Read more from Head Gardener, Tom, following the announcement that we will be re-opening the Gardens to the public from 26 June; and operating Friends-only days 22-25 June.
 

When I started my horticultural career as a jobbing gardener at Haringey Council in North London, much of the work was mundane and pretty unrewarding. However every day during the late summer and until the first frosts, my heart was lifted by the technicolor blooms of an astonishing collection of dahlia plants.

June was a wonderful month for a garden visit to West Dean and July looks set to be the same. Plenty of sun filled days after the relentless winter rain have put a skip into the visitors step as they come along to enjoy all aspects of the gardens and there is certainly plenty here to tempt them.

Wow! What a difference warm weather makes to a garden! So far this summer the flower display in the cutting garden and on the borders in the Walled Garden is looking fantastic with the rudbeckia trial taking pride of place. Beneficial insects and butterflies are having a field day too.

I'm going to start with an invitation, well more of plea really to come along to West Dean soon to admire the wild flowers in the gardens and arboretum - it really is a delightful show and like all good things will come to an end soon.

Any group of plants that combines a cheerful, floriferous disposition with ease of culture should be hugely popular.

I'm a great believer in "an Englishman's home is his castle" so I have no desire to proscribe gardening style. Equally I look to nature for inspiration and guidance in how I garden and the first comment in relation to the regimental approach above is that nature doesn't "do" bare soil.

As the dog days of August approach and other flowering shrubs give up the ghost those stalwarts of the late summer border, the hydrangeas, come into their own. The common hydrangea, H. macrophylla, has spawned a huge range of varieties that divide neatly into two main types, the lacecaps and the Hortensias, or more descriptively the mopheads.

Having just passed the longest day, 21st June, I think it's fair to say that summer is here and so far it's proving pretty good, fingers crossed!