A Year In The English Garden 2022

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A YEAR IN

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2022

ANNUAL

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Create your

Month-by-month tips & reminders

DREAM GARDEN

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Planting ideas for year-round flowers 01 9 772399 691022

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48

IMAGES NEIL HEPWORTH; ABIGAIL REX; CLIVE NICHOLS; SHUTTERSTOCK COVER IMAGE MIMI CONNOLLY

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while ago, I interviewed a gardener who told me his strategy when he was planning his garden was to focus especially on the plants that would deliver colour and interest in spring and autumn. Summer enjoys such a wealth of plants at their colourful peak, he said, it takes care of itself – in fact it’s almost impossible for your garden not to look good at that time of year. It’s true, I thought, guiltily recalling all the plants I’ve impulse-bought from the garden centre every summer. It’s easy to make sure your garden’s full of colour then; it’s the rest of the year that needs a bit more effort.

That’s where our annual, A Year in the English Garden, supported by Bloms Bulbs, comes in. It will guide you through the gardening year to help you create a year-round garden. Dip into the gardens and planting ideas for each month and even if you apply just one or two ideas, you’ll be on your way to a garden that looks good every day of the year!

CLARE FOGGETT, EDITOR

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102 Contents 6 January Originality and wisdom at the inimitable John Brookes’ Denmans; fragrant sarcococca; winter care for houseplants.

16 February Historic snowdrop plantings at Benington Lordship; dainty Tazetta Group narcissus; maintenance for garden grasses.

26 March A throng of 60,000 golden daffodils at Hever Castle; garden stalwart forsythia; sowing the seed of hardy annuals.

39 April Bold tulips in the narrow town garden of Lancaster House; indigo-hued spring camassia; dividing herbaceous perennials.

48 May Alliums are the stars of the chalk garden at Ordnance House; fragrant, flamboyant lilac; pruning box hedges and topiary.

60 June A florist’s garden in the Yorkshire Dales; elegant Fuchsia magellanica; keeping ponds clear.

70 July Classic cottage garden planting at Church Cottage; versatile hebes; summer pruning for wisteria.

82 August Abundant, colourful, high-summer planting on the Ridgeway; cheerful sunflowers; conserving water in the garden.

92 September Exotics from around the world at Abbotsbury Subtropical Garden; sun-loving echinacea; planting spring bulbs.

102 October An accomplished plantswoman’s garden at The Dower House; unassuming cotoneaster; preparing your lawn for winter.

112 November Himalayan woodland planting and rare specimens at Hergest Croft; sorbus for bright autumn foliage; pruning old roses.

122 December The spare, structural beauty of Malverleys in winter; distinctive hellebores; potting up succulents as Christmas gifts.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 3

Only the Best Will Do What separates Bloms Bulbs from other bulb suppliers? Brothers Paul and Chris Blom, who run the family business, say it’s the high quality of the bulbs and the collection they offer

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stablished in Holland in 1860 by Walter Blom, Bloms Bulbs has a long history of supplying quality bulbs. For spectacular spring displays, bulb quality must be top notch and plants should be true to name. “A red tulip is more than just a red tulip,” says Paul Blom.

The first consideration for Paul and Chris is bulb size: the bigger the bulb, the more impressive the display. The bulbs stocked by Bloms are all size 12 and upwards. Other mail-order bulb suppliers tend to sell bulbs sized 10/11, and in garden centres they’re generally size 9/10.

“Any new bulb we select must have good parents that are also good garden plants,” explains Paul. “‘Clara Butt’, raised in 1889 and one of the first modern garden tulips, is a classic example. It’s the parent of many modern pink cultivars, such as ‘Pink Diamond’, ‘Pink Panther’ and ‘Douglas Bader’.” Other new varieties are sports of established tulips, so they have the right pedigree – ‘Prinses Irene’ and ‘Orange Princess’ for example, or ‘Spring Green’ and ‘Flaming Spring Green’.

4 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Clockwise from top left Tulip ‘Prinses Irene’

has purple-flushed petals and a sweet scent; elegant and reliable ‘Spring Green’; luminous ‘Pink Diamond’; Peony-flowered ‘Orange Princess’; ‘Flaming Spring Green’.

The brothers also look for other good garden characteristics, such as a strong stem. “Tulip ‘Ballerina’ might look dainty, but it can withstand any kind of weather,” says Paul. He warns that there’s a balance between popular demand and what is a good plant though: “‘La Belle Époque’ is very popular, but it’s not stable enough to guarantee double flowers every time, so we don’t include it in our catalogue.”

A good relationship with the bulbs’ growers is also important, and this is where Bloms’ generations of experience comes in.

“Because we buy the bulbs before they are harvested, we need to know that we’ll get the best of the crop,” says Paul. The stock must also be reliable and properly certified.

Bloms require the ‘Japanese’ certificate; below this is the European Certificate that requires less rigorous inspection.

And so, the catalogue comes together: a collection that includes old favourites and the best new varieties. And not just tulips, but a full range of spring-, summerand autumn-flowering bulbs for reliable, beautiful season-long colour.

Tel: 01234 709099; blomsbulbs.com

A Y E AR I N

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A Year in the English Garden ISSN 2399-6919 is published on an annual basis by The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd, Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London SW3 3TQ, England. Distributed in the US by NPS Media Group, 2 Corporate Drive, Suite 945, Shelton, CT 06484.

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The information in The English Garden has been published in good faith and every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy. However, where appropriate, you are advised to check prices, opening times and dates etc before making final arrangements. All liability for loss, disappointment, negligence or damage caused by reliance on the information within this publication is hereby excluded. The opinions expressed by the contributors of The English Garden are not necessarily those of the publisher. www.chelseamagazines.com: publishers of The English Home, Artists & Illustrators, Baby, Little London, Wedding Ideas, BRITAIN, Discover Britain, Cruise International, Independent School Parent and associated guides, Racecar Engineering, Classic Boat, Sailing Today, Yachts & Yachting and Popshot.

Our Diploma and Professional Development programmes are available online in real-time classes as well as at our home in Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. In 2022 we also have short courses for professionals and garden enthusiasts at RHS Wisley Garden, Denmans Garden and online.

Visit our website lcgd.org.uk to hear how our students are creating successful garden design careers and discover an ever-changing range of courses for the garden enthusiast.

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A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 5

Life LESSONS

At Denmans in West Sussex, the inimitable John Brookes created a garden filled with originality and wisdom. His legacy lives on with plenty of takeaways for eager visitors, not least the need to take your lead from nature and always to ask: “Do we like it?”

WORDS ANDREW DUFF PHOTOGRAPHS MIMI CONNOLLY

This page The glaucous

foliage of Yucca gloriosa and Astelia chathamica frame one of Denmans’ iconic blue benches.

Opposite Looking across the icy Walled Garden to the two dawn redwoods on its perimeter.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 7

S

urely the sign of a great garden is one that performs at any time of the year?

Denmans ticks this box and many others. Few are the gardens that you can honestly say look incredible in any weather, but I remember, some 20 years ago, sitting under a huge, wide-branched magnolia in such a downpour that there was no time to seek cover. It was at that moment that I understood what a great garden was. If it could look this good in the pouring rain, then imagine it in full sun.

The magic of this four-acre space lies in its subdivision. Many country gardens make the most of a distant view or borrow from the surrounding landscape, but Denmans cleverly wraps in on itself to create internal vistas and separate rooms. This always leaves you unsure about what is around the next corner.

John Brookes arrived here in the early 1970s, and you can imagine his excitement as a garden designer at seeing the bold and dynamic arrangement of shapes created by Joyce Robinson in the 1960s. Brookes 8 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Above Flowing gravel

paths add movement to the garden with interest from box balls, Sedum ‘Herbstfreude’ and Hydrangea ‘Annabelle’.

Below Umbrella grass, Cyperus alternifolius, seen through a lattice of red cornus stems.

had already been influenced by the iconic designers of the 1950s and ’60s such as Thomas Church and Roberto Burle Marx, both pioneers of their times.

Brookes found at Denmans a flowing representation of Robinson’s Greek travels: wide gravel and boulder streams intersecting the gently sloping site. A bold selection of plants chosen for their architectural form rather than for conventional flower colour accentuated the lines of the design.

Brookes moved into what was then a derelict stable block but soon became his studio and home, Clock House, until he died in 2018. He and Joyce Robinson shared the garden and he was allowed free rein to add to the design. Sensitively, Brookes added a new layer of energy to the garden, using it to experiment and to demonstrate his love of architecture.

His fundamental beliefs were that the house should link to the garden and the garden should link to the local vernacular – something that is so relevant to design today, yet so often overlooked.

Now, Brookes’ legacy at Denmans has been creatively restored for all

Above Cool-toned Olea

europaea and Euphorbia characias with clipped box in the walled garden.

Right Lingering leaves of Hydrangea quercifolia are outlined by frost.

Below The dogwoods surrounding the Water Hole sparkle in crisp winter weather.

Left The dry river beds are planted with birch and Cornus sanguinea.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 9

to enjoy, whatever the time of year or, indeed, the weather. This garden is rather like a good painting: you have to stand still and look. John would often say to me: “Stop talking and just look!” and quite rightly so. Denmans reveals itself to the viewer who has the patience to see.

Structure holds the garden together as grammar does a sentence, and this is where we see the genius of Brookes’ design unfold. At this time of year, when early-morning frosts cover lawns with glistening crystals, we can see the rules by which Brookes planted. He was a great gardener, or an ‘editor’ as he preferred to call himself. He could often be found lost in overgrown shrubs, breathing light and air into a space. He developed a way of up-pruning a plant by removing its lower branches to allow for new underplanting, while turning an ordinary shrub into an elegant feature. He would constantly stand back, hat at a slight angle, loppers in hand. “Do we like it?” he would bellow. This is the secret: keep looking, keep standing back, for once the branch is cut you can’t go back!

An inspiring feature of the planting at Denmans is the positioning of each plant. This placement happens in seemingly random layers. Brookes was clearly inspired by nature; indeed, he often told his students to seek inspiration from nature. “Look at the way nature plants,” he would say when I joined him on his early-morning dog walks through the nearby woods. “People forget that nature doesn’t plant in one go; it takes time and things change.”

This quote is perhaps, for me, his most inspirational.

And this attitude to allowing plants to do what they want is very much in evidence at Denmans, 10 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Top A simple circular

band of bricks and an offset pot create a focal point amid the gravel.

Above The Daydreamer,

by Marian Smith, sits at the water’s edge, lost in contemplation.

particularly during the winter months. You’ll see the large soft blooms of native verbascums (Verbascum bombyciferum) dotted throughout the gravel with the glaucous sword-like leaves of Sisyrinchium striatum.

These self seeders, or ‘in-fillers’ as Brookes called them, move around the garden as they seed themselves, changing the display every year. They are the perfect punctuation to the visually fast-moving gravel streams put in by Robinson.

There’s another nod to nature in the tree positioning – you’ll find trees planted very closely together here. Two birches are a particularly good example of this; over time they have almost grown into each other, and despite being deliberately planted they evoke a natural feeling as if self-seeded in the wild. Look closely and you will see another further back in the composition. “Plant as nature would plant” – this idea of a main plant surrounded by its seedlings is key to the layout of the planting at Denmans.

Amid all this complexity of design is the evidence of humour that can be found in the eccentricities of a true English Garden. Three-metreround topiary balls form the basis of the Walled Garden layout, contrasting with the abundant architectural planting to create an energising space that lets the viewer’s eye move quickly to capture the rhythm and repetition.

In another corner is a group of more abstract topiary shapes in the form of a hen and chicks, making you grin as you pass by. The gravel continues to form not only the streams but also the main paths. One such pathway through the Walled Garden contains a brick circle. Simply a double band of bricks set on edge, this circle acts as a pause in the journey through space. A curvaceous pot, at just the right height to lean on, is positioned off centre, another of Brookes’ design lessons being: the unexpected.

The journey around the garden is thoughtfully curated, the curves of the gravel paths and fluidity of the lawn shapes coming together to gently guide you around the space. The use of curves shows Brookes’ understanding and respect for geometry, and I defy

Design MASTERCLASS Do things the Denmans way, with garden design ideas inspired by the late John Brookes Plant as nature intended Take a close look at the positioning of plants next time you go for a walk.

Try photographing your favourite planting in black and white: this will let you see its form and structure.

Use gravel At Denmans, the gravel is firm underfoot with a reassuring crunch. Consolidate the soil first with a roller, roll 10mm of pea shingle into the soil and finish with a loose 10mm layer. Think twice before using a weed-suppressing membrane if you want a natural self-seeded look. A quick brush with a stiff broom every few weeks will flatten any footprints and knock away unwanted seedlings.

Create curves The flowing lines of Denmans’ pathways and lawns are difficult to recreate, but take inspiration from looking at the

shape of natural streams from above. Using a hosepipe works well, since you can stand back and adjust the line until it is perfect.

Add bold topiary Brookes always stressed that it is important to have fun within a garden. Out of scale topiary can look brilliant and you don’t have to plant large expensive specimens. Are there existing shrubs that can be pruned into exciting and humorous shapes?

Up-prune! Breathe life into your overgrown shrubs. Start by slowly removing some of the lower branches to a height of roughly 50cm. Stand back and take more away if needed. Then begin to thin out what is left so that you end up with a tree-like formation of cleared branches with the dappled weight of the foliage above.

anyone to recreate these Above Form and structure are everything on paper! In these lines in this soft composition you can almost feel the of hakonechloa, Libertia design at work. Curves formosa, a stand of cleverly flow into one upright Miscanthus sinensis and box balls. another without the slightest hesitation of hand: these are the lines of a confident designer, and we feel this when in the space.

Winter is an exciting time here, and far from dormant. The ornamentation of flowers and foliage has been stripped, and we are left with structure. Structure is fundamental to Denmans: the white-trunked birch highlighted with a nearblack background of yew; the dagger-like spikes of the yuccas, which should feel out of place in West Sussex, but blend beautifully with the rest of the architectural planting. What is wonderful is that the garden, despite Brookes’ death, retains his energy and urgency for change. Don’t expect one visit to feel like the last: a shrub will have been pruned to open up a new view, a tree removed to allow more planting or, indeed, an old path restored to take you on a new journey. What better way to preserve a great design legacy? “Do we like it?” We may never hear him say it again, but we certainly feel it.

Denmans Garden, Denmans Lane, Fontwell, West Sussex BN18 0SU. Opens 10am to 4pm, Wednesday to Saturday, and 12pm to 4pm on Sunday. Tel: +44 (0)1243 278950; denmans.org A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 11

PLANT OF THE MONTH

Seasonal Pick-me-up Sarcococca enliven the garden and provide an invaluable source of food for wildlife at a time of dormancy

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acking a fragrant punch that belies the size of their tiny, inconspicuous flowers, these evergreen shrubs deliver an elegant look throughout the year.

Also known as ‘sweet’, ‘winter’ or ‘Christmas’ box, sarcococca have small leathery leaves, and their clusters of aromatic flowers appear in winter or early spring. Not only will they delight passers by, they will also provide bumblebees and solitary bees with a dependable source of nectar at a time of year when it is generally scarce. From late summer onwards they develop glossy red, purple, or black berries that will often remain on the plant until the following winter.

Sarcococca are perfect for creating gorgeous and fragrant winter displays in shaded areas of the garden. To make the most of their delicious scent, consider planting them close to an entrance or by a pathway so visitors will be greeted by their spicy, honey-like aroma. For a striking visual effect, you could pair them with perennials such as hostas, tiarellas or bergenias for a tapestry of summer foliage, or in containers with ivy and winter pansies for a classic Christmas display.

These mostly compact shrubs belong to the box family, Buxaceae, and most of them hail from the Himalayas and other areas of Asia. However, the precise origins of some species are unconfirmed, including those of popular Sarcococca confusa, which is thought to originate from western China.

HOW TO GROW These tough evergreen shrubs are tolerant of air pollution and – in shaded locations – neglectful watering.

They prefer moist but well-drained soil and full or part shade, but can tolerate full sun if the soil is kept reliably moist. Most grow to around 1-1.5m.

It was the renowned botanist and plant hunter Joseph Dalton Hooker who introduced sarcococca to the western world. He would later follow in his father’s footsteps by becoming director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, from 1865 to 1885, but he first encountered sarcococca on an expedition to India and the Himalayas between 1847 and 1851.

These travels were not plain sailing: as one of the first westerners to set foot in the remote northern areas of the Himalayas, Hooker accidentally crossed a border into a restricted area, leading to a brief imprisonment by the Rajah of Sikkim. The species Sarcococca hookeriana was named in his honour.

Euonymus fortunei ‘Silver Queen’

This reliable evergreen shrub brightens shady corners.

Bergenia cordifolia

Excellent groundcover for shady spots, with leaves turning purple in winter.

12 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Dryopteris affinis

A lovely semi-evergreen fern, unfurling new fronds in spring.

Hedera helix

Small pots of variegated ivy are readily available.

WORDS EMILY WOOD IMAGES ALAMY; SHUTTERSTOCK

Perfect partners: Try these winter foliage plants for a tapestry of green

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JANUARY

Things to Do Keep up to date in the garden with our monthly guide to key gardening tasks

Checklist ● Plan this year’s crop

rotations to ensure you don’t grow the same crops in the same beds as previous years. ● Plant bare-root roses

and ornamental trees while they are dormant, as long as the ground isn’t frozen. ● Hang fat balls around

the garden for birds, or fill feeders with high-fat foods such as peanuts. ● Remove old leaves

from hellebores and winter brassicas. ● Check stakes,

Houseplant HEALTHCARE

WORDS PHOEBE JAYES IMAGES CLIVE NICHOLS; SHUTTERSTOCK

Garden Organic’s head of organic horticulture, Chris Collins, shares his advice on caring for your houseplants over the winter months Expert gardener and broadcaster Chris Collins is passionate about the positive impact of houseplants on mental health. “I wouldn’t be without my indoor plants,” he says. “They’re almost like flatmates. I’ve watched them grow and become familiar as individuals. It’s a very simple pleasure!” Here are his tips on winter houseplant care: Avoid temperature extremes Houseplant growth slows dramatically in winter, with shorter days and lower light levels. They can handle this without any problems, but attention to temperature levels is vital. Sudden changes in

temperature will cause leaves to drop or brown at the edges.

Don’t move plants too close to heat sources such as radiators or put them on cold windowsills.

Water less often over winter Every two or three weeks is a good rule of thumb, although

this is species dependent. Press a fingertip into the soil to check moisture levels before watering.

If the plant is bone-dry, a small drink is required, but any excess water will just sit in the soil.

Wait to repot Pot houseplants on in early March to give them a boost as the new growing season kicks in. Mix fine bark into good, peat-free compost to provide good drainage and prevent waterlogging.

Watch out for pests If you spot scale insects, mealy bug or whitefly, clean them off with a damp cloth and remove any dead or dying leaves.

Find more helpful advice at gardenorganic.org.uk

supports and ties to make sure that they are still secure and in place. ● Carry out winter

pruning of apple and pear trees. ● Order new seeds and

spring-planting crowns and tubers such as rhubarb or asparagus.

You can start forcing an established clump of rhubarb now using a forcer or bucket.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 15

Tall, stately trees filter the winter sunlight through their bare boughs, illuminating the rose garden.

LOOK Both Ways Benington Lordship dates back to the 8th century and honours its timeless Hertfordshire landscape. Yet under the fourth generation of the Bott family, this tranquil garden with historic snowdrop plantings is slowly refreshing its outlook WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY PHOTOGRAPHS ANNA OMIOTEK-TOTT 16 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

The grounds of Benington Lordship are attached to St Peter’s church, which dates from the 8th century.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 17

Above Yew, Euphorbia characias and box balls bring a sharp green accent to the winter landscape at historic Benington Lordship.

Right Snowdrops have grown here for centuries.

This dimpled variety is Galanthus ‘Diggory’.

C

andlemas bells, fair maids, Mary’s taper, Eve’s tear, white cup and white queen: the many regional names for snowdrops in folklore point to their value in our gardens and churchyards when the year is on the cusp of spring and little else blooms. Like the Roman god Janus, the snowdrops at Benington Lordship, a seven-acre garden near Stevenage, Hertfordshire, are at once about looking back and looking forward. They mark the turn of the seasons, but here they also point to the long history of the property and how a new generation has taken on the mantle of its custodianship.

“The snowdrops look beautiful in February, especially in the wilder areas where there are lovely paths to walk along,” says Susanna Bott, who, with her husband Richard, is the fourth generation of the Bott family to live here. She suspects some snowdrops in the garden have migrated from

18 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Above A Victorian addition, the neoNorman gatehouse is a striking architectural element here.

Below The Queen Anne house overlooks the rose garden and dates from the 18th century.

neighbouring St Peter’s church, believed to date from the 8th century. The church offers a clue to the great age of this settlement. Benington Lordship appears in the Domesday Book, recorded under the name Belintone. Following the Norman Conquest, the estate belonged to Peter de Valognes who built a defensive moated castle in the 1130s. Demolished in 1212, all that remains of it are the earthworks of the moat and keep, and it is here that naturalised snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis and G. nivalis f. pleniflorus ‘Flore Pleno’, emerge at the end of winter.

Over the subsequent 700 years, waves of ownership brought diverse changes. In 1700, an Elizabethan farmhouse gave way to a dower house built in Queen Anne style, which forms the basis of the Botts’ home today. In the 1830s, a neo-Norman gatehouse, folly summerhouse and curtain wall were built from the ruins of the old castle. In 1905, engineer Arthur Bott bought the property. Intent on making a home to reflect their status, Arthur and his wife Lillian extended the house and garden and added a walled garden, turning the site into an Edwardian classic.

Lillian was an enthusiastic watercolourist and her paintings are now an essential – and beautiful – record of her detailed, floriferous garden. “Lillian planted snowdrops in the Snowdrop Walk on top of the moat,” says Susanna. “They’re happy, so they’ve naturalised and they’ve crept around, which is what snowdrops do. Spots that were empty when my husband was a child are now highly populated.”

When Richard and Susanna took on the property, a century after Richard’s great-grandparents bought it, snowdrops were a key part of the garden, which has been opening to the public since 1926.

“Richard Webb, the gardener who was with us at the time, was very keen on snowdrops. He had started a collection by swapping with other galanthophiles and it was, I suppose, something that evolved over time. At the peak, we had over 200 different varieties,” Susanna recalls. “There are probably still 200 varieties, but we now have only 50 labelled ones.” Varieties include ‘Mighty Atom’, ‘Diggory’, ‘Blewbury Tart’ and ‘Primrose Warburg’, but, as Susanna points out, snowdrops migrate – and they are eaten by mice. “When Richard left, we took a different tack. It’s a specialised area, so I’m consolidating the distinctive snowdrops and being more selective about what we showcase. The galanthophiles will see what they want to see.”

The pair haven’t had time to manage the garden as intensively as it had been at earlier points, so, over time, Susanna has removed thuggish plants and turfed older borders to let the landscape speak for itself. Julie Wise, whose garden at Rustling End in Hertfordshire is well known, has been key in helping Susanna establish a more streamlined design that can be managed easily. “The site is so beautiful that you don’t want too much labour-intensive activity A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 19

Above Susanna wanted to allow the garden setting to speak for itself.

Left Galanthus ‘Magnet’ is one of the dominant snowdrop varieties here, with large flowers held on long pedicels.

Below Clipped yew ‘bobbles’ give structure to the garden rooms close to the house.

in it,” says Susanna. “The calmness of the view and the simplicity of the planting are restful. But it’s less restful for those of us who live here and keep thinking: ‘Oh! Look at that which needs doing.’”

The first task was to refresh the rose garden. Julie and Susanna improved its proportions to suit the imposing scale of the house. They added height with weeping pears (Pyrus salicifolia ‘Pendula’) and structure with York stone paving, box hedging and what Susanna calls “yew bobbles”. Then they removed woody lavender and replaced elderly mauve and apricot roses with beds of Rosa ‘Kent’. This white, scented groundcover rose is repeat-flowering up to the first frosts. “You don’t have to keep on deadheading it; you just chop it back when you feel like it,” notes Susanna. Perennial species tulips were added, including Tulipa ‘Little Star’ and T. humilis ‘Persian Pearl’, along with Iris reticulata ‘George’.

Herbaceous borders, too, have been scrutinised.

“They’re huge and we’ve started to be more brutal with them,” says Susanna. They’ve cut back or dug up dominant plants, flowed through Miscanthus sinensis ‘Ferner Osten’, planted perennial tulips such as ‘White Triumphator’ and added Allium ‘Globemaster’. “We chose to refresh the borders and include more structure rather than pull everything out and start again. If we carry on like this for a few years, it should come together over time.”

The Bott’s main project with Julie has been in the Edwardian walled garden. Like many walled gardens that no longer need to produce the quantities of food and cut flowers once required of them, this was underused. Hornbeam hedges and two meadow beds sown with a wildflower mix created by Julie now feature. “Julie is a naturalist and understands what works in a place, so we’ve done a careful mix.

We’ve also planted thousands of bulbs in there, with a lot of crocus and camassia,” says Susanna. The pair have planted Narcissus pseudonarcissus, the quietly understated, lemon-yellow native daffodil.

On a shady side of the walled garden is a new arrangement, a winter bed for showcasing named varieties of snowdrop, along with hellebores, Iris reticulata and cyclamen. “We’ve consolidated a lot,” Susanna says, “and in a year it’s going to be great.

It’s very simple, but it’s got year-round interest and the whole point is that it’s very low maintenance.”

Elsewhere, she has used other early-flowering plants such as aconites and more cyclamen, which catch the sun and add cheer on a sunny February day. “But the snowdrops are so pretty. What’s lovely is that as soon as they’re over, spring is really here.

Things are waiting in the wings and I love that.”

Benington Lordship Gardens, Benington, Stevenage, Hertfordshire SG2 7BS. Tel: +44 (0)1438 869668; beningtonlordship.co.uk. Julie Wise, Wise Planting & Design. Tel: +44 (0)1438 821509; rustlingend.com

20 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

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PLANT OF THE MONTH

Banish the Blues Sweet smelling and early flowering, dainty Tazetta Group narcissi are a reminder that spring is on its way

N

HOW TO GROW Plant Tazetta bulbs from early autumn to early winter. They are slightly fussy, preferring a sunny spot and moist but well-drained soil.

Tazettas tend to be quite tall, reaching 40-60cm, and in containers, especially indoors, they may need some support.

Tazetta daffodils have long been grown as a cutflower crop on the Isles of Scilly. In 1879, William Trevellick, a potato farmer on St Mary’s, spotted these semi-wild narcissi in full bloom in January and saw their potential. Taking advantage of the weekly freighter from the island and the new railway link from Penzance to London, he realised he could get early blooms to the London markets within 48 hours of picking, weeks before they flowered on the mainland. Trial bunches sent to market in a hatbox were snapped up, and Trevellick became one of the islands’ first flower farmers. Today, cut flowers are the islands’ second largest industry after tourism.

Perfect partners: Create a pretty early spring tableau with dainty blooms

Primula vulgaris

Always cheerful, primroses flower early in a mild winter.

22 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Galanthus elwesii

Broad grey-green leaves and large clumps mark this snowdrop out.

Iris ‘Katharine Hodgkin’

One of the loveliest early iris, with distinctive markings.

Crocus tommasinianus

The earliest of the crocus to flower, in palest lilac.

WORDS EMILY WOOD IMAGES GAP/JONATHAN BUCKLEY; SHUTTERSTOCK

othing signals the end to winter quite like a fanfare of brilliant daffodils bursting from the ground.

These much-loved bulbs brighten even the chilliest spring morning with their trumpet-like blooms in a range of colours, including every shade of yellow, paper white, orange and even pink. Combine varieties from the different daffodil groups, and you’ll have flowers from late January all the way through to early May. Daffodils in the Tazetta Group are more commonly known as bunch-flowered or French daffodils. Not only do they provide a splash of colour as the garden comes out of dormancy, but their clusters of up to 20 florets per stem have a deliciously sweet fragrance, which has led to their use in the production of essential oils.

Tazetta daffodils are native to Southern Europe and North Africa, so they can be a touch tender.

They need a hot, dry summer to do well, which is why they are so often used indoors and under glass to create early-spring displays. They are worth trying outdoors though, particularly in milder parts of the country or if you have a warm, sunny spot in your garden. Try them in borders as underplanting beneath roses and shrubs, in containers with other bulbs such as tulips or hyacinths for a classic spring display, or in a cut flower patch – a bunch of these dainty daffodils cut and brought into the home will create a delightful display for up to a week.

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FEBRUARY

Things to Do Keep up to date in the garden with our monthly guide to key gardening tasks

Checklist ● Make sure you’ve

ordered in seed potatoes, ready for chitting and planting in spring. ● Finish winter pruning

wisteria, shortening shoots to two buds to encourage more flowering spurs. ● Put in an order for

snowdrops and winter aconites, both of which are usually sold ‘in the green’ in spring. ● Deciduous trees and

shrubs can be moved now, while they’re dormant, provided the soil isn’t frozen or waterlogged.

Care for GRASSES

WORDS PHOEBE JAYES IMAGES GAP/JONATHAN BUCKLEY; SHUTTERSTOCK

With grasses, knowing what to do when can be confusing. But it’s easy once you’ve established which are deciduous and which are evergreen February is the perfect time to make a start on cutting back deciduous grasses. Many popular garden grasses are deciduous, such as miscanthus, Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’, deschampsia, molinia, and pennisetum.

Most of these grasses are left to stand over winter because their weathered, beige- and biscuit-coloured stems and ornamental seedheads put on such a long-lasting display. But

by February or March even the most decorative grasses start to flag, and their old leaves and stems need to be cut back to the base just before new shoots emerge. Cut back any

later and you risk damaging the fresh spring growth. Use secateurs, shears or even an electric hedge trimmer if you have lots of grasses to prune.

Some deciduous grasses such as Pennisetum orientale (below) start into growth quite a bit later than others. These

plants’ old stems should be left in place for longer to protect the crown, before being cut back around late April.

As for semi-evergreen grasses like Stipa tenuissima, evergreen species such as festuca and the sedges carex and luzula, these don’t need to be cut back at all. Simply use a hand fork, lawn rake or a gloved hand to gently pull out dead leaves from the base.

Pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana) is one evergreen grass that does benefit from being cut back in early spring. Be sure to wear thick gauntlets and protect your eyes though, since its leaves are razor sharp.

● Organise the shed

or greenhouse so everything is ready for seed sowing. Clean pots and labels and check propagators are working properly. ● Take root cuttings

of oriental poppies (below), verbascum, phlox and acanthus.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 25

HELLO SUNSHINE

Nothing says spring is on its way better than a throng of golden daffodils, and at Hever Castle in Kent there are 60,000 of them, old varieties and new, all maintained

by Neil Miller and his team and gladdening the hearts of winter-weary visitors WORDS CONSTANCE CRAIG SMITH PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS 26 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

In the dying days of winter, swathes of gleaming narcissus illuminate 13th-century Hever Castle.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 27

W

hen Neil Miller first went to work at Hever Castle in Kent 20 years ago, the garden would close to the public in October and remain closed until April. But times have changed and now early spring, when Hever’s magnificent collection of daffodils reaches its peak, is one of the most keenly anticipated times of year for garden visitors.

“Who doesn’t love daffodils?” asks ebullient head gardener Neil, who worked in insurance for ten years before switching to horticulture. “They’re like instant sunshine. When you see daffodils starting to open, it’s such a joyful sight.”

Hever Castle, which dates back to the 13th century, is famous as the childhood home of Henry VIII’s doomed second wife, Anne Boleyn. But the garden is largely the creation of the British-American billionaire William Waldorf Astor, who bought Hever in 1903. He spent five years restoring and enlarging the Castle and totally remade the garden to a layout drawn up by the landscape designer Joseph Cheal. “There really wasn’t much here before he took over; the garden was mostly marshland and bog,” Neil explains. When Astor bought Hever, he was America’s richest man and his vision for the garden was real money-no-object stuff: 800 men were hired just to excavate a new 38-acre lake.

Astor loved daffodils and his gardeners planted hundreds of them. But they are not the oldest ones

“They’re like instant sunshine. When you see daffodils starting to open, it’s such a joyful sight” on the estate: there are daffodils growing at Hever that were planted centuries before that. In Anne Boleyn’s Orchard, close to the Castle, some of the daffodil bulbs lie more than a foot below the soil’s surface, suggesting they may have been planted as early as the 17th century. Fittingly, there are several historic varieties to be found growing in the orchard today, including ‘Van Sion’ (pre-1620), ‘Pheasant’s Eye’ (introduced to Britain in 1768) and ‘Rip van Winkle’ (pre-1884). The most exciting discovery though was Narcissus ‘Telamonius Plenus’, which is rarely found growing in the wild. Introduced to Britain in 1620, it was spotted growing in the woods on the estate just a few years ago by Hever’s sharp-eyed chief executive officer, Duncan Leslie.

After consulting daffodil expert Johnny Walkers, the gardening team concluded that the daffodil had probably been growing there undisturbed and unnoticed for several hundred years.

28 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Right Grassy paths

are mown through the naturalised bulbs in a meadow-style setting.

Bottom right ‘Ice Folly’ thrives in the damp conditions by the moat.

Bottom left Daffodils cluster around a wooden bridge, contrasting with the trees’ bare boughs.

Below ‘Gentleman at Arms’ is a newer variety, created in honour of the Queen’s 90th birthday.

There are now more than 60,000 daffodils planted around the estate, most of them naturalised in drifts in the grass. “Daffodils are horribly addictive and they’re becoming a bit of an obsession for us at Hever, with our collection expanding every year,” Neil admits. “I love the way you have a few backbreaking days planting them in September, and then you forget about them until they start popping up in the New Year. That’s when you know Mother Nature has done her thing again.”

For visitors, the most eye-catching drifts of daffodils are to be found growing around the Castle and by the edge of the moat. On a clear sunny day, the flowers are reflected in the water “like a carpet of gold”, as Neil puts it. Most daffodils don’t enjoy damp conditions, but he has recently planted 1,000 bulbs of ‘Ice Folly’, a variety that positively revels in the moist soil by the moat.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 29

Top Early-flowering

varieties do well planted under deciduous trees.

Above Strong yellow ‘St David’s Day’ is ideal for pots and borders.

Right A red-toned winter border with rich russet bergenias and the glowing tips of dogwood visible behind the hedge.

Guiding the Hever team in their choice of bulbs is the legendary Johnny Walkers, winner of 25 consecutive Gold Medals at the Chelsea Flower Show for his displays in the Floral Marquee.

“There’s nothing Johnny doesn’t know about daffodils,” says Neil. “Talking to him is an education. He has not only helped identify the older cultivars in the garden but also advises us on what new ones to plant.” Last autumn, on Johnny’s advice, Neil planted 8,000 new daffodils, including the small, bright yellow ‘Quail’ and white ‘Tullybeg’.

The first daffodil to open at Hever is ‘Rijnveld’s Early Sensation’, which can often be in flower by Christmas Day. Early in January Hever closes for six weeks, which gives the gardeners a chance to get through the heavy work that needs to be done before the start of the new season, like pruning trees and shrubs, raking the paths and clearing leaves, so the grounds look immaculate when they reopen.

Early spring at Hever isn’t just about daffodils, of course. The artfully trained camellias on the pergola in the Italian Garden are in flower, and in the Winter Garden the hellebores and winter aconites provide bursts of bright colour. There’s delicious fragrance from mahonias and Daphne bholua, and the glowing red and orange stems of cornus light up the

30 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Top Drifts of daffodils borders. “For the sake extend into Hever’s of wildlife we don’t cut surrounding woodland. back ornamental grasses Middle Fully double in the borders until blooms of ‘Heamoor’.

Bottom On ‘Ice Follies’, March, and on a frosty the cup starts off yellow day they look amazing, and fades with age to as do the big bergenia a shade of near-white. leaves,” says Neil.

But it’s the daffodils here that are the stars of the show – at least until the tulips begin to take over from April. “One of the things I look forward to most about the garden reopening is seeing the public again,” says Neil. “The feedback we get from our visitors is so important. If someone says on social media that they’ve enjoyed seeing the garden, or they stop one of the gardeners to tell them the garden is looking great, then it means such a lot to us. It puts a real spring in our step.”

Neil works with a team of 11 full-time and two part-time gardeners, as well as a band of volunteers.

“It sounds like a lot of people, but there are about 150 acres of garden to care for within this 700-acre estate. If I thought too hard about the fact that I’m in charge of such a big garden, and all there is to do here, I’d feel a bit panicky. So I just concentrate on one section at a time. If you break it down, area by area, it feels much more manageable. I think that’s true of any size of garden.”

One gardening job that the Hever team doesn’t bother with is deadheading the daffodils. “It just isn’t possible with 60,000 of them, and not deadheading the flowers doesn’t do them any harm,” Neil maintains. “We just leave them be so the plant can rebuild its bulb. We cut off the leaves once they start going yellow, but not before.”

Neil and the team at Hever have big ambitions for the garden and are constantly striving to improve it.

“We’re always trying to make our planting bigger and better. We don’t rest on our laurels,” he says. “I love every season here: the tulips and wisteria in late spring, then the Rose Garden, the mixed borders in Diana’s Walk and the beautiful pictorial meadows in high summer. But even in late autumn, when there isn’t much floral colour at Hever, it’s still a glorious place. There’s a real magic about it.”

Above all, Neil says he relishes the cycle of the seasons. “There’s always something new to look forward to, and this time of year is one of the most exciting. Once you see the first daffodils, you know for sure that winter is on its way out.”

Hever Castle, Hever Road, Edenbridge, Kent TN8 7NG. The gardens are open daily from 9 February to 30 October, 10.30am to 4.30pm in the main season and until 3pm at other times. The Dazzling Daffodils Festival usually takes place in mid-March.

For more information and to book tickets, visit the website. Tel: +44 (0)1732 865224; hevercastle.co.uk

NEIL’S TOP TEN DAFFODILS

1

‘Penny Hill’ Yellow all over with a very deep cup.

2

‘Saint Keverne’ Very striking with a large, flared trumpet.

3

‘Ice Follies’ Clear white petals surround a pale cup.

4

‘Golden Joy’ A delicate, deep golden-yellow daffodil.

5

‘Camelot’ A golden-yellow trumpet and large, rounded petals.

6

‘Heamoor’ A ruffled double bloom, almost carnation-like in appearance.

7

‘Rip van Winkle’ Multi-petalled and almost fluffy looking.

8

‘Tête-à-tête’ A fantastic smaller narcissus that can be planted under a tree or along a bank.

9

‘Birma’ Yellow petals with a deep orange trumpet.

10

‘Shrike’ Fantastic for pots and good at coping with wet and windy weather.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 31

PLANT OF THE MONTH

Gold Standard With its boughs laden with brilliant yellow blooms, forsythia earns its place as a spring garden stalwart

S

ubtle is not an epithet anyone ever applied to forsythia, the well-known shrub that turns the colour of a Colman’s Mustard tin each spring. For many gardeners it is a step too far. But no one can deny its cheerfulness, and if you enjoy cutting garden flowers its branches bring a ray of spring sunshine into your home – often at Easter.

Forsythia belongs to the olive family, Oleaceae, its species mainly found in east Asia. Botanist Carl Peter Thunberg spotted Forsythia suspensa in a Japanese garden in the late 18th century. By 1833 F. suspensa had made its way to Holland, and by the middle of the century Veitch Nurseries were selling it in England. At around the same time, Scottish plant hunter Robert Fortune discovered F. viridissima in China. He sent it back to the Horticultural Society (the society only became ‘Royal’ in 1861), in whose garden it flowered in 1847. Nurserymen crossed the two species and it was this breeding that gave us Forsythia x intermedia and its hybrids, which make up most of the forsythia on offer today.

The shrub was named after William Forsyth, an Aberdeenshire man who was superintendent of the royal gardens at Kensington and St James’s Palace from 1784 until his death in 1804. He was one of the RHS’s founder members, and greatgrandfather of landscape gardener Joseph Forsyth Johnson, who was, in turn, great-grandfather to the entertainer Bruce Forsyth.

HOW TO GROW Forsythia is an easy shrub to grow in sun or light shade, doing best on rich soil since it’s a hungry plant.

Its mid-green leaves can look rather plain after the flowers have faded, so plan to grow something else nearby to supply interest from early summer onwards.

Forsythia always looks best when it is left to grow naturally, without pruning. In Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles, the oracle W.J. Bean suggests siting them: “where they can grow freely yet are not so remote from the comings and goings of daily life that the birds can destroy their flower-buds undisturbed.” Other than avian interference, you can expect few problems.

The shrub featured in the 2011 film Contagion

by Steven Soderbergh, which was prescient of the Covid-19 pandemic. Jude Law played a conspiracy theorist who claimed a forsythia-based remedy could cure the film’s deadly virus.

Erythronium ‘Pagoda’

A classy choice for dappled shade beneath shrubs.

32 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Muscari armeniacum ‘Valerie Finnis’

A powder-blue grape hyacinth to counteract the strident yellow.

Narcissus ‘Jack Snipe’

This pretty daffodil’s yellow trumpet echoes the forsythia.

Chaenomeles japonica

Japanese quince are lovely spring-flowering shrubs.

WORDS CLARE FOGGETT IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK

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MARCH

Things to Do Keep up to date in the garden with our monthly guide to key gardening tasks

Checklist ● Finish pruning bush

roses, before their new shoots put on too much growth. Most can be cut back by half. ● Lift and divide

snowdrops once their flowers have faded to increase and spread existing clumps. ● Browse catalogues

for summer-flowering bulbs and tubers such as dahlias and gladioli. ● If the soil isn’t too

wet and cold, plant seed potatoes and onion and shallot sets. ● March is the ideal

Spring SOWINGS

WORDS TROY SCOTT SMITH IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK

It’s the start of the year’s main seed-sowing season, beginning with easy hardy annuals which, sown now, will provide flowers this summer Straddling the spring equinox, March can be an unpredictable month: ‘In like a lion, out like a lamb’, as the old saying goes.

But with the change of season comes lengthening days, warming soil and a surge in plant growth with the promise of a feast of flowers to come.

You may have already sown in August or September last year the seed of annuals that you want to flower later this year.

These late-summer sowings will provide earlier-flowering, larger plants, but now, from March to mid-May, is also a good time to sow another batch.

Annuals complete their life cycle in a single season, flowering, setting seed and dying over a few months. They can be divided into two groups: hardy and half-hardy.

Hardy annuals include cut flower favourite Ammi majus, nigella or love-in-amist, centaurea (above), and calendula. These can all be sown directly in their flowering site in spring. Rake the soil to a fine crumb and sow the seed thinly along shallow drills, before covering with soil and watering. Many hardy annuals can simply be left to self-seed

in subsequent years, although some editing may be necessary for prolific seeders.

Half-hardy annuals are those that would be damaged by a spring frost and include zinnia, cosmos, cleome and nicotiana.

These need to be sown under glass in early spring and hardened off in a coldframe before being planted out when the danger of frost has completely passed.

There is something very satisfying about raising your own plants. The effects may not be immediate, but the rewards are immensely satisfying.

time to take basal shoot cuttings of perennials including lupins, helianthus and heleniums. ● Treat your soil to a

generous layer of soilimproving mulch, such as well-rotted compost or leafmould, spread on top. Use about a barrowload every two square metres.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 35

P R O M OT I O N

EXPAND YOUR OPTIONS Far from taking up room in your garden, a Vitavia greenhouse will extend your growing space

I

f you don’t already have a greenhouse it’s usually around March that the craving for one really starts to build.

March is when seed sowing begins in earnest, but without a snug greenhouse windowsills soon fill with pots and trays.

Before long seedlings need pricking out, their pots taking up even more room, and then it’s time for the annual juggle when space inside inevitably runs out but it’s still too cold to put the plants outdoors.

It’s all so much easier when you have a greenhouse: a dedicated space for spring sowing is a luxury after making do with windowsills. And having space under glass adds so much more to your gardening beyond spring: it can house tender crops for better yields, protect plants over winter, improve success with 36 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Above The walls of the striking Zeus

greenhouse have large panes of glass to give this model a clean, modern look, as well as ample growing space inside.

propagation or even become a space in which to relax or entertain.

You don’t need a large garden to fit in a greenhouse. Vitavia’s range of anodised aluminium models comes in all shapes and sizes and includes free-standing models, ‘lean-to’ greenhouses to position against a wall, small plant houses and coldframes for even the tightest space.

Consider the Ida Wall Garden, which at just 2ft deep is easy to accommodate in a small garden. If there’s enough space, the width can be increased from 4ft to 6ft, and there’s a larger model that’s 4ft deep and 8ft across. Even the smallest

model can house plenty of seedlings in spring or keep frost-tender plants safe over winter. The Helena Wall Garden is a step up at 6ft deep, and with widths from 11ft to 15ft across it’s roomy enough for conservatory-style specimen plants.

Vitavia’s free-standing greenhouse range is just as comprehensive. Most gardeners are amazed by how quickly a greenhouse fills up, so the advice is always to choose the largest model that space and budget will allow, rather than regret not having a few more feet later. Vitavia’s traditional aluminium greenhouses come in a range of styles, usually 6ft or 8ft wide, with the option to extend to different lengths, from a very compact 4ft all the way up to 14-20ft, depending on the model.

Above Stylish curved eaves on the Orion.

Right The Eos greenhouse, by Janssens.

Below right Vitavia’s popular Apollo model.

Below left The Phoenix greenhouse has a

step-free entrance and roomy interior.

The Apollo is an excellent choice for greenhouse beginners and experts alike, with the bonus of a low threshold entrance that makes getting in and out – especially when pushing a wheelbarrow – straightforward. The Phoenix also benefits from a trip-free entrance, but offers greater eaves and ridge height.

Orion and Saturn have attractive curved eaves, bringing a more decorative look to the garden, while the Cassandra model has been designed to sit on a dwarf wall base, desirable from an aesthetic point of view and also because the wall acts

as the greenhouse’s own storage heater, helping to maintain temperatures inside.

The Zeus greenhouse is one of the most striking models in the range, with extra-long glass panes for a modern look.

Or consider Sirius – a beautiful orangerystyle greenhouse with generous eaves height and a porch area to extend the growing space to a truly spacious 13m2.

The entire range is available in black or bottle-green powder coating, as well as anodised aluminium, and all models come with standard gutters and vents, with the option of extra roof or louvre vents,

in addition to accessories such as autoopeners, shelving and staging, decorative crests for the ridge, and lots more.

As well as its own greenhouses, Vitavia is the UK distributor for Janssens greenhouses and garden rooms from Belgium: the perfect complement to the well-established Vitavia range.

For information on the complete Vitavia Greenhouses range, visit vitavia.co.uk

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 37

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In spring, Prunus ‘Royal Burgundy’ trees are a highlight of Matthew Spriggs’ garden in Petworth.

Going DUTCH Florist Matthew Spriggs has applied the formality and containment of gardens seen on buying trips to the Netherlands to his narrow garden at Lancaster House in Sussex, with triumphant results and lots of bold tulips WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY PHOTOGRAPHS MIMI CONNOLLY

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 39

M

atthew Spriggs’ walled town garden in Petworth, West Sussex, is made for spring. The compact, space is only 5.5m wide, but Matthew’s clever use of its 40m length makes it more than the sum of its parts. And when spring arrives, it brings a celebratory array of candy-pink cherry blossom and jewel-bright tulips.

With his sister Samantha, Matthew runs Spriggs Florist, a business that has been in the family since 1980. The shop on Golden Square was part of a townhouse that had been divided up with the shop on the ground floor. “Although there were windows and French doors leading out into the garden, we couldn’t see any of that because there was a leylandii

40 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Above A long gravel and basketweave brick path creates an important vertical axis down the length of the garden.

hedge obscuring the view,” Matthew recalls. “It wasn’t until the year 2000 that the property upstairs became available, and I moved in here the following year. I got rid of the hedge on the day I moved in!”

There wasn’t much else in the garden besides the hedge, a scrappy lawn and too-narrow borders on either side of the garden. “There were a few shrubs, including one Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris, which I’ve kept, along with a rather nice yew tree at the end of the garden,” Matthew explains.

As the creative director of Spriggs, Matthew has a keen eye for design. He began work on the garden by establishing a strong vertical axis and fashioning two large borders off a long central path that he laid himself. “I used brick I found in the garden and

Left Fresh green fern fronds unfurl at the beginning of spring.

Below Hyacinths, hostas, auriculas and narcissus are part of a spring tableau Matthew likes to use to ring in the season.

Bottom Purple tulips are accented with a hit of lime-green euphorbia.

gravel from a local quarry to fill the gaps,” he recalls.

The bricks are laid in a basketweave style: “I wasn’t confident enough to do a herringbone pattern, but a basketweave is a nice easy one.”

The property faces south but is bounded on all sides by garden walls and buildings that cast shade.

Even at the height of summer the garden catches the sun only from mid-morning to late-afternoon, meaning a lawn would have been difficult to keep in good condition. “I started with a lot of annuals in the borders because they were inexpensive to grow – sunflowers, cleomes, tobacco plants – but I was really finding my style,” Matthew observes.

Buying trips to the Netherlands instilled in Matthew a passion for traditional Dutch planting A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 41

Joys of SPRING The new season brings a confection of colour to Matthew Spriggs’ West Sussex garden

FRITILLARIA IMPERIALIS

NARCISSUS ‘THALIA’

Glamorous crown imperials make a bold statement with their striking 1m tall flowers.

This graceful, creamy-white, multi-headed daffodil blooms from March to April.

CENTAUREA MONTANA

TULIPA ‘DESIGN IMPRESSION’

A tough perennial that thrives in sun or semi-shade and flowers from May onwards.

These bright carmine-pink tulips make an impact in Matthew’s containers.

PRUNUS ‘ROYAL BURGUNDY’

MYOSOTIS SYLVATICA

With its striking upright habit and year-round interest, this cherry is ideal for small plots.

Cheery forget-me-nots selfseed to fill nooks and crannies in Matthew’s garden.

42 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

styles, with their blend of formality, clipped forms and general containment. It’s a discourse that lends itself well to his own garden, and so he introduced four large yew hedges to establish a horizontal axis: they add drama and scale and contribute to the sense of enclosure here. They allude to grander gardens, but this is the trick with small gardens: to create a sense of space, it pays to be bold.

Box balls came in, too, with 12 positioned along the garden path and others planted close to the house and terrace. Then, 15 years ago, Matthew enhanced the garden’s layers with four Prunus ‘Royal Burgundy’. “I adore the trees and I knew I wanted to get more height into the garden,” he admits. “These have a very upright growth habit and don’t cast too much shade. When they’re in bloom it is blossom heaven. There is the anticipation of watching the flower buds swelling, the few days of perfection, and then gradually the confetti starts. They also provide colour in autumn when the leaves turn bright red.”

An important element of the garden is a terrace by the house that Matthew decorates with seasonal displays. In spring he brings it to life with auriculas and small bulbs, such as muscari, Iris reticulata,

hyacinths and dwarf narcissus. “I buy these through the shop, already potted and growing. It rings the changes and is more spontaneous than the rest of the garden,” he notes. In summer, a fig tree shades a table on the terrace, its broad, deep green leaves and nutty, honeyed scent filling this enclosed space.

Tulips are essential to the spring garden and Matthew is increasingly using those inclined to be perennial, such as ‘Purple Dream’, ‘Design Impression’, ‘Black Hero’ and ‘Queen of Night’.

“I’m a bit tied to the colour of the cherry trees, which flower at the same time, but my taste has definitely got richer and richer over the years, rather than trying to be too tasteful with green and white. Lately I’ve ramped up the colour, but I have to restrict myself: that’s difficult when you’re a tulipaholic.”

By May and June there are alliums here, not least Allium cristophii, which bob along the borders above the box balls. By summer, herbaceous plants are providing a green backdrop to summer life in the garden. They include Solomon’s seal, ferns,

hostas and, according to Matthew, “clumps of obligatory Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’, which I love”. Euphorbias, so distinctive in their structure, are a counterpoint here to more solid forms elsewhere.

Matthew regularly opens his garden as part of a local Petworth charity event and has the garden maintenance down to a fine art. He clips all the box balls and yew hedges himself: “I’m far too much of a control freak to allow anyone else to do it,” he says, laughing. “I do all the clipping by eye because of the old stone walls – working straight to the spirit level would look wonky. I also do it all by hand because you get a much crisper finish – and it lasts longer.”

Spring is probably the busiest time of year on Golden Square, but it’s never overwhelming. “The garden is of a size where there’s just enough there for me to do for it to be a pleasure,” Matthew insists.

“My taste has got richer and richer over the years, rather than trying to be too tasteful with green and white” Top left Matthew likes to use Muehlenbeckia complexa in his floristry.

Above left Spanish bluebells, Hyacinthoides hispanica; Matthew is trying to replace them with native English ones.

Above Layers of texture, form and colour make this garden more than the sum of its parts.

Spriggs Florist, Lancaster House, Golden Square, High Street, Petworth, West Sussex GU28 0AP. Tel: +44 (0)1798 343372; spriggsflorist.co.uk A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 43

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PLANT OF THE MONTH

Bread & Beyond In the Victorian era camassia came to the UK, but their fascinating history takes us to North America

A

WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY IMAGES CLIVE NICHOLS; SHUTTERSTOCK

shimmering meadow of indigo-hued camassia in late spring is one of the great joys of this time of year. These striking bulbs are native to North America, mainly the Pacific coast, and make an enchanting addition to relaxed planting schemes. But they have uses beyond the ornamental.

Camassia tubers have long been used as a food source by indigenous Americans, as Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, commissioned by Thomas Jefferson to explore the western reaches of the continent, came to learn. During their threeyear expedition, between 1804 and 1806, Lewis and Clark made an arduous east-west journey.

By the time the expedition crossed the Bitterroot Mountains into Idaho, food supplies were low and the men were forced to eat their horses. It was the Nez Perce tribe that came to their aid in September 1805 with bread made from camassia bulbs. Later Clark wrote: “I find myself very unwell all the evening from eating the fish and roots too freely.”

Camassia bulbs have historically been widely traded by indigenous Americans. ‘Camassia’ itself derives from the Nez Perce Indian common names ‘quamash’ or ‘camas’. By the 1850s, camassia had reached ornamental gardens in the UK, and today there are at least five cultivated species of this member of the Asparagaceae family.

The bulbs occur naturally in mountain grasslands, and while their wild habitat is under increasing

HOW TO GROW Plant these springflowering perennials in autumn or winter at around 20cm deep. If soil is sandy, enrich it with organic matter.

Grow camassia in sun or semi-shade where they will reach 90cm.

Potted camassia are available throughout winter and spring.

threat, the popularity of domestic meadow planting has brought these flowers to the fore. They are now a common sight at the Chelsea Flower Show and grow abundantly in the meadows at Highgrove, two of the best species for naturalising in grass being Camassia leichtlinii and C. quamash.

Flowering begins in late April, with elegant racemes of starry-shaped blooms opening up over six weeks. Stella Exley of Hare Spring Cottage Plants (harespringcottageplants.co.uk) is an ardent fan, and holds a National Collection. She suggests pairing the plants with reds, yellows and oranges in pots, or with wisteria, dicentra and polygonatum.

Perfect partners: A dusky planting scheme to complement camassia

Tulipa ‘Queen of Night’

Still one of the best deep maroon tulips; plant bulbs in late autumn.

Lunaria annua

Honesty makes a superb companion for spring bulbs.

Stipa tenuissima

Wispy and fluffy, this small grass brings airy movement.

Tulipa ‘Barcelona’

Add a touch of contrast with this tulip in shocking pink.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 45

APRIL

Things to Do Keep up to date in the garden with our monthly guide to key gardening tasks

Checklist ● Once the soil has

warmed up, sow hardy annuals direct where they’re to flower. ● April is a good time

to sow lawn seed to repair any bare patches or thicken the grass. ● Keep an eye on

weeds this month, hoeing off any annual weeds as they appear. ● Pot up dahlia tubers

and start them into growth in the warmth of the greenhouse. ● Sow tender crops

such as tomatoes, beans and sweetcorn under cover, and hardy vegetables, including salads, radishes, chard and beetroot, outdoors.

Divide & CONQUER

WORDS TROY SCOTT SMITH IMAGES NEIL HEPWORTH; SHUTTERSTOCK

Spring is the ideal time to divide certain herbaceous perennials to keep them healthy and vigorous and to increase your stocks of plants Most plants that flower in summer can be lifted and divided either in spring or in autumn, as long as the soil is dry and workable. If it’s a wet and soggy autumn or you have heavy clay soil, it’s preferable to wait until spring. Spring is also the better time to divide those plants that are a little tender.

When working in borders, try not to trample the soil: use wooden planks to spread your weight and avoid compaction.

First, cut down and remove any top growth. Next, work a fork all the way round the

group, loosening the soil and teasing the roots away. When all the roots are free it should be possible to lift out the plant.

Occasionally you will have to use a spade to slice congested

plants into bite-sized clumps to get them out of the ground.

Once you have lifted the whole group, you can begin splitting. Sometimes it is possible to tear the clumps apart, but more often you will need to use two forks placed back-to-back to tease roots apart. With most perennials you want palm-sized pieces to put back. Leaving the delicate roots exposed can stress the plant, so get them planted back in the soil without delay, adding compost and fertiliser as needed.

● Feed roses to

ensure lots of flowers this summer. Scatter granular rose fertiliser around the base of the bush and work in with a fork; water in the feed if there is no rain.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 47

Lollipops of trimmed evergreens bring a touch of formality to a soft sea of white sweet rocket, catmint and alliums.

Circles Within CIRCLES

Using curving beds, alliums and box balls, Terry and Vanessa Winters have made a spherically inspired garden on tricky chalk soil at Ordnance House near Salisbury WORDS SARAH COLES PHOTOGRAPHS ABIGAIL REX

48 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 49

A

t times, Terry and Vanessa Winters’ garden appears rather like an opera set, with every detail in exquisite order. You can almost imagine singers marching through the arches to regale you. In the main garden you’ll find yourself amid a mass of blossom and spheres: some on the ground; some like balloons held aloft on helium. These are repeated everywhere and are pure theatre.

The original Ordnance House was part of a Royal Navy Ordnance Depot constructed in the late 1930s. This was pulled down and the present Ordnance House erected in 2008. It never had a garden as such: topsoil was minimal, and when Terry and Vanessa arrived in 2011 they were apprehensive. Having previously gardened on clay, they were now dealing with chalk – usually regarded as difficult, dry, lacking in nutrients and inhospitable to rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, heathers and other plants that flourish only in acid conditions.

Terry, a design consultant, did not rush the process. He knew they had to focus on plants that would grow well in alkaline soil, and he did his research carefully. Then came the plan. The house looks south to a low hedge with woods and the rolling Wiltshire downland beyond. A roundel was designed as the garden’s central focus, to be viewed from the main sitting room and any path entering the garden. From the roundel paths stretched off, creating beds and leading to a gazebo and orchard.

In two areas planting pits were dug in the hard white chalk and filled with topsoil and compost to supply the necessary humus that chalk soils lack.

Terry soon discovered the positives to gardening on chalk. Soil drains rapidly and can be worked after even the heaviest of downpours, and in winter the ground never gets soggy. In their former garden on clay, the couple lost lavender and other perennials to cold and damp, but because plants’ roots don’t get waterlogged in winter here, they happily survive.

At the centre of the focal roundel are four hawthorns shaped to become a floating cloud in May. This rounded form is repeated by four large box balls and Allium hollandicum ‘Purple Sensation’, white A. nigrum and A. stipitatum ‘Mount Everest’ backed by swathes of Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’ and sweet rocket. Low box hedging surrounds the beds for definition. Alliums are super

You find yourself amid a mass of blossom and spheres: some on the ground; some like balloons held aloft on helium 50 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Right White alliums and bearded iris opposite a curving arc of catmint.

Bottom right Encircled by circles, Prunus lusitanica standards.

Bottom left Beautifully shaped Pyrus calleryana ‘Chanticleer’ line up between the house and the rest of the garden.

Below Clipped globes of box appear to float above an underplanting of allium and catmint.

plants, standing tall, never needing staking and, once their glory days are over, fading quietly away.

In June the lavenders start to bloom. First come L. angustifolia varieties such as ‘Blue Ice’, ‘Hidcote’, ‘Arctic Snow’ and ‘Nana Alba’, followed by fragrant L. x intermedia varieties like ‘Sussex’, ‘Grosso’ and ‘Gros Bleu’, which continue into September. Terry’s one piece of advice for lavender is to cut it back hard after flowering, but not into dead wood, letting three centimetres grow before the November frosts. This creates small globes of neatly trimmed lavender.

Along the path by the house are three pears, Pyrus calleryana ‘Chanticleer’, which grow naturally into a pyramidal shape, echoing other cones in the garden.

Colours through the garden are whites, purples and blues, the latter ranging from the deepest blue of iris, through the softer tones of scabious and nepeta, to pale lavenders arrayed like sky pools beside the green A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 51

As high summer arrives, reddish tones come through, including the bruised mauve of oriental poppy ‘Patty’s Plum’ standard spheres of topiary. There’s a lovely airiness and grace to this garden; it seems to reflect the light.

As high summer arrives, reddish tones come through, including the bruised mauve of oriental poppy ‘Patty’s Plum’, and foxgloves, which grow and self-seed on one of the planting pits. When planting perennials, Terry puts groups of the same variety in drifts together for unified impact.

Come June, white rambling rose ‘Wedding Day’ blooms over an arch and, by August, Clematis ‘Purpurea Plena Elegans’, a mauve, double Viticella grown since Elizabethan times, winds over rusted arches. Each February a ‘Valentine’s Day Massacre’ is inflicted and the clematis is cut to the ground.

Hedging and topiary is mostly classic Buxus sempervirens. Box blight, spread by spores, has ravaged box across the country, causing many gardeners to rip it out and use alternatives. Terry 52 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Above All of the garden’s neatly gravelled paths lead to the central circular bed, full of irises and alliums in late spring.

points out a barely noticeable patch on a hedge: “The main thing is never to cut or clip in muggy conditions. Keep the airflow open and don’t let other plants flop over it. Dome shapes are less conducive to settling rain.” Much of his trimming aims to create a woolly shape that discourages blight. And to prevent cross-infection, he dips his shears in disinfectant when moving between beds.

The balls and cones that are such a feature of the garden are not only box, but also yew, Thuja ‘Tiny Tim’, privet and Viburnum tinus ‘Eve Price’, their shapes repeated in stone and pottery. Dark shining Portuguese laurel standards are handsome and echoed in hedging. The standard globes of Choisya x dewitteana ‘White Dazzler’ were propagated at nearby Longstock Park Nursery. Immaculate double cordons make a fruiting fence of the apples ‘Egremont Russet’, ‘James Grieve’ and ‘Katja’, and separate the orchard from the main garden.

The vegetable garden has raised beds with lettuce, potatoes, Swiss chard, carrots and peas.

Many plants are propagated from cuttings, including the eight varieties of penstemon in the garden. Nearly all the planting in the beds was bought as small plants in 9cm pots and, says Terry, these grew far better than those bought in larger

sizes. Across the garden in a small, soft-fruit area are bays for compost – no plant material is discarded.

The Chelsea Flower Show is a source of inspiration for Terry, and when he likes a certain show garden he jots down names of plants and how they are used. He particularly admires Tom Stuart-Smith, while Euphorbia griffithii ‘Fireglow’ and Geranium phaeum ‘Samobor’ are just two of the plants he has ‘borrowed’ from Chelsea. Even so, this garden is very much Terry’s own creation. Planting is controlled, with an attention to detail that at times is almost French or Japanese in style, but among the spheres, cones and low hedging, the outpouring of blossom through the summer months adds an unworldliness, an ethereal quality that comes only from an English chalk garden.

Above White centranthus

joins Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ and clipped globes of choisya.

Left Equally immaculate, the vegetable garden features rows of chives and colour-coordinated lettuces, all contained by low box hedging.

Ordnance House, West Dean, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP5 1JE. The garden normally opens for charity to groups of 20 people or more. Visit ordnancehouse. co.uk or email terry.winters@ordnancehouse.co.uk A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 53

PLANT OF THE MONTH

Purple Prose With its enchanting scent and plumes of gorgeous petals, little beats the lilac for sheer flamboyance

M

ay is the month of the lilac, when these woody shrubs erupt into a mass of sweetly scented panicles, which are mostly purple, pink or white. The combination of silvery grey bark, pale green leaves and purple-toned petals is phosphorescent and magical.

Victorian floriographies associate lilacs with romance, while the Celts ascribed magical powers to this intoxicatingly fragrant flower. So it’s no surprise that its otherworldly beauty is so often a favoured subject of impressionist painters such as Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh.

Belonging to the olive family Oleaceae, lilac is native to the Balkan Peninsula, where it grows on rocky hills, and temperate Asia – although it has now been naturalised in many parts of Europe. Its botanical name Syringa comes from the ancient Greek syrinx, meaning pipe, and refers to the hollow branches of common lilac, Syringa vulgaris.

Lilacs were introduced to the UK in the 16th century, but didn’t gain popularity until the late 18th century, when the French nurseryman and genius hybridiser Victor Lemoine introduced more than 200 new cultivars to the scene. These formed the foundation of the modern lilac varieties we love today, with their double flowers and saturated hues.

It was during the Franco-Prussian war that Lemoine taught his wife, Mary Louise, how to hybridise the S. vulgaris ‘Azurea Plena’ shrub in their

HOW TO GROW Lilacs are perfect for those with chalky soil but also grow well in most well-drained, humus-rich, alkalineto-neutral soils. They dislike shade, so choose a sunny spot.

Mulch well every spring and don’t be shy about deadheading once blooms begin to fade.

garden. The process of transferring pollen from the minute lilac flowers using a paint brush, fine pincers, scissors and a needle was truly painstaking. When the Lemoines began breeding lilacs, only S. vulgaris and S. oblata were available at first, but by 1933 the family had created about 214 new cultivars.

In fact, Lemoine’s flair for hybridisation was responsible for many garden stalwarts of today, from geraniums and begonias to showstopping varieties of peony, delphinium, hydrangea and gladiolus. And in 1911, just a few months before his death, Lemoine became the first non-English plantsman to receive the Victoria Medal of Honour from the RHS.

Allium hollandicum ‘Purple Sensation’

One of the best alliums for vibrant globes of purple on stout stems.

54 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Artemisia ‘Valerie Finnis’

Felted silver leaves are a lovely counterfoil to brighter flowers.

Geranium x magnificum

A reliable hardy geranium with mounds of soft foliage.

Spiraea ‘Arguta’

Bridal wreath is a delight in May, smothered in blossom.

WORDS PHOEBE JAYES IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK

Perfect partners: Sun-lovers to plant around a purple-flowered lilac

PARTNER FEATURE

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Clockwise from left A terrace in Kingston upon Thames now includes a kitchen and seating; a classic pergola in West Sussex; lawns in this garden were redesigned for a more intimate feel; more relaxed seating.

G

ood design, followed by a seamless build, can completely transform a garden from one that’s used every so often, to one that becomes an integral part of its owners’ lives. In other words: an outdoor room.

When he set up his garden design and construction company in 1995, David Dodd had exactly this in mind.

A landscape designer and construction specialist, who also tutors and lectures on both disciplines, David brought together a team of designers, landscapers and horticulturists so that The Outdoor Room could successfully deliver high-quality gardens from conception to completion. The company has gone on to build both residential and commercial gardens, and is a regular at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, building gold medal-winning show gardens.

In a garden in Kingston upon Thames, the company created a truly ‘outdoor room’ for the owners to entertain in and enjoy. A clean sweep of terrace incorporates an outdoor kitchen and seating area, as well as a place to dine, while at the far end, a swimming pool comes into its own in summer. Cleverly 56 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

positioned trees lend privacy while the stylish planting is designed to ensure year-round good looks: box balls, grasses and multi-stemmed trees keep the interest going throughout the year.

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The Outdoor Room, tel: +44 (0)1403 865285; theoutdoorroom.co.uk

MAY

Things to Do Keep up to date in the garden with our monthly guide to key gardening tasks

Checklist ● Tie young sweet

pea plants into their supports so they’re encouraged to climb upwards. ● Spring shrubs such

as forsythia, ribes and spiraea can be pruned now that they’ve finished flowering. ● Mow formal areas of

the lawn more often as the grass responds to warmer weather. ● Get tender plants

ready to go outdoors when the risk of frost has passed by hardening them off in a coldframe. ● Hardy geraniums

Give box A TRIM

WORDS TROY SCOTT SMITH IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK

May is the traditional month to prune box hedging or topiary shapes.

The ensuing smart outlines will restore a sense of order to the garden Wimbledon fortnight, Derby day and Chelsea Flower Show week are all purported to be the traditional time to prune box, but this plant can be trimmed whenever conditions are suitable in May or June. The exact date depends on other gardening commitments and your desired aesthetic: do you prefer your box to be crisp or do you like it a little looser?

Clipped evergreens – box, and also phillyrea and yew – form living architecture in gardens, their contribution as significant as the buildings and other structural features. Their

weighty stillness provides the anchor for more ephemeral elements. And so, when the time comes for their annual clipping, during which their shapes are tidied up, a solidity and calmness is restored to the scene – a sense of order.

Prune with a sensitive hand: one slip with a powered cutter and a big chunk can be taken from the hedge. Both batterypowered cutters and hand shears can be used depending on the size and shape of the box being clipped. The small blade length of hand shears makes it possible to carve

into difficult corners, whereas battery cutters let you work in broad swathes, producing clean, straight lines quickly.

Ideally, cut when the sun is not too strong and when there is a slight dew on the leaves, to stop them browning. If box blight is a concern, it’s good practice to disinfect the blades of your shears as you move between plants. The RHS offers good advice online on pruning to control infections of this worrying fungal disease.

After pruning, apply bone meal to the surrounding soil at about a handful per plant.

and Iris sibirica can be cut down to the ground after flowering to encourage new growth. Others, such as knautia (below), which flower more weakly as summer progresses, can be cut by half, watered and fed to revitalise the plant.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 57

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Pick of the PLOT

Susan Dobson’s abundant and colourful Yorkshire garden provided her first with the inspiration for a change of career to floristry, and then with the lovely materials she needed to pursue her calling WORDS LOUISE CURLEY PHOTOGRAPHS KAT WEATHERILL

60 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Behind Susan’s cottage, long beds separated by grass paths are filled with perennials and shrubs jostling for space.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 61

G

“We’re nearly 600ft above sea level, but thanks to the hedges and trees we’ve got a lovely microclimate here now”

Clockwise from top

ardens can be places of tranquillity: somewhere to escape the strains of modern life and connect with nature.

And, in some cases, they can be the inspiration to start a business. When Susan Dobson set up The Yorkshire Dales Flower Company in 2014, she’d been gardening the one-acre patch around her home near the North Yorkshire market town of Skipton for 20 years: “I’d always taken flowers indoors, then I heard about Flowers from the Farm, which was set up to promote British cut flower growers, and I thought: ‘I could do that’.”

Fortunately, Susan and her husband Brian, had already created a garden brimming with beautiful plants to pick. “One of the first things we did when we moved in was to plant native hedges and trees to provide shelter from the wind when it blows down the valley. We’re nearly 600ft above sea level, but thanks to the hedges and trees we’ve got a lovely microclimate here now.”

The pretty stone-built house, which dates back to around 1780, and the characterful outbuildings provide the perfect backdrop to Susan’s planting. “I love formality in a garden. When I mentioned to my father, a keen gardener himself, that I’d like to create a box herb garden, he took over 400 box cuttings for me from his own box hedge. But I also adore billowy planting and wanted to create a cottage garden feel.”

The biggest challenge Susan has faced is the soil.

“We have heavy clay, which makes for backbreaking digging, and in summer it tends to set like concrete.

I avoid walking on it in winter so that it doesn’t get compacted, and we’ve incorporated manure,

Vivid magenta Lychnis coronaria; Susan Dobson of The Yorkshire Dales Flower Company; Susan has gardened here for 20 years; one of the garden’s peacocks.

62 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

A shelterbelt of trees and hedges protects the garden from winds that blow down the valley, creating a microclimate in which plants thrive.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 63

FLOWERS OF Distinction Choice blooms from Susan Dobson’s garden that work wonderfully in floral arrangements

CLEMATIS ‘THE PRESIDENT’

FRANCOA SONCHIFOLIA

ROSA ‘PRINCESS ALEXANDRA OF KENT’

This large-flowered clematis produces its handsome blooms from late spring.

Upright spikes of pink flowers emerge from mounds of crinkled leaves on this summer-flowering perennial.

HYPERICUM X INODORUM

DIANTHUS BARBATUS

ECHINOPS RITRO

St John’s wort is a super shrub to grow for floristry; its sprays of peach berries are classic bouquet components.

Choose a sweet William variety such as ‘Sooty’ for magenta flowers that contrast with the dark foliage.

Beloved by bees and statuesque both in borders and flower arrangements.

Grow it in a sunny spot and light soil.

ROSA GALLICA ‘VERSICOLOR’

SCABIOSA ‘FATA MORGANA’

CIRSIUM RIVULARE ‘ATROPURPUREUM’

Rippled pink summer flowers are the eye-catching feature of this old rose.

64 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Grown from a spring sowing, this annual scabious bears creamy apricot flowers that are superb for cutting.

Sumptuous, tea-scented, pink blooms are produced throughout summer.

Bee-attracting flowers in a rich shade of claret on a spiny leaved perennial.

compost and topsoil – although it hasn’t made much difference. But the plants don’t seem to mind and the plus side is that I don’t need to water a great deal.”

With hardy geraniums tumbling onto York stone paths and roses trained against walls, it’s no surprise that the exuberant cottage garden feel of Susan’s planting has influenced her rustic style of flower arranging. When she started her floristry business she was picking from all over the garden, but she later created a dedicated cutting garden: “I still pick from the garden, but the annuals and dahlias perform better in a designated space.” Her cutflower beds are home to blush Dahlia ‘Café au Lait’ and peachy Scabiosa atropurpurea ‘Fata Morgana’, mingling with sweet peas scrambling up plant supports and swathes of sweet Williams.

Being a florist has also changed Susan’s ideas on what to grow. “These days I always think about stem length and whether something will be suitable for cutting,” she explains. “I also look for plants that offer something in addition to a pretty flower, such as alliums, which have fabulous seedheads.”

She finds choosing favourites is tricky. “I love salvias such as ‘Amethyst’, ‘Ostfriesland’ and ‘Caradonna’ and campanulas, particularly C. lactiflora. I also adore roses. I grow old-fashioned cultivars and some David Austin English roses.”

“I still pick from the garden, but annuals and dahlias perform better in a designated space”

Above Characterful outbuildings make a charming backdrop for cottage-style planting.

Left One of Susan’s gorgeous arrangements, featuring garden-grown flowers and foliage.

Below Quirky items of gardenalia line up against one of the garden’s stone walls.

Susan has created interest everywhere, whether it’s succulents in terracotta pots, pelargoniums adorning stone steps, glass cloches tucked among hardy geraniums or artfully arranged quirky finds. A few years ago she set up The Yorkshire Dales Gardenalia Company with her business partner Carolynne, seeking out vintage pots, galvanised watering cans and decorative items to sell online and at shows.

“Gardenalia is hard to find at garden centres, so its very popular with our customers.”

Susan’s garden is nurtured with a deep respect for nature: “We’re organic and rely on natural pest control from frogs, hedgehogs, birds and beneficial insects.” Her arrangements – a seasonal snapshot of her garden – are imbued with her infectious passion for plants, a passion that isn’t diminishing. “I’m now becoming interested in ferns,” she says with a grin.

For dates and information about upcoming workshops and for wedding consultations visit yorkshiredalesflowers.co.uk and to buy gardenalia see theyorkshiredalesgardenaliacompany.co.uk A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 65

PLANT OF THE MONTH

Tiny Dancer The slender, elegant blooms of Fuchsia magellanica are in a different class to the big, blowsy hybrids

F

uchsias can be a divisive plant: some gardeners love them, others really don’t – particularly when it comes to those hybrids with the over-the-top, slightly chubby, ballerina-tutu flowers.

Yet there is one fuchsia that can often persuade the doubters: Fuchsia magellanica. Its flowers are slender, elegant, graceful. In a world of Mavis Cruets, Fuchsia magellanica is Margot Fonteyn.

For all its graceful flowers, however, this fuchsia could also be considered a thug. It stole another fuchsia’s identity for the best part of 100 years, although really that was the fault of the botanists who mistook it for Fuchsia coccinea. The real F. coccinea languished in Oxford Botanic Garden until botanists realised they were two distinct species; in the meantime F. magellanica had “spread to every garden in the Kingdom”, Joseph Hooker wrote.

It’s an invasive plant in other parts of the world too, smothering native flora in Australia and Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean. Thankfully in our climate it isn’t problematic, and if you visit south-west Ireland in early summer, when the hedgerows drip with its pendent burgundy-pink blooms, it’s hard not to be charmed.

The species name comes from the Strait of Magellan, which was where French naturalist Philibert Commerson collected it in December 1767, although it had been discovered earlier by Louis Feuillée, who named it ‘thilco’. Commerson was

HOW TO GROW Fuchsia magellanica is hardy once it’s established when, even if the top growth is cut back by frost, it will shoot from the base or its woody framework.

It will grow well in sun, dappled or full shade and thrives in fertile soil. Mulch the base while it’s establishing.

part of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville’s voyage to circumnavigate the globe. His valet was on board with him, but it was later revealed that the valet was actually Jeanne Baret, a woman disguised as a man (and as a result, the first woman to circumnavigate the globe). It’s thought she was Commerson’s mistress, but her presence didn’t distract him from his work: he described the climber bougainvillea, among other plants, during the trip.

Thanks to the mix-ups with F. coccinea, there’s little hard evidence for F. magellanica being grown in the UK before the 1820s, but this beautiful Chilean native has certainly not looked back.

Penstemon ‘Garnet’

Jewel-toned flowers held on upright, 80cm tall stems.

66 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Alchemilla mollis

Frothy sprays of lime green look good with purple and red.

Knautia macedonica

Crimson pincushion flowers offer a good contrast of shape.

Consolida ajacis

A purple larkspur will pick up on the fuchsia’s inner corolla.

WORDS CLARE FOGGETT IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK

Perfect partners: Richly coloured herbaceous plants for a sunny spot

JUNE

Things to Do Keep up to date in the garden with our monthly guide to key gardening tasks

Checklist ● Plant out tender

bedding and unwrap exotics or move them outdoors now that the risk of frost has passed. ● Keep sowing small

batches of salad leaves, radishes and lettuce for a continuous crop. ● Keep greenhouses

well ventilated on warm and sunny days. ● Move tomatoes

into their final pots or planting position and pinch out side shoots. ● Prune early-flowering

WATER in the Garden

WORDS TROY SCOTT SMITH IMAGES CLIVE NICHOLS; SHUTTERSTOCK

Tackle troublesome blanket weed in ponds this month, as well as adding aquatic plants to prevent future outbreaks of algal growth Water, whether it’s in the form of formal or informal pools, fonts or fountains, brings such dynamism to gardens. All too often, however, the reality falls short of the dream.

If there’s not enough oxygen in the water, pools can stagnate and the equilibrium of micro-organisms is upset.

Oxygen is naturally trapped as tiny air bubbles in moving water, but slow-moving, still or shallow water requires intervention. Low oxygen levels combined with excess nutrients cause an explosion of algal

growth, leading to poor water clarity and green cloudiness.

Aquatic plants absorb excess nutrients, so including them is a stepping-stone towards achieving a more balanced

pool. As the available nutrients diminish, so too will the algae.

Blanket weed is an algae that can be more difficult to control.

Long, hair-like strands, thick and glutinous, attach themselves to plants and quickly spread.

To combat it, it is important to reduce the nutrient level of the pool. Use a net to remove any debris, fallen leaves and faded flowers and remove existing blanket weed by twisting it around a rake or cane. With really overgrown pools, try to avoid too much disruption by doing the work in stages.

deciduous shrubs such as kerria, philadelphus and staphylea. These bloom on the previous year’s growth, so pruning after flowering allows enough time for new growth to develop and mature. ● Biennials, such as

sweet williams (below), foxgloves, verbascum and wallflowers, can all be sown during June and July.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 67

P R O M OT I O N

A DREAM GARDEN FOR SUMMER This year, Cat & Mouse Landscapes celebrates 25 years of providing both landscaping services and Scotts of Thrapston’s range of stylish summerhouses, throughout East Sussex and Kent

I

t was in 1997 that David Granger left his job as a graphic designer to set up his landscaping business, Cat & Mouse Landscapes. Based near Hailsham in East Sussex, and working across East Sussex and Kent, this year David is celebrating his company’s 25th anniversary.

Cat & Mouse Landscapes has grown significantly since those early days when David mostly offered garden maintenance services, initially just as a stopgap until he found an alternative career. But he found that working outdoors was such a welcome change from his former office job that landscaping and gardening soon became his vocation. He’s dedicated the past 25 years to perfecting his trade.

68 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Above A well-positioned summerhouse can

form the focal point of a garden, like this Scotts of Thrapston Sun Ray Garden Room summerhouse with cedar shingle roof.

From terracing and patios to retaining walls, ponds, kitchen gardens and every other hard landscaping feature you can think of, David can offer pragmatic, practical advice and the complete service to finish your project. He’s also adept at soft landscaping – the lawns and planting that bring a garden together.

In addition, 15 years ago, David began working with renowned summerhouse manufacturer Scotts of Thrapston to supply and install its premium garden buildings – he’s one of just six such agents in the UK. “It’s a premier brand

with a high-quality product and the same ethos of customer service as my own,” he explains. Scotts of Thrapston also has a long-standing reputation and history, and celebrated its own special anniversary in 2020 – its centenary – when a range of summerhouses made from ethically sourced hardwood was launched.

Summerhouses are such a boon. Not only do they help gardeners cherish every moment of a fleeting English summer, they can provide a cosy, relaxing hideaway to while away the hours, somewhere to work or indulge in a hobby, and they often form the focal point of a garden’s design. The Scotts of Thrapston range is extensive, encompassing all shapes and sizes, and Cat & Mouse

Clockwise from top left The Baltimore

summerhouse from Scotts of Thrapston; spacious interiors; the octagonal Baltimore summerhouse installed by Cat & Mouse Landscapes; David’s landscaping services include creating paths and beds.

Landscapes can supply and install them all. The range starts with models such as the bijou Baltimore summerhouse: a traditional octagonal design that’s two metres in diameter with leaded casement windows and a decorative roof finished with your choice of slate-effect tiles or cedar shingles.

The Burghley model is similar in style, but larger, with a spacious interior that will easily fit chairs and sofas or a dining set for entertaining, and a choice of lead-effect or cedar shingle roof is offered. Both the Baltimore and Burghley summerhouses can be viewed at Cat & Mouse Landscapes’ show garden in Featherstone, along with Scotts of Thrapston’s Sun Ray Garden Room. The

Sun Ray model on display at Cat & Mouse is 3.4m wide, but models go up to 4.4m in width. At just over two metres deep, these well-proportioned garden buildings lend themselves perfectly for use as a hobby room or home office.

“The Featherstone show garden overlooks the Pevensey Levels National Nature Reserve,” says David, “and it’s the ideal way for customers to see and experience the summerhouses first hand in a landscaped environment.” It’s been

four years since he started developing the landscaped gardens here; simply book an appointment online to view the summerhouses for yourself. A second show garden at Corker Outdoor Living in Paddock Wood, Kent, has Scotts of Thrapston’s Baltimore model on display.

If you dream of adding a summerhouse to your garden, now’s the time to get in touch so it can be in place, ready to help you make the most of your outside space this summer. And for any landscaping job, whether it’s re-laying a path, building a raised bed, adding a pond or a new patio or completely overhauling the design of your garden, David and Cat & Mouse Landscapes can help you make your project a reality.

To find out more, including further information about Scotts of Thrapston’s summerhouse range, call 01323 833600 or visit catandmouselandscapes.com

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 69

Lynette Coyne and Richard Tresidder have transformed the long, narrow plot around their Derbyshire cottage.

70 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Up the Garden Path

The wonky garden path at Church Cottage, in the heart of the Derbyshire village of Parwich, leads the visitor on a journey past a box parterre in miniature, quirky topiary, classic cottage planting, an orderly vegetable plot and masses of roses WORDS ANN TRENEMAN PHOTOGRAPHS JOE WAINWRIGHT A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 71

A

t first glance, Church Cottage in the Derbyshire village of Parwich looks too good to be true. It could be a film set: the old stone cottage, with its quintessentially English garden, make it the perfect backdrop for an Agatha Christie tale.

Added drama comes from the fact that the garden is separated from the churchyard only by a low wall.

Lynette Coyne and Richard Tresidder realised on buying the cottage, which is situated on a long thin plot wedged between the churchyard and a country lane, that this was not just their garden. It was seen as part of this Peak District village. “We realised how open the aspect was. People talk to us, over the walls, from the churchyard and in the lane,” says Lynette. “That is the lovely thing about the village.”

It is intriguing to discover that while the garden is now picture perfect, this has been achieved only through ingenious design and planting. The way to transform this skinny, weed-filled plot, 65m long and 9m at its widest, was not obvious, but Lynette and Richard saw its potential, and worked to create a unique garden that blends in beautifully with its surroundings. “I want it to feel timeless,” says Lynette. “I wanted to keep what attracted me when I first came here. The wonky path. The little planting areas. The big stone trough.”

The path is indeed a little wonky, starting at the cottage gate and continuing alongside walls adorned with roses and underplanted with bulbs. A lollipop box ball commands attention and, carrying on, there is a further surprise: a diamond-shaped box garden under a cloud-pruned cotoneaster, the air perfumed

by Rosa ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ and a voluptuous wisteria.

Here the mood is playful, not least because of the central chicken-on-a-nest topiary. But, just beyond it, the atmosphere turns restful with a square lawn surrounded by borders on three sides and a pleached 72 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Above Passers-by often stop to chat over the garden’s low stone walls.

Right Set on an angle, the diamond-shaped box parterre makes the plot feel wider than it is.

Below, from left St Peter’s Church; Richard’s neat vegetable garden; Lynette Coyne with her topiary chicken on a nest; a pleached beech hedge adds privacy.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 73

An arch through to the vegetable plot is covered with Clematis ‘Étoile Violette’ and pink rose ‘The Generous Gardener’.

74 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

“I made a list of all the things I would like to achieve in the garden and drew a plan to the last half metre”

beech hedge offering privacy from the lane. The path passes through an arch festooned with roses, including white ‘Claire Austin’ and pink ‘The Generous Gardener’, and into the vegetable patch where Richard rules supreme. Finally, the path winds through woodland plants to terminate at a bench: the perfect place to rest.

Neither Richard nor Lynette were gardeners before they arrived. They bought the cottage in 1986 but did not embark on the garden until 2006, after they had finished building a garden room and studio for Lynette, a retired interior architect: “I made a list of all the things I would like to achieve in the garden and drew a plan to the last half metre. On my list I included private spaces. I also felt that the garden was too linear – I needed to visually expand it.” She did this by “pinching” views from the churchyard and hills beyond, with yew hedges blending in with the churchyard. Richard explains how successive vicars had been gifted roses, so now the likes of ‘Rambling Rector’ and ‘Wedding Day’ planted in the churchyard add to their garden too.

The box parterre is next to the garden room and its four pentagonal beds are set on the diagonal to make the plot look wider, its lines taking your eye up and out into the wider landscape. The beds are filled with tulips and alliums in spring; Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’ and Rosa ‘Ballerina’ later. The topiary chicken is now a nesting place for a wren, providing much “bird in a bird” visual entertainment.

The different sections are linked by evergreen and seasonal planting, with the colours of the box garden leading to the herbaceous borders. Richard, a retired journalist, notes that the perennials are turbocharged by the rich soil and need to be divided every year. He is a lover of sweet peas, which are a fragrant link between the flower borders and the vegetable patch, which a few years ago gained an espaliered apple tree border to add open structure.

Asked what plant they can’t do without, Richard replies: “Rose ‘Gertrude Jekyll’. Repeat flowering.

Wonderful fragrance. She adds an air of joy.”

Lynette does not have a top plant, but her favourite section is the box garden. As she notes, that could change as she explores shady planting for the end of the garden: “I hope that, in due course, the woodland might become my favourite.”

Above The wonky stone paths and walls are what first drew Lynette and Richard to the cottage.

This image A small square of lawn is bounded by colourful borders with a mix of perennials and roses.

Church Cottage usually opens for Parwich Open Garden Day in June. See parwich.org A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 75

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PLANT OF THE MONTH

Mix & Match With a huge variety of attractive foliage and bee-friendly flowers, there’s a hebe for every garden

G

o to any garden centre and you’re almost guaranteed to find at least one hebe on offer. These shrubs are a staple of the nursery trade and sell in huge volumes, yet are rarely celebrated. Is it because they are so familiar we take them for granted? Perhaps it’s because quite a few of the hebes lined up on the garden centre’s benches are, shall we say, ‘tricky’ to integrate – a shrub with lurid pink leaves will inevitably divide opinion!

But it would be a mistake to tar all hebes with the same brush. This is a diverse genus that includes those familiar garden centre shrubs as well as distinctive species not easily identifiable as hebes.

There’s even a dedicated Hebe Society, championing their finer attributes to the wider world. You may recall the Society’s exhibit at the Hampton Court flower show in 2019, which showcased all the fascinating diversity hebes have to offer. Their website, hebesoc.org, is a mine of information too.

Many hebes hail from New Zealand, where they grow on both North and South Islands. In 1880, New Zealand botanist Joseph Armstrong published a catalogue of his homeland’s native plants and described several hebes, although others had been discovered and named as early as the 1830s. Joseph Hooker also recorded the hebes he found on the islands during the 1839 Ross expedition. Hooker was just 23 and filled a six-volume epic, Flora Antarctica, with his findings during the voyage.

HOW TO GROW Between 30cm and 1.2m tall, hebes are great for small gardens.

Most are compact and don’t need pruning.

They like warm, sunny spots and well-drained soil; most will turn up their toes in heavy soil that gets waterlogged.

Some varieties need protection from frost.

Quite often the same hebe would be named by a different botanist or plant hunter, leading to much confusion over species and precisely which similar-looking hebe is which. It’s a problem that plant taxonomists are still trying to get to grips with – synonyms abound, and some hebes have been moved into Parahebe. Still, there are some distinctive groups that help make sense of the genus, such as the whipcord hebes – those with scale-like leaves that give the plants the look of a conifer. Hebes with large leaves and showy flowers are often the most tender; small-leaved hebes with white flowers tend to be the most hardy.

WORDS CLARE FOGGETT IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK

Perfect partners: Four sun-lovers to go with purple or white-flowered hebes

Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’

A classic choice for upright flower spikes in a strong shade of purple.

Oenothera lindheimeri

Formerly gaura, this light, airy perennial has dancing flowers.

Papaver Oriental Group ‘Patty’s Plum’

Blowsy, bruised-purple, silken blooms are held on sturdy stems.

Poa labillardieri

A breezy grass, valued for its delicate flowers in summer.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 77

JULY

Things to Do Keep up to date in the garden with our monthly guide to key gardening tasks

Checklist ● Harvest early

vegetables such as peas, courgettes, garlic and potatoes as they grow and ripen. ● Water containers,

especially if the weather is warm and dry, using collected rainwater if possible. ● Remove side shoots

from cordon tomatoes. ● After old-fashioned

roses have flowered, encourage strong healthy shoots for next year by sprinkling a granular fertiliser around the root zone. ● Aim to empty the

WISTERIA maintenance

WORDS TROY SCOTT SMITH IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK

This vigorous yet spectacular climber needs to be pruned twice yearly to obtain the best results, and now’s the time for its summer trim For growers of wisteria, one of the most important tasks to undertake now is this vigorous climber’s summer pruning.

Carried out in around July or August, this involves cutting back the whippy green shoots of the current year’s growth (which can sometimes reach a few metres in length) to five or six leaves. This not only controls the size of the wisteria, but also allows sun and heat to reach the wood, encouraging it to form flower buds for next year rather than masses of vegetative growth.

78 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

At up to ten metres tall and five metres across, a single wisteria can engulf an entire property, so keeping on top of their rapid growth and making sure they’re well-trained is vital.

Summer’s pruning is followed by a winter prune in January or February, when all shoots should be shortened to two or three buds to leave stumpy spurs that will flower (left).

One of the easiest wisteria to grow is the vigorous and floriferous Wisteria sinensis ‘Prolific’, holder of an Award of Garden Merit from the RHS. It’s an excellent variety because it blooms early in its life and at the beginning of the season, from mid- to late-April. Its scented racemes are perfect for clothing a house or pergola.

greenhouse by midJuly, when there’s a natural pause in propagation. Use the time to clean and disinfect it and carry out any repairs ready for early autumn’s surge of activity. ● Divide congested

clumps of bearded iris after flowering.

PARTNER FEATURE

MAKE A SPLASH A natural swimming pond is aesthetically pleasing, wildlife friendly and a refreshing way to cool off in summer. Now’s the time to take the plunge

W

hile we all relish the thought of a refreshing dip in crystal clear water on a hot day, a traditional swimming pool with chlorine-treated water doesn’t always appeal. In contrast, a natural swimming pond blends easily into the garden, provides a habitat for wildlife and because it doesn’t use chemicals to keep the water clear, is an environmentally friendly choice, too.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 79

PARTNER FEATURE

I

f you’ve ever been tempted to install your own swimming pool, but been put off by the aesthetics of a conventional pool and the environmental cost of the chemicals required to keep their water clear, choosing a natural swimming pond instead could be the perfect solution. As Tim Evans of Gartenart, one of the UK’s leading providers of natural swimming ponds and pools says: “They are one of the very best ways to make the most of an English summer, its lovely weather and time spent in the garden.”

The two biggest advantages of choosing a natural swimming pond over a conventional swimming pool are firstly the benefits it’ll bring for wildlife – even though you swim in them, these ponds are as valuable for garden wildlife as a ‘normal’ pond – and then its natural aesthetic, which makes them so easy to integrate into a garden setting, unlike 80 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Above Water is kept crystal clear by

micro-organisms and plants.

Left Flowering plants in a swimming

pond’s margins attract masses of insects.

Below With their natural aesthetic, swimming ponds won’t jar with the surrounding garden and landscape.

the turquoise rectangle of a traditional swimming pool. They can attract birds, mammals, frogs and newts, dragon and damselflies, as well as pollinating insects drawn to their surrounding planting, all of which will quickly establish your swimming pond as a hub for wildlife.

Essentially, a swimming pond is simply a low-nutrient pond, where micro-

Above Gartenart’s swimming ponds can be built in any shape, but always take their site and the surrounding garden into account.

Left The sensation of freshwater swimming is incomparable.

organisms and plants work to keep the water clear instead of the gallons of chlorine a conventional swimming pool requires. Two zones are created: one is the regeneration area, consisting of a filter of shingle and water plants through which the water is pumped, so the second zone is kept crystal clear for swimming.

Unlike a traditional swimming pool, which needs constant attention to keep the water clear, swimming ponds need little maintenance. Occasionally emptying the skimmer and scooping out leaves is usually all that’s required, while an annual visit from Gartenart’s maintenance team will ensure the pump and filtration equipment are working as they should.

First Gartenart will visit your garden to get a feeling for its character and the requirements of your pond’s proposed

site, such as the ground conditions, levels and other important considerations. Next, you’ll be provided with a detailed report that estimates the costs and options for your project. This is the basis for the final design, should you decide to go ahead.

Detailed drawings are then produced, along with full specifications and costs, and then construction can begin.

This normally takes seven to ten weeks, depending on the pond’s size and complexity. The team building your pond will always include Gartenart’s specialists, who will start by excavating the pond and then install edging, drainage and the liner. The filtration system is installed next, followed by other features, such as decking or jetties, steps or ladders, stepping stones and rocks, for jumping in from the side. Finally, the pond is filled with water, and, of course, it’s planted.

It’s the planting that really ensures a swimming pond fits so naturally into its setting, often looking as if it has always been there. “Swimming ponds work very well in the setting of an annual or perennial meadow,” says Tim, “and if you want something that’s more in keeping

with a wildlife garden or a cottage garden, then they are the perfect choice.”

That said, Gartenart can also create straight-edged, formal swimming pools using the same natural filtration system if that’s more suitable for your garden. They can convert traditional swimming pools, and existing lakes or ponds into swimming ponds, too. Open days are arranged each year so you can see a swimming pond up close, and take a dip.

Many Gartenart customers are amazed by the water’s clarity and also by how much they use their swimming ponds – often from May through to autumn. And they’re invariably astonished by how special freshwater swimming is, compared to salty sea water or a chlorinated swimming pool. “It’s like wild swimming, but in the privacy of your garden,” as one customer put it. Or, as another described it: “Like swimming through silk.”

Gartenart, tel: +44 (0)20 7183 3333; gartenart.co.uk

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 81

82 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Glowing Achillea ‘Gold Plate’, delicate Verbena bonariensis, feathery fennel and sturdy agaves create an artfully thrown-together look.

Ode to JOY

Exuberance is order of the day at this joyously abundant garden near the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire, where head gardener Istvan Dudas is passionate about maintaining and enhancing Justin Spink’s dazzling design WORDS ANNETTE WARREN PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 83

C

lose to the historic Ridgeway in a rural corner of Oxfordshire, a handsome Queen Anne house enjoys an enviable position. In a tiny village, tucked into the chalky folds of the North Wessex Downs, the Grade II-listed house is smothered in roses so old that their names have been lost in the mists of time. Its east-facing York stone terrace is barely visible beneath a froth of plants: Mexican daisies have almost replaced the grouting between the stones, while lupins, poppies, alliums and peonies crowd around domes of box. The unrestrained terrace, overlooking a manicured lawn, contrasts with the formal box parterre beneath pleached hornbeams; a palate cleanser before the richness of the westfacing garden beyond the ancient barn.

On a balmy September evening, the barn garden is awash with glowing colour. It was designed by Justin Spink in 2011 and planted two years later. His brief was to integrate the uncultivated area behind the barn with the existing garden.

Select plants romp through the summer in a sumptuous display of reds, yellows and purples. Fiery Helenium ‘Moerheim Beauty’, orange Canna ‘Durban’ and Heliopsis helianthoides var. scabra ‘Burning Hearts’, along with bright yellow Rudbeckia triloba, sit happily amid the pinky blue tones of Echium pininana and Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus Superior’. The choice of plants manages to look casual, with cottage garden favourites, such as white hollyhocks and Geranium ‘Rozanne’, dotted among bronze fennel and annuals such as Cosmos bipinnatus and spiky Cleome spinosa ‘Cherry Queen’. But somehow it all works in a dramatic ‘last hurrah’ of summer that continues into autumn.

84 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Above Hot colour from Rudbeckia ‘Prairie Sun’ and ‘Cherry Brandy’, with Canna ‘Durban’.

Below Prolific false sunflower, Heliopsis ‘Burning Hearts’.

Bottom Lavender spills over the flint retaining walls, with undulating box hedging beneath.

Above The smart Queen Anne house overlooks borders brimming with nicotiana, echinacea, sedum and amaranthus.

Left Eye-popping colour from Salvia ‘Blue Angel’ and Dahlia ‘Fascination’ in the bed between the terrace and the house.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 85

Another aspect of Right A sunflower looms over scarlet flowers of the west-facing barn Canna indica ‘Purpurea’. garden is the terrace Far right Head gardener, for entertaining, which Istvan Dudas. benefits from the Below The flowers of Zinnia ‘Benary’s Giant’ shade of a wisteriaare an open invitation clad pergola. Justin to pretty pollinators.

Spink’s design uses flint Bottom The rose-pink retaining walls spilling flowers and dark foliage of Dahlia ‘Fascination’ over with lavender and are offset by the subtle Hydrangea arborescens green of bupleurum.

‘Annabelle’, with trees such as Betula utilis subsp. jacquemontii and Quercus robur (Fastigiata Group) ‘Koster’ framing the views from the barn.

Here, the owner’s family enjoy summer evenings against the blackened wood panelling of the barn.

The gardens have evolved in recent years under the knowledgeable eye of Hungarian-born head gardener Istvan Dudas. Inspired by two brilliant gardens – Great Dixter in East Sussex and the nearby Malverleys in Newbury – Istvan shadowed the nowretired former gardener until he was ready to take over.

“Gardening is my passion, my life. When I visited Great Dixter, I felt spiritually close to it as it reminded me of my grandparents’ garden in Transylvania,” he says.

Vegetables are an important part of the garden. Istvan works closely with the garden’s owner and the bounteous kitchen garden yields year-round crops, including ten or more varieties of chilli: “My boss is a good cook and this season we’ve enjoyed a bumper harvest of potatoes, leeks, carrots, garlic, broad beans, French beans, courgettes and spinach.” Istvan plants salad leaves such as rocket and lettuce, sowing seeds continually and planting out the plugs five or six times a year to ensure a constant supply.

Istvan also grows all the annuals for the borders in the greenhouse, adding to Justin Spink’s original planting design to prolong the flowering period. The romantic, naturalistic style is Istvan’s favourite. “I like a garden that has evolved, with good foliage and strong colours – orange and purple, deep red and yellow. I don’t understand why some gardeners don’t like yellow; it looks great with white!” he insists.

Dedication and determination are Istvan’s raison d’être. “One of my best friends is a Michelin-starred chef; he inspires me because he works so hard. It’s important to me to enjoy my job and do it well. I am passionate about gardening; I work hard, and I respect my job,” he concludes.

86 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

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09:25

PLANT OF THE MONTH

Head Turners Hailing from the Americas, cheery sunflowers are now a food industry staple as well as a garden standard

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HOW TO GROW Sunflowers need sun to thrive and fare best in rich, well-drained soil. For an early start in spring, sow annuals under cover and plant out once frosts have passed. Tall annuals may need staking, while perennials can benefit from a late-May Chelsea chop.

may have been suppressed by the Spanish when they arrived in the 16th century, bringing Catholicism with them. This suppression didn’t, however, stop them from introducing it to Europe in 1568, leading to sunflower oil production across Europe. Other species, some annual and others perennial, were introduced in later centuries.

Over time Helianthus has diverged, with some species bred for crop production and others developed for the ornamental market. Many hybrids stem from the annual Helianthus annuus, but good perennials include H. giganteus, willow-leaved H. salicifolius and popular ‘Lemon Queen’.

Perfect partners: Try these with Helianthus ‘Velvet Queen’, shown above

Verbena bonariensis

Well-known for its long-stalked, airy flowers in lavender-purple.

88 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Dahlia ‘Josudi Telstar’

A good choice for spiky ‘cactus’ flowers in salmon pink.

Coreopsis verticillata ‘Moonbeam’

Forms clumps of ferny foliage spangled with lemon flowers.

Achillea ‘Terracotta’

Flowers start off deep orange but grow paler as they age.

WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY IMAGES CLIVE NICHOLS; SHUTTERSTOCK

he sunflower family, Helianthus, may inspire a love or loathe reaction in gardeners, but it can always be relied upon to bring bold cheer in late summer and autumn. Breeding programmes have brought us varieties in a range of colours, from deep chocolate to the palest lemonyellow. Some are multi-stemmed and perfect for vase arrangements, while others reach heights of 3m or more, towering over neighbouring garden plants.

Early records in the RBG Kew herbarium point to the origins of a plant that is now both a widely grown ornamental product and an important food crop. Kew holds a specimen of Helianthus annuus that was collected by Ferdinand Lindheimer in 1894 in Texas. Another garden classic, gaura, also takes its name from Lindheimer: Oenothera lindheimeri.

Both blooms are found across the southern and western regions of North America, the area from which almost all Helianthus species originate.

Archaeological dating points to the common sunflower, H. annuus, being domesticated in Mexico as early as 2600 BC. It was grown as far south as El Salvador and is likely to have been cultivated by the Aztecs. Sunflowers are heliotropic, meaning they tilt during the day to face the sun, which explains their links to ancient solar religions. ‘Dä nukhä’, the word for sunflower in the indigenous Mexican language of Otomi, translates as ‘big flower that looks at the sun god’. It’s believed that for religious reasons the plant

AUGUST

Things to Do Keep up to date in the garden with our monthly guide to key gardening tasks

Checklist ● Continue to

deadhead container plants so displays of flowers keep coming. ● Harvest sweetcorn

and other summer crops such as tomatoes as they ripen. ● Take cuttings of

tender perennials such as salvias and pelargoniums to increase stocks. ● Give yews their

annual prune. Do it any earlier than August and regrowth will occur so their winter outline will be shaggy; prune later than October and their newly exposed tips will be prone to frost damage.

Mindful WATERING

WORDS TROY SCOTT SMITH IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK

Save precious water by choosing drought-tolerant plants, mulching the soil’s surface and watering effectively to make sure nothing is wasted Changes in our climate, in particular increasing summer drought, mean our gardens are becoming essential refuges for plants and animals, and the way in which we garden can have a dramatic effect on this rich biodiversity. The most valuable natural resource is water, and understanding the needs of plants will help reduce water loss from them and the soil.

There is a wealth of plants that are able to put up with dry conditions, continuing to do their thing when others have long since withered and died.

Plants from those areas of the

world with a Mediterranean climate, for example, are well adapted to coping with drought. Yet watering is still crucial, particularly for the establishment of new plants.

Sprinklers can lose up to 80 per cent of their water to the atmosphere or by evaporation on the ground before passing on any benefit to the plants. So to check the application rates, use rain gauges positioned nearby when watering. Try to water plants either early or late in the day to retain moisture in the soil and create a ‘reservoir’ or depression in the ground

around the plant, to prevent the water from running away.

It isn’t enough just to make the soil damp – it has to be thoroughly wetted for the water to travel down to the roots – and only the root zone needs to be wetted. As a general guide, 24 litres per square metre every seven to ten days will be sufficient to maintain plant growth. It is better to give plants a good soaking than to water little and often. To help reduce the need for irrigation use a good thick mulch, such as gravel, compost or bark, to limit evaporation from the soil.

● Plant late summer

flowering perennials such as asters, sedums, or Japanese anemones (below). These are ideal for threading through planting schemes without looking like you are trying too hard.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 89

P R O M OT I O N PARTNER FEATURE

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ake the most of the bright spring days and long summer evenings with Danish stove and outdoor living brand, Morsø. Featuring sleek Scandinavian design, Morsø’s multifunctional barbecues and stylish outdoor ovens will provide the ultimate cooking experience during the day, and when the evening draws in, the barbecues will double up as a heater for much-needed warmth.

90 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

When looking to invest in a barbecue, it is important to know what kind will suit you and your outdoor space. Morsø have provided below some points to consider when choosing the right model for you.

A Barbecue for Any Space If you’re looking to buy a barbecue, you should consider the size of your outdoor space and the intended purpose of the grill. For those who have a large garden

Above The multifunctional Morsø Grill Forno

has a wide opening to give lots of room for cooking and a warming view of the flames within, while the cast-iron grid has been designed for optimal burning and cooking.

and love to host, the striking Forno Oven with an Outdoor Table would be a perfect choice. However, if you have a balcony or a small garden area, the Balcone Electric BBQ is a versatile option that can be fixed onto a balcony or placed on a table.

Clockwise from top The award-winning

Morsø Forno Outdoor Oven; the Morsø Balcone Electric BBQ is easy to install even on a tiny balcony; the Morsø Forno Gas Medio grill paired with a Morsø Tavolo table.

Wood vs Gas Morsø’s extensive collection of barbecues allows you to choose between gas and wood fuels. Delivering different cooking results, wood-burning ovens like the Forno Grill create smoky flavours that will transform any meal. Great for grilling vegetables, pizzas, meat and more, the firewood smoke flavours will infuse into

your food to create delicious, memorable meals. Alternatively, barbecues fuelled by gas, like the Gas Forno range, won’t impact the taste of the food, so you can get creative with flavours.

Cooking Accessories To enhance the barbecue experience, team your grill with Morsø’s range of accessories and cookware. Morsø’s pots, pans and dishes boast a durable, double-coated finish that means they can be used for years to come. An efficient choice when barbecuing outdoors, the nature of the finish means the cookware

retains heat considerably longer than sheet iron. And make the most of the barbecue by experimenting with different recipes: morsoe.com/en/recipes Whatever design you go for, Morsø’s offerings boast a strong Scandinavian design that will remain timeless alongside the passing of trends and styles.

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A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 91

The Treasure CHEST

Abbotsbury Subtropical Garden in Dorset is a magical kingdom of rare botanical gems, blazing with exotic late-summer colour from around the world WORDS AMBRA EDWARDS PHOTOGRAPHS MIMI CONNOLLY

This image Swamp lily,

Crinum powellii, by the lake, surrounded by ferns, bamboo and deciduous woodland.

Opposite Steps up to the Mediterranean Bank are lined with salvia, agapanthus and agaves.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 93

I

world,” rhapsodised author M. R. Gloag, “has been called upon to f plants could read the textbooks, then Abbotsbury would contribute something to the ‘Earthly Paradise’.” not – could not – exist. This fabulous subtropical garden, That is every bit as true today, confirms doyen of British brimming with plants that experts tell us cannot possibly plantsmen, Roy Lancaster – a patron of the garden, who regularly grow outdoors in dank, sunless England, is improbably sited in a wooded dell less than a mile inland from the wild, leads troops of students through its leafy glades to marvel at the collection. It is not just the variety of plants that astonishes these stony sweep of Chesil Beach on Dorset’s splendid Jurassic Coast. visitors, but the sensitive way in which Steve has put them together, A belt of holm oaks encircling the garden acts as a giant blanket, playing with delicious contrasts of texture and form. Colour, Steve according to garden curator Steve Griffith, helping to reduce maintains, is a secondary consideration. Nonetheless, the glorious radiation frost: while it is never especially hot, winter temperatures explosions of colour as the garden’s Mediterranean plantings reach rarely fall below -3ºC. Then the steep chalk escarpment behind their late-summer zenith clearly haven’t happened by accident. the gardens creates a rain-shadow, providing useful extra hours According to Roy, Steve Griffith is a genius, not only in the way of sunshine, while the early-morning sea mists drifting in from he presents the plants, but in the great contribution he is making Lyme Bay are sufficient to persuade the many rare camellias, both to the study of botany and to local wildlife conservation. rhododendrons and other cloud-forest plants gathered from high “His employers are very lucky to have him,” Roy maintains. “He in the Himalayas to grow blithely at sea level. has taken on a wreck and turned it into one of the most exciting Steve is by no means the first to have taken advantage of gardens in England – and a major addition to tourism in Dorset.” the garden’s favourable microclimate to experiment with new The garden was indeed in a sorry state when Steve and exotic plants. In August 1899, a reporter from arrived on the scene in 1990. Established in 1765 The Gardener’s Chronicle breathlessly reported “an Above The warm colours

by Elizabeth Fox-Strangways, the first Countess impression of tropical vegetation... seldom seen in of Kniphofia ‘Tawny of Ilchester, as a kitchen garden for her beachside an English garden”, while a popular garden book of King’, crocosmia and phlox dominate here, castle, the garden was developed by successive 1906, A Book of English Gardens, described Sikkim picked out by the sun generations of the Earls of Ilchester, notably the 4th rhododendrons, 30 varieties of eucalyptus, towering and punctuated by Earl, William Fox-Strangways. A widely travelled succulents and a vast range of unfamiliar plants palms, conifers and diplomat and respected botanist, William used his from Chile and New Zealand. “Every part of the towering echium.

94 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Above left Hailing

from Australia, Grevillea juniperina thrives on the Mediterranean bank.

Above right Ligularia enjoys the moist soil by Abbotsbury’s stream.

Below right Coral flower spikes of watsonia.

Below left Indigo Salvia forsskaolii loves coastal conditions.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 95

Above left Striking red mammoth job of righting the damage, he had three extensive overseas connections, as well as his family bridges cut through the tasks in view: to make Abbotsbury commercially links (he encouraged his sisters to marry into notable rhododendrons and over viable (which entailed a smart new restaurant, gardening dynasties), to obtain a constant supply of streams in the garden’s lavatories and a plant sales area); to rebuild the novel plants and seeds. In his will, he decreed that verdant valley bottom.

Above right Sun sets garden’s botanical reputation; and to extend its Abbotsbury should always remain an “Experimental over the Mediterranean seasons of interest right through the year. garden,” dedicated to “naturalising useful and Bank, highlighting Salvia All have been accomplished over the past three curious trees, shrubs and other plants.” forsskaolii, Agave decades.

Key to the last endeavour are the Chilean The garden expanded steadily beyond the walls, attenuata and watsonia.

Borders at the highest point in the garden (Steve has which now enclose a show-stopping Victorian been on plant-hunting expeditions in Chile and is keen to introduce garden, and into the surrounding woodland, which offered ideal gardeners to the wonderfully diverse flora of that country), and a growing conditions for the great influx of newly collected plants rocky south-facing slope where he has created a Mediterranean from the Himalayas, China and Japan. The 5th Earl turned his Bank from what was a dark area of 1970s conifers. “I wanted attention to Mediterranean plantings, so that by 1899 over 4,000 to introduce Mediterranean plants, but most of the garden is different plants were growing in the garden. But after this heyday, woodland.” he notes. “Here was an open, south-facing slope in full like so many great historic gardens, Abbotsbury suffered the ill sun – very rare in this garden – and good drainage. Wet and cold effects of two world wars and, by the 1960s, the once-great plant air rolls off it, so you can grow plants that don’t like winter wet, collection was lost amid brambles and scrub. such as South African bulbs. But all the Mediterranean climate The first attempts at regeneration began towards the end of the zones are represented here – Australia, South Africa, California, 1960s – local residents fondly remember a charming Heligan-style Chile – so there’s a mix of plants from different zones, which you jungle. But it took a sudden catastrophe to kick-start a wholesale couldn’t have in a strictly botanic garden.” restoration: the great storm of 14 January 1990, which reduced the Creating it was hard work, he confesses: “First all the conifers garden to matchwood. Taking up his new job in the wake of the had to be felled, and then the soil is solid ironstone – we had to storm, Steve was faced with a scene of desolation. As well as the

96 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

NOTEBOOK

The World Garden This lush woodland garden is arranged in ecological niches, showcasing rare and exotic plants from all over the globe

1

chisel out the planting holes with a crowbar.

But many plants like the acidity, especially the Protea family. We grow leucospermums, banksias, grevilleas and melaleucas in conditions that broadly replicate their homeland on the Cape.” Bulbous plants from the summer-rain areas of South Africa, such as agapanthus and watsonias, kniphofia and eucomis, also thrive on the slope. From them rise spires of blue echium from the Canary Isles and titanium-coloured puyas from Chile, glossy mahogany aeoniums, extravagant fans of foliage from assorted palms, sharp-toothed yuccas, spiky aloes and fat agaves – all set off by a backdrop of cork oaks and fragrant eucalyptus. Once the plants are established, they are never watered, and biennials like the echiums seed around freely. The colours and rhythms are scintillating: it is no surprise to learn that Steve, in his limited spare time, is a painter and musician.

“I’d like to think I’ve got an artistic streak. I play music – guitar and mandolin. And when I look at the garden, I view it as if it’s a painter’s palette: I look at all the textures and shapes and structure. I’m not worried about whether colours clash, because they clash in nature. My mission is to keep the colour going throughout the year: when the garden goes flat in July or September, then I have to add something to lift it. It’s like painting the Forth Bridge – you go in perpetual circles, losing some things and adding others, hoping slowly the effect will build up. But I think every good gardener is an artist, don’t you?”

Above Aloes and palms such as Cordyline australis ‘Torbay Dazzler’ add spiky texture to the Mediterranean bank, where Melianthus major and agapanthus bloom.

Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, Buller’s Way, Abbotsbury, Weymouth, Dorset DT3 4LA. Open 10am-5pm daily. Online booking is advisable, but not essential, at abbotsbury-tourism.co.uk

2

3

4

1 The cork oak, Quercus suber, was once common in forests in south-

west Europe, but since wine corks have been replaced by screw cap closures, the trees are under threat. 2 Aeoniums bear rosettes on woody stems, with pyramids of yellow, pink or white flowers on elephantine trunks. 3 The oversized garden gazebo is designed to appear in perfect proportion when seen from below. 4 Watsonias offer sword-shaped leaves and flowers in singing shades of orange and pink.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 97

PLANT OF THE MONTH

Ancient Healing A must-have in stylish prairie planting schemes, echinacea enjoys a long history as a medicinal plant

E

chinacea blooms resemble multi-hued sun hats and are produced through late summer and early autumn. It bears the common name of coneflower on account of its spiky, cone-like centre made up of tube florets. The petals, or ray florets, protrude downwards in a single layer, but modern varieties can fan out in a tutu of double petals.

Thanks to the trend for perennial planting, these herbaceous perennials are now all the rage again.

They originate from the dry prairies of central and eastern North America, making them tolerant of the draughty conditions that are becoming increasingly commonplace in the UK in summer and autumn.

There are ten species of echinacea, the most widespread of them being Echinacea purpurea, E. angustifolia and E. pallida. Most were originally purple-petalled, but modern varieties have been bred to create blooms in a rainbow of colours.

Echinacea was introduced to England in the 17th century. Jacob Bobart the Younger, the keeper of the Oxford Physic Garden, attributed its introduction to clergyman and naturalist John Banister. In 1699, Bobart published a picture and description of Echinacea purpurea as Dracunculus Virginianus latifolius (broad-leaved Virginian perennial).

Echinacea has long been associated with medicine and healing. For centuries Native Americans used it to fight infections as wide-ranging as septic wounds and toothache. Historical writings suggest the flower

HOW TO GROW These low-maintenance perennials require well-drained soil and full sun. Plant them in summer and, come winter, ensure the soil around them doesn’t get too wet.

Coneflowers can be propagated by division but generally prefer to be left alone.

was effective against the bite of a rattlesnake, while wounded elks would eat it to heal themselves.

Fresh interest in the plant’s medicinal properties came with the arrival of European settlers in the early 19th century. According to one doctor writing in a journal at the time, the root was used ‘for nearly every sickness with good results’, although today it is mainly found in herbal remedies to ward off colds.

Ethereal E. pallida was set against silvery grasses and blue flowers at Hampton Court last year in an RHS Garden by designer Tom Stuart-Smith. He used hardy perennials with Mediterranean plants to showcase the beauty of climate-resistant gardens.

Eupatorium maculatum

Put this statuesque perennial at the back of the border.

98 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Album’

Slender spires of white for a nice contrast in flower shape.

Sedum spectabile ‘Herbstfreude’

Fleshy leaves and green flowers that open to pink then crimson.

Monarda didyma

To avoid mildew, find a spot with soil that doesn’t dry out.

WORDS PHOEBE JAYES IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK

Perfect partners: Robust perennials for a sunny prairie-style scheme

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SEPTEMBER

Things to Do Keep up to date in the garden with our monthly guide to key gardening tasks

Checklist ● Prune summer-

fruiting raspberries once they’ve cropped, cutting back old canes that have fruited and leaving the new, green canes that will bear fruit next year. ● Keep containers,

baskets and window boxes well watered and fed to keep them going until the first frosts. ● Harvest crops such

as figs, runner beans and summer squashes.

Remove large leaves to let light reach developing pumpkins. ● While they are

growing well, pot up a few clumps of mint and parsley to grow on the kitchen windowsill during winter.

Plant SPRING BULBS

WORDS TROY SCOTT SMITH IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK

Illuminate spring containers, borders and meadows by getting bulbs in the ground from early September onwards, depending on the type Be prepared for when your bulbs arrive. In the first instance, try to avoid impulse buys! It’s all too easy to buy bulbs like a child in a sweet shop and then come to regret it when the unplanted bulbs rot away in their bags.

Before the bulbs arrive, you need to have some idea of where you are intending to plant them – and when. If you need to store them temporarily, they can be kept in a dry, frostand mouse-free shed. Take the time to sort through them, labelling as you go.

Spring-flowering bulbs should be planted in autumn and tulips in November. Daffodils form roots earlier than most so should be planted along with anemones no later than early

September. Favourites include the scented pheasant’s eye daffodil, Narcissus poeticus var. recurvus (left), a lovely candidate for a bulb meadow.

Key to a successful spring show is understanding the sequential flowering of bulbs.

With judicious planting, you can have a run of flowers from February to late May, starting with snowdrops, crocuses and Iris reticulata, and ending with late tulips such as ‘Queen of Night’, alliums and camassias.

Be sure to order early to get the varieties you want.

● Plant specially

prepared hyacinth bulbs in order to enjoy their scented flowers at Christmas. They need about 10-12 weeks from planting to flower.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 101

The Virtuoso GARDENER

Griselda Kerr’s book may be called The Apprehensive Gardener, to reflect her steep learning curve, but her garden at The Dower House in Derbyshire is the work of a bold and confident plantswoman WORDS JACKY HOBBS PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS

102 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Kniphofia rooperi, Aconitum ‘Kelmscott’ and dahlias bring bold, gutsy colour to borders at The Dower House.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

103

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any will be familiar with the extensive formal gardens of Melbourne Hall in Derbyshire.

Less well known are the informal neighbouring gardens of The Dower House, its 19th-century, Grade II-listed cousin. Here, enjoying broad vistas over the 20-acre Melbourne Pool, an enchanting garden has been created by Griselda and William Kerr. The diverse site affords habitats suitable for plants of every type, making it a true plantswoman’s playground.

In 2000, with their children at boarding school, Griselda returned from Hong Kong to The Dower House while her husband continued working abroad. The ‘garden’ beckoned: “One-and-ahalf overgrown acres with eight-foot brambles, impenetrable pathways and trees blocking the views!”

That was when she realised: “I had no idea how to look after the existing plants, let alone those I wished to add.” She signed up to three years of gardening school and read avidly, diarising solutions to her garden questions, which resulted in a practical guide that became a book, The Apprehensive Gardener.

Griselda capitalises on the different habitats afforded by the topography of her garden. “The soil is mostly neutral, but it is more acidic and heavier in the west,” she notes. It’s moist by the water but drier on the east side, where less clay content means “mulching and staking, otherwise plants fall over in the Millstone Grit soil”.

The garden faces south, with sun-soaked upper terraces, while canopies of mature trees to the west create shady areas with a range of conditions. Griselda has devised planting schemes to suit every aspect of her garden at all times of the year. The Top Griselda Kerr, who sheltered walls of The Dower House itself wrote The Apprehensive are smothered with wisteria and Rosa Gardener while caring for the garden here.

‘Madame Alfred Carrière’. Soft flowers Middle A golden bloom linger into autumn at the front of the of Abutilon ‘Canary Bird’. house: white Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Purity’, This image Box and pink Rosa ‘Bonica’, scented nicotiana and berberis edge beds of dahlias and helianthus. blue Salvia uliginosa are interspersed with silvery clouds of Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’.

Colours darken towards the western front corner of the house. The Wisteria Bed includes tender Abutilon ‘Ashford Red’ and dark torches of Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Blackfield’. These bloom into autumn, thriving in this sunny spot.

Conditions are similar in the garden’s eastern Long Border. Planting here is successional, with mixed perennials in tones of pink, terracotta and mauve.

Pink-tinged plumes of Persicaria alpina mix with fountains of sesleria, sedum Hylotelephium spectabile ‘Brilliant’, Aster x frikartii ‘Mönch’, aster ‘Little Carlow’

“I had no idea how to look after the existing plants, let alone those I wished to add”

104 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

The clear yellow Dahlia ‘Glorie van Heemstede’ shines out against the tranquil waters of Melbourne Pool.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

105

and Symphyotrichum ericoides. There’s Echinops ritro ‘Veitch’s Blue’ with silver-leaved Pyrus salicifolia ‘Pendula’, which spills over the water’s edge. “Colours here are a restrained contrast to the explosive colours to the west,” Griselda observes.

The western lawn’s Hot Border is damper and almost tropical. It’s a riot of carnival planting designed to keep the colour coming. It includes freeflowering Helianthus ‘Miss Mellish’ and H. ‘Lemon Queen’, Kniphofia rooperi and dahlias such as ‘Glorie van Heemstede’ and ‘Bishop of Auckland’.

Lawns are a key feature. “I like sweeping areas of green that relax the eye,” says Griselda. The Chelsea Morning Lawn runs down a slope, pinned by standard privet lollipops. This break in the sloping woodland affords views over treetops, across pillars of Irish yew and a bobbin of privet. Woodland shade and damper areas are spangled with colour from Kirengeshoma palmata, toad lily and Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ alongside several Hydrangea paniculata, which flush with colour as they mature.

The garden is an opulent tapestry of plants that thrive in the wealth of naturally occurring habitats, especially radiant in autumn. Through curiosity, determination and a love of plants, Griselda’s garden glows with the same vitality as its owner.

The Dower House, Church Square, Melbourne, Derbyshire DE73 8JH. Tel: +44 (0)1332 864756.

Bookings available for groups of eight or more.

106 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Above Helenium ‘Waltraut’ perfectly complements golden Sorbus scalaris.

Right In the woods, a swing seat made by Duncan Thurlby.

Below Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’, with Helianthus ‘Miss Mellish creating a golden glow behind.

PARTNER FEATURE

TREND MEETS TRADITION Pots and Pithoi’s hand-thrown, terracotta, Cretan pots add instant style to any outdoor space

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ontainers brimming with colourful plants make the perfect finishing touch in a year-round garden.

Whether it’s a simple pot of a special snowdrop in late winter, a container filled with vibrant tulips, summer’s vibrant pelargoniums, a flaming Japanese acer in autumn or winter’s shapely evergreens, a selection of well-planted containers rings the changes throughout the year.

The pots you choose are crucial. Stick to one material for a cohesive display, and invest in quality pots that are frostresistant so they’ll last for years. The terracotta containers in Pots and Pithoi’s range are made with a unique blend of clays that can withstand the harshest UK winter. Unlike modern terracotta, which is fired in gas kilns, Pots and Pithoi works with the best potters in Crete, where handthrown pots are fired at 1,050°C using crushed olive stones and grape seeds.

The Cretans have been making the world’s best terracotta pots for thousands of years, and Pots and Pithoi

Clockwise from above All pots are frost-

resistant thanks to a special blend of clays; the iconic, Cretan, banded pattern; each pot is hand-thrown by skilled potters in Crete.

was one of the first to introduce Cretan terracotta to the UK in 1985. Because of the firm’s close relationship with the potters in Crete, ancient methods are maintained. Each pot is hand-thrown on the wheel and traditionally fired, giving it its own unique character and colouration.

As David Dodd, Pots and Pithoi’s owner since 2017, says: “It’s amazing to see at first hand the skill and craftsmanship that goes into making these beautiful pots using traditional methods that have been passed down through generations.”

The range is vast and the pots are available in all shapes and sizes, from traditional, shapely amphora and oil jars, to more conventional bowls and containers. Many are beautifully decorative, with ‘pie crust’ detailing, fluted rims or the iconic banded pattern that makes Cretan containers

so distinctive. Some larger designs are available as water features and the firm also sells teak furniture, ceramics and Cretan specialities – online and from its West Sussex showroom and gift shop.

Pots and Pithoi, tel: +44 (0)1342 714793; potsandpithoi.com

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 107

PLANT OF THE MONTH

Under the Radar Despite its reputation, low-growing, unassuming cotoneaster is a hero plant with year-round interest

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n general, British people like to cheer on the underdog, so it’s odd that so many gardeners dismiss certain shrubs that are, admittedly, less showy or attention-grabbing than others. Take cotoneaster, for example. If ever there was a plant tarred by the epithet ‘car park shrub’, it’s this humble yet hard-working stalwart.

But it has so much to offer in the garden, including tremendous benefits for wildlife, and colourful interest across the seasons.

Arguably one of the best ones for gardens is Cotoneaster horizontalis. Yes, you’ll often see this low-growing species dutifully covering the ground in those kerbed areas of planting between parking bays, but use it with a bit more creativity and it can be a delight. In spring, small white flowers adored by bees are produced along branches lined with neat rows of small glossy green leaves. By autumn, masses of scarlet berries appear, which birds will feast on, while the leaves develop a rich, coral-red colour. Holding on over winter, foliage normally drops by around January, revealing the branches’ intriguing fish-bone pattern.

As well as making dense, weed-suppressing groundcover, C. horizontalis looks good against a wall, where its herringbone structure is brilliantly revealed in winter, particularly when highlighted by a coating of frost. It’s also superb planted at the top of a retaining wall, so its branches can arch downwards in a cascade of bright autumn colour.

HOW TO GROW These hardy shrubs prefer moist but welldrained soil and full sun or part shade.

They’re best planted in autumn and should be kept well watered until they establish. Some varieties require light pruning after fruiting, and all will appreciate a yearly mulch.

It was French missionary Père Armand David who introduced C. horizontalis to cultivation. He sent seeds home to France from China in around 1870, and by 1885 it was being sold to discerning French gardeners who appreciated its distinctive habit. A science teacher turned missionary, Père David was in China to convert its people to Catholicism but his passion for the natural world was his greater calling.

Said to have a mild manner and an innate respect for the Chinese, David was welcomed in parts of the country that Westerners rarely got to see and discovered masses of plants we grow today, such as Buddleja davidii and Davidia involucrata.

Hedera colchica ‘Sulphur Heart’

Train onto the same wall for a vibrant tapestry of foliage.

108 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’ Red autumn

leaves and winter stems will complement the berries.

Miscanthus ‘Kleine Silberspinne’

A compact grass with silvery leaves that appear to glow.

Physocarpus ‘Diabolo’

Rich purple foliage on a 2m shrub with scarlet autumn berries.

WORDS CLARE FOGGETT IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK

Perfect partners: Create an autumn spectacle with leaves and berries

OCTOBER

Things to Do Keep up to date in the garden with our monthly guide to key gardening tasks

Checklist ● Collect seeds by

separating them from their seedcases and storing in a cool place. ● Plant herbaceous

perennials while the soil is still warm enough for roots to establish. ● Lift hardwood

cuttings taken last autumn, which by now will have rooted, and plant them in permanent positions. ● Sow over-wintering

broad beans and peas outside, with cloches to hand ready to protect them from the harshest winter weather. ● Pot up prepared

amaryllis (hippeastrum) bulbs so they flower in time for Christmas. ● Sow sweet peas by

the middle of October.

Autumn-sown plants are naturally bushy and by the time they are planted out next spring, they’ll have strong, healthy roots.

REINVIGORATE lawns

WORDS TROY SCOTT SMITH IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK

After a long, hot summer, some simple autumn lawn-care tasks will prepare your grass for winter and improve its appearance for next year The first autumn lawn-care task is to remove the build-up of dead grass, known as thatch, that lies within the sward. Its removal will reinvigorate the grass and minimise the risk of fungal disease in warm and damp conditions. A mechanical rake or scarifier are the ideal tools for this. Once the thatch has been raked out from the sward, it needs to be collected –

if it is dry, the thatch will be very light and should rake up much more effectively.

The next task is to improve surface aeration and drainage.

Use a mechanical aerator or a hollow-tine aerator, pushed in at 15cm intervals across the entire lawn. Creating these slots lets in air, relieving compaction and improving drainage. Do this every three years or more often

if you garden on badly drained clay soil. The resulting cores of soil need to be picked up and then the holes filled by brushing in a top dressing of sharp sand.

Sprinkle old potting compost mixed with grass seed onto the surface of bare patches and brush it in with a stiff birch besom. Finally, apply an autumn fertiliser that’s high in potash to stimulate new root growth.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 109

P R O M OT I O N

SOAK AWAY THE DAY IN STYLE Devon-based family company Riviera Hot Tubs is known for providing unparalleled quality, from the premium materials, to the passion and service you’ll experience from their team

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iviera Hot Tubs have been manufacturing wooden barrel hot tubs for 20 years. Every client is catered for individually with the company’s bespoke service, and no product comes straight off a shelf.

Riviera’s barrels are built to seat from two to sixteen people, using economical air source heating systems. New for 2022 are the company’s wood-fired hot tubs, heated by 55kW-output wood burning stoves, which are manufactured in Kent using stainless steel and copper.

Each year Riviera continue to move away from plastic parts with the end goal of providing a system using only natural materials. Also newly introduced this year are new marine grade stainless 110 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Above Riviera hot tubs can be recessed

or free-standing, and the new wood-fired models don’t need access to electricity.

Right Riviera also install bespoke saunas.

steel jet massage zones. These are subtle to the eye but provide an unparalleled hydrotherapy experience.

Cedar Wood Hot Tubs In this world of plastics and synthetics, it’s refreshing to find something made of wood. Riviera’s traditional hot tubs are classic in their design and simplicity.

Made from Canadian kiln-dried cedar, chosen for its clear grain, long-term stability and natural resistance to decay, these hot tubs have both an aesthetic

and tactile quality, which results in a truly unique bathing experience.

Natural wooden tubs are a pleasure to use and a beautiful addition to any

Clockwise from top left An outdoor sauna

allows you to experience the full benefits; a recessed Riviera hot tub clad in cedar wood; perfectly positioned for the view.

garden landscape, be they freestanding or built into new or existing patios or timber decking. In an increasingly hectic and stressful world, a tub offers a peaceful and soothing refuge any time of the year in the privacy of your garden.

The craftsmanship of Riviera’s tubs simply can’t be found in mass-produced plastic spas, and the touch, feel and smell of beautiful cedar wood is unparalleled.

Hydrotherapy The benefits of hydrotherapy have been known for thousands of years. Ancient civilisations enjoyed bathing in hot water springs and hydrotherapy was born.

There are three factors at work in a hot tub – heat, buoyancy and massage – and combined they create a perfect environment that can be used to help treat a number of ailments from arthritis

to minor sports injuries. Immersing yourself in hot water raises the body’s temperature and causes blood vessels to dilate, which results in increased circulation and endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers. It can also help reduce blood pressure and high sugar levels.

Riviera’s hot tubs are also deeper than conventional acrylic types, making you more buoyant. Step in and you lose over half your body weight, relieving pressure on joints and muscles and creating a relaxing sensation you can’t get in a normal bath.

Pure Pleasure The massaging action in the water is created from the bubble bench and jets positioned in the tub, which send a mixture of warm water and air through to the jet nozzles. These gently massage away all the aches and pains caused by the daily stresses of today’s fast pace of life. Simply soaking in a hot, swirling tub will leave you mentally and physically relaxed. Twenty minutes in the morning can give you a fresh start and a long soak before bed can help improve sleep.

Rejuvenating Saunas Riviera don’t just supply their own British-made hot tubs, but also design and build bespoke sauna and steam rooms. Mixing the sauna and steam experience with a cold plunge or bathing in one of their hot tubs will give a true wellness experience. Riviera also build repair rooms for professional athletes using the same mix of experiences: relax, recover, and repair.

Used on a regular basis, a sauna has many benefits. Saunas detoxify, cleanse and rejuvenate your body and skin through perspiration. They stimulate respiration and circulation, relax tired and aching muscles and the dry heat of the sauna also relieves congestion.

Relaxation time is such an important commodity and having a sauna or hot tub will provide you with somewhere to destress and unwind day or night. They can also be used as a place to spend quality time with friends and family. Contact Riviera to discuss the options for your bespoke steam or infrared sauna.

For more information, tel: 01626 367037 or visit riviera-hottubs.co.uk

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 111

This image Golden Acer cappadocicum and Ulmus americana ‘Princeton’, seen over fiery Acer japonicum and A. palmatum.

Opposite A late bloom on a mophead hydrangea.

HIMALAYAN HOMAGE The garden and arboretum at Hergest Croft in the Welsh Marches host a collection of unusual trees, some dating back to the glory days of the Victorian plant hunters, and some more recently introduced WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS NICOLA STOCKEN

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agnificent trees lend great distinction to a landscape and, thanks to five generations of the Banks family, the gardens at Hergest Croft are a treasure trove of rare specimens planted since Victorian times.

“My grandfather introduced many new plants brought back from China in the 1900s by plant hunter Ernest Wilson,” says Lawrence Banks who, together with his wife Elizabeth, has cared for the 70-acre garden and arboretum since 1988.

Many of these have grown into the towering exotic trees that now fill the woodland valleys, creating scenes that are, says Lawrence, more reminiscent of the Himalayas than the Welsh Marches. A weeping beech looms within a stone’s throw of the Arts & Crafts house, while nearby, a pair of Ginkgo biloba trees stand ramrod straight. At the end of the lawn is a superb Acer palmatum ‘Sango-kaku’, planted in 1913 by William Hartland Banks who built the house.

The arboretum is home to exotic trees such as Davidia involucrata, which heralds spring with white handkerchief A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 113

flowers. “These trees have been planted by people who foresaw what they would look like a century on,” says Lawrence, indicating an avenue of blue cedars in the Azalea Garden.

“They were planted alternating with unusual conifers, most of which have survived.”

Over 30 years, Lawrence and Elizabeth have added rarities such as Sorbus splendens, a species introduced in 1995, when “plant hunters started bringing unusual plants back from China and Vietnam was opening up,” explains Lawrence.

Other rare trees include Acer sieboldianum, a small-growing specimen that turns a glorious shade of crimson in autumn, the fruiting mountain ash, Sorbus henryi ‘Emei Shan’, and Betula utilis subsp. albosinensis ‘Bowling Green’, a Chinese red birch.

No new tree is introduced without forethought, not only to ensure the best position for it, but also with an eye to the future. “First we consider the provenance and information from the expedition,” says Elizabeth. “Then we work out the best place, considering ultimate size and shape. It takes a while!”

Even the most fussy plants thrive on this neutral shale, in a temperate climate with cool summers

Above The Arts & Crafts house overlooks the Slate Garden, with a slate fir cone by Joe Smith.

Left Elizabeth and Lawrence Banks with their working spaniels Havoc and Honey.

Below right Sorbus x vertesensis, a whiteberried rare rowan.

Below left Vivid late colour from the flowers of Hesperantha coccinea.

“These trees have been planted by people who foresaw what they would look like a century on” and warm winters, sheltered by Hergest Ridge and mature woodland. “The conditions are ideal for a huge range of plants,” Elizabeth observes. To the south is the River Arrow, and nearby is a manor house dating from 1267 that is allegedly haunted by a great black hound believed to have inspired Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Head gardener Stephen Lloyd has been here for 41 years, and continues the tradition of cultivating rare species from around the world, receiving seeds from contemporary plant hunters such as Roy Lancaster, Chris Chadwell and Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones.

“It’s alright for me in my potting shed, but then you look at the seed packet, and it says: ‘China, 2,000 feet up’, and you realise that whoever collected it was probably hanging off the side of a mountain!”

Stephen’s detailed records and hands-on approach have assured many successes, especially in adding to the National Collections of Birches, Zelkovas and Maples. “So much of horticulture is commercial, but here I can be very personal and learn from new arrivals,” he says. A favourite is the rare Neoshirakia japonica that he grew from seed in the 1980s: today he can shelter beneath its crimson canopy.

Throughout the arboretum are small glades of maples or birches, and one of Stephen’s favourites is Betula utilis subsp. albosinensis, a beautiful birch with peeling bark and an elegant trunk. In one glade stands Betula ‘Hergest’, a lovely mature specimen with a bronze trunk that originated from a chance

Above The gravel path to the summerhouse is edged with sedum and Japanese anemones.

Right Golden-orange leaves of Acer shirasawanum ‘Aureum’ contrast with a huge Fagus sylvatica ‘Pendula’.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 115

“In the pandemic, gardens have been so important in providing spiritual solace” seedling. The blend of glades and single specimens makes it easy to overlook the rarities that flourish in between, such as a Eucryphia x intermedia ‘Rostrevor’ smothered in white flowers, and Lindera obtusiloba, a “bonny small tree” with glossy leaves and red berries, which took ten years to propagate.

The trees create a sense of permanence, sometimes being the centre of attention, and at others providing a backdrop to roses, herbaceous borders, a formal parterre, rockery and Azalea Garden. Most recently, Lawrence and Elizabeth have restored the Kitchen Garden, including an avenue of gnarled apple trees planted in 1900 by Lawrence’s great-grandmother.

Overseeing the gardens’ development, the couple ensure cohesion by maintaining the continuity of new introductions. And as a former president of the RHS, Elizabeth is particularly keen to inspire a new generation of gardeners. “I’d like to promote gardening in prisons where it reduces violence and to communities where it brings people together,” she says. “And, of course, in the pandemic gardens have been so important in providing spiritual solace.”

Hergest Croft Gardens, Ridgebourne Road, Kington, Herefordshire HR5 3EG. Open from Saturday 5 March for weekends only, then daily from Monday 28 March until Sunday 30 October 2021, 11.30am to 5pm. hergest.co.uk 116 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Above The frost-dusted Kitchen Garden features vegetable beds and stepover apples.

Right An abundant crop of eating apples fills a wooden trug.

Below A magnificent and stately specimen of Acer palmatum ‘Sango-kaku’, the coral-bark maple.

The Cotswold Sculpture Park

CELEBRATING OVER 20 YEARS OF ESCORTED GARDEN AND HERITAGE THEMED TOURS

Smaller groups and carefully crafted programmes that include some of the UK’s finest gardens and CELEBRATING 20 YEARS open OF ESCORTED also private gardens notOVER usually to the public.

GARDEN AND HERITAGE THEMED TOURS Bespoke tours for private groups arranged.

The Cotswold Sculpture Park is home to 10 acres of beautiful garden space which shows the work of incredible, talented artists. The park exhibits over two hundred sculptures on show and will be open Thursday to Monday OVER 20 YEARS OF ESCORTED every week from 1 April to 30 September CELEBRATING for 2022 exhibition.

w w w. b r o o k l a n d t r a v e l . c o m Brookland Travel Prospect House, Peverell Avenue East, Poundbury, Dorchester, DT1 3WE T +44 (0)1305 259467 E info@brooklandtravel.com

GARDEN AND HERITAGE THEMED TOURS

www.cotswoldsculpturepark.co.uk

Over six-hundred sculptures available to purchase for your garden or interior home space please see www.cotswoldsculpturepark.co.uk/art-for-sale

maller groups and carefully crafted programmres that include some of the UK's finest gardens and also private gardens not usually open to the public. Bespoke tours for private groups arranged.

w w w. b r o o k l a n d t r a v e l . c o m

Visit Dartington’s Grade II* listed gardens

maller groups and carefully crafted programmres that include some of the UK's finest gardens and also private gardens not usually open to the public. Bespoke tours for private groups arranged.

w w w. b r o o k l a n d t r a v e l . c o m

Brookland Travel Prospect House, Peverell Avenue East, Poundbury, Dorchester, DT1 3WE

T +44 (0)1305 259467 E info@brooklandtravel.com

Brookland Travel Prospect House, Peverell Avenue East, Poundbury, Dorchester, DT1 3WE

T +44 (0)1305 259467 E info@brooklandtravel.com

Experience a sense of tranquillity at our Grade II* listed gardens, the only example of landscape architect Beatrix Farrand’s work in the UK. On your visit to our 26 acres, you’ll find impressive lawned terraces, colourful borders, woodland glades, ancient trees and original sculptures including Henry Moore’s Reclining Figure.

Dartington.org A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 117

PLANT OF THE MONTH

Tree of Life Sorbus is steeped in folklore and its bright berries and foliage make it a super choice for the autumn garden

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HOW TO GROW With a spread of 5m, sorbus trees reach 7m in 10-20 years, although some will be taller. Keep roots shaded in free-draining, cultivated soil. You can grow sorbus species from seed sown in a mixture of sand and compost, but varieties won’t come true.

given gardeners and would-be collectors a great choice of ornamental specimens. Try S. cashmiriana, originating from the western Himalayas, with its large, off-white, marble-like berries, and S. vilmorinii, which has a natural range from Tibet to south-central China and berries with a puce blush.

While sorbus are small trees, they are trees nonetheless, so a large garden would be needed to build up a collection. It is possible, however, to source unusual specimens for a distinctive and lasting addition to a front garden, for instance.

Burncoose Nurseries, Hillier Nurseries and Frank P. Matthews are good places to start.

Perfect partners: Try underplanting with colourful late-flowering perennials

Aster x frikartii ‘Mönch’

Ever-reliable for clouds of lavender-blue starry flowers.

118 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’

These daisy-like blooms glow golden in autumnal sunshine.

Aconitum napellus

Spires of deep violet-blue flowers up to 1.5m tall.

Anemone hupehensis ‘Pamina’

A Japanese anemone with double, vibrant pink flowers.

WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY IMAGES GAP/RON EVANS; SHUTTERSTOCK

ur native rowan or mountain ash, Sorbus aucuparia, comes into its own at this time of year. A tidy subject for both urban streets and gardens great and small, it is fairly inconspicuous throughout summer, with neat, pinnate leaves, but in autumn it is resplendent in its seasonal finery. Orange-red berries arrive first, followed by fiery, burnished leaves that glow in low sun and make a great counterpoint to heavy autumn and winter skies. Perhaps it is a fitting plant for this time of year when Halloween and All Souls Day loom large. In folklore, S. aucuparia was grown to ward off witches and prevent the dead from rising from their graves. The berries remain in place long after the leaves fall.

Sorbus aria, the common whitebeam, is another indigenous species, while in Devon, an endemic species, S. devoniensis, is the result of a particular ability to produce seed without conventional fertilisation. This feature has fascinated botanists for decades and results in distinct populations with limited distribution, as the Cambridge University Botanic Garden, which holds a substantial collection, points out.

There are between 100 and 200 clear species in the sorbus genus, which is spread across the temperate northern hemisphere, from Japan to Alaska in the north and Portugal to Taiwan in the south. There are also selective breeding programmes that have

As used by the RHS A family run business established in 2005 after being developed by Dr Geoff Whiteley at Leeds University.

He and his wife Jackie then decided to bring it to market.

Strulch is made from wheat straw and the mineralisation process preserves the straw and turns it dark brown. It has a neutral pH so can be used anywhere in the garden and it lasts for up to two years. Over time, the mulch improves soil structure and adds nutrients. The physical properties of the mulch and the added minerals deter slugs and snails!

For best value, buy in bulk 12, 25 or 48 x 13.5kg bags direct from us, or in 9kg bags from our online and nationwide stockists.

Professional gardeners see the benefits “The Alnwick Garden uses Strulch around our delphiniums and hostas to prevent slug damage. Strulch is also used to suppress weeds throughout our borders with great effect” Trevor Jones, Former Head Gardener “I have used it on the veg beds as a heavy mulch and experimenting in some areas as a no dig concept; laid it on cardboard on the beds and will sow wildflower seed into it. I have used it on two of the herbaceous borders to keep the weeds down and keep the ground warmer to help protect the crowns.

Head Gardener, Floors Castle Gardens “I am extremely pleased with the product’s ability to suppress weed growth and have noted an observable improvement in overall plant health and soil structure over a wide range of plants with successive applications” David Redmore, Director, Garden and Landscape Design

A wide range of plants & trees available for delivery direct to your door

Garden

Plants

Discounts available for trade customers

Call us for more details: www.gardenplantsonline.co.uk 0203 137 5159

120 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Nationwide Delivery using our own fleet

NOVEMBER

Things to Do Keep up to date in the garden with our monthly guide to key gardening tasks

Checklist ● Order bare-root fruit

trees and bushes now; late autumn and winter is the ideal time of year to plant them. ● Plant winter bedding

such as pansies, violas, heathers and cyclamen for colour in the garden throughout the season. ● In the vegetable

garden, sow broad beans and peas and net all brassicas to keep hungry birds off your crops. ● Plant tulip bulbs this

month. The colder soil temperatures at this time of year help prevent the fungal disease tulip fire.

Prune OLD ROSES

● Remove shabby old

WORDS TROY SCOTT SMITH IMAGES CLIVE NICHOLS; SHUTTERSTOCK

Old-fashioned roses may flower only once, but they are glorious when they do. Ensure the best possible display by pruning and training now ‘Old roses’ are those that were bred before 1867 when the first Hybrid Tea, ‘La France’, appeared. They are divided into several groups: Centifolias, Albas, Gallicas, Mosses, Damasks and Bourbons. We can also include some more modern roses in the same category in so far as pruning is concerned. These include the Hybrid Musks of the 1920s, invaluable for their health, vigour, free flowering and scent, and the Hybrid Perpetuals, a fusion between the Bourbons and almost any other parent.

Old roses differ from modern ones, in that unless judicious and skilled winter pruning is carried out, their blooms will be few and fleeting. The pruning technique involves pulling the long supple wands of this season’s growth down into an arc and anchoring them in position. This stops the sap simply rising to the top of each stem and encourages flowers from every joint.

The basic principles of removing dead, diseased, weak and crossing growth is the same, however, and all the

remaining shoots should be shortened by about a third.

A proportion of older wood should be removed completely to encourage strong growth shoots from the base. A balance between production of flowering wood and growth wood to form a framework is ideal. Remember: the harder you prune and the less bend you put on a shoot, the more extension growth will be produced. Shoots that are bent more horizontally will be studded with flowers along their entire length.

leaves of hellebores, cutting them off at ground level to make room for new buds. ● Lift dahlia tubers,

begonias and gladiolus corms to store in a frost-free shed over the winter months.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 121

When Less IS MORE

Stripped of summer’s blowsy delights, a winter garden can be admired for its spare structural beauty. Nowhere is this more evident than at Malverleys in Hampshire when special details are picked out in frost WORDS JAMES ALEXANDER-SINCLAIR PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS

122 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

This page Mist hangs

over the atmospheric Apostles’ Garden.

Opposite The main terrace is a charming mixture of paving and cobblestones.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 123

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maturity of the borders is such that one expects it to ife is full of contrasts: that is one of have been laid out by a distinguished Victorian with the things that makes it exciting. You can’t really appreciate the ups without remarkable whiskers. But that would be a mistake. the downs, the sweet without the sour, This garden was only begun in 2010 and has been designed and created by the very talented head the bread without the butter or the gardener, Mat Reese, as a grand collaboration with rock without the roll. It’s the same in gardens: we all the owners. Obviously there was an existing garden know and understand the appeal of an overflowing before Mat started (including a section designed by summer border – buzzing bees, seductively draped the unnecessarily tall designer, Tom Stuart-Smith), flowers, warm lawns underfoot and an abundance but that has been either absorbed or consumed by of greens ranging from emerald to pea. However, if every day was a summer day then we would soon tire the new gardens. Together, Mat and the owners have created a ten-acre garden (surrounded by a further of all the abundance and would be less able to fully appreciate the glory. To do that we have to have days 200 acres of parkland and farm) that erupts with style and class. It is thoughtfully designed without of contrast: the days of summer rain and, of course, seeming at all contrived and achieves a teeter-free the whole long winter. John Steinbeck (he of The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men) put it better balance between the natural and the disciplined.

While this is a very new garden it takes its than I can: ‘What good is the warmth of summer, influences not from Europe and the New Perennial without the cold of winter to give it sweetness?’

Movement (you know the deal: lots of bold swathes To know and understand a garden, it is necessary of perennials and grasses) but from the more to see both the good times and the bad. This is the equivalent of being stranded in a small lifeboat at sea classic English gardens that use every arrow in with someone: no problem when all is breezy and the the horticultural quiver. The borders here house a striking mixture of trees, shrubs, perennials, sun shines, but how do they cope in adversity as the bulbs and annuals. “We are a new English Flower storms circle and the frosts come knocking? Winter is when the bones of a garden become apparent: lines Garden,” explains Mat, “inspired by places like Great Dixter [where Mat previously worked] and are pared back, trees are stripped of leaves, shrubs by gardeners like William Robinson and Vita uncovered, borders mulched, and hedges stand Sackville-West.” The gardens are laid out as a series alone. Only in winter do we see the support acts: of rooms that meld effortlessly from one to another: the well-chosen paving slab, a crisply edged path, a each one linked but also different – easily said but frosted evergreen or a sculpture wreathed in mist as quite tricky to execute, especially at the winter sun climbs slowly over the Malverleys where the levels are a little eastern horizon.

Below In the Apostles’ Garden, box-edged challenging at times! These gardens As an example, I give you beds of Hydrangea vary from walks along borders bulging Malverleys in Hampshire. This is arborescens ‘Annabelle’ with colour to cool courtyards with a garden that, at first glance, looks are punctuated by tall, spectacular fountains. The Cloister as if it has been here for ages: the clipped yew columns.

124 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Above Intriguing topiary Garden, for example, shapes line the way to an is a masterclass in ornate poultry house. restrained planting, Left A single iced pink containing only Prunus rose is the picture of wintry perfection.

‘Fugenzo’, roses and Far left Clusters of bright centranthus gathered orange rose hips. around a rill presided over by a handsomely fierce Neptune brandishing a trident. There is an expansive Kitchen Garden (with, incidentally, fruit cages that look like aviaries), long beds enclosing the terraces, a White Garden, a Hot Garden and a spectacular Stumpery. Scattered across the gardens are a fine selection of sculptures, ranging from lounging nymphs to angular abstracts.

This is all very well, but the reality of this time of year is that the treats are more subtle and the spectacle more minimal. The tall hedges that divide the garden rooms are still obvious, and the borders

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 125

are inhabited by a mixture of evergreens and the dark tracery of deciduous shrubs along with the ghosts of grasses and perennials. “We do a lot of editing and bulb planting in autumn so that there is always something fresh in the borders. Many plants are cut back, although we do like to leave some structure,” says Mat. There is magnificent topiary that grows in the meadow leading up to a (very desirable) poultry house that was all salvaged and moved from an older manifestation of the garden.

At this time of year the details of the garden become so much more important. The English winter is mostly quite grey, but every so often you get a day when the sky is the life-affirming blue of a Caribbean Sea and the frost sparkles on every leaf and every seedhead. The paving on the main terrace (a delightful mixture of flagstone and cobbles) is studded with ice-rimed moss. The ponds are frozen and presided over by goose-pimpled statues and the shadows of the overhanging trees. The uncut borders are a tangle of elegantly fading perennials, the hydrangeas are silvered, the boxwood glistens, the brassicas hunker down and the last berries of autumn hang on waiting to be spotted by a hungry bird. All the best elements of the winter garden gathered comfortably in one place. I would be hard pushed to argue that the winter garden would ever be preferable to a summer one, but on a day like this it has more than a few things in its favour.

There are all sorts of excitements just around the corner: the Chapel Walk has been recently planted and the Apostles’ Garden is establishing well, but Malverleys has never been all about the garden – Mat and his team spend a fair bit of time tending to the wider landscape and chasing livestock. They also host visits from local schools to teach children about growing food and farming. Post pandemic there are 126 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Top left A touch of

warmth from the honeystone house and rusted steel sculpture.

Top right Nic FiddianGreen’s bronze horse’s head appears to float.

Above A fierce, tridentwielding Neptune presides over the wintry scene from his grotto.

exciting plans afoot for a new orchard and a market garden to be set up to serve a shop and a restaurant.

No matter what time of year you visit this is very obviously a special garden. It just feels right. A good garden feels comfortable and not just because of the mixture of plants (although that is vital), but also because the scale and proportions are just so. The size of the terraces, the positioning of sculptures, the sashay of a path and, most importantly, how much it is loved and cared for by those who live and work in it: I reckon Malverleys has got it pretty well taped.

Malverleys, Fullers Lane, East End, Newbury, Hampshire RG20 0AA. The gardens are open by appointment to groups only. Admission £10; children free. malverleys.co.uk

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PLANT OF THE MONTH

Winter Roses Hellebores are the floral stars of gardens in winter, when their distinctive blooms come to the fore

T

he appeal of hellebores for the winter garden is manifold. They’re hardy plants, mostly evergreen, fairly drought-tolerant, and, just when the winter garden is at its most muted, they appear offering blooms in a wonderful array of patterns and shapes, from striped, stippled and picotee to singles and doubles in deep, solid colours.

Belonging to the Ranunculaceae family, hellebores are cousins of buttercups, anemones, aquilegia and clematis. With such attractive relatives, it’s no surprise that they have become such a classic winter plant. Hellebores originate from Europe, Asia and the Balkan states. There are around 20 species, but most fall into one of two groups: the caulescent or stemmed species, with clusters of stems that grow above ground level from upright, woody shoots; and acaulescent or stemless species, which grow from woody rhizomes below ground. Those in the latter group are long-lived and include most hellebores we grow in the garden, such as pale green H. foetidus.

The ‘flowers’ we so appreciate, and which are the subject of intense breeding programmes, are in fact sepals. The real flowers are seemingly insignificant nectaries clustered at the centre of the sepals. As their name suggests, these hold nectar, making hellebores a valuable winter food source for insects.

Breeding programmes have provided a huge range of varieties from which to choose. Eric Smith, whose name is given to the species H. x ericsmithii,

HOW TO GROW Hardy hellebores do not fare well in drought, preferring slightly alkaline loam or clay in sun or part shade. A spot beneath deciduous trees is ideal, letting through more sunlight in winter.

Alternatively, plant in a tall container – their roots run deep.

worked in the 1960s. Hugh Nunn bred hellebores for some 30 years in the village of Harvington, Worcestershire. His daughter, Penny, now sells the Harvington Hellebores he developed from her nursery, Twelve Nunns, in Stamford, Lincolnshire.

In the West Midlands, John Massey of Ashwood Nurseries offers species, interspecies hybrids and cultivars and is noted for the Ashwood Garden Hybrids and lately the Ashwood Evolution Group.

H. niger is the most forthcoming at this time of year. ‘Christmas Carol’ is a cheerful, white, single bloom, perfect for displays. Pack it into pots close to the house or bring it indoors for a seasonal show.

Skimmia x confusa ‘Kew Green’

A lovely pairing, either in a container or a border.

Lonicera x purpusii ‘Winter Beauty’

128 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Plant hellebores around this scented winter-flowering shrub.

Carex oshimensis ‘Evergold’

Good for contrast, with its fountains of strappy, stripy leaves.

Clematis cirrhosa ‘Wisley Cream’

This winter-flowering climber would make a pretty backdrop.

WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY IMAGES GAP; SHUTTERSTOCK

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A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 129

DECEMBER

Things to Do Keep up to date in the garden with our monthly guide to key gardening tasks

Checklist ● Get ready for colder

weather: insulate outdoor taps and check greenhouse heaters are working. ● Christmas is the cut-

off point for pruning acers, birches and vines. Prune later, when the sap is rising, and the cuts may bleed. ● Take hardwood

cuttings from deciduous shrubs such as cornus, forsythia, philadelphus, buddleja and currants once their leaves have fallen. ● As long as the

A delightful handmade gift with a difference, this jewel-like display of plump potted succulents will bring lasting joy to its recipient Home-made gifts are always special, and gardeners never tire of receiving plants as presents. Combine plants with creativity by putting together a container of striking succulents.

These plump-leaved, colourful plants are riding a wave of popularity at the moment, and could be just the thing to give a tricky-to-buy-for grandchild, for example. That said, gardeners of all ages will find them hard to resist.

130 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Quite a few succulents can withstand colder temperatures, and in urban areas or mild parts of the country these pots should be fine outside over winter. Otherwise, put them in a greenhouse, conservatory or a bright spot in the house when temperatures fall.

The pot pictured above was created by Surreal Succulents, the Cornwall-based specialists who also supply plants by mail order (surrealsucculents.co.uk).

Owners Daniel Michael and Mark Lea used Aloe aristata as a centrepiece, and (anticlockwise from top) pale jade Echeveria elegans, dusky pink Echeveria ‘Duchess of Nuremberg’, plump Echeveria ‘Mexican Giant’, the crimson-pointed rosettes of Sempervivum calcareum, and finally bright green x Sedeveria ‘Letizia’ – one of Daniel and Mark’s new hybrids, which they have been breeding for increased winter hardiness.

● Treat yourself to a

festive poinsettia, but keep it somewhere free of cold draughts and well away from the heat of radiators.

WORDS CLARE FOGGETT IMAGES MIMI CONNOLLY; STARS FOR EUROPE/BJARNI B. JACOBSEN FOTOGRAFI

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