  Here are the names of some of the plants we chose to use:-

Ajuga, Alchemilla Mollis, Aster Autumn Jewel, Bergenia, Erigeron Karvinskianus, Geranium Cantabigiense, Geranium Rozanne, Heuchera, Marjoram, Stachys Lanata, Tiarella Spring Symphony.  Certain other plants may have been dotted in to see how they worked .  We noted that darker Ajuga varieties stood out less until we put silvery Stachys or Lime green Tiarellas beside them. This was also the case with dark Heuchera Purple Palace. Our aim is also to have plants which are bee friendly and flower for a long time, are evergreen wherever possible and spread well to carpet the ground.  

Overall, the result has been very good and people visiting the Arno have spoken to us , saying they enjoy seeing the colourful new rose beds.  We do not plan for the under planting to become another 'Long Border'. Rather, these perennials will spread and require little or no maintenance.  As they increase in size, we can propagate them to use in other rose beds going forward. 

 Here are some recent photographs showing how well they are establishing. Those beds under planted this September have larger spaces between the plants so that they have room to expand.

           Clearly, the Alchemilla is flowering well and will  self-seed to give us more to move around where there are any gaps.  Doing particularly well are the Stachys Lanata, which have almost trebled in size in one season.

To the right, you can see the latest bed which is more shady. The Heuchera Purple Palace was hardly noticeable, until we planted the lime green Tiarella next to it.  The roses were only planted in March of this year but have already put on a lot of growth.

                                                                          

                                                                        There are a lot of foxgloves in this rose bed, due to send up their flower spikes next May.  We plan to move many around and just leave small groups of 3 or 5 , to add some vertical pops of colour.                                                                                   

 

 As the perennials expand , we aim to divide them up, or remove parts growing too near to the grass edges and transplant them into other rose beds.  If a perennial proves to be too vigorous, it can easily be removed and used in another part of the Arno.  

 Moving forward, this November 2024 will see us planting another 4 rose beds with roses called;-

Morning Mist, Tottering-by-gently, Scarborough Fair and Kew Gardens.

Our volunteers have been hard at work weeding the beds in preparation.  They will be planted with the roses and mulched over Winter then next Spring under planted.

At the same time, yet another 5 rose beds will be weeded.  With more volunteers we are able to make better progress on the 42 rose beds.  Fewer roses also means we can look after those roses better, in terms of feeding with fertiliser, dead heading, pruning and cleaning secateurs between each rose to prevent the spread of any  diseases.  This new style of rose bed should mean less weeding and more interest throughout the year for our visitors to enjoy. We hope you agree and come and see for yourselves next time you are passing by the Arno.

Progress with the Storeton Road Entrance.

 Back in October 2023, I posted about work being carried out at the Storeton road entrance to the Rose Garden.  We wanted to clear away the ivy, large cherry laurel bushes and weeds and open up the space to become more welcoming. The fuchsia shrubs at the front edge were drastically cut back and some replanted elsewhere.  The holly tree at the side of the entrance had the lower leaves and branches trimmed to raise the canopy so that drivers or passers-by would get a glimpse of the long border and want to pay our green space a visit.

 In the picture above , you can clearly see that the plants have taken and are happily growing.  Extra plants have been added, such as Hellebores and more ferns.  We were delighted that all the native English bluebells came up in Spring, although this meant Sian and Dave had to remove many Spanish bluebells that were around. All the daffodils also flowered.

The front edge nearest to the lawn has lots of snowdrops and then Sweet Woodruff, and the smaller fuchsias are bushing out and will be flowering soon. Our volunteers are always keeping the weeds under control as much as possible and it will only improve as the planting matures.  I'm sure that visitors to the Rose garden will see a clear improvement, as the long border previously seemed to stop at the oak tree and then went rather unkempt.  Now, the long border flows into the newly planted woodland area with interest right up to the sandstone wall by the entrance.  Next time you pop in, take a few minutes to appreciate this recently renovated section of the long border.

Thanks again to Sian and Dave Turner for their hard work and vision for what could be achieved in this part of the Rose garden.