The English Garden June 2021

THE

english

GARDEN JUNE 2021

For everyone who loves beautiful gar gardens

The story of Petersham Nurseries

www.theenglishgarden.co.uk

Natural beauty

Be inspired by dreamy meadows

Water features for every garden

Perfect ROSES

Gorgeous gardens, romantic blooms & easy rose care Savour perfect June ●

LONDON’S surprising gardens

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COLOURFUL, reliable achillea

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Grow your own herbal TEAS

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Top 10 roses for BORDERS

Holiday certainty in an uncertain world

Find out how more and more families are now enjoying lifetimes of holidays they can be sure of Watch the video at holidaysforlife.co.uk/garden

Yorkshire Dales

Cotswolds

Stunning gardens across the UK and Europe Scottish Highlands

Brittany

CONTRIBUTORS

Iona McLaren Iona is editor of the literary pages of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph.

She has just published her first book, about Bodnant Garden, where she grew up.

She writes about its history on page 20.

Dr Fay Edwards A former professor, Fay is a member of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture and specialises in turning complex research into practical, evidencebased advice. She debunks rose-care myths on page 115.

Welcome I

came across a quote from Gertrude Jekyll a few days ago: “What is one to say about June – the time of perfect young summer, the fulfilment of the promise of earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade?” I thought, Ms Jekyll has really hit the nail on the head there! Isn’t that exactly what we all love about June? And roses, of course, their tight buds now unfurling at pace to fill our gardens with opulent flowers and sumptuous scent. I sometimes wish we could freeze time and hold our gardens at this point forever, but then we wouldn’t be able to look forward to our roses blooming, and half the point would be lost. Still, the June gardens in this issue have been captured at that glorious moment, and there are roses galore in the private garden of David Austin Jnr in Shropshire, at iconic Bodnant in north Wales, in a beautifully traditional rose-filled country garden in Hampshire, and plenty more besides.

In the absence of the ability to pause time, the only thing to do is to make the most of every moment spent in your garden this month. Take in its ‘fresh young beauty’ and revel in the roses while they are at their very best. Enjoy the issue.

CLARE FOGGETT, EDITOR

IMAGE NEIL HEPWORTH

Natasha Goodfellow Natasha is the author of A London Floral. She writes for magazines and curates events such as Herbival, a festival of herbs at the Garden Museum, on 6 June. She visits David Austin Jnr’s garden on page 40.

ON THE COVER Colourful borders and characterful topiary lead up to the stone Dovecote at the lavish Cotswold garden of Rockcliffe.

Photographed by Clive Nichols.

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June 2021

CONTENTS

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The English Garden subscription PAGE 39

Gardens 20 Bodnant This iconic estate in North Wales features some of the most stunning landscaping of its era and paved the way for a new model of funding and visiting gardens.

30 Rockcliffe Emma and Simon Keswick are reaping the rewards of years of hard work on their Cotswold garden, and can now luxuriate in a lavishly planted dream come true.

40 David Austin Jnr’s Garden The son of the famed rosarian has used roses in his Shropshire garden in ways that go far beyond the traditional.

50 Fyfield Manor Colour is everything for interior designer Joanna Wood, who applies the same principles to her Cotswold garden as she does to the house itself.

58 Caroline Cazenove’s Garden In Hampshire, this classic English garden of breathtaking beauty brings joy to all.

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66 Manor House Farm Rose-covered, exuberant and above all stylish, the grounds of this Norfolk farmhouse tick all the boxes for a romantic English country garden.

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126 The Nation’s Favourite Gardens Nominate the gardens you love that open for the National Garden Scheme, to help us identify the nation’s favourites.

139 London Gardens Visit some of London’s lesser-known, botanically beautiful gardens.

Design 77 Water Features A water feature can attract wildlife and bring a garden to life.

105 Meadow Style Let dreamy meadows inspire a country setting for al fresco dining.

131 Nurseries A new book traces the development of stylish Petersham Nurseries.

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147 Craftspeople Kate Kato creates intricate, 3D, paper models inspired by nature.

Plants 89 Top 10 Plants Marilyn Stevens of Roses UK suggests ten of the best roses to grow.

95 Plant Focus Achilleas are a sensible choice for those keen to attract wildlife.

103 Garden Classics Elegant Fuchsia magellanica is in a class of its own.

It is amazing to be able to learn and receive feedback directly from the experts.

- Julia

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9 IMAGES CLIVE NICHOLS; JOE WAINWRIGHT; SUSSIE BELL; ANNAÏCK GUITTENY; SHUTTERSTOCK

115 Rose Care Fay Edwards debunks some of the most common rose-care myths.

121 Grow Your Own Tea Grow your own plants to enjoy healthy home-made tisanes.

Regulars 9 This Month Our regular guide to people, gardens, events, news, tasks and nature.

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17 Shopping Cosy, cottage-core classics, plus tools and treats for your allotment.

153 The Reviewer This month’s literary digest, plus a chat with Jonathan Drori.

162 Last Word Guest columnist Arabella Lennox-Boyd chooses plants for early colour.

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JUNE

People to Meet

Introducing the gardeners and public figures we most admire in British horticulture

Carol Klein

RECOMMENDED

Carol’s favourite gardens

INTERVIEW PHOEBE JAYES IMAGES KNICKERBOCKERGLORY TV; SHUTTERSTOCK

The plantswoman, writer and TV presenter on the joyous inspiration provided by UK gardens and gardeners for her two new series I’m longing to see Great British Gardens. You see bits during the making process, but that’s different from watching the whole year in continuity and the way one place changes and flows with different areas taking centre stage.

The second series has twice as many gardens. We visited each one over all four seasons, despite filming with a smaller, socially distanced crew. All the gardens are very different but equally brilliant, and each has unique elements. Llanover, for example, has an emphasis on trees, so the autumnal part is very special.

Another joy is meeting the people behind the gardens whose stories are part of the landscape. Take Lesley Jenkins from Wollerton Old Hall, who talks about her “mid-life crisis garden”, but you sense the extent of her love and involvement when she gazes at certain plants and describes what she’s planning to do next. Meanwhile, somewhere like Bressingham is such a plantsperson’s garden with its family history of fantastic contributions – not just to the gardens there, but also to British horticulture in general.

Gardening can be very solitary and it’s lovely to be with like-minded people making these programmes.

John’s Garden at Ashwood Nurseries West Midlands I love the way John Massey cares for every single plant in his garden! The focus isn’t on what’s in fashion, but on what will grow beautifully in the right place. Tel: 01384 401996; ashwoodnurseries.com

Great Dixter

Sometimes, dare I say it, it doesn’t feel like work! I’ve no formal horticultural training and actually did my degree in fine art. For 30 years I ran a nursery from my garden at Glebe Cottage in Devon. I exhibited at Chelsea multiple times, and the magical element to a display is putting plants together. It’s complex because you’ve got to work out what will flower when. I’ll never get the hang of it, but I’m having a good try!

I’m working on Gardening with Carol Klein, a series set

at Glebe Cottage, which is inspired by UK gardens. I had an aversion to bergenias before I saw them in Beth Chatto’s gravel garden, and have Adrian Bloom to thank for my Bergenia ‘Bressingham Ruby’. The thalictrums at Aberglasney also inspired me.

Both series are perfect for those who’d like to absorb practical knowledge or simply escape to a beautiful garden while enjoying a glass of wine!

East Sussex I love its energy. It retains a huge respect for the past and everything that’s gone before it while looking to the future. It encourages people to think about what their gardens mean, particularly in regard to wildlife. Tel: 01797 252878; greatdixter.co.uk

Great British Gardens returns to Channel 5 this summer.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 9

JUNE

Out & About

Unmissable events, news and the very best gardens to visit this month

Sisley’s Exclusive Tours for 2021 From 13 June, Nationwide

Sisley Garden Tours has launched five new four-day Exclusive Escapes so guests can explore beautiful gardens that seldom open to the public and enjoy out-of-hours access to other notable gardens. The small-group tours of 8-12 people explore a range of spaces, from small cottage gardens to large country estates, and destinations include Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, the Wye Valley and the North York Moors. Expect private coach travel, hand-picked boutique hotels and excellent food. For more information and to book, visit sisley.co.uk

Ends 20 June, Nationwide Crisis has launched a campaign to raise money for those facing homelessness due to financial pressures caused by the pandemic. Everyone is invited to participate by seeking sponsorship to take on various garden challenges. The person who raises the most money for the charity wins access to the online vegetable growing course ‘From Seed to Harvest’ with no-dig gardener and campaign supporter Charles Dowding. uk.gofundme.com/c/act/grow-for-crisis

NGS Garden

British Flowers Week 14-20 June, Nationwide Run by New Covent Garden Market, British Flowers Week is a campaign to showcase the beauty of British flowers and to celebrate British florists, growers and wholesalers. Everyone is encouraged to decorate their windows with British flowers. Activities taking place include virtual workshops and garden tours from leading florists, plus a floral exhibition at The Garden Museum in London. Share pictures of your window display on social media using #BritishFlowersWeek and find a downloadable toolkit at britishflowersweek.com

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Urchfont Manor

Wiltshire Urchfont’s stunning ten acres include del Buono Gazerwitz-designed formal gardens that lend a modern twist to an historical setting.

A magical mix awaits with a maze-like beech spiral garden and cloud-pruned box. Expect fine specimen trees, a wildflower meadow and a beautiful orchard too.

Pre-booking available for Saturday 19 June. Adult: £10, children: free. Urchfont Manor, Urchfont, Devizes, Wiltshire SN10 4RF.

WORDS PHOEBE JAYES IMAGES SIMON LYCETT BY BENJAMIN TIETGE; ELAINE CASAP/UNSPLASH; SISELY GARDEN TOURS

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Discover the secret of Hartley Botanic by calling 0800 783 8083 or visit www.hartley-botanic.co.uk

NOTHING ELSE IS A HARTLEY The only aluminium Glasshouses and Greenhouses endorsed by the RHS ® The Royal Horticultural Society. The Royal Horticultural Society, and its logo, are trade marks of The Royal Horticultural Society (Registered Charity No 222879/SC038262) and used under licence from RHS Enterprises Limited.

JUNE

Things to Do Keep up to date in the garden with our monthly guide to key gardening tasks from Troy Scott Smith, head gardener at Iford Manor

WATER in the Garden Water is a key part of Iford’s vocabulary, providing the narrative within the grammar of the garden. From high in the woodland a spring rises and cuts a dynamic line

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through the garden, delivering water to various ponds, basins and rills. It finally terminates at the ‘D’ pool, where a mature magnolia hugs the edge, its draping branches

lightly breaking the watery film. Elsewhere, formal and informal pools, fonts and fountains all add to the sound of water that, along with the birdsong, is a constant here.

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 a distinctive green ‘cloudiness’.

Aquatic plants absorb excess nutrients, so including them is a stepping-stone towards a 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, sometimes forming green slimy blobs called spirogyra that float to the surface. To combat its growth, it is important to reduce the nutrient level of the pool. Use a net to remove any debris, fallen leaves and faded flowers. It is also important to remove existing blanket weed. Twist the blanket weed around a rake and remove it from the water. With really overgrown pools, try to avoid too much disruption; instead, plan the work in stages.

Iford Manor, Iford, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire BA15 2BA. Tel: 01225 863146; ifordmanor. co.uk. Follow Troy on Instagram: @troyscottsmith1

June checklist Sow biennials for next year and enjoy peonies’ glorious blooms Don’t forget

Prune earlyflowering shrubs

l Plant out tender bedding

Summer pruning of earlyflowering (late winter to early summer) deciduous shrubs, such as philadelphus (below), ribes, kerria, forsythia, spiraea and staphylea can be tackled now. These shrubs flower on the previous year’s growth, so pruning straight after flowering allows maximum time for new growth to develop and mature. Prune back flowering stems to a strong young shoot and remove a number of the older stems to near ground level.

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

of salad leaves, radishes and lettuce for a continuous crop. l Make sure greenhouses are

kept well ventilated, especially on very warm and sunny days. l Move tomatoes into their

final pots or planting position, and pinch out any sideshoots.

Garden with nature

Make the most of peonies No other plant typifies the exuberance of the season more than the peony. Their moment of flowering is brief but glorious, although the first colourful signs of new growth are usually noticeable in early March as their red shoots appear. Rapidly shooting upwards, their spreading stems will require staking if the heavy buds are not to be weighed down as they unfurl in the warming sun.

IMAGES ALUN CALLENDER; CLIVE NICHOLS; SHUTTERSTOCK

Sow biennials

Although I can be moved to tears by listening to a piece of music or looking at a painting, it is the natural world that nourishes and inspires me the most. Coming from a family of committed naturalists, it was no surprise that as a boy I would spend most of my time outdoors in the nearby Yorkshire Dales, seeking out the beauty of the natural world. It is this appreciation and respect of nature that I value most in my approach to gardening and it is one I urge everyone to adopt.

While most annuals are sown from January through to April, biennials are sown, depending on variety (here, in pans in the glasshouse) during June and July. Once they are large enough to handle I transplant the young plants into nursery rows before finally moving them into their flowering positions in autumn. At Iford we grow a range, including sweet Williams (left), foxgloves, verbascum and wallflowers.

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JUNE

Nature to Note

The wonder of wildlife in the garden and countryside this month

Glitter BUG Iridescent rose chafer beetles (Cetonia aurata) stand out in summer, when they settle themselves on flower petals (dog roses are a particular favourite) to soak up the sun’s rays. Their metallic-green wing cases gleam like oil slicks, making them easy to spot whether you’re pottering in your garden or out walking in grassland or the woods.

Rose chafers are often considered pests because the adults eat garden roses. However, they don’t cause significant damage, and they also play an important role in our ecosystem: their larvae feed on decaying matter which recycles nutrients for all.

This species is similar to the rare noble chafer beetle (Gnorimus nobilis), but the latter has a distinct waist, while the rose chafer is more spherical.

How to identify it These thorny climbers can grow up to 3m tall if they find good support from nearby shrubs. Their leaves grow on alternate sides of the stem and are divided into two to three pairs of toothed leaflets.

Enjoy their large, five-petalled pink or white flowers in May and June, from which clusters of striking red hips form come autumn.

Where to find it Though more common in the south of the UK, dog roses can be found everywhere.

They prefer heavy soils in hedgerows, woodland edges and on scrubland.

Value to wildlife The open flowers

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of this rose are an important source of nectar for insects over the summer months, especially in May and June, while the berry-like hips are a good food source for birds such as blackbirds, redwings and waxwings.

Did you know? In medieval England, the dog rose was a symbol commonly used in heraldry. In medicine, its root was thought to be able to cure the bite of a wild dog – a stretch, perhaps, although rose hips are high in vitamin C so are still used today as an ingredient in some natural energyboosting syrups.

Pond Life

New habitats for great crested newts Several ponds will be created in North East Lincolnshire this year, thanks to a scheme funded by Natural England, which aims to bolster numbers of endangered great crested newts, following the loss of half of the UK’s ponds over the 20th century.

Anyone who would like to have these habitats created or restored on their land should contact Wildscapes CIC. wildscapes.co.uk

WORDS PHOEBE JAYES IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK

DOG ROSE (Rosa canina)

WILDLIFE NEWS

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SHOPPING

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1. Elegance Round Arch, £360. Tel: 0117 934 1790; agriframes.co.uk 2. Baluster bird bath, £185. Tel: 01604 770711; haddonstone.com 3. Rusty bird silhouette, £9.99. Tel: 0344 5672400; thefarthing.co.uk 4. Galvanised watering can, £24.99. Tel: 01480 774555; marshallsgarden.com 5. Decorative wooden ladder, £49. Tel: 03330 102352; barkerandstonehouse.co.uk 6. ‘The Snug’ shepherd’s hut, from £23,400. Tel: 01300 348414; plankbridge.com 7. Willow flower trug, from £34.95. Tel: 03450 920283; sarahraven.com 8. Lutyens bench, £379. Tel: 0131 5616406; dobbies.com

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9. Gardening Notes from a Late Bloomer by Clare Hastings, £7.99. Tel: 01858 438854; chelseamagazines. com/shop 10. Tweedmill wool pink cottage check throw,

£62. Tel: 0800 5877645; amara.com

WORDS PHOEBE JAYES. ALL PRICES ARE CORRECT AT TIME OF GOING TO PRESS.

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1. Skipping stripe deckchair, £115. Tel: 01244 336387; thestripescompany.com 2. Kent & Stowe flutter bug gloves, £12.99. Tel: 01480 774555; marshallsgarden.com 3. Garden cloche, from £25.

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The recently restored Pin Mill was installed by Henry McLaren in 1939 and gives a wonderful view of the rose gardens and Italianate terraces.

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THE NEW WAY Bodnant in North Wales features some of the most stunning landscaping of its era and paved the way for a new model of funding and visiting gardens WORDS IONA McLAREN PHOTOGRAPHS JOE WAINWRIGHT

S

nowdonia is one of the wildest and most inhospitable parts of Britain. When you’re amid its rock faces, scree slopes, black lakes and eerie tawny valleys, civilisation can feel very far away. It is, therefore, something of a surreal surprise for climbers to spot, staring back at them from across the River Conwy, a distant cascade of Italianate terraces, conceived on gigantic scale.

The gardens at Bodnant, which were given to the National Trust in 1949 and now attract more than a quarter of a million visitors a year, are a theatrical spectacle unrivalled in British horticulture. Even without the garden, the setting is truly jaw-dropping.

Down below is a lazy, fat, silver bend of the mighty Conwy, as it broadens into the estuary guarded by Conwy Castle, while beyond that sprouts a blue wall of high mountains in the Snowdonia National Park.

Then there is the garden itself – Grade I listed and the creation of many generations of the same family. Ranging over 80 acres, with seven miles of paths, its mood changes from plunging cliffs, churning falls and giant redwoods to dreamy formal canals and balustrades – an exhilarating marriage of classical and gothic. It is an architect’s garden, and a plantsman’s garden, too, home to countless rare specimens and five national collections – of magnolias, embothriums, eucryphias, Rhododendron forrestii and Bodnant hybrid rhododendrons – as well as around 40 of the British Isles’ champion trees. As the garden writer H. Avray Tipping put it in 1920: “Bodnant is a spot where a complete garden education can be received.”

So how did it come to be, in this least likely of places? Once there was a white Georgian house at Bodnant, which stared steadfastly across its own Capability Brown-esque parkland, the majestic beeches and oaks of which form the backbone of the garden today. Pointed away at a right angle, the JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 21

original house oddly ignored the now-famous view of Snowdonia: an excess of the sublime perhaps being thought bad for the digestion.

Things changed when the Bodnant Estate was bought in 1874 for £62,500 by Henry Davis Pochin, a self-made man of magnificent and cheerful vulgarity, whose fortune came from his invention of white soap, and increased with speculations in railways and coal. The embodiment of the Victorian era, with mutton chops, rotund belly, radical Liberal views, boundless energy and a thirst for the Gothick, Pochin did nothing by halves.

Within a few years, the white Georgian mansion – an anaemic provincial affair – had disappeared inside an excrescence of blue sandstone and halftimbering, complete with armorial stained glass.

Mark Girouard, in The Victorian Country House, categorised it as “dim and grim Old English”; in The Rise of the Nouveaux Riches, J. Mordaunt Crook called it “the ugliest house in England”, which is perhaps untrue only insofar as it is not in England.

Pochin’s interventions in the garden were just as grandiose, but far happier in effect. For an architect he had employed an unknown, but for his landscape design he chose the well-known Edward Milner, Joseph Paxton’s apprentice at Chatsworth, then his superintendent of works at Crystal Palace. Milner’s plan transfigured the Regency parkland at Bodnant, encircling the house with something more formal, including a terrace and a Dutch flower garden, and making the wilder bits of the garden more wild, with a pleasure-ground rockery added for alpines.

It was, in the words of Pochin’s grandson Harry, the second Lord Aberconway, “a very quiet, restful, reposeful garden” of “great spreading lawns under big trees”. Pochin made the famous Laburnum Arch, the longest in Britain, and down in the garden’s steep valley, or Dell, he began his pinetum, planting prime 22 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Top left Rosa ‘Princess Anne’ with groundcovering Campanula portenschlagiana.

Above Stone steps navigate the terraces via rose-festooned arches.

Left Elegant Aquilegia ‘Yellow Queen’.

Right Views to the Carneddau mountains from the garden.

specimens of Abies veitchii, Cedrus deodara, Tsuga mertensiana, Sequoiadendron giganteum, Sequoia sempervirens and so on. These giants now soar above the Wagnerian clifftop mausoleum, known as The Poem, which Pochin built above his swan pond and in which, in 1895, he was laid to rest.

When he died, Pochin left his industrial empire and Welsh estate to his daughter Laura, his son, Percy, having been disinherited after a series of scandals involving unsuitable marriage and the abuse of a page boy. Laura was a formidable woman – already treasurer of the London branch of the National Society for Women’s Suffrage by the time JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 23

Harry McLaren drew up five great terraces, to be executed in masonry with stone quarried nearby

she was 30 – and described by The Times in her 1933 obituary as “one of the foremost horticulturists in Europe”, as well as “a capable woman of business, with the ready grasp and the courageous power of decision that enabled her to weigh big problems with the brain of a man”.

She loved flowers, and needed more places in the garden to plant them. Her 23-year-old son, Harry, conceived the idea of carving the great, bare western slope of the garden into a series of Italianate terraces.

What happened next is one of the great wonders of British gardening. With no formal training, but dreaming of the Italian gardens he had seen on his travels, this young man drew up five great terraces, to be executed in masonry with stone quarried nearby. Sir Eric Savill, creator of the Savill Garden in Windsor Great Park, would later call it “the finest work of garden design this century in this country”.

Almost as remarkably, Harry’s mother let him realise his plans. She “sent her men and masons there” and entrusted to him, by then aged 25, “all the work of terracing… and with it all the detailed work of the garden”. It was, he said, “a magnificent gift – an unusual and great gift”. “It changed my whole life. There are not many people who have had the advantage of having a great garden handed over to them at that age with liberty to do what they liked with it within reason, and funds generously available to do all that they wished.”

With the energy of youth, Harry – later Lord Aberconway, and RHS President between 1931 and 1953 – went on to transform the garden, turning it into a horticultural showcase for thousands of the latest discoveries of Edwardian plant hunters: rare magnolias, primulas, gentians, the handkerchief tree. Even though he was counselled that rhododendrons wouldn’t “do” in north Wales, he tried the Chinese and Himalayan varieties brought back by Ernest ‘Chinese’ Wilson – and found they did remarkably well. Soon, Harry was sponsoring his own plant-hunting expeditions, and even running a private band of collectors in Yunnan via an obliging British consul in Burma.

His exceptionally green-fingered head gardener, Frederick Puddle, began hybridising Top Glorious Cornus kousa ‘Milky Way’. rhododendrons, and Left The garden is known Bodnant varieties were for its rhododendron soon taking prizes at collection; this is pinkChelsea – Harry being flowered R. ‘Vanessa Pastel’.

24 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

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

Above Rosa glauca

presides over a border of meadowy perennials.

This image Wisteria drips over Italianate stonework.

Left A quiet spot on the rose terrace, the wooden bench backed by Rosa ‘Constance Spry’.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 25

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Top One of Bodnant’s

most recognisable features, the famous Laburnum Arch.

Above The view of Bodnant Hall over the Lily Terrace’s still pond.

Right Rosa ‘Phyllis Bide’ fades to blush white.

most proud of R. Elizabeth, First Class Certificate winner in 1943, which, he pointed out, “has more flower buds on it than any rhododendron you can grow” and was suitable for the “smallest possible garden”. Some 300 rhododendron hybrids were registered to Bodnant and there are still over 100 Bodnant varieties in the garden, some existing only as a single specimen.

All this time, the garden was open to visitors with proceeds from the tickets sold going to support district nurses. At one Chelsea Flower Show in the 1930s, Harry’s wife Christabel told the King of a recent visit to Bodnant by the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII, where “he had walked all round the garden, shown a deep interest in all the rhododendrons, had talked with gaiety at dinner, and finally having gone up to his bedroom, after this gruelling day, for over half an hour had played the bagpipes”. The King, instead of being impressed at his son’s vitality, turned to Queen Mary and said: “Your son has been playing the bagpipes in Wales.”

In 1949, Harry, as chairman of the National Trust’s garden committee, handed Bodnant to the nation, to encourage other stately homeowners. “It begins to look as though many of our most lovely and historic gardens would deteriorate from lack of upkeep,” he said. “However energetic a worker you JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 27

may be yourself, it is physically impossible for one pair of hands to keep weeds from encroaching, to clip hedges, to mow lawns, and do the thousand jobs that a garden of any size demands.” Seventy-two years later, with its team of over 20 full-time gardeners, plus volunteers, and under the care of the National Trust and Harry’s grandson, Michael McLaren, Bodnant now looks better than ever.

The story of Bodnant thus tells, in microcosm, the story of garden design, and garden visiting, in Britain. It was the creation of gifted amateurs, and has delighted and inspired millions more. As Harold Nicolson put it, when he visited in 1952, “I have no doubt at all that this is the richest garden I have ever seen… one of the wonders of the world.” n Above Roses billow over the paths of the Lower Rose Terrace, providing continuous flushes of colour from June.

Left Hot colours in the Range Borders, which vary every year.

Bodnant Garden, Bodnant Road, Tal-y-cafn, Colwyn Bay LL28 5RE. Open all year, but visits must currently be pre-booked – check the website for updates. Tel: 01492 650460; nationaltrust.org.uk.

Bodnant Garden by Iona McLaren is published by Pavilion Books (£16.99).

28 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

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If you want to enjoy a lavishly planted mature garden, get going on it while you’re young. Emma and Simon Keswick did just that at their Cotswold garden, Rockcliffe, and now they’re reaping the ample rewards as they luxuriate in their dream garden WORDS JAMES ALEXANDER-SINCLAIR PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS

30 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Hardy geraniums, astrantia, catmint, thalictrum and roses make a co-ordinated display in this generous mixed border.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 31

Colourful borders lead the way to Rockcliffe’s impressive focal point, the Dovecote, reached via steps flanked by yew topiary birds.

32 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

T

generous branches of Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’ here is an ancient saying about (and I and from there we wander off into a world of blissful paraphrase massively here) gardeners gardens. There are deep herbaceous borders, marked planting trees under whose shade by four Irish yews that were obtained from a small they will never sit. This is generally ad in the Evesham Journal: the Keswicks had to considered forward thinking, wise go and dig them out of the vendor’s garden. Also and selfless and, as such, should be applauded. a pink garden, a pool garden, knobbly pleached But my counter theory is even wiser. Make sure limes, a croquet lawn and even a playground for the that you plant a load of trees, shrubs, hedges and grandchildren. Patches of wildness nudge against topiary when you are young so that 40 years on you carefully trimmed hedges of the evergreen stalwart, can look up to their branches and wander through yew (Taxus baccata) as well as beech and hornbeam, gardens you have watched grow and flourish. Such while chess pawns clipped from yew mark the path is the happy situation at Rockcliffe: a garden in the junctions. On the shady margins of the garden is the Cotswolds started in the 1980s by Emma and Simon Martagon Walk where, for 20 years, Emma has been Keswick and gardened by them ever since. scattering the seeds of turk’s cap lilies. Last year she When they arrived there was not much beyond a collected 400 grams of seed, so it just keeps getting house and some surrounding fields: one side of the better. This is a beautiful lily, native to the alpine house is set hard against the boundary and a steep meadows of Switzerland, entrancing en masse. hill, so Emma marked out the garden by marching The kitchen garden is tucked into a small ravine eastwards, pacing out the main view from the house. and surrounded by high stone walls. One of the She knows her onions (having done courses at mixed blessings of living in the Cotswolds is the Merrist Wood and The English Gardening School) abundance of gorgeous soft yellow stone: it looks and walked out to where the proportions seemed amazing in field and house walls, but it’s not so right. She then decided to add another 20 metres much fun when you’re trying to dig a border! The of field so that there was space for “a really good soil is free-draining but needs a lot of barrowed garden”. They then built a ha-ha to keep out the muck to give it the oomph to produce vegetables sheep and set about planting a series of gardens and cut flowers for the house. The kitchen garden within gardens to make up the many-layered, beds used to be box edged until the surprising setting that we see today.

Below A weathered, inevitable blight arrived; now they are Inspiration at Rockcliffe comes from a lichen-encrusted tree all enclosed in mesh cages edged with multitude of places – as Emma herself seat is the embodiment fretwork boards and carved finials. maintains: “The ideas have to come of Rockcliffe’s mature, At first glance this seems a puzzling from somewhere!” settled atmosphere. construction: are they A wide lawn leads producing industrial from the house towards quantities of soft fruit? the ha-ha and a fine Or are the Cotswold sculpture by Nigel Hall. courgettes particularly It is flanked by massive aggressive? Look up the beech obelisks cleverly hill and the answer is planted in lines that obvious: doves. Beautiful are not quite parallel birds but not exactly in order to give the perfect companions impression that the to vegetables. vista is even longer. “It The stone Dovecote is an idea that I saw in is approached from the the Palazzo Corsini in kitchen garden via a Florence where they path edged with plump achieve the same effect borders and backed by with statues,” Emma espalier-trained medlars recalls. The stone terrace (Mespilus germanica, is broken by hummocks which have the prettiest of yew interplanted with blossom of any fruit tree a rattle of herbaceous although, entre nous, plants to bring in colour the fruit can be a little and texture. This wraps annoying: lots of work around the house to for a few jars of jelly). a handsome orangery Through the trellised and a rectangular pond white door there is a that is canopied by the JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 33

Topiary birds on crisp blocks of yew mark the steps to the Dovecote, a project to celebrate the turn of the millennium.

34 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

steeply sloped orchard with wide grass steps alongside which a series of topiary birds perch, having slowly gained shape and heft over a number of years. The topiarised yews lead the eye to a focal point that was crying out for a statement and so, after much research, a delightful building was constructed. This is Emma’s millennium project so it has had time now to mellow beautifully.

“It is an amalgamation of various places: the dovecote at Rousham, the weathervanes from Eton College Chapel, windows from the Gothic Cottage at Stourhead and stonework from the Old Toll House in Stow-on-the-Wold,” she explains. In summer, both Dovecote and topiary float on a romantic billow of ox-eye daisies. The doves, meanwhile, flutter about looking decorative and innocent, while coldly eyeing up the brassicas.

The newest part of the garden is the developing Sorbarium. This is not a term with which I am familiar, perhaps because it was invented at Rockcliffe and constitutes a collection of rowans

Top Perfect stripes and

beech pyramids lead the eye from the terrace to a sculpture by Nigel Hall.

Above Moisture-loving Iris sibirica ‘Silver Edge’.

Right Yew hummocks add a weighty element to blowsy planting next to the terrace.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 35

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(Latin name Sorbus) assembled in honour of Simon Keswick’s Scottish roots. The rowan is steeped in folklore.

People planted them by their houses as symbolic protection and, even today, Scottish gardeners are very reluctant to damage a rowan. Here, Emma has created a box-edged grass path that meanders and swerves through swathes of wildflowers studded with Sorbus specimens. The trees will have their hour of glory come autumn, when the leaves change and the berries develop but, in the meantime, there are stands of Rosa ‘Cerise Bouquet’. This rose is neither coy nor retiring: it is unashamedly bright, blowsy and full of puff. With arching sprays of flowers as pink as a go-go dancer’s petticoats, it is a tough old thing that copes with rubbish soil and a bit of shade. Judging from the evidence, therefore, a Sorbarium is an arboretum with a lot of attitude.

This is a big garden that has been made slowly and with love over the past four decades and, as a result, it has an atmosphere of comfortable familiarity that,

Top Looking back to the

house from the opposite slope, the building seems to float above a sea of daisy-filled meadow.

Above For similar poppies, try Papaver somniferum ‘Dark Plum’.

Left Spires of foxgloves march up the border.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 37

Above Bespoke oak cloches protect crops in the kitchen garden with a Victorian-style greenhouse from Alitex and espaliered fruit.

even as a first-time visitor, you can feel. It is not an easy place to garden as the soil is Cotswold brash (Emma is particularly keen that I view the orderly and well-kept compost heaps that feed the hungry earth). The winds can bite and the frost at this altitude (550 feet above sea level) hangs about well into the spring. It is gardened beautifully (currently there are three gardeners) as can be seen everywhere from the artfully pruned roses to the razor-edged hedges. That said, Emma’s stated intention all those years ago was to give herself enough space to create a “really good garden” and that is precisely what she has done.

Really, really good. n Rockcliffe, Upper Slaughter, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL54 2JW. The garden should open for the National Garden Scheme on 2 and 30 June, but visit ngs.org.uk or rockcliffegarden.co.uk for more information and updates.

38 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Top Rosa ‘Cerise

Bouquet’ emerges from a haze of ox-eye daisies in the Sorbarium.

Above Lilium regale on the terrace by the house.

Right Rhubarb in the vegetable garden, which is surrounded by high, Cotswold stone walls.

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Like Father, LIKE SON There was never any question that David Austin Jnr’s Shropshire garden wouldn’t include roses, but the son of the famed rosarian has used them in ways that go far beyond the traditional WORDS NATASHA GOODFELLOW PHOTOGRAPHS RICHARD BLOOM

David Austin Jnr has filled his garden with roses including ‘Princess Anne’ as a standard, and a ‘Lady of Shalott’ hedge.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 41

Above ‘Princess Anne’ standards emerge from beds of perennials, while a carpet of different thymes provides an unusual underplanting.

Right Rosa ‘Harlow Carr’, one of hundreds of popular English roses from David Austin’s decades of breeding.

T

he David Austin name is synonymous with roses. In the 1950s, beguiled by the romance of the old garden roses – gallicas, damasks, albas and centifolias – David C. H. Austin (1926-2018) began crossing these pink, red and white blooms with the modern hybrid teas that were so popular at the time. His aim was to attain the perfect ‘English rose’: a plant with the beauty, grace and scent of the old varieties and the colours and repeat-flowering habit of the newcomers.

During his career he introduced around 200 new cultivars, from Rosa ‘Constance Spry’ in 1961 (not a repeat flowerer) and, in 1983, his first full successes, pink ‘Mary Rose’ and golden-petalled ‘Graham Thomas’, to lemon-yellow shrub ‘Tottering-byGently’, one of three to make a debut in 2018.

42 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Above Rosa ‘Lady of Shalott’, a beautiful variety with orange flowers, used by David in his semi-circular hedge.

Below Standard roses underplanted with Alchemilla mollis line the path to the former rectory’s front door.

It is no surprise then to learn that his eldest son, namesake and managing director of the business since 1990 shares his passion. “I genuinely feel a rose offers more diversity than any other type of plant,” says David Austin Jnr. “Few other plants can compete with roses. Peonies do, certainly in terms of their shape and form, but they’re disappointingly short flowering. I love snowdrops too, especially since they come at a time when nothing else is in flower. And irises are fantastic but they’re relatively one-dimensional.

With a rose you can go from the smallest miniature to a standard to a rambler – the range of what they provide in terms of garden design is immense.”

David had, of course, used roses in his previous gardens, but none afforded the scope of this 2.5 acre plot surrounding a Grade II-listed former rectory in Shropshire to which David and his partner Penny moved 11 years ago. “The garden had suffered 25 years of neglect when we took it on,” says David, “but among the tangle of rhododendrons and self-seeded sycamores, there were some fantastic specimens such as a rare handkerchief tree [Davidia involucrata] and a huge beech, indicating that somebody before me had been a great gardener. It was just the project I wanted: I could see the potential.”

The first step was to clear the site to see what they had to work with – a mammoth task that took the best part of a year, and which is still keeping the couple in firewood a decade on. What was revealed was a picture-perfect setting, looking out over fields towards Brown Clee Hill with the adjacent village church and its 12th-century tower abutting the garden’s southern edge. “It’s almost as if we’d placed it there as a garden feature,” says David, laughing.

As David chopped and cleared, he planned the garden’s layout. “I took a big sheet of graph paper and drew out what I wanted,” he says, describing his vision for “a lot of flowers and different areas of interest in the front garden” and for a calmer, more relaxed space to the rear, where three streams babble through the grounds.

Needless to say, roses very much form the backbone of the design. Instead of using the more typical yew or box to divide the space, David has used roses – the beautiful apricot ‘Lady of Shalott’ forming a perfect semi-circular hedge in front of the house and, elsewhere, the wilder-looking ‘Kew Gardens’ making an effective boundary between

“A rose offers more diversity than any other type of plant Few other plants can compete with roses”

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 43

David’s ducks and chickens keep the slugs under control so a bed packed with hostas escapes their attention.

44 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Above left Rosa ‘Kew

Gardens’ forms a low, informal hedge, covered in white flowers.

Above right Rosa ‘The Country Parson’.

Left ‘Morning Mist’ is a large shrub rose.

Below Clusters of small pink and white flowers on Rosa ‘Ballerina’.

a small orchard and wildflower meadow. Rose standards including ‘Princess Anne’ and ‘Young Lycidas’ (“a really old-fashioned looking flower with an amazing fragrance,” notes David) add height and drama to the borders and make a refreshing change from the usual topiary.

There are roses used as underplanting (a froth of ‘Ballerina’ at the base of a birch tree), roses in mixed beds and, yes, a formal rose garden, of which more later. There are roses trained on walls and roses trained over arches (‘The Albrighton Rambler’ and ‘Malvern Hills’ – “an incredible rose for a large archway,” according to David) though not, interestingly, on obelisks – the only obelisk is home to a clematis.

“That does seem a little remiss,” says David with a smile. Even in the verdant, relatively unadorned back garden there are roses – old rose ‘Rambling Rector’, introduced in 1899, and species roses including R. ecae, with its yellow flowers reminiscent of buttercups, and Rosa sericea subsp. omeiensis f. pteracantha, which flowers in early-mid May. That David includes older roses might seem surprising, especially when you consider that his company now trials around 6,000 new varieties every year, but he is keen to have – and to offer his customers – the very best, even if that means stocking a cultivar not bred in house. “We don’t and can’t cover every base,” he says. “There are roses that are better than anything we can do, or which offer something we haven’t yet bred.” Rosa glauca – beloved by garden designers for its grey foliage and red stems – is a case in point, as is the moss rose, ‘William Lobb’, whose moss has a scent as alluring as the rose itself. The drawback for David, however, as for his father, is that these old roses flower only once. “It’s a shame when you consider that a rose

There are roses used as underplanting, roses in mixed beds and, yes, a formal rose garden

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 45

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can flower twice or more, giving you so much more pleasure from your plant.”

This attitude – of wanting as much pleasure from the garden as possible – informs not just David’s choice of roses, but his planting style as well, and it’s interesting to note that he is currently redesigning the rose garden (which had been planted with only roses, as is traditional) to include a wider palette of plants. “Commercially, I know I should be encouraging everyone to plant a rose garden,” he says, “but for sheer pleasure and to extend the flowering season even more, I think roses mixed with herbaceous perennials are just wonderful.”

In some places he combines the two quite deliberately. Along the main pathway, roses have been planted individually in bays with specific underplanting for each one to form a series of ‘portraits’ as you walk along – white ‘Desdemona’ with the sultry Astrantia ‘Hadspen Blood’ is a particular favourite. Elsewhere, the colours of a standard of ‘Princess Anne’ are echoed in the cushions of Erigeron karvinskianus and Persicaria affinis ‘Superba’ skirting its base.

It’s not all about combinations though. The garden is designed to have as long a season of interest as possible, beginning with snowdrops,

Top left Rosa ‘Malvern

Hills’ softens an arch.

Top right Astrantia

‘Hadspen Blood’ is an excellent rose partner.

Above right The view of the front garden from above reveals its geometric layout.

Above left Standard rose ‘Princess Anne’.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 47

Top left A tranquil pond

with waterlilies in a quiet corner of the garden.

Top right Along the garden’s boundary, hummocks of yew are interspersed with roses Left ‘Olivia Rose Austin’, here growing as a shrub and as a standard, was named after David Austin Jnr’s daughter.

48 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

crocuses, hellebores and daffodils. A large bed of hostas, “something I’ve always wanted to do,” says David, provides striking foliage for much of the year, with a flock of ducks and chickens keeping slugs in check. Two large symmetrical carpets of thyme are evergreen, aromatic and in flower from June until October, while grasses such as Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ and heleniums mixed with roses ‘Roald Dahl’ and ‘Tottering-by-Gently’ add colour and movement well into autumn.

No garden can be in bloom all year round, but this one, with its two glorious crescendos of roses in late May and early June, and in September-October, and a strong supporting cast for the rest of the year, manages it better than most. As David says: “Roses are all about their context and how you use them.

They can hold their own as prima donnas, but when they’re complemented by other plants it makes them just that bit more special.” n

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This page A mature lime

towers over the entrance to Joanna Wood’s home.

Opposite Viola cornuta and alliums in borders by the York stone terrace.

50 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Exterior DESIGN

Colour is everything for interior designer Joanna Wood, who applies the same principles and colour palettes to the garden rooms at Fyfield Manor in the Cotswolds as she does to the rooms of the house itself WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY PHOTOGRAPHS SUSSIE BELL

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 51

“I

It is a charming home that once belonged to a prosperous farmer who added a grand front as a folie de grandeur

52 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

t was just one of those things where you don’t really go further than the hall because you know it’s the right house,” says Joanna Wood, recalling the moment when she and her daughter Harriet visited Fyfield Manor for the first time, on the suggestion of Joanna’s husband, Charles.

The couple had wanted to move from London and although Fyfield Manor wasn’t the location they first had in mind, with its friendly spirits the 1720s Cotswolds property seemed to fit. It is a charming home that once belonged to a prosperous farmer who added a grand front as a folie de grandeur.

“The house looks much bigger than it is,” observes Joanna. “It’s punching above its weight.”

Joanna has a long-established Belgravia interiordesign practice alongside other business interests in wallpaper, fabrics and lighting. She remodelled the house with the timeless but inimitable sensibility for which she is known. Then she began on the garden.

For this she enlisted Max Askew, historic landscape architect at Askew Nelson, in nearby Burford. “I know how to lay out a bathroom or mouldings or how to do a wiring plan, but when it comes to the drainage under a lawn, or how to edge a herbaceous border, I’m out of my comfort zone,” she admits.

The property had been in the same ownership since the 1950s, which was the last time the garden had been designed. It had grown up as the owners aged, eventually becoming too much for them. It was neglected and overgrown when Joanna and Charles arrived, but there were, however, the makings of good bones in a line of pleached limes, around 70

Clockwise from top

The colour scheme was inspired by a fabric used inside the house; Salvia ‘Caradonna’ at the foot of a statue; the pretty facade of the house; crimson Rosa ‘Munstead Wood’.

Port-red and purple are the dominant colours in densely planted borders, backed by monumental hedges of yew.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 53

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years old, hundreds of metres of yew hedging and numerous Cotswold stone walls. These were both blessing and curse: in its maturity, the yew had become overbearing, and the walls interrupted any sight lines. “My husband didn’t know if he wanted to live here because he felt the house was too blocked in, but I said, ‘We’ll get there.’” Joanna recalls.

Max helped Joanna improve the flow of the garden, beginning with removing “as much yew as was left in”. His masterplan included repositioning the drive, adding new terracing, clearing space for a swimming pool, making best use of the orchard and incorporating meadow spaces for wildflowers, which are close to Joanna’s heart.

The terraces are the most noticeable change to the property. The lawn had previously come up to the front of the house, which created its own set of drainage problems. The solution was to excavate a series of spaces at key points. Planted up, they are an exercise in joyful exuberance, with an edge of formality befitting the calibre of the house. “None of the front terrace existed. The only original thing you would have seen is the climbing rose and the magnolia tree,” remarks Joanna. The terraces were laid with York stone for which she scoured the country. She eventually sourced slabs removed

“Absolutely every bit is themed in colour. It’s not random. The palette is very important to me”

Above Joanna inherited good bones, including a line of pleached limes along a boundary wall.

Left Ever-reliable Geranium x magnificum.

Below Joanna’s skills in interior design translate to the outdoors, where there’s a clear sense of ‘decorating’ each of the garden’s rooms.

during Liverpool Lime Street station’s upgrade.

They came at a cost, but she took a deep breath, held her nose and bought them. In time, a laden pantechnicon arrived but there was a surprise: the slabs were covered in soot. “We power-washed them three times. Now they are gorgeous: they’re old, authentic and some of the slabs are enormous.”

For all the differences between paints and plants, there are similarities between interior and garden design. A sense of decorating a room is key and Joanna approached the planting design with characteristic vim. “You’ll laugh, but we had colour schemes. There is a beautiful handblocked Mrs Monro linen in my dining room,” she says, referring to Jean Monro, the fabric company. “I said: ‘We’re having two herbaceous borders outside the drawing room and these are the colours for them’. Absolutely every bit is themed in colour. It’s not random. The palette is very important to me.”

On the front terrace, the tone is set by two ‘Munstead Wood’ rose standards in Versaillesstyle planters. At their feet is a chorus of blue and red. ‘Buckeye Belle’ peonies, Aster amellus ‘Violet JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 55

Treasured Pieces Joanna Wood’s black book for garden accessories

J

Queen’, and Astrantia major ‘Claret’ chime with Geranium sanguineum and Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’. There are bold hits from Geum ‘Mrs J. Bradshaw’ and Euphorbia griffithii ‘Dixter’, while Cirsium rivulare ‘Atropurpureum’ brings dabs of cherry-plum.

The house and garden are broadly enclosed by a Cotswold stone wall, although the property is about 18 acres in all. Part of Max’s recommendation was to remove some of this to open up the views – and to work with the yew hedging that remained. These structures create a sequence of rooms around the house and inject the sight lines that Charles, a keen gardener, was missing.

From the south-facing drawing room terrace a path leads to the east-facing kitchen terrace, where a table and chairs make for an easy summer breakfast setting. There are sunny spots around the house all day. “We take the last cocktail of the day in the gazebo on the south lawn,” says Joanna.

Elsewhere, yew encloses a swimming pool and helps define a kitchen garden that is Charles’s interest.

There are roses of all kinds: a number pre-date this garden, but additions include ‘Benjamin Britten’, ‘William Shakespeare’ and ‘Madame Alfred Carrière’. These are ideal for bringing indoors. “I

oanna and Charles’s attention to detail and a lifetime of collecting is evident throughout their garden. On the kitchen terrace, an 18th-century cistern has travelled with her for 30 years. The same age as the house, it looks as if it was chosen for its current quarters. A bronze sculpture of a stargazing dog bought from Architectural Heritage (Tel: 01386 584414; architectural-heritage.co.uk) also came with them from the city. The ornate gates were commissioned from Michael Jacques, specialist blacksmith of Forge Ahead (Tel: 01865 891810; mejj.co.uk). For other garden antiques, Joanna looks to Lorfords in Tetbury (Tel: 01666 505111; lorfordsantiques. com) and Dreweatts of Newbury (Tel: 01635 553553; dreweatts.com). Exterior lights in ‘Albermarle’ design come from Joanna’s own lighting firm Phillips and Wood (Tel: 020 8222 8117; phillipsandwood.co.uk).

For furniture, Joanna often considers Neptune (Tel: 01793 934 011; neptune. com) or Chatsworth Carpenters (Tel 01246 565371; chatsworth.org) when she “wants to rattle the moneybox”. Joanna had her Versailles-style planters made for her. For similar try Oxford Planters (Tel: 01608 683022; oxfordplanters.co.uk).

“I love flowers and arranging flowers.

A room without flowers is like an egg without salt”

56 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Top A mown path leads through long meadow grass to the Mound and its plentiful wildflowers.

Above Californian poppies, Eschscholzia californica, among flowering grasses.

love flowers and arranging flowers. A room without flowers is like an egg without salt,” notes Joanna.

Beyond the house, the garden opens onto a tennis court, paddock and orchard. Joanna is an ambassador for conservation charity Plantlife and has given several spaces over to meadow. Mown paths lead through wildflowers and grass, with drifts of bulbs planted in a paisley pattern. Wildflowers feature on the Mound, too, which was built from the spoil of the excavations and was a Christmas present from Joanna to Charles. In 2020 they counted 22 species of wildflower on it. “My ambition is to have a bee orchid but you have to wait for them to find you, don’t you?” she says. That sounds much like a house with friendly spirits. n Joanna Wood: Tel: 0207 730 5064; info@joannawood.com; joannawood.com.

Max Askew, Askew Nelson: Tel: 01993 831442; info@askewnelson.com; askewnelson.com

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Caroline Cazenove’s country garden in Hampshire is full of timeless elements, like these deep borders.

The Happy PLACE

Built on the bones of an existing garden in Hampshire, Caroline Cazenove’s garden grew as she learned, becoming a classic English garden of breathtaking beauty that brings joy to all WORDS JODIE JONES PHOTOGRAPHS SUSSIE BELL

58 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 59

Above The stepped yew hedges were here when Caroline took on the garden; she added new roses and planting in shades of pink and purple.

Right Large-flowered Clematis ‘Ernest Markham’.

“I

do love this garden and there are times, such as now, in early summer, when I feel quite proud of what we have made here,” says Caroline Cazenove. “It isn’t perfect or grand, and I don’t mind at all. What I want is for this to be a place that makes people happy.”

On a sunny morning in June, her Hampshire garden is a very happy place indeed, overflowing with life and colour. The silence is broken only by contented buzzing from some rather plump bumble bees, and the bleating of sheep in a neighbouring field. Shafts of sunlight slant down through an avenue of lime trees in long grass, the pool garden terrace shimmers with a haze of pretty pink and white daisy-flowered Erigeron karvinskianus, and the walled garden is a wonderful riot of roses and peonies, foxgloves and delphiniums.

From the log piles to the well-worn tennis court, this is the quintessence of what an English country garden should be. It is hard to believe that the busy town of Basingstoke is just six miles away, on the other side of the thundering M3 motorway.

Caroline and her husband Bernard relocated from London to this magical spot some 30 years

60 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

A drift of mauve alliums in front of ‘Fantin-Latour’ roses, covered in buds that will burst open into sumptuous pink flowers.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 61

ago, bringing their three young children in search of fresh air and room to grow. They were drawn by an 18th-century former rectory, on the comfortable side of grand, surrounded by its own gardens and shielded from the few neighbouring houses by tall stands of mature trees. “We knew the house already because Bernard’s cousin had lived here since the 1970s, and it was a place we always enjoyed visiting,” says Caroline. “But when I came from London to live here I wasn’t a proper gardener. I really only knew about lawns and tubs.” Fortunately, back in 1992, the garden was a forgiving blend of established and not too complicated. “A blank canvas would have been alarming, but this was the perfect place to learn,” says Caroline, who was soon a regular attendee at local lectures on soil, pruning and other essential gardening techniques.

Then, as now, the garden included both high- and low-input areas. There were pockets of ornamental planting tucked here and there across the front of the house, down one side of the rear lawn and in a sunny spot adjacent to the tennis court, but half of the large front garden was filled with a mass of trees so dense that nothing grew underneath them. Towering leylandiis enclosed the tennis court, sucking light and moisture from the surrounding area. The lime avenue was just five years old, and a wide lawn ran across the back of the house down to a low wooden ha-ha, beyond which the garden merged gently into the surrounding fields.

Caroline began slowly, implementing general maintenance and engaged in a steady battle against voles, rabbits and the ground elder that pops up in certain parts of the garden. But as her confidence grew, so did her aspirations. There are pockets of acid soil in front of the house where she can grow azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons, many of them gifts from friends: “These went in gradually as we thinned overgrown trees and opened up the space, and now my grandchildren tell me it is the very best place to make dens.”

The lime avenue was also thinned and Caroline planted thousands of daffodils into the long grass that runs along its length, leading to a Warwick urn on a plinth that was a present for her husband on his 50th birthday. Removing the leylandiis near the tennis court opened up more possibilities and a lovely view across many miles of unspoilt countryside. “I put in stilt hedges of hornbeam so we could still look out that way, underplanted with masses of ‘Munstead’ lavender.” The tennis court itself is now completely frilled with Alchemilla mollis, and there is a sheltered little seating area next to it where Caroline made beds packed with

Above Iris sibirica, Alchemilla mollis and hardy geraniums surround a tucked-away seating area.

Right Rich pink flowers of intensely fragrant old rose ‘Charles de Mills’.

Below Rosa ‘American Pillar’ complements the old red-brick wall of the house.

The lime avenue was thinned and thousands of daffodils planted into its long grass

62 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Iris sibirica, hardy Above Herbaceous Clematis integrifolia geraniums, sedums and makes a wonderful heuchera, with Rosa partner for Rosa ‘New Dawn’ trained ‘Bathsheba’. across the wall.

Left In contrast to the lavish borders, the On a sunny day this grassy lime avenue is is a seductive place to a calm, soothing space pause, but the high with its simple vista. point of the summer garden comes a little further on, contained within a separate area that is enclosed by walls built from brick and knapped flint in the local style.

“The bones of what you see today in the walled garden were already here when we moved in,” says Caroline. “It was my husband’s cousin who put in the long twin borders edged with clipped box, the yew hedge that runs across the space halfway down, and the metal arches covered with ‘Rêve d’Or’ roses.

I have just gradually added to it.”

It is a testament to how well they have been cared for over the intervening years that those same ‘Rêve d’Or’ roses are still smothered with fragrant buff-yellow blooms, but these days they must vie JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 63

for attention with a breathtaking collection of other cultivars. “I did become rather obsessed with roses,” Caroline admits. “I loved the idea of picking bowlfuls for the house and began adding varieties in shades of pink and cream.”

Today, she is spoilt for choice in her flower arranging, from the large single flowers of lipstickpink Rosa ‘Complicata’, which are among the first ones to open in this garden, to the dainty pompons of ‘The Fairy’ which appear later on in the season in gorgeous, soft, sugared-almond shades.

Most cultivars are planted in groups of three to create maximum impact, and include everything from pale and pretty ‘Jacqueline du Pré’, ‘Fantin-Latour’ and ‘Felicia’ to the intensely coloured magenta-pink ‘Charles de Mills’ and ‘William Lobb’.

White ‘Margaret Merril’, with its blush-pink tinge, and pure white ‘Iceberg’ are both grown as standards here. The beautiful brick and flint walls, meanwhile, are covered in climbers including ‘The Generous Gardener’, ‘New Dawn’ and ‘Constance Spry’ – among many others.

“It did start with the roses, but this isn’t a rose garden as such,” says Caroline. “I don’t like to look

The dainty pompons of ‘The Fairy’ appear later in the season in gorgeous, sugared-almond shades Top left Pretty ‘Mary

Rose’ roses frame a view back to the house.

Top right Foxglove spires perfectly punctuate mounds of perennials in the walled garden.

Above Gloriously detailed Iris sibirica.

64 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

at bare soil, so I much prefer to grow my roses with lots of companions.” To complement her pink roses, Caroline chose a pretty collection of herbaceous perennials, primarily in shades of pale blue and soft violet and, at this time of year, Eryngium planum, Campanula lactiflora ‘Prichard’s Variety’, Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’, and Verbena bonariensis help cover every trace of earth.

There are lots of nepetas, including the ubiquitous ‘Six Hills Giant’ and compact and long-flowering ‘Summer Magic’, which was introduced by Caroline’s favourite Hampshire nursery, Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants. Over the years she has also accumulated an enviable collection of peonies, both herbaceous forms and statuesque tree peonies, gloriously scented phlox (including the excellent Phlox paniculata ‘White Admiral’), and a selection of delphiniums chosen from specialist breeder Blackmore & Langdon.

The overall effect is stunning, but the workload required to achieve it all is also pretty breathtaking.

“This is the most high-input part of the garden,” Caroline explains. “I am very hands-on and I do a lot of work in here – I actually find deadheading rather therapeutic – but I couldn’t cope without our wonderful gardeners Ryan and Jocelyn Jones, who come here one day a week.”

“It is for them, as much as anyone, that I want this garden to be happy, and thanks to them that it is.” n

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Style & Grace Rose-covered, exuberant and above all stylish, Manor House Farm in Norfolk ticks all the boxes for a romantic English country garden WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS ANNIE GREEN-ARMYTAGE

Opposite ‘Francis E.

Lester’, ‘Leverkusen’ and ‘Madame Alfred Carrière’ roses climb over an arch.

This page A view of the smart parterre in the Quads garden with its ornamental dovecote.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 67

Above Rosa ‘Maigold’ climbs the wall behind an ornate wooden bench in the Taj Garden; in the foreground, Rosa ‘The Pilgrim’, hydrangeas and Alchemilla mollis.

T

ake a rambling redbrick farmhouse nestling in gently rolling Norfolk countryside, and add roses. On every weatherworn wall, over every gate and archway, roses climb, ramble and cascade, overflowing into borders and even the kitchen garden beds. Look for a moment longer, though, and there is a sense of something deeper at work here. As the sun rises over the Quads, a parterre at the top of the garden carved out from former lambing fields, cushions of green and plum foliage – box, purple-leaved hebe and Cotinus coggygria – and contrasting spires of foxglove and annual verbascum, soften this flamboyant show.

The design and planting have a strong selfconfidence, a kind of ‘if you’ve got it, flaunt it’ vibe, but with an ultra-romantic twist. Clipped box and

68 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

painted obelisks add structure, while distant trees serve to diffuse early sunlight, and shelter the garden from wind. A quirky dovecote forms a central focus.

The effect is somehow simultaneously extravagant and muted, glamorous and full of poetry.

Owners Robin and Libby Ellis moved to Manor House Farm in 1966, but the garden came about much later. “We had four children,” explains Robin. “I was busy farming, Libby was busy raising children, so we really didn’t have that much time to garden.” Libby nods in agreement. “I gardened at the back of the house, but in a small way – just a herbaceous border and lawn.” Robin also had a kitchen garden in this area and there was an inkling of something afoot when Libby gently suggested he may want to re-site it. “I told him to get his kitchen garden out of there, because I didn’t like looking at

This image A rose arch,

flanked by foxglove spires and peonies.

Below right Owners Robin and Libby Ellis.

Below left A wooden bow gate leads through to the Quads garden.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 69

Below A view over the

Taj Garden takes in the new greenhouse at the far end, with pink flowers of Rosa ‘Rosy Cushion’ in the foreground.

his shabby old greenhouse,” she says, laughing. “So that’s when it started to go a bit further.”

Libby has always been interested in gardening.

As a young woman, she worked for her father for six months when the family gardener was out of action. A model at the time, making her way in the world of Mary Quant and Biba, Libby realised that although she loved the modelling, she didn’t love the city. “I think it was really rather good having the two different jobs, but I liked being outside. It was a natural thing, and I like nurturing things.”

In 1995 with their children grown and a son established in the family farming business, Robin and Libby were able to turn their attention more wholeheartedly to the garden. “There were no plans,” says Robin, smiling. “We made it up as we went along.” Starting with the area around the house and courtyards, and expanding out past the archway at the top of the lawn garden, the couple gradually developed different spaces in a variety of styles: a formal pleached lime walk featuring a close-cropped lawn; the Quads parterre; a mixed orchard with mown pathways; a pergola hung heavy with climbing and rambling roses; the ‘hot spot’ – a

70 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

rockery garden that turned out to be damp and an ideal place for hostas and euphorbias; and an area known as the Taj Garden.

This last one came about in 1997 after a trip to India. Created on the site of a former cattle yard, it was originally destined to become a vegetable plot (Robin’s kitchen garden seems to have been permanently mobile), but a visit to the Taj Mahal inspired the couple to dig out a long rectangular pond. “It was when Princess Diana had been photographed sitting on a bench on her own,” recalls Robin, smiling at Libby. “I put a scaffold plank on concrete blocks, Libby sat on it and I took a photograph.” They both burst out laughing. The pond actually ended up as home to several large carp, although this was not Libby’s initial vision.

“I imagined a reflective pool,” she says. “Then the digger came in and the hole was dug. And dug and dug. It was so deep, I was worried about the grandchildren falling in. I ended up saying, ‘If your dog gets in there it won’t be able to get out,’ and, miraculously, the next day there were steps built in.”

The Taj Garden contains a lot of lime from the walls of the old farm buildings which makes it quite alkaline. In fact, most of the four-acre plot is alkaline, although there are a few camellias which don’t seem to mind. The soil is loamy for the most part, but in the slightly sunken space of the Taj Garden they have had problems with waterlogging.

“In the wintertime, the paths on one side fill with water and the yew isn’t very happy,” explains Robin.

“We did have box hedging [Buxus sempervirens ‘Suffruticosa’],” adds Libby. “But we got box blight.

We had to take about 700 plants out. It also got into the Quads garden, and we had to whip that out too.”

Nevertheless, most plants have thrived here, with deep mixed borders overflowing with roses: ‘Alchymist’, ‘Maigold’, ‘Rosy Cushion’, ‘The Pilgrim’, ‘Iceberg’, ‘Rachel’ – the list is seemingly endless. These are complemented by cottage garden favourites: alchemilla, foxgloves, perennial wallflower Erysimum ‘Bowles’s Mauve’, with ferns and lily of the valley for shadier spots. Libby is chief designer and plantsperson, with strong ideas on colour – “I have been known to take out the pink foxgloves where I wanted just white” – and also attuned to the needs of the plants. Hydrangeas do well here in shadier positions so they form the bulk of the structure on the north-facing wall.

The glasshouse forms a regal focus at the top of the garden and looks as though it has been here forever. In fact, it was replaced last autumn, with all the accompanying disruption you might imagine: scaffolding up, walls down, footings dug, gutters renewed. In the midst of all this, a mature grapevine.

“We had to have the mini-diggers and dump-trucks in here,” says Robin. “I took the vine down and tied it to the outer wall. It was covered in builder’s dust.”

This image Climbing rose ‘Galway Bay’ with Macleaya cordata below.

Above left The central pool in the Taj Garden.

Top right Soft yellow rose ‘The Pilgrim’.

Middle right Showy peony ‘Bowl of Beauty’.

Bottom right Rosa ‘Rachel’, a pink-peach fragrant hybrid tea.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 71

Roses at MANOR HOUSE FARM

In early summer, roses are the undisputed stars. Here are a few of Libby’s favourites

‘KÖNIGIN VON DÄNEMARK’ A highly scented old shrub rose with full blooms, also sold as ‘Queen of Denmark’.

ROSA X ODORATA ‘MUTABILIS’

‘MAIGOLD’ A robust climber with muskfragranced, blush-apricot flowers opening from redtinged buds.

‘ENGLISH MISS’

The flowers on this old China rose start out yellow and peach then age to cerise pink.

A free-flowering floribunda rose with soft pink, shapely flowers slightly reminiscent of camellia blooms.

‘ROSY CUSHION’

‘ALCHYMIST’

Abundant single pink flowers with centres that fade to white as they age, on bushy, low-growing shrubs.

A vigorous climber with double, yellow-orange, strongly fragrant blooms in early summer.

72 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Libby continues: “We Above Inside the new greenhouse with its were very lucky it was ‘Black Hamburgh’ (or such a mild autumn.

‘Schiavva Grossa’) grape I’m just so chuffed vine and scented-leaf everything survived.” pelargoniums including ‘Lord Bute’.

The couple have clear lines of demarcation, with Libby in charge of planting, propagation and all things lawn-related, while Robin concentrates on the kitchen garden, now in its fourth or fifth incarnation at the far end of the plot, and also on all the pruning.

“It’s a mammoth task come early spring,” says Libby. “He does it all with secateurs, and he’s very good at it.” Robin looks slightly astonished and then laughs, adding: “I’ve had my carpal tunnels operated on once; I think maybe they need doing again.”

What does he enjoy about the pruning process? “I can’t be contacted,” he says, smiling. “I haven’t had a problem with lockdown because I can spend quite a lot of the time on my own without having to involve people.” Libby agrees. “I’m at peace with the world when I’m in the garden or greenhouse.

I’d much rather be out here than I would doing housework. I don’t get bored with gardening!” n Manor House Farm, Wellingham, Fakenham, Kings Lynn, Norfolk PE32 2TH. Due to open for the National Garden Scheme on Sunday 20 June, 11am to 5pm. See manor-house-farm.co.uk and ngs.org.uk for more information.

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www.cavendishstone.com JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 73

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74 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

available to help customers who have concerns about installation and the various challenges of lighting a period home.

Lovett’s frustration at sourcing screwless switches only to find corresponding sockets sporting clearly visible screws led to the design of a range of tasteful, completely screwless switches and sockets. Available in period ‘traditional plate’ and contemporary ‘flat plate’, the simplicity of the design is stunning. The more recently launched ‘Fusion’ range is committed to personalisation, empowering customers to choose a blend of finishes that reflect and complement other hardware finishes within their interior.

Creating designs that are sympathetic to a home while lifting an interior design scheme is a pivotal part of the brand’s ethos, as well as working in tandem with clients and to their personal tastes as part of its consultancy service. To this end, Soho Lighting deliberately produces a diverse range of

WORDS NELL WHITAKER IMAGES ELLIOTT WHITE; DARREN NEWBERY; TJ HUGHES

products to match palettes and schemes, from hardware for switches to pendant lighting, downlights and LED bulbs.

Soho Lighting’s hand-painted enamel pendant range enables customers to match colours to their chosen products and fabrics, while a new range of handblown glass pendants in over 40 different shapes is interchangeable with a variety of fittings and colours. The brand’s range of striking lighting offers an impressive array of options to choose from, including hand-crafted, solid brass outdoor lighting in several finishes, perfect for preparing the garden for summer.

Understanding light and how it enhances an interior is at the heart of Soho Lighting’s operation, from creating a beautiful lighting aesthetic to the more practical considerations of task lighting. The brand is one of the few British providers of high Colour Rendering Index (CRI) downlights (see inset) – quality

lights that emit a closer representation of natural daylight than is typically found.

High CRI provides increased colour definition, greater clarity and contrast, and reduced eye strain, along with a renowned correlation to better mental health. Perfect for task lighting.

The passion and commitment of Soho Lighting’s talented Cornish team ensures each product, from outdoor lamps to pendants to switches and sockets, is the highest quality possible. Lovett’s roots in interior design and period renovation projects have resulted in several outstanding products, while the personable service enhances the client’s overall lighting experience.

For more on The Soho Lighting Company’s products and services, visit soholighting.com or call 020 8106 1221.

Top left The Glasshouse Pendant (£576).

Top right The 2-gang Fusion Toggle Switches (from £40).

Above middle Lee Lovett assembling a Carlisle Outdoor Wall Light (£148.50).

Above left Ideal for outdoors, the Hopkin Prismatic Glass Light (£127.50).

Above right Light up the garden with a Marlborough wall light (£129).

Inset A Brushed Brass Downlight (£28.55), part of the high CRI range.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 75

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WATER IN THE GARDEN

Aqua Vitae

IMAGE GAP/JOE WAINWRIGHT, DESIGN: LESLEY & JOHN JENKINS

A water feature, whether traditional or contemporary, can bring a garden to life with its sense of movement or wildlife-attracting properties

This beautiful formal pond, with spouts of water leading down steps to a rill, can be found at Wollerton Old Hall in Shropshire.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 77

WATER IN THE GARDEN

This image The Tavola

water feature by sculptor William Pye. Below A tiered fountain from Cavendish Stone.

P

erfectly still and reflecting the sky’s scudding clouds or the tracery of branches, gurgling from spouts or splashing from fountains, water brings gardens to life – not least because it draws in so much wildlife. On that, experts across the board agree: “Every garden should have a little bit of water somewhere,” insists garden designer and presenter Manoj Malde. “Water in any form in a garden is really important, even if it is just a bath for the birds to enjoy.”

But when it comes to installing a water feature, the options are so diverse it can be bamboozling, and there are a lot of practicalities to consider. If mistakes come to light after the fixture has been installed or a pond filled, they can be a pain to fix.

This is a job that it pays to get right from the start.

WATER IN SMALL SPACES In small gardens, or smaller ‘rooms’ within bigger gardens, a self-contained water feature is a straightforward option. “I’d look at the property first,” says Manoj. “Is it a Victorian house or a modern flat? Whatever elements are in your garden, you want to have that cohesion with your property, – whether it’s modern or slightly more traditional.”

In a modern space, Manoj recommends a simple, off-the-shelf, cube-shaped water feature such as A Place in the Garden’s Qube (01403 864866; aplaceinthegarden.co.uk), with water bubbling from the centre of a zinc cube to trickle down the sides.

The acrylic sphere of an Aqua Globe water feature makes a striking, contemporary addition, too, the water clinging to the sphere to give the illusion the ball is floating above its watery base (07881 780000; aquaglobe.co.uk). Foras supplies similar water features and globes in layered slate or marbled sandstone (01366 381069; foras.co.uk).

Another option is a simple pot with water spilling over the rim, trickling down the side and then rising back to the top via a holding tank. Look to the Cretan terracotta water features by Pots and Pithoi (01342 714793; potsandpithoi.com), which suit both contemporary and traditional garden styles.

The fashion for Corten steel shows no sign of waning, its rusty tones chiming so well with herbaceous planting and grasses. Tom Stuart-Smith often includes rectangular Corten water tanks amid a sea of perennials in his designs. “It’s such a great material in terms of how it lends itself to both classic gardens and modern ones – I don’t think designers will ever get tired of Corten steel,” says Manoj. “I know it’s expensive but I would love to see more copper because it’s such a beautiful material, especially when it develops its verdigris colour. I’d love to see more bronze, too,” he adds.

Architectural Heritage (01386 584414; architecturalheritage.co.uk) can supply a watertight version of its 78 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

IMAGES CLIVE NICHOLS; HUGH PALMER; IAN SMITH

beautiful large copper planters so that they can be used as water features.

Wall-mounted water features seem to suit courtyards or terraces in particular (or even a balcony), and again there is a huge choice, from the traditional lion’s head spout to a sleek trough with spouts of water cascading downwards.

Haddonstone (01604 770711; haddonstone.com) offers a range of wall-mounted fountains in cast stone, plus bowls and pedestals for them to trickle into, while Chilstone supplies an octagonal wall fountain with a flat back that’s reminiscent of a font (01892 313714; chilstone.com). At Bulbeck Foundry (01638 743153; bulbeckfoundry.co.uk) find a range of lead wall fountains or cisterns to position against a wall, with single lion’s head spouts or multiple spouts such as their Newmarket cistern – all are self-contained with built-in pumps, which is a big advantage. If not, as Manoj Malde explains, “you’ve got to make sure you’re able to hide the tubing that circulates the water. The last thing you want is to see

Top left Bulbeck Foundry’s Swaffham lead tank is ideal against a courtyard wall.

Top right A simple pot water feature in Cretan terracotta from Pots and Pithoi, with washed pebbles at its base.

Above right David Harber’s Mimeo Cascade fountain was inspired by the water features of Arabian gardens.

Above left The West Lodge fountain from Haddonstone.

the mechanics on show.” Be sure to adjust the flow until the sound of the water is as you like it: not too powerful a jet, or so tinkly that it reminds you of a slowly re-filling toilet cistern. Putting pebbles in the base can completely change the water’s sound, too.

Make a statement in an enclosed garden room or provide a focal point at a junction of paths with a free-standing fountain. Tristan Cockerill’s large natural slate globes can sit at ground level with a sunken reservoir below, or on a raised base that would look lovely surrounded by a low hedge of clipped box or euonymus, perhaps (07917 320572; tristancockerill.com). If you hanker for a grand fountain, Architectural Heritage can supply from its age-patinated artificial stone collection, as can Haddonstone and Chilstone, both with extensive ranges. Haddonstone’s Neapolitan fountain, with its shell-like bowl topped with a cherub holding a dolphin, makes a timeless centrepiece. Cavendish Stone produces two- or three-tiered versions of its classic fountain, the composite stone dishes of each JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 79

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WATER IN THE GARDEN

tier carved with water leaves and on top, a pineapple (01747 842214; cavendishstone.com).

For a fountain with a more contemporary feel, consider David Harber’s Mimeo Cascade (01235 859300; davidharber.co.uk), while William Pye’s Tavola bridges the gap between modern and classic with ease (williampye.com).

IMAGE RICHARD BLOOM

POND LIFE Of course, in any sized garden, particularly a country garden, a pond is a simple way to introduce water and, unlike a contained water feature, they’ll bring more benefits for garden wildlife. “In a small garden, even a tiny amount of water is really good, and a pond with planting and rocks around the edge will attract wildlife such as frogs,” says Manoj.

Garden designer Ann-Marie Powell agrees.

“Without water you’ll never get as much wildlife into your space as you will if you have a pond,” she says. Ann-Marie is currently completing a large project at RHS Wisley, where the wildlife garden she’s designed at the new Hillside learning centre includes expanses of water. “It’s like gardening with the sky,” she says. Reflection is an important point to consider when you’re deciding on a pond’s position.

“Think about how reflections work, because a pond is amazing when it reflects the sky, trees, or whatever you choose to put around it,” Ann-Marie advises.

More and more clients are asking Ann-Marie to incorporate a wildlife pond in the designs she

Top Ideal for humans and wildlife, a swimming pond by The Swimming Pond Company.

Above Perfectly in-keeping with the landscape, this swimming pond by Gartenart doesn’t detract from the view.

produces. “For years we’ve wanted to put ponds in gardens, and every now and then someone would let us, but now almost every single client is saying ‘I really want a pond,’” she confirms.

Before setting to with a mini-digger, there are some vital things to consider. “Think about where you put it. If you’ve got a level site you can put it wherever you like, but in a sloping garden, for the pond to look natural, it needs to be at the bottom of the slope,” says Ann-Marie. It’s also important JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 81

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WATER IN THE GARDEN

to investigate your garden’s natural water table.

You can make a naturally waterproof pond liner by puddling clay, but usually a man-made liner is installed. Here, Ann-Marie offers a word of warning: “If you do this where there’s a high water table, the water can push your liner and water up and out of your pond, so you have to drain the water away to put the pond in.”

A pond should be a minimum of 60cm deep at the centre to stop it from freezing in winter, and AnnMarie also recommends paying careful consideration to its edging: where the liner meets planting at the side it will need something to hide it. “Always create ‘beaches’ so wildlife can get in and out and marginal shelves for planting,” she suggests. When it comes to liners, Ann-Marie advises always buying the most expensive liner you can afford, since this will help avoid future leaks, which can be difficult to fix.

Above left Stepped

rills are complex water features to install, usually requiring a skilled landscape contractor.

Top right Ponds needn’t be big to be beneficial.

Above right Damselflies rely on marginal planting surrounding ponds.

Above middle Water is essential for garden wildlife such as frogs.

Formal water features for larger gardens include smart rills, but these installations can be complex, especially if they are stepped. Enlisting the services of a designer and a specialist landscape contractor is advisable, so the complex system of pumps, valves and electricity can be set up properly.

The Rolls-Royce of ponds has to be a natural swimming pond that is as much a haven for wildlife as it is a playful addition to the garden. These ponds have a separate regeneration zone that filters the water through planting and shingle to keep it crystal clear for swimming. Gartenart (020 7183 3333; gartenart.co.uk) and The Swimming Pond Company (01379 688000; theswimmingpondcompany.co.uk) can advise on the costs and practicalities of their installation. Their natural aesthetic makes them easy to integrate into gardens and their surrounding landscape, as does the planting they incorporate.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 83

WATER IN THE GARDEN

Left A natural pond is fascinating to sit beside and watch the wildlife it attracts, so position seating nearby for maximum enjoyment.

Above Marginal plants such as Butomus umbellatus really help settle a pond into its surrounding landscape.

Right Aim to cover around two thirds of the pond’s surface with floating plants, such as beautiful waterlilies.

Planting in any pond maintains the oxygen balance.

Oxygenating aquatic plants are essential in a wildlife pond, as are floating plants, which provide shade and shelter for the pond’s inhabitants and also prevent excessive algal growth. Try Bennett’s Waterlily Plants (07812 175688; waterlily.co.uk) to recreate a Monet-style scene. Marginal plants play a crucial role in providing a habitat for pond life. Lincolnshire Pond Plants (01472 566970; lincspplants.co.uk) stock a vast range of marginals, such as rose-pink water gladiolus (Butomus umbellatus) or arrowhead (Sagittaria sagittifolia)with its spear-like leaves.

If you get an invasion of blanketweed or duckweed, scoop out as much as possible, and try Aquaplancton, which stimulates beneficial bacteria in the water to restore the pond’s balance (01298 214003; aquaplancton.co.uk). Blagdon also supplies treatments for common pond problems, as well as a comprehensive range of pumps, filters, nets and aeration systems, to keep your pond in perfect health (blagdonwatergardening.co.uk). n Manoj Malde. Tel: 07979 658890; manojmalde gardendesign.co.uk. Ann-Marie Powell. Tel: 01730 825650; ann-mariepowell.com. Ann-Marie’s book, My Real Garden is on sale now with proceeds going to Greenfingers Charity. Visit myrealgarden.co.uk.

84 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Call in the professionals Manoj Malde advises on water feature installation Moving water should be the most peaceful and serene sound you can hear in a garden. But if a water feature is poorly built or installed, problems can swiftly arise.

Water features range from natural swimming pools and formal ponds to simple containers with bubbling spouts. The skill set of the contractor you use should suit the design of your water feature. A formal pond could be constructed by a skilled landscape contractor, but a natural swimming pool is a completely different ball game requiring specialist knowledge of materials, regeneration zones, the eco-system of the pool, and the overall mechanics. Engage the wrong skill set and that same pool becomes a breeding ground for algae, mosquitoes, even legionella and other waterborne diseases.

Problems can occur if a water feature isn’t properly installed. If the wrong sized pump is used for the size of the water feature, the flow rate per minute will be inadequate.

There may not be controls on the pump to increase or decrease the flow of water or overflow pipes to stop the water feature overflowing during heavy rain. Water features should also have return valves to stop the water flowing in the reverse direction. There should be an auto top-up installed in the header tank, and the balancing tank needs to be at the right location and height. Visible mechanics look unsightly as do a visible liner, joints and grout, when the lining and level of a pond haven’t been considered.

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IMAGES GAP/MICHAEL KING; SHUTTERSTOCK

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PARTNER SPOTLIGHT

KNOCK ON WOOD After deciding to extend their Cheshire home, one couple enlisted the help of oak-frame experts Oakwrights and ended up with the garden room they had always dreamed of

W

hen Jim and Sharon Addington bought a beautiful Cheshire farmhouse more than 20 years ago, they knew there was plenty of work to be done to the property. And while their renovations at the time were extensive – to include a large, attached garage and guest bedroom, creating substantial second floor accommodation – the one thing they didn’t extend was the ground floor of the house. “The size of the sitting room was still limited, and we felt restricted for space when entertaining family and friends,” Sharon recalls.

The couple were fortunate to own 86 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Above The oak-framed garden room

extension by Oakwrights is perfectly in keeping with Jim and Sharon Addington’s period home in Cheshire.

the land adjacent to the sitting room and knew there would one day be the possibility to knock through and extend.

Over the years, they looked at the local architecture to decide exactly the style they would like and eventually settled on an oak-framed extension for their home.

Fast forward to 2017. After deciding to extend the property, the couple soon decided that Oakwrights captured the concept of what they were looking for in a garden room.

The decision was partly due to the way Oakwrights craft their frames off-site.

Having worked in the manufacturing industry himself, Jim could see the benefits of this: “We were filled with confidence that we would receive a beautifully designed product, built to our specification and to the quality we had in mind,” he says.

When Nick Price and Tim Crump established Oakwrights more than 20 years ago, crafting the wood offsite was one of many ideas they had.

They also built their own show home in 2007, allowing potential customers to experience the joys of an oak-framed

IMAGES OAKWRIGHTS/RICHARD KIELY

building for themselves. So, before the Addingtons placed their order, they drove to Hereford to look at Oakwrights’ face glazing system. This way of glazing sees double-glazed units secured to the outside of the timber in a way that offers flexibility in movement while maintaining an airtight, sustainable security blanket for your build. “After comparing it to a standard casement approach, we had no hesitation in choosing this for our garden room. It allowed us to make the most of the beautiful countryside views while creating a room that’s completely energy efficient,” says Jim. It was important to Jim and Sharon to create a garden room that was in keeping with the character of their home, so they worked very closely with Oakwrights’ design team to craft an oak-framed room to their specifications.

Creating symmetry with the oak trusses was key for the couple, who chose to position one of the trusses centrally over a set of traditional, large double doors. This allowed the space to extend further and open up onto the

Above With its oak-beamed ceiling, the

garden room has a light and airy feel.

Right Large windows let in plenty of

light and ensure beautiful views over the surrounding garden and countryside.

patio area. “We liked the way these doors can virtually fold back flat against the garden room, whereas traditional bi-folds would have encroached on the space,” Sharon explains. The windows were also designed to be symmetrical and balanced on opposite sides of the room. In fact, they were so keen to optimise their space, a late change was made to extend by an extra metre to allow for a large sofa.

The Addingtons couldn’t be more thrilled with their garden room. Not only that, but they are also genuinely surprised at how much use they get from the additional space. “We use it all year round,” says Sharon. “Whether that’s just for relaxing and watching TV or for entertaining guests and having family get-togethers, it tends to be where we congregate,” says Jim. “We installed a large wood-burning stove and underfloor heating to create a warm and cosy space

in the winter, and it transforms into a relatively cool environment in the summer with the help of the face glazing system.

It really is the room we use the most.”

Oakwrights, tel: 01432 353353; oakwrights.co.uk JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 87

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TOP 10 PLANTS

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Right now, sumptuous roses are starting to take centre stage in our gardens and Marilyn Stevens of Roses UK suggests ten of the best varieties to grow

WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY IMAGE GAP/TIM GAINEY

f there is one flower associated with June it must surely be the rose. Right now, passionate rose growers are almost certainly assessing their collection and wondering if there is room for just one more. Those bewildered by the choice available could visit Roses UK (rosesuk.com), the publicfacing arm of the British Association of Rose Breeders, where you can whittle down the choice by selecting desired characteristics.

Marilyn Stevens, project manager at Roses UK has some advice to offer: “The ‘ankles’ of roses are not their best feature, so I always underplant with low-growing perennials,” she says. “Once my roses are established, there is no special treatment beyond extra water during dry spells. Those in containers receive top dressing and slow release fertiliser in spring.” Here she suggests a selection of performers across a range of types, from climbers to hybrid teas.

1 ‘Buff Beauty’ For lovers of a classic tea rose scent, ‘Buff Beauty’ is a fine shrub rose to choose. Marilyn grows this as an arching shrub but it does need space because it can grow to 1.5m in height and width. “In my south coast garden, its soft-apricot flowers bloom from mid-May with a second flush in late summer,” she observes.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 89

TOP 10 PLANTS

2 ‘Dunwich Rose’

3 ‘Belle de Jour’

“I love this rose because the single flowers are reminiscent of the wild dog rose – but it is much better behaved,” says Marilyn. It flowers just once, early in the year when its blooms are welcome.

Also referred to as Rosa spinosissima ‘Dunwich’, like other wild roses it bears single flowers that are ideal for pollinators.

“The current Rose of the Year and one of my newest acquisitions,” enthuses Marilyn, who grows this splendid floribunda rose in a container. Its blooms, which can reach 7cm across, are a cheerful, sunshine yellow, with a scent reminiscent of vanilla. In late summer, they will take on a peachy-orange tint.

4 ‘The Generous Gardener’

5 ‘Champagne Moment’

This climbing David Austin rose bears large, pale pink flowers with a musky, myrrh scent. It reaches around 4.5m, so is suitable for doorways, arches and larger walls or fences. It doesn’t have to be in the ground, either: “I grow this in a large container, with a pinky-mauve clematis and Erigeron karvinskianus,” adds Marilyn.

“I appreciate this variety for its health and creamy-ivory blooms, which are prolific,” explains Marilyn. A floribunda rose renowned for its disease resistance, it bears luxuriant dark green foliage that offsets its pale apricot blooms well. Flowering until autumn, it is a robust shrub that works well placed in a large border.

90 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

IMAGES GARDEN WORLD IMAGES; GAP/ANNAÏCK GUITTENY/JONATHAN BUCKLEY/MARTIN HUGHES-JONES

6 ‘Felicia’ This is a hybrid musk rose bred in the 1920s by Romford breeder Joseph Pemberton. “This is one of the most imposing shrub roses in my garden,” notes Marilyn. It offers an early and profuse flowering of pale pink doubles and continues to bloom sporadically later in the season.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 91

7 ‘Albéric Barbier’

8 ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’

This old rambler with soft yellow blooms is tolerant of a northfacing site. It will grow up to 6m and can hold its leaves until December, so it is ideal for clothing a wall or fence. “I have allowed my plant to entwine with neighbouring shrubs, so the flowers pop up in the most unexpected places,” remarks Marilyn.

With an Award of Garden Merit from the RHS, this is a hybrid tea with élan. Flowers have just a hint of pink on their pale petals and they are deliciously scented. This, combined with deep green leaves, makes it a popular choice. Marilyn grows it in a large terracotta container alongside other pale-hued roses.

9 ‘Blush Noisette’

10 ‘The Pilgrim’

This climbing rose is reputed to date from the 19th century. As far as climbers go it’s compact, suitable for a wall, fence or climbing support. It is repeat flowering, bearing neat, semi-double flowers scented with musk and clove. Marilyn grows hers in “a rather cramped position at the back of a border” on a rusted obelisk.

Although ‘The Pilgrim’ is described by David Austin Roses as a medium climber, Marilyn grows this variety as a large shrub rose, where its densely petalled, lemon-yellow blooms mingle with those of a neighbouring philadelphus. “My plant is at least 20 years old, but it still flowers prolifically,” she maintains.

92 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

IMAGES GARDEN WORLD IMAGES; GAP/JACQUI DRACUP; SHUTTERSTOCK

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PLANT FOCUS The large, bright flowerheads of Achillea ‘Sassy Summer Taffy’ have a substantial presence in the border.

Level Headed Their colourful, flat flowerheads are the perfect landing pads for the pollinators that adore them, making achillea a sensible choice for those keen to attract garden wildlife, as National Collection holder John Cullen explains to Louise Curley PHOTOGRAPHS ANNAÏCK GUITTENY JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 95

PLANT FOCUS

O

ne of the keys to creating interesting planting combinations is the use of contrasting flower shapes and structures. This is why the flat-topped flowers of achilleas have become such a go-to plant for designers, providing a foil to the spires and spheres of other summer-flowering perennials.

Not that this is the only attraction of these plants.

“I love them for their colour variation – whether it’s bold pops of colour or pastel tones from ivorywhite and shades of yellow and orange to a range of pinks and the deepest shades of red,” explains John Cullen, who is the custodian of a National Collection of Achillea millefolium at his nursery in Lincolnshire. “They have a long flowering season, 96 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Above Golden Achillea

filipendulina ‘Parker’s Variety’ glows when grown in combination with delicate, purple Verbena hastata.

with some starting to bloom in April – in some years we’ll still have achilleas in flower in December.

They also score highly when it comes to attracting wildlife, which has always been a key feature of the plants we grow at the nursery,” adds John. The larvae of several moths feed on achilleas, starlings line their nests with the leaves, and the flowers are a great source of pollen and nectar for pollinators – especially butterflies and short-tongued bees.

John took on the National Collection in 2017 after meeting a representative from Plant Heritage at a plant show. “They had earmarked about 20 or so different genera of plants that they wanted to protect, and while I was interested I didn’t want to move away from the nursery’s focus on plants for pollinators.” Serendipitously, beefriendly achilleas were one of the plants on Plant Heritage’s list. “This also coincided with us moving our nursery and lots of shade-loving plants from London to a site in Lincolnshire where there was no shade! Sun-loving achilleas seemed the perfect fit.”

Achilleas are native to the northern hemisphere and they have a plethora of common names, which is always a sign that a plant has a long history. Yarrow is the most common, with some of the others including stench grass, old man’s pepper and soldier’s woundwort. This last name refers to the Ancient Greek mythological warrior Achilles, who is said to have treated his wounded soldiers with yarrow because it had known healing properties – a legend that led 18th-century Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus to name the plant achillea.

They’re a member of the daisy family, with flowerheads made up of individual blooms each with both disc and ray florets that are held on different length stems so that they form flat-topped flower clusters. In the UK the wildflower A. millefolium has white, occasionally pink, flowers and grows in meadows, hedgerows and on scrubby ground, and it’s from this and other wild species that plant breeders have managed to create such a wide array of colourful garden-worthy plants.

They range in height from 20cm up to 2m and have upright, slender stems and airy, open flower clusters that give these herbaceous perennials an

Top Achillea ptarmica ‘Peter Cottontail’ has button-like flowers.

Right The pink-red flowers of ‘Fanal’ fade to brick-red then yellow.

This image ‘King Alfred’ is low-growing, so good for the front of borders.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 97

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98 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

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PLANT FOCUS architectural quality that means they work equally well in traditional cottage garden planting schemes or in modern prairie-style borders with ornamental grasses. The foliage is attractive too, delicate and feathery with a fern-like appearance in mid- or silvery-green. John plants achilleas with verbenas and salvias such as ‘Amistad’, which provide the purple element missing from the achillea colour range while enjoying the same growing conditions.

A. ptarmica ‘The Pearl’, also known as sneezewort, was a favourite of Gertrude Jekyll’s, and produces sprays of small, double, button-like, pure white flowers amid dark green foliage; ‘Perry’s White’ and ‘Peter Cottontail’ are similar, with all three creating a gypsophila-like froth. For single white flowers, try A. millefolium ‘White Beauty’, a selection of our native wildflower.

The glowing golden flowerheads of the tallest achilleas, A. filipendulina ‘Parker’s Variety’, ‘Gold Plate’ and ‘Cloth of Gold’, reach up to 1.5m and more. For lemony-yellow blooms there are cultivars such as ‘Credo’ and ‘Taygetea’. Copper colours and apricot shades, meanwhile, are represented by the cultivars ‘Terracotta’; ‘Fanal’, which starts off red before fading to orangey-yellow; ‘Walther Funcke’; and the fiery shades of ‘Feuerland’. ‘Apricot Delight’ from the Tutti Frutti Series is a relatively recent introduction, bred to be compact with a bushy habit, growing to a height of 60cm with a spread of 50cm and has flowers in fruity tones of red, pink and orange, all on the same plant at any one time.

Shades of pink include ‘Lansdorferglut’, ‘Cerise Queen’ and the fabulously named ‘Forncett Fletton’, which sounds like a character from an American soap opera and has fetching salmon-pink blooms.

The flowers of ‘Lilac Beauty’ emerge a deep rosepink colour before fading to a pretty lavender.

For jewel-like ruby shades there’s ‘New Vintage Red’, ‘Red Velvet’ and ‘Pomegranate’, which is John’s favourite. “It’s very floriferous with a fantastic rich colour and, unlike some achilleas, it doesn’t tend to bleach in strong sunshine.” This chameleonlike colour change that some achilleas exhibit can be an attractive trait, particularly when several colours appear on a plant at the same time, but John suggests it’s worth taking this into consideration if you have a strong colour theme running through your borders. For instance, ‘Paprika’ Top ‘Apricot Delight’, starts off with deep red from the recently introduced ‘Tutti Frutti’ flowers that change to series of compact plants. pale pink and finally Middle ‘Terracotta’ bears a creamy-yellow. copper-orange flowers.

John also Bottom Vibrant Achillea millefolium ‘Cerise recommends the new Queen’ catches the eye.

Seduction Series, which Far left Tall Achillea have been bred to be filipendulina ‘Gold Plate’ shorter, so they’re less can reach 1.5m.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 99

PLANT FOCUS

likely to flop and are very floriferous. “For containers I’d suggest ‘Moondust’ which is a very pale yellow and about 20cm tall, and pink ‘Little Susie’, which grows to about 40cm. Use a John Innes No2 compost mixed 50:50 with grit for good drainage.”

Others include canary-yellow ‘Little Moonshine’ and ‘Pink Grapefruit’, as well as ‘King Alfred’, which is very low-growing, making it a good choice for the edge of borders, rock gardens and pots.

Achilleas also make long-lasting cut flowers and can be used in both fresh and dry flower arrangements. In either case, cut them when the flowers are showing colour but not fully open, as they’ll continue to emerge once picked. To dry the flowers, bunch several stems together and tie with twine then hang them upside down somewhere warm, dry and dark for two to three weeks.

Find space for these easy-to-grow perennials and not only will they bring a splash of joyful colour to your garden, they’ll also create a space that buzzes and flutters with bees and butterflies. n Above left ‘Lilac Beauty’

fades from deep pink to palest lavender.

Above right ‘Paprika’ starts off with deep-red flowers before they age to creamy yellow.

John Cullen Gardens, Eagle Lodge, Archers Lane, Algarkirk, Boston PE20 2AG. The nursery opens by appointment with the best time to view the achillea collection being midsummer. Tel: 01205 460567; johncullengardens.com 100 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

GROWING ADVICE

Easy-care achilleas Achilleas are easy to grow if they’re given the right conditions, advises John Cullen Plant achilleas in a sunny, open space where they won’t be shaded out by taller plants at the back of a border, otherwise they’ll move towards the light and become floppy.

They’re classified as drought tolerant, but that doesn’t mean you should plant them and leave them. Water them during their first year so they establish well, then you won’t need to fuss over them.

which have a tendency to sprawl outwards.

They’re classed as short-lived perennials so divide every three years in late winter or early spring, discarding the woody centre and replanting the younger, outside growth to reinvigorate the plants.

They’ll struggle on heavy clay soil, so incorporate plenty of grit when planting.

Aphids can be a problem but ladybirds on our nursery keep them under control. Slugs will go for the young foliage as it emerges in spring, but once achilleas leaf up they’re less attractive to them.

Stake the taller varieties and place circular grid-type supports over the top of midheight, clump-forming varieties,

Deadhead by cutting the spent flower stem right back to the base of the plant to encourage it to send up new shoots.

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JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 101

102 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

GARDEN CLASSICS

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

WORDS CLARE FOGGETT IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK; ALAMY; GAP/ANNIE GREEN-ARMYTAGE/HOWARD RICE

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. n

Fuchsia magellanica: Four interesting varieties for flowers and foliage

F. magellanica ‘Lady Bacon’

Striking flowers with a purple corolla on 1.5m tall shrubs.

F. magellanica ‘Aurea’ This golden-leaved variety reaches between 1.2m and 1.5m tall.

F. magellanica var. gracilis ‘Versicolor’

Pink and cream variegated foliage sets this fuchsia apart.

F. magellanica var. molinae

A white-flowered version, with the palest mauve corolla.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 103

MODERN PERGOLA

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JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 105

MEADOW STYLE

Casual DINING An area of soft feathery grasses makes a charming spot to position a garden table, right in among them, setting the scene for a natural dining experience Follow the theme by styling the table with a centrepiece of gathered grasses, and use cotton cloth napkins, recycled glass tumblers and artisan ceramics for relaxed and informal place settings. Handmade Graphite Collection dinner plates, £32 each, side plates £26 each, bowls £26, Dantes Ceramics, dantesceramics.com. Vintage amber and green glass jug, £30, Etsy, etsy.com. Chambray napkins in moss, £18 for a set of four, Walton & Co, waltonshop.co.uk.

Rustic clay pot, £20, Design Vintage, designvintage.co.uk. Vintage and antique furniture from a selection at Hungerford Antiques Arcade, hungerfordarcade.com

106 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Breakfast or afternoon tea outdoors is a delight. Handmade Graphite Collection mug, £28, milk jug, £26, side plate £26, and white mug from Simple White Collection, £28, Dantes Ceramics, dantesceramics.com.

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Pack up a moveable feast to enjoy in the local park, out in the countryside or simply at home at the end of the garden. 1970s picnic basket, £50, Etsy, etsy.com. Handmade hemp bag, £39, Scandalo Al Sole, scandaloalsole.com

Artisan ceramics will give your outdoor dining experience a stylishly relaxed feel. Handmade Graphite Collection dinner plates, £32 each, side plates £26 each, shallow bowl, £28, Dantes Ceramics, dantesceramics.com

Create an informal lounging spot with an easy-to-carry vintage bamboo chair and a table fashioned from oak and attached to a tree stump. Vintage bamboo chair, £80, Etsy, etsy.com. French limestone chambray cushion, £14.99, Walton & Co, waltonshop.co.uk JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 107

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MEADOW STYLE

Bring the natural theme indoors by using seagrass or hemp baskets for storage, displaying picked grasses in vases and lighting a meadow-scented candle to set the mood. Handmade large black vase, £38, Dantes Ceramics, dantesceramics.com. Black feuerhand hurricane lantern, £30, Le Petit Jardin, le-petit-jardin.com. Seagrass basket, £30, Basket Basket, basketbasket.co.uk. Beeswax candles, £24 for a pair of tall and £12 for a pair of short, The Great British Bee Company, greatbritishbeeco.com. Meadow candle, £20, Holistic London, thisisholisticlondon.com JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 109

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Decorate an outbuilding with a botanical poster. Grasses and sedges poster, £4.50, Willow and Stone, willowandstone.co.uk. Glass jar vase, £60, Raj Tent Club, rajtentclub.com. Antique rattan chair, £40, Duck Decoy, £65, Hungerford Antiques Arcade, hungerfordarcade.com

Simple posies of wild meadow grasses and colourful flowers can be hung upside down to dry, adding a touch of effortless charm and beauty to a rustic wooden backdrop. For similar vintage garden sieves and old leather bags, try etsy.com

Put freshly cut grasses in a glass vase and leave for a long-lasting arrangement that will look pretty as it dries. Oak stool, £150, Design Vintage, designvintage.co.uk. Green bubble glass vase, £40, Raj Tent Club, rajtentclub.com. Vintage brown vase, for similar try etsy.com

An old cart has been transformed with cushions in natural colours.

Striped tassel cushion, £65, Design Vintage, designvintage.co.uk. Black ruffle edge cushion, £40, Rectangle cushion, £40, Also Home, alsohome. com. Pom pom cushion, £29.99, Walton & Co, waltonshop.co.uk

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 111

MEADOW STYLE

Make a MEADOW

Turning existing lawn into meadow f you’re inspired to create is trickier, but not impossible with a your own meadow, consider little effort. The first task is to weaken one planted with perennial the existing grasses so wildflowers wildflowers to begin with. can establish. Do this by cutting the Meadows filled with cornfield lawn short each week to reduce its annuals, such as poppies mixed vigour. You can also grow yellow rattle with grasses, do look very colourful, (Rhinanthus minor), a parasitic plant but you need to make sure they are that weakens grass. Nick says it should managed properly and mown at the always be sown between August and right times so their seeds germinate December, using freshly harvested afresh each year. Meadows made of seed, because it isn’t viable for long. grasses and perennial wildflowers on Top Ox-eye daisies and meadow clary in a perennial Once you’ve made headway, you may the other hand get better and better meadow. Above right Knautia arvensis, field scabious. find some wildflowers naturally pop as the flowering plants reappear each Above left Reduce grass vigour with yellow rattle. up; add to the mix with plug plants or year – and they’re brilliant for wildlife. plants you’ve raised from seed, planted at five per square metre.

Starting from scratch is the easiest and most successful way to Habitat Aid supplies seed mixes and plug plants, while sister create a wildflower meadow. You need a site that’s free of existing company British Wildflower Seeds (britishwildflowermeadow turf or weeds and is ploughed or rotavated to create a seedbed. seeds.co.uk), supplies seed in smaller quantities. Or try Emorsgate Nick Mann of Habitat Aid (habitataid.co.uk) advises sowing in Seeds (wildseed.co.uk). Alternatively, simply forgo lawn mowing late summer and autumn to mimic plants’ natural seed-setting over summer and let your grass grow long and flower, for a subtle time. This will also avoid problems with our increasingly dry display of textures and colours from the grasses’ flowerheads. n spring weather hampering seed germination.

112 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

WORDS CLARE FOGGETT IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK; GAP/ROBERT MABIC

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ROSE CARE

Simply Roses

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Fay Edwards debunks some common rose-care myths and explains how looking after these gorgeous floriferous shrubs can be straightforward and fear-free

The unusual burnished copper-red shades of Rosa ‘Hot Chocolate’, a bushy, robust floribunda.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 115

ROSE CARE

W

hat would the summer garden be without the delicate furls of roses? Yet these iconic blooms are often wrongly regarded as tricky.

Methodical pruning, foliar feeding and dutiful deadheading are at the heart of many rose growers’ sworn-by practices – but are they really necessary?

“People say that when you prune a rose, you need to open up the centre and go stem by stem,” says Tony Hall, Head of Gardens at the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew. “But it has been proven that you can take a hedge trimmer to a rose without doing it any harm.” Other traditional pruning advice includes cutting at a 45-degree angle a quarter of an inch above a leaf axil that slopes away from a dormant eye – talk that can leave even the most experienced growers scratching their heads.

Yet, pruning a dormant rose in a carefree fashion is better than leaving it to grow leggy out of fear.

Any pruning you carry out will keep your rose’s growth healthy and compact. So is there any value in a stem-by-stem approach? “It depends what you’re trying to achieve,” says Dr Linda Chalker-Scott, 116 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Above Rosa ‘The Lady Gardener’, a David Austin English rose producing sumptuous apricot flowers in repeated flushes.

associate professor of horticulture at Washington State University. “Taking hedge clippers to your rose will produce masses of compact growth. If you want a more open shape, go stem-by-stem.”

Encourage an open growth pattern by pruning away stems in the centre and clipping outer stems to outward-facing buds. But, thankfully, you can leave your protractor out of the equation, since, according to Professor Chalker-Scott: “There is no evidence anywhere that cutting any woody plant at a 45 degree angle is a good thing.”

You’ll sometimes see hard pruning recommended for black spot prevention. The idea is to eliminate the fungal spores that may be overwintering on stems. Clearing leaf litter and picking leaves off roses at the end of the season are also considered preventative measures – very time-consuming ones too, if you have more than a handful of bushes.

However, most black spot spores originate from the soil. When spring rain hits bare soil beneath a rose, it splashes millions of spores onto the bush’s fresh new growth. Warmth and moisture then create the conditions needed for an infection to take hold.

You can remove all the stems and leaves you like, but

IMAGES CLIVE NICHOLS; GAP/JONATHAN BUCKLEY/BBC MAGAZINES

black spot will be hard to control if you can’t deal with the soil. Fortunately, this is straightforward: “Mulching over the top of soil and older leaves will stop spores coming back up with rain splash,” says Tony. This is by far the most important step you can take to prevent black spot. After all, if spores can’t get onto your rose, they can’t cause problems.

The ideal mulch is a thick coating of wood chips.

Top left Always water

at the roots, to avoid getting the foliage wet.

Top right Spray aphids off plants with water.

Above right Don’t use a soapy spray since it can damage the rose.

Above left Pruning keeps roses healthy and bushy.

Since spores also need prolonged moisture to thrive, taking steps to keep foliage dry will also help. Water directly at the roots in the morning, and plant your rose in full sun so its leaves dry quickly.

Another common rose problem is aphids. At Kew, they’re careful about spraying bushes because, as Tony explains, “we get lots of blue tits going through our roses and we don’t want to use a strong insecticide that could harm the birds.” One solution that’s often suggested is to spray aphids with soapy water or diluted washing-up liquid. “All insects have a waxy coating to stop water evaporating from their bodies. Soap breaks down the wax, so insects become dehydrated,” reports Professor ChalkerScott, “but plants also have a waxy layer, called the cuticle – when you spray soap on a plant it’s a general biocide that will damage anything it touches, including the rose.”

Instead, simply blast aphids off using pure water.

Climbing from the soil back up to fresh, new shoots is, for aphids, like tackling Mount Everest and, once they’re on the ground, they get gobbled up quickly.

This is especially true if you have a wood chip mulch in place, since it supports predatory insects. Just JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 117

remember to blast away the aphids on the morning of a sunny day, so foliage dries fast.

When roses are in active growth, many growers apply foliar feed. This is often marketed as being 20 times more effective than feeding at the roots, so comes with a hefty price tag to match. Yet, you’ll find no foliar feeding at Kew. According to Tony, it’s just a short-term fix: “You can turn a rose around with a single application, but roses are growing and shedding leaves all the time, so you only get a short blast before the problems start again.”

This is because food that’s applied to leaves stays in the leaves. When new shoots grow, they can’t access the food that’s locked up in other plant tissues. By contrast, food that’s taken in through the roots is drawn up through the plant’s water transport system and spreads across the entire plant.

Just bear in mind that overfeeding at the roots can cause soil toxicities. When certain nutrients build up, they can prevent roots absorbing other essential nutrients. So, how do you know when to feed? The answer is to do a soil test. The Royal Horticultural Society offer these for £35 each (email soiltestpack@ rhs.org.uk). If this seems expensive, just think of the money you’ll save on unnecessary fertiliser!

118 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Above left Deadheading

is only necessary from an aesthetic point of view, and doesn’t always encourage more flowers.

Above right A granular feed applied to soil is a better option than an expensive foliar feed.

Finally, if you grimace at deadheads on roses, anxious that they’re hindering further flushes of flowers, this advice is for you. A common belief is that when hips are left on roses, the plant thinks its reproductive work is done and stops flowering. By removing hips, the idea goes, you force the rose to flower again to make another attempt at creating offspring. “Actually, when it comes to deadheading, it’s completely aesthetic – we like the way it looks.

It has no impact on future rose bloom,” advises Professor Chalker-Scott.

When you remove a rose hip you stop energy being put into hip production and divert that energy into other processes. However, you don’t trick the bush into re-blooming. This is because blooming is determined by genetic and environmental factors, such as temperature and daylight hours that tell the plant which season it’s in. If your rose is genetically programmed to bloom once in summer, no amount of deadheading will convince it to do otherwise.

Likewise, if it’s meant to bloom in several flushes, no amount of forgotten hips will stop it from doing so.

Roses don’t have to be complicated. With a few simple rules, anyone can enjoy these sumptuous blooms gracing their garden all summer long. n

IMAGES GAP/TIM GAINEY/JASON INGRAM

ROSE CARE

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HOMEGROWN TEAS

Blend & Brew

WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY IMAGE SHUTTERSTOCK

Grow and forage your own plant matter to enjoy the seasonal tastes and many health benefits of home-made tisanes

Use a glass teapot to brew your tisanes so you can appreciate their visual beauty.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 121

HOMEGROWN TEAS

T

here can’t be a gardener who hasn’t picked an edible leaf or two straight from the plant, nibbling on it as they work and enjoying its innate freshness. With just a little more restraint, these leaves can be used to make your own delicious herbal teas, which, whether enjoyed fresh in season or dried so as to be savoured throughout the year, will offer a realm of flavour, with various beneficial properties to boot.

Ever since tea addict Catherine de Braganza married King Charles II and introduced black tea to the British upper classes in the 17th century, black tea, and subsequently coffee, have prevailed in our society. Yet herbal teas, infusions or tisanes, have had their place in human life for millennia. The Egyptians enjoyed a brew of some kind, as did the Sumerians. Asian tradition, to which we also owe the introduction of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, has a long history in the subject.

We have Nicholas Culpeper to thank for laying the foundations of our current herbal knowledge.

He took pains to elucidate in English, rather than Latin, the medicinal benefits of botanics in The English Physician, published in 1652. While he may have been suspicious of basil – it was once associated 122 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Above A herbal infusion made to your own taste with the likes of borage, cornflowers, thyme, mint and sage, is a good way to consume more water.

with scorpions – he did point to foxgloves for the treatment of heart conditions, knowledge that we continue to make use of today.

What then of contemporary herbal teas? At its simplest, an infusion is a flavourful way to drink more water, which can have a profound effect on our bodies. It quenches our thirst, improves organ function, and is the first line of defence when it comes to certain diseases. While qualified herbalists will point towards specific medicinal applications, and it’s always advisable to seek professional medical opinion from a GP, most of us can appreciate a calming cup of chamomile tea at bedtime. Lemon verbena can be enlivening, while mint is a good digestif. A look at some of the better supermarket blends will offer ideas for application.

To pursue a world of infusions is to open yourself up to intensely seasonal drinking. Consider delicate rose petals in summer and robust rose hips, rich in vitamin C, in winter. Nick Moyles, co-author of Wild Tea, phrases it succinctly: “It’s nice to be seasonal about it. The more you research, the more you realise you can extract flavour from almost anything you can dunk in hot water. Spruce tips are amazing. They’re coming into season now. You can pick off the tip and eat it raw or put it in a brew.”

IMAGES GAP/FRIEDRICH STRAUSS; SHUTTERSTOCK

For their book, he and Richard Hood embarked on a growing and foraging spree, trying out as much plant material as they could find. Echinacea, nettles, ground ivy and blackberry leaves all went into their teapot. “It’s really hard to condition yourself not to have any expectations about this and not to compare the infusion to anything. It may take a few mugs to zone into the flavour, but when you get used to something it can be very nice,” advises Nick.

The benefits of growing your own plants for infusion are manifold. It’s helpful to know where and how what you are consuming has been produced, and there is an argument that

Top left Enjoy chamomile flowers fresh or dried.

Top right Echinacea purpurea is believed to help support the immune system.

Above right Experiment by blending herbs with black tea to taste.

Above left Mint and fennel make for a pleasing digestif.

organic plants are higher in essential oils, so any therapeutic element could be more pronounced.

What is indisputable, however, is that anything you grow yourself will be fresher than almost anything bought, and freshness vastly influences flavour.

Nick adds that growing herbs at home is a chance to experiment and create your own blends. Try lemon, lavender and peppermint for headaches; rosemary for concentration; thyme, bee balm and elderflower to soothe the throat, or dandelion for detoxification.

Foraging for nettles, dandelions, hips and blackberries is one way to source material. Nick advises caution however: “If you’re foraging you JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 123

HOMEGROWN TEAS

Good Resources The Herb Society A body promoting the use and enjoyment of herbs, with members around the country.

Events are held throughout the year. See herbsociety.org.uk

Left Rosemary is thought to aid concentration and a teaspoon of honey softens its bitter taste.

Below right Lavender is well known for its soothing properties.

Enjoy it at bedtime.

Below left Lemon verbena’s mellow citrus flavour is good on its own or used in a blend.

Hackney Herbal Social enterprise promoting herbal health and wellbeing, offering creative events and workshops. Tel: 020 8616 0698; hackneyherbal.com

Wilder Infusions to support overall health from naturopath Rachel Landon, with a focus on enriching the whole body system. See wilderbotanics.com

Postcard Teas Specialist Mayfair tea shop run

by Tim D’Offay, selling rare and exceptional teas and tea-making equipment. Tel: 020 7629 3654; postcardteas.com

Sarah Raven Supplier of plants and seeds, including collections for teas, as well as tea-making equipment. Tel: 0345 0920283; sarahraven.com Specialist herb growers in Staffordshire, with vast knowledge and sound advice. Tel: 07977 883810; hooksgreenherbs.com

Jekka McVicar Doyenne of herbs, with her own range of teas, seeds and plants available from her farm and online. Tel: 01454 418878; jekkas.com

Nutley’s Kitchen Gardens Everything for the home grower, from netting to funnels, preserving jars and labels. Tel: 01903 233299; nutleyskitchengardens.co.uk Tonics & Teas: Traditional and Modern Remedies That Make You Feel Amazing by Rachel de Thample, £9.99, Octopus.

124 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

need to know exactly what you’re picking.

Don’t mistake spruce for yew. Don’t take too much. This is the sort of stuff that used to be known as common sense.” You should also be mindful of busy verges, which may have been polluted by passing traffic and animals, and you must always wash what you pick.

Once you’ve grown or foraged your ingredients it’s an idea to dry them for use throughout the year. For successful drying, heat and air are essential. Heat extracts the water, while circulating air dries ingredients evenly and will “disperse any moisture”, according to Nick. He recommends acquiring a dehydrator for this, but if you choose not to, you should place your ingredients somewhere warm and airy, such as a greenhouse or conservatory – even a windowsill will suffice.

Lighter additions, such as petals, will take well to this treatment. Chunkier ingredients such as fruit or zest might require an oven set to a low temperature. Broadly, you should be guided by the density and moisture content

of the subject. Once your ingredients are completely dry, they are ready to be stored in clean glass jars, although you may choose to grind them with a pestle and mortar first to intensify the flavour.

Finally, invest in an attractive glass teapot intended for tisanes so that the beauty of the tea can be enjoyed as much as the flavour. Try specialist tea shops such as Postcard Teas, or suppliers like Sarah Raven. Another option is to use a drawstring muslin tea bag, which can be filled with your ingredients and then placed directly into a cup of hot water. You can sew your own or source from an outfit such as Nutley’s Kitchen Gardens. n Wild Tea: Brew Your Own Infusions from Home-Grown and Foraged Ingredients,

by Nick Moyle and Richard Hood. £16.99, Welbeck Publishing.

IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK

Hooks Green Herbs

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JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 125

NGS COMPETITION GARDENS COMPETITION

The Nation’s Favourite Gardens Nominate gardens you love that open for the National Garden Scheme, whether they’re big or small, grand or informal, to help us identify the nation’s favourite gardens

W

hen the National Garden Scheme launched in 1927, the gardens the public could pay a shilling to see were all very grand: large stately homes and country houses. Six hundred gardens opened in that first year, raising £8,000. Now more than 3,600 gardens take part, and the Scheme raises millions for the nursing and health charities it supports: it is Macmillan Cancer Support’s biggest donor.

Not only has the National Garden Scheme grown in scale, the gardens that open today are so much more diverse. There are still stately homes and country houses, but also urban gardens, allotments, community gardens, school gardens and hospices – even gardens on boats on the River Thames.

When our Nation’s Favourite Gardens competition ran in 2019, the shortlist of gardens that you nominated and those that subsequently won your

126 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

In association with

votes to become each region’s champion, brilliantly reflected that diversity. In the South West, there was the wonderfully therapeutic Horatio’s Garden at Salisbury Hospital’s Spinal Treatment Centre, where head gardener Stephen Hackett cares for a garden that’s loved by patients, visitors and staff alike. In the South East, five neighbouring urban gardens on Kew Green in London, who open their gardens as a group each year, won the top spot.

In the North, the winning garden at Larch Cottage Nurseries makes a trip to Peter and Jo Stott’s wellstocked nursery more than just a chance to cram the boot with choice plants. For the Eastern region, Kathy and Simon Brown’s Bedfordshire garden, The Manor House, took the top prize, with its fantastic combination of creative art-inspired features and beautiful planting.

The timeless gardens around Wollerton Old Hall became our winner in Wales & The Marches, while

How you can take part

Coton Manor, a classic, English country garden won in the Midlands region and, with the most votes, also became our overall winner.

This year, we need you to nominate your favourite National Garden Scheme gardens again, and you can nominate any garden you enjoy or admire. Maybe it’s a hospice garden – there are 21 opening for the Scheme this year, including Horatio’s Gardens at Oswestry, Stoke Mandeville and Stanmore (brand new and designed

by Tom Stuart-Smith) as well as the gardens at Maggie’s centres. Or it could be an inspirational small garden full of ideas like 152a Victoria Rise in London, which is a new garden to the Scheme this year, opening on 4 July. Perhaps it’s a grand and stately garden that offers pure escapism, like Sudeley Castle & Gardens in Gloucestershire, which is opening for the Scheme on 6 July. Or a garden that’s been created with wildlife in mind, such as Ready Token House in Gloucestershire, opening its wildlife-friendly formal garden on 28 June.

There are allotments, kitchen gardens, family and dog-friendly gardens, gardens by members of the Society of Garden Designers, cottage gardens and town or urban plots. There are 627 that are new to the Scheme this year, not to mention the thousands of loyal gardens that have opened regularly for many years. Whichever style you prefer and whichever you visit, don’t forget you have until 13 July to nominate your favourites and from these nominations we’ll draw up a shortlist for you to vote for your winner. n

IMAGES NATIONAL GARDEN SCHEME

Above The garden at 152a Victoria Rise has been created from scratch in just five years.

Opposite The gardens at Sudeley Castle, basking in spring sunshine.

F

irst, we need you to nominate your favourite National Garden Scheme garden to visit. It can be any one of the gardens opening for the Scheme this year and you can be its owner, or simply an admiring visitor.

Next, a panel of judges will review all the nominations and select a shortlist of gardens for each of the six National Garden Scheme regions: Wales and the Marches; North; Midlands; East; South East; and South West.

You will then be asked to vote on

the shortlist to produce the winners – one for each region and one overall ‘champion’, as well as one overall winner from those gardens that are usually open to the public, but agree to donate their takings from a particular day to the National Garden Scheme.

Every garden that opens for the National Garden Scheme can be found online at ngs.org.uk and they are all listed by county in The Garden Visitor’s Handbook 2021, also known as ‘the yellow book’. Order a copy online at ngs.org.uk/shop

HOW TO NOMINATE AND VOTE l From now until 13 July, nominate your favourite National Garden Scheme garden at theenglishgarden.co.uk/ngs l A panel of judges will choose a shortlist of gardens for each of the six National Garden Scheme regions. l From 1 August to 30 September, the public will be asked to vote for their favourite shortlisted gardens to produce the winners – one for each region and one overall winner. l

The winning gardens will be revealed in late autumn 2021.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 127

PARTNER FEATURE

Access All Areas Sisley Garden Tours, sponsor of our Nation’s Favourite Gardens competition, is launching five new Exclusive Escapes, giving garden lovers unrivalled access to the country’s finest gardens

B

esides pottering in our own gardens, visiting somebody else’s is one of the greatest joys of being a gardener. Last year, when lockdown closed garden gates and visits were off the cards, those trips out to admire, glean ideas and find inspiration were sorely missed.

Happily, this year, gardens are open again. And if ever there was a year to treat yourself to some extra-special visits, 2021 is it. Sisley Garden Tours has launched five brand-new, four-day breaks that take in some of the country’s finest gardens.

Whether you’re considering a holiday in the UK rather than abroad, or you just want to get out and visit some truly exceptional gardens, you’ll find a tour to tempt.

“They’re for people who love gardens but also their luxuries: nice hotels and good

128 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Above Formerly gardened by Vita

Sackville-West before she moved to Sissinghurst, Long Barn in Kent is only open by private appointment.

food,” says Colette Walker, who runs Sisley Garden Tours alongside Fran Pride. Fran’s father-in-law Tony Sissons, a garden writer and plantsman, founded the company in 1992 before Fran and Colette took over.

Both professionally trained guides, keen travellers and gardeners, Fran and Colette ensure holidays with their small, familyrun company are always friendly, relaxed and personal. Holidaymakers from around the world return again and again to enjoy Sisley’s tailor-made tours, which offer unrivalled access to private gardens.

“The gardens on our tours are predominantly private gardens that very rarely open to the public, if ever,” explains

Colette. In fact, many aren’t named for that very reason. Some hold an open day for the National Garden Scheme, or they support local charities, and the money these gardens receive from hosting Sisley’s visitors goes to these good causes.

If you’ve ever yearned to see renowned designer Arne Maynard’s private garden Allt-y-bela, the Exclusive Escape to the Wye Valley (12-15 July) will undoubtedly catch your eye. This tour also includes Wyndcliffe Court, two private gardens designed by the skilled hand of Tom Stuart-Smith, and High Glanau. This gem in Monmouthshire is one of just a few gardens that opened for the National Garden Scheme when it first launched in 1927 and still opens for the Scheme today.

Your base throughout the break is the Tudor Farmhouse Hotel in Clearwell,

IMAGES CLAIRE TAKACS; HIGHGROVE ENTERPRISES; BRITT WILLOUGHBY-DYER; SISLEY GARDEN TOURS

Clockwise from left The incredible gardens at Gravetye Manor; exquisite detail at Arne Maynard’s home, Allt-y-bela; Colette Walker and Fran Pride of Sisley Garden Tours; a visit to Highgrove is the highlight of the Exclusive Escape to the Cotswolds.

Study the Classics Book now for a wonderful garden break in 2022 As well as the Exclusive Escapes for 2021, Sisley Garden Tours also offers its classic range of group tours to gardens across Britain and Ireland, which can be booked now for 2022.

These include tours that incorporate Chelsea or Hampton Court Flower Shows, the grand gardens of Ireland and its spectacular coast, or Scotland’s finest castles and gardens.

Offering 5-8 nights away, these garden tours are part of an exciting programme that covers the length and breadth of the country, for those wishing to look further ahead.

which is typical of the accommodation Sisley provides: beautifully stylish with excellent home-cooked food. “We spend a long time researching our tours,” says Colette. “We go to the hotels, where we look in every single room, and we have long-standing relationships with all the garden owners.” Breakfast and lunch, often at the gardens with their owners, or dinner, are included each day. “Typically, we’ll eat together as a group for two nights, and then people can eat out or at their leisure in the hotel,” Colette explains. Groups are always small, consisting of 8-12 people.

The other four tours feature equally tempting gardens in beautiful parts of the country. On the Exclusive Escape to Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (13-17 September), Tresco Abbey Gardens is on the itinerary, alongside private gardens that range from a 700-year-old Cornish estate to a unique cliffside garden that overlooks

Lamorna Cove. The highlight of Sisley’s Exclusive Escape to the Cotswolds (6-9 September) is access to the gardens of Highgrove, home of HRH The Prince of Wales, as well as visits to Upton Wold, Aston Pottery and other private gardens.

The Pheasant Hotel in Harome is the base for the four-day Exclusive Escape to the North York Moors (13-16 June), which takes in a private visit to Newby Hall with its famous double borders, Havoc Hall and Mount St John, alongside other private treasures. Finally, there’s the Exclusive Escape to Dorset (5-8 July), where the beautiful countryside that inspired Thomas Hardy is the setting for a break that takes in such gardens as Harvard Farm and a private walled garden designed by Isabel and Julian Bannerman, among others.

Each tour’s itinerary is cleverly arranged to make the most of each location. While the breaks never feel rushed, one beautiful garden opens its gates to you, followed by another – a schedule that would be hard to replicate without Sisley’s behind-the-scenes organisation. “There are some gorgeous gardens on our doorstep, and these special tours offer unrivalled access to them, as well as a relaxing break,” says Fran.

Sisley Garden Tours, tel: 01423 396506; sisley.co.uk

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 129

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Alternatively, email: hello@dawnconn.com or call 07534 055813 130 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

NURSERIES

Another LEVEL

IMAGE ANDREW MONTGOMERY

A new book, Petersham Nurseries, traces the development of a business that, with its award-winning café and shop selling chic accessories, turned the concept of the garden centre on its head

The Queen Anne house in Richmond, bought by Gael and Francesco Boglione in 1996, which abuts Petersham Nurseries.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 131

NURSERIES

Above The greenhouses

at Petersham are filled with conservatory plants, garden tools and stylish accessories.

Right Chef Skye Gyngell was asked to create ‘more than a tearoom’ and so the Petersham Nurseries Café, with its emphasis on seasonal food, was born.

I

t may not be a formal garden to visit, but Petersham Nurseries in Richmond is undoubtedly a horticultural highlight for anyone visiting London. Edged by water meadows and with the Thames flowing idly by, Petersham nestles in a valley so beautiful it was painted by William Turner and is now part of the historic, protected view from the top of Richmond Hill looking west towards Hampton Court.

In 1996, Gael and Francesco Boglione, seeking a quieter life and more space, moved with their children from Kensington to Petersham House, an elegant Queen Anne property that had come up for sale. Abutting the garden was a nursery owned

by Bob and Annette Collett. Fearing developers, the Bogliones bought the nursery when it came

132 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

IMAGES ANDREW MONTGOMERY

A relaxed, IndoEuropean mood extends to the cafe where classic, rustic furniture combines with luxuriant plants such as the rambling Rosa multiflora ‘Grevillei’.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 133

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IMAGES ANDREW MONTGOMERY

NURSERIES

up for sale in 2000, although with little gardening knowledge they had no idea what they would do with it. It continued to run as it was until inspiration struck one day while the family was travelling in India. In Chettinad they were introduced to an antiques dealer and, after a fortnight in Tamil Nadu, Francesco had a 40ft container ready to ship: it was packed with furniture, textiles and ornaments that would be housed in the re-imagined nursery.

The Bogliones sought to combine their family’s ethics, aesthetics and philosophies. The greenhouses were stripped, repainted and filled with the treasures that Francesco and, later, Gael had sourced. By 2004 they were ready to re-open and their work was well received. “We’d not even been open a month when Mary Keen phoned and said she’d like to visit,” recalls Gael.

Today the glasshouses are filled with treasures from around the world, in an unmistakable Petersham style: eclectic without being disparate.

The Bogliones are still extremely involved in what is offered in the shop, choosing mainly handmade or thoughtfully produced items with as little waste

Above left From May to July, Anduze pots are crammed with fragrant sweetpeas, including varieties ‘Matucana’ and ‘Painted Lady’. They’re fed once a week with a seaweed fertiliser.

Above right Climbing roses such as ‘Constance Spry’ combine with classic foxgloves to create a timeless mood.

as possible. Under chef Skye Gyngell’s direction, the café won recognition for its deceptively simple seasonal menus and it continues to attract fans who appreciate its organic, sustainable focus.

Outside, tables groan with abundant healthy plants in fashionable shades, and displays of plants that are as beautiful as the goods within. In late spring and early summer, sweet peas in Anduze urns scramble up obelisks of hazel poles 8ft tall.

They are packed in, with as many as 24 plants in each container. Varieties include incomparable ‘Matucana’ and ‘Painted Lady’, as well as ‘Flora Norton’ and ‘Mrs Collier’.

Rosa banksiae var. banksiae is one of the first roses to bloom here, and its unfurling petals mark the beginning of the rose season. What follows is a heady symphony of colour and fragrance. ‘Gertrude Jekyll’, ‘Constance Spry’, ‘Falstaff’ and ‘The McCartney Rose’ offer blush tones. ‘Lady Emma Hamilton’ beguiles with her deep scent, while the Seven Sisters’ rose (R. multiflora ‘Grevillei’), the exuberant rambler, with large clusters of flowers, is undoubtedly the most photographed rose of all.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 135

NURSERIES

Recipes from Petersham Nurseries Roasted Romano Peppers with White Beans, Tomatoes and Taggiasche Olives SERVES 6 6 medium Romano peppers 350g mixed tomatoes, halved 5 sprigs of thyme, leaves picked Heaped ½ tablespoon dried chilli flakes 50ml olive oil plus extra for the beans A handful of fresh oregano leaves A handful of edible flowers such as borage

FOR THE BEANS 60g fresh cannellini beans or other white beans, podded 100g cherry tomatoes 2 cloves garlic 2 bay leaves 2 sprigs of thyme 30 taggiasche olives Salt and black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200C. Place the beans, tomatoes, garlic, bay leaves and thyme in a baking tray or dish and add cold water until the beans are just covered, along with a splash of olive oil.

Cover with oil and bake in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the beans are tender. Once the beans are cooked, season with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, place the whole peppers, halved tomatoes, thyme, chilli flakes and olive oil in a tray, add a pinch of salt and place under a hot grill for 10-15 minutes, turning once, and then rest for a further 10 minutes. Add the olives to the beans. Spoon into a dish and lay the peppers and tomatoes on top, finishing with a sprinkle of oregano and edible flowers.

Beef Carpaccio with Heritage Beetroots, Horseradish and Crème Fraîche

4 baby golden beetroots 4 baby red beetroots 4 baby Chioggia beetroots 360-480g beef fillet ½ lemon 50ml crème fraîche 1 thumb-sized piece of fresh horseradish Olive oil Salt and black pepper

136 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Wash and scrub the beetroot, then boil each variety in separate pans of salted water for around 15 minutes, or until tender. Cooking each variety separately means they will hold their colour.

Once cooked, peel and halve or quarter (depending on their size) and set aside.

Season the fillet of beef with salt and pepper and rub with olive oil. In a heavy based, very hot pan, sear quickly on each side and put to one side.

To assemble the dish, slice the beef very finely, then season with olive oil and lemon juice.

Scatter the beetroot over the top and season. Top with little dollops of crème fraîche and then, using a microplane or fine grater, grate on as much or as little of the horseradish as you like. n

Adapted from Petersham Nurseries by the Boglione Family, photography

by Andrew Montgomery, £65, Petersham Nurseries.

IMAGES ANDREW MONTGOMERY

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A precise and geometric arrangement of box and lavender in the parterre at Ham House, Richmond upon Thames.

Capital Gains If you want to visit gorgeous gardens this summer, the countryside isn’t your only option. Tallulah Rushaya rounds up some of London’s lesser-known gardens of outstanding botanical beauty for a city escape with a difference JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 139

LONDON GARDENS

140 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Above Fenton House

in Hampstead, which is cared for by the National Trust, showcases an incredible range of horticultural styles.

North London

Hidden away on the leafy edges of Enfield in Greater London is Forty Hall, a grand Jacobean manor house that was built in 1632 by Sir Nicholas Rainton on the site of the former Elsyng Palace. The grounds of the estate cover 273 acres, with landscaping and planting styles from across the past four centuries.

The Walled Kitchen Garden hosts ornamental rose beds, while the landscape is dominated by the incredible form of one of the oldest surviving Cedar of Lebanon trees in the country, believed to have been planted by London botanist Dr Robert

IMAGES NATIONAL TRUST/ARNHEL DE SERRA; MARIANNE MAJERUS; ALAMY

A

s the summer solstice draws close, with warmer and brighter days beckoning, those living in the capital might be tempted to leave the city in search of June’s colourful floral offerings. Yet across London there are numerous exquisite gardens to be discovered, perfect for days out as part of a staycation or even a vacation.

Uvedale in the middle of the 16th century. This year, on 22 August, Forty Hall hosts its ninth year of Music on The Lawn, with profits going towards the conservation of the Forty Hall Estate.

Also part of the estate is Forty Hall Farm, which is home to London’s only organic commercial vineyard (fortyhallestate.co.uk).

A stone’s throw from Forty Hall is Myddelton House Gardens, the family residence of self-taught 20th-century horticulturist Edward August Bowles.

The gardens are set across eight glorious acres, and the visitor centre tells the remarkable story of how Bowles transformed the gardens during his lifetime, earning the title of ‘The Crocus King’ along the way. His influence can be found throughout the grounds, especially in The Alpine Meadow, which was inspired by his travels to the Pyrenees. In spring the meadow is covered by a mass of crocuses, followed by a sheet of blue geraniums in summer.

With upcoming theatrical productions of Alice in Wonderland on 17 July, Jane Eyre on 31 July and Robin Hood on 23 August, and a chance to unwind with blankets and picnics on the Bowling Green Lawn for Elegant Strings, an all-female quartet, on 4 September, there is ample opportunity to enjoy Myddelton this summer. (visitleevalley.org.uk).

For a combined day out, the National Trust’s Fenton House on genteel Hampstead Grove is located within easy walking distance of Hampstead Heath. By June, the rose garden will have come into full bloom, filling the air with sweet, delicate scents.

Above Myddelton House

in Enfield, the former home of the great plantsman, E.A. Bowles.

Left The greenhouse at Myddelton House, with its wonderful collection of cacti and succulents.

Below Forty Hall, a Grade I-listed Jacobean manor house in Enfield.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 141

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IMAGES MARIANNE MAJERUS; ALAMY; CLAIRE DAVIES

The City

The cottage-style garden is filled with roses, foxgloves, phlox, and poppies, creating a wonderful floral display. Ensuring that no colour is left out, alliums, iris and blowsy pink peonies provide a more subtle colour palette elsewhere. The terrace at Fenton House is surrounded by a range of climbing and rambling roses, including the ‘Kiftsgate’ rose, head gardener Andrew Darragh’s personal favourite.

In late summer, popular dahlias ‘David Howard’ and ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ are at their colourful peak (nationaltrust.org.uk).

Top left Hydrangea ‘Annabelle’ in a shady, tranquil corner of the Inner Temple Garden.

Top right The secluded, peaceful gardens at The Charterhouse.

Above The Inner Temple has become known for its flamboyant border displays in summer.

A secret London oasis, the Inner Temple Garden, overlooks the River Thames. The garden predates the founding of the Inn and is referred to in medieval records that describe orchards and roses, with archives recording the first gardener to have been appointed here in 1307. It is also known as the setting for Part I of Shakespeare’s historical trilogy Henry VI, where it serves as the backdrop for the meeting that leads to the War of the Roses.

The garden is renowned for its herbaceous borders, mature trees, container displays and meadows.

Intimate seating with views out to London’s iconic landmarks make it a perfect spot to while away a summer afternoon. The garden usually opens to the public on weekdays from 12.30-3pm and for events such as the Chelsea Fringe Festival and Open Garden Squares weekend (innertemple.org.uk).

In Clerkenwell, The Charterhouse reopens on 1 June, and tours will run from Tuesday to Saturday.

Designed in an English country garden style, these gardens have been in existence for 650 years and were previously part of a seven-acre estate that used to be a historic monastery and Tudor palace. The Charterhouse is now an almshouse, and its serene and tranquil gardens are tended by head gardener Kate Robinson and the Brothers (the name given to residents). According to Kate, the latest additions to the garden’s planting include Lobelia tupa and echiums (thecharterhouse.org).

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 143

LONDON GARDENS

Wander through classical landscaping and wilderness areas at Chiswick House and Gardens, the birthplace of the English Landscape Movement.

Meandering woodland paths lead to several 18th-century follies designed by Lord Burlington and William Kent. From June to October, meadows introduced in front of the house to encourage pollinators will be in flower. Meanwhile, The Rosary features an extensive collection of pre-1850 rose varieties, while behind the walls of the awardwinning Kitchen Garden, visitors will find 280 fruit trees and 170 varieties of vegetables. Divided into flower, vegetable, nuttery and community quarters, the kitchen garden provides visitors with a chance to see the result of ‘no dig’ techniques. A variety of upcoming events include Giffords Circus from 24 June to 11 July and a performance of Macbeth on 7 July (chiswickhouseandgardens.org.uk).

Set on the edge of the Thames, the Chelsea Physic Garden is London’s oldest botanic garden.

Founded in 1673 by The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London for their apprentices to study medicinal plants, it has since developed into one of the most respected botanic gardens in Europe. The garden’s unique collection includes around 5,000 edible, medicinal and useful plants for the curious to discover. On 3 June you can enjoy a Behind the Scenes Tour with head gardener Nell Jones, on 14 June you can spend a day learning about The History of Chelsea Physic Garden in 10 Objects, and there are a series of ‘Living Medicine’ events running across the summer (chelseaphysic garden.co.uk).

In Twickenham, the gardens of Strawberry Hill House, embrace the vision of their creator Horace Walpole. Inspired

by Chiswick House’s William Kent, Walpole set about creating a romantic garden to compliment his creation of a Gothic Revival house in 1747.

Centuries later, the grounds thrive as an oasis for wildlife and visitors. Seasonal highlights include Horace Walpole’s favourite time of year, ‘Lilactide’, when he was transported to the beauty of the country and its ‘perfumed air’. The summer brings Historic Garden Tours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, which explore how the site evolved, simultaneously as a sanctuary for nature and as a place for high society from the 18th century to the present day (strawberryhillhouse.org.uk).

144 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Top Rosa ‘Jacques

Cartier’ in front of the famous greenhouse at Chiswick House.

Above right Tucked away on the banks of the Thames, the Chelsea Physic Garden is a trove of unusual plants.

Above left Striking architecture at Strawberry Hill House.

Ham House in the charming settlement of Ham, near Richmond upon Thames, is a sterling example of Stuart architecture with a fascinating history.

What was a gift from King Charles I to courtier William Murray, is now a gift to those who visit through the National Trust. Ham House’s garden rises to the occasion and matches the building’s grand architectural exterior. Over 1,200 lavender plants flower in the lavender and box parterre, while in June the two-acre kitchen garden produces a bountiful harvest of heritage crops and edible flowers (nationaltrust.org.uk). n

IMAGES GAP/ELLEN ROONEY; ALAMY; CLIVE NICHOLS

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CRAFTSPEOPLE

In the Fold From her rural studio in Powys, Kate Kato creates intricate, three-dimensional, paper models inspired by the natural world

WORDS SIAN WILLIAMS AND VIVIENNE HAMBLY

PHOTOGRAPHS BRENT DARBY

Kate Kato’s threedimensional paper sculptures of plants are often displayed on wooden plinths.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 147

CRAFTSPEOPLE

Above Kate in her light-

filled studio: the shelves and drawers are filled with craft materials and sources of inspiration.

Above right Every insect is carefully researched for complete accuracy.

P

aper sculptor Kate Kato has always been a country girl at heart. Brought up in Bristol, as a child she lived by the River Avon and with her brother she enjoyed exploring the riverside and woods near to their family home.

Kate originally trained as a graphic designer at the University of the West of England and then went on to do a number of creative jobs. She worked as a portrait photographer and then a branding designer, but, feeling that she hadn’t quite found her niche, she retrained as a social worker, putting aside her creativity as a hobby only.

It was when she moved to the village of Gladestry on the England-Wales border in 2014 with her

148 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

husband Robin, and then had her two daughters, that she found her place as an artist and established her business. Kate began by creating things based around what she loved most – nature and paper – and it’s from this experimentation that her sculptures have evolved. “I started making paper sculptures because I already knew how paper worked from doing graphic design at university,” Kate recalls. “I had a lot of paper stacked around the house that I didn’t want to get rid of. I also wanted some plant- and insect-related art around the house, so I started trying to make them out of paper. Paper is the first material I go to when I want to make something.”

She decided to call her business Kasasagi, which translated from Japanese means magpie, and is used figuratively to refer to a person who obsessively collects things. “I chose it because of my love of collecting, and it’s also a little nod to my last name ‘Kato’, which is Japanese,” she explains.

She chose well. Kate is closely in tune with her rural surrounds and there is a steady exchange between the outdoors, her homelife and her work.

“The main village is in the bottom of the valley and we live in a cottage part-way up the side of the valley on the Hergest Ridge. We have 1.5 acres of land on a 45º slope – it may as well be vertical – but we have a small vegetable patch and some animals, and the rest of it we are gradually rewilding,” she says.

Robin, a carpenter, keeps bees and so they take care to leave plenty of forage for them in the garden.

Beyond the garden lies the top of the ridge. “You

can jump over our fence and walk for miles on the common land without seeing anybody.”

It’s on these walks and when she’s working in the garden that Kate most often finds her subjects. “I love being surrounded by nature. We have lizards and butterflies in the garden. The lizards crawl all over you in the summer and I don’t think I’ve lived anywhere else where you would experience that.

I love being able to sit and spot something. That leads you to spot something else – and then you realise you’ve spent all day just wandering around looking at stuff and not actually doing anything.

I always refer to it as research: it will inspire me to do something at some point.”

Back in her studio, Kate turns her attention to the detail of what she has seen outside. “The process always starts with research. I research the plants and insects I am about to make and I find out as much about them as I can, so I know how and why they do what they do. If you can understand how something grows or moves, you can begin to imagine how they would fit into a particular scene,” she observes.

Plant sculptures usually begin by dissecting a specimen. From its pieces, Kate fashions a paper template that she will keep on file for future use.

It takes time to get the template right and she is constantly experimenting with form, but once it works she will make a model. A plant such as wild garlic will take a couple of days to work out from start to finish. “I keep all the templates in sketchbooks so I could make another wild garlic but it would only take me a couple of hours because I’ve already worked it all out.” She is constantly revising

her work. “I can go through my drawers and look at a flower from a couple of years ago and realise that I know how to improve a section because I’ve found something out by making something else.”

With the paper cut and folded into shape, stems and leaves especially are supported with thin lengths of wire that keeps their shape. But insects are different. Their curved forms are difficult to fold and Kate now carves these out of rolled paper. “That was my husband’s idea. He saw me trying to work out mathematically how to roll different lengths of paper to make the right shape. He said I could just carve it, and I thought, ‘Oh, maybe I will.’”

Above A collection of vintage Observer books and treasures gathered from outdoors.

Below left Beetles crafted out of coloured newsprint and paper, wire and cotton.

Below middle Delicate paper leaves with lifelike berry and cone details.

Below right Flowers such as bluebells, snowdrops and fritillaries are created in their entirety, from bulb to flower bud.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 149

CRAFTSPEOPLE

After they’re formed, Kate paints her creations, usually with watercolours, but she often incorporates the print on the paper. Often the print is typed, but sometimes it is handwritten or beneath a splash of yellow or blue are the contours and footpaths of an old walking map. Here and there silken thread will embellish a flower petal, leaf stem or butterfly wing.

Little escapes her attentive eye. Stag beetles, moths and bees mingle with hellebores, orchids and snake’s head fritillaries; bracken, toadstools and brambles reflect autumn in the countryside; sea urchins, seaweed and ammonites recall the coast.

Sometimes sculptures are made with a display in mind. Equally, they’re often made because Kate finds them interesting and they will eventually find their way into a collection or scene. Recent projects have included a commission of feathers and eggs to be framed for a hotel lobby in the United States.

Kate’s favourite designs, however, are the books she creates with plants and insects growing or crawling out of them. “I feel I’m creating an illusion that the information inside these books is coming to life and taking over the book, the way nature does when it comes up against something man-made,” she says.

The past year has meant Kate has spent more time with her children. Doing so has refreshed her way of seeing the world. “During the first lockdown I was awful at keeping up with home-schooling. We spent all our time outside. I’m sure the children learnt something from being outdoors, but they reminded me how to explore things, which you don’t always get with the usual school run,” she says.

This is an ethic that Kate herself hopes to share in her projects. “Through my work I want to encourage people to engage with nature in general.

When I put on exhibitions, people always stop and ask questions, not just about what I make but the 150 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Above left Paper beetles

clamber over a wooden plinth in a recreation of a woodland scene.

Above centre Tiny wooden pegs hold a paper flower together until the glue has dried.

Above right Old filing drawers hold an example of every piece of Kate’s work for reference.

Below Delicate butterfly wings feature tiny embroidered stitches.

subject, too. I think, generally, if we’re going to look after the planet, the best way to start is to get people talking about nature.” n Kate’s latest framed works of art and sculptures displayed in domes can be found on her website at kasasagidesign.com and also at kasasagi.etsy.com.

She will be exhibiting her works at the Craft Festival at Bovey Tracey, 10-12 September 2021, craftfestival. co.uk and will also be taking part in Hereford Open Studios during Herefordshire Art Week, 4-12 September 2021, h-art.org.uk

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BOOKS

The Reviewer

A selection of the best writing on the shelves this month

Peonies

by Claire Austin White Hopton Publications, £25

WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY

As with dahlias, roses and even sweet peas, peonies inspire devotion among their fans. Their dark, shiny foliage and voluptuous, fullfigured blooms, sometimes fragranced, occasionally deeply coloured but usually paler, make for immensely desirable garden plants and cut flowers. Surprisingly for someone associated with one of the finest collections in the UK, Claire Austin wasn’t always an ardent supporter.

Yet 40 years ago, she took on her father David’s collection, which he had established to diversify when his now-famous English roses weren’t quite providing him with a living.

In this self-published book, Claire lays out all her considerable intelligence on the subject. She has researched widely the provenance of popular cultivars, outlined the work of international collectors and offers thoughts on new cultivars and growing techniques. It is her directory of lactifloras, hybrids, intersectional and tree peonies, however, that makes this book such a worthwhile resource for peonylovers and would-be collectors. Every entry is photographed and accompanied by a clear description, a writing technique she learnt from early mentor Graham Thomas. In these she presents the kind of detail that can be gathered only by intimate study.

This is a fine title from one of the country’s foremost plantswomen.

A Cornucopia of Fruit & Vegetables

Bloom. Art, Flowers and Emotion

by Caroline Ball Bodleian Library, £15

by Rachel Giles Tate Publishing, £25

In painting the plant collections of the rich, early botanical artists also captured a moment in time revealing the socio-economic conditions of the milieu. From the priceless shelves of Oxford University’s Bodleian Library comes this glorious compilation of 18th-century representations of fruit and vegetables.

These first appeared in Phytanthoza Iconographia, an A-Z of cultivated fruit and vegetables published in 1737 by Bavarian apothecary Johann Wilhelm Weinmann. To read this book is to look into our past. Depicted here are the forerunners of the food we grow today, lost but for the old varieties tracked down and nurtured by specialist seed companies. As Caroline Ball writes: “The purple, yellow and white carrots that have much more recently arrived in our shops and seed catalogues are not a new trend but the past rediscovered.”

As our gardens head full pelt into peak bloom and we are compelled to step out at dawn simply to marvel at it all, consider the artists who attempt to represent flowers’ ephemerality entwined with the many intangible aspects of human life.

In Bloom, Rachel Giles gathers the work of a range of artists all inspired by the wonder of the garden at various stages. “Flowers’ short life cycle of growth, reproduction, and death is a brutal metaphor for our own lives’ transience.

Their beauty makes this truth all the more poignant,” she writes. This collection of paintings is grouped by emotions such as joy and wonder, grief and loss, calm, hope, and love and affection. Among the highlights are Ursula Tyrwhitt’s Flowers from 1912, Cedric Morris’s Iris Seedlings from 1943, and Edward Bawden’s Roses and Rue from 1986.

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 153

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Frost Proof - our tables can be outside, uncovered, all year round Stain Proof - the glazed ceramic surface is impervious to staining 154 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

Q&A

BOOKS

In his new book, Around the World in 80 Plants, Jonathan Drori brings to life the science of a selection of fascinating plants whose worlds are so intricately entwined with our own revel in some of the plants others think of as weeds because I can see they play an important part in an ecosystem. My love is of the diversity of plants and everything that comes with them.

What did you look for in the plants you chose to include in Around the World in 80 Plants?

I had to pick 80 species out of the roughly 400,000 species on Earth, which was a bit daunting. I had three criteria. There needed to be a geographic spread. There needed to be stories with a combination of plant science, history, culture, and folklore. The third criterion, which was the hardest to pin down, was that there had to be something new and interesting to say about the plant.

How is climate change affecting the plants you’ve written about? How is our world different from that of Phileas Fogg?

INTERVIEW VIVIENNE HAMBLY IMAGE JONATHAN DRORI

Describe an early encounter with plants.

When I was growing up we lived in Richmond, near Kew, and I remember visiting Kew Gardens with my father. One day I picked an opium poppy and scored the head so a little drop of white sap exuded from the seed capsule. He said, “Go on, have a lick.”

I remember the sensation very strongly because it made that bit of my tongue go numb. Years later, when I was on the Kew board, the trustees were given a tour of a drugs and poisons exhibit. We were all there in suits and ties. The botanists showed us an opium capsule and out of complete reflex I just licked it – I couldn’t help myself. It raised some eyebrows!

What is your approach to gardening?

Since writing this book, I suppose my attitude to gardens has changed. My parents had what my mother called ‘a higgledy-piggledy garden’ and that’s something that has stuck with me. When I look at the gardens that I absolutely love, I like to see plenty of different species interacting. There is quite a long English tradition in that, and I revel in it. I also

Climate change is already having a profound effect on plants: of the hundreds of thousands of species, about 40% are under severe threat. It’s not so much that it’s hotter, drier or wetter, although that is a problem. It’s that plants depend on other organisms to survive. If pollinators aren’t available at the right time, plants can’t reproduce. Seeds that are not wind-dispersed need an animal or insect to disperse them, and without them they can’t reproduce either.

The systems are shifting out of kilter; timings that have synchronised over millennia are becoming unsynchronised. Unfortunately, human beings are programmed to be very good with what is immediate, but we are not good at dealing with things ten years’ hence or more.

What did you take away from writing this book?

The obvious thing I learned was that botanical evolution has given us the most bonkers, marvellous, jaw-dropping plants, and plant behaviours and relationships. I came away filled with awe and wonder at the natural world. The other part of it is creativity in plant evolution, and creativity in how humans have used plants for food, shelter, drugs, poisons, or in odd rituals. Humans get up to absolutely crazy things: there is barely a plant on the planet that someone hasn’t tried as an aphrodisiac. n

Around The World In 80 Plants

by Jonathan Drori Laurence King, £20

JUNE 2021 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 155

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Brilliant home-grown Shrubs, Climbers, Grasses, Perennials, Roses, Ferns, Trees, Hedging and Fruit, plus these spring wonders: Coronilla valentina ‘Citrina’, Calycanthus ‘Hartlage Wine’, Spiraea ‘Gold Fountain’ and many Wisterias. New season roses and yew hedging now ready.

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CHELSEA PHYSIC GARDEN Tucked away beside the Thames, Chelsea Physic Garden is London’s oldest botanic garden and home to 4,000 different medicinal, herbal, edible and useful plants from around the world.

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With an eye for the unusual and a vast range of plants of all sizes, the team at Langthorns Plantery are on hand to help you choose the right plants for your gardens. Our collection of more than 5,000 varieties includes ornamental and fruit trees, shrubs, perennials, roses, climbers, bamboos, grasses, herbs and wildflowers. We have plants, you have time, come to our shop, it’s now all online. Browse our collection and treat yourself from the comfort of your home, or visit the Plantery and enjoy some fresh air in the beautiful Essex countryside.

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Summer in Close-Up Guest columnist and garden designer Arabella Lennox-Boyd on her favourite plants to grow for early summer colour at her garden, Gresgarth, in Lancashire

162 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JUNE 2021

“

Prunus ‘Shirofugen’ offers a beautiful end to cherry season”

glamour in early-June, the spicy-scented, ivorycoloured goblet flowers of Magnolia x wieseneri with its large leathery leaves are unbeatable.

There are always jobs to do at Gresgarth. Early summer means discreetly staking herbaceous plants with birch twigs and hazel. Roses need feeding every two weeks, as the often excessive rain in our corner of Lancashire can leach the soil’s nutrients.

Deadheading is a must if the garden is to look its best. My pots of summer colour also start to take off now, but to make life a little easier I have replaced some annual schemes with a simple rose or a favourite shrub, such as charming zenobia, with its aniseed-scented white flowers and grey leaves.

And that brings me to my favourite roses: Rosa spinosissima, R. moyesii, R. x cantabrigiensis, rambling rose ‘Seven Sisters’ and the divine combination of climbing Rosa ‘Mme Caroline Testout’ among the racemes of the pink Wisteria brachybotrys ‘Showa-Beni’. Early summer is a season to treasure. ■ Gardens In My Life, by Arabella Lennox-Boyd, is published by Apollo (£40).

ILLUSTRATION JULIA RIGBY

E

arly summer arrives at Gresgarth in mid-May and extends to that second week in June, just before the roses are at their best. All the better to see the garden bursting with colour and shades of pale green. Geraniums begin to flower, as do early dianthus, centranthus and Phlox divaricata ‘Clouds of Perfume’. There are waves of Hesperis matronalis ‘Alba’, Lunaria annua ‘Corfu Blue’ and Valeriana officinalis. The last of the bluebells and wild garlic in the wood give way to Camassia quamash, and you will spot Onopordum acanthium in the terrace beds, and the last blooms of Primula sieboldii as ornamental grasses start to emerge.

The lake and bog garden are also coming into life with the different flower and leaf shapes. Gunnera leaves begin their ascent and darmera’s knee-high pink flowers appear as they do before the leaves on the edge of the lake. Iris sibirica ‘Summer Sky’, ferns and Primula pulverulenta jostle for position along the water’s edge, just as waterlily leaves and flower buds begin to unfurl on the lake’s surface.

I love the detail of early summer. The mahogany edges of epimedium leaves always enthral, as do the red-flushed shoots of Euphorbia donii ‘Amjillasa’.

The fan folds of veratrum leaves and ferny dicentra foliage are as lovely as their flowers. Pretty combinations develop, such as Hosta ‘Patriot’ with soft pink azaleas or swathes of trilliums alongside deciduous Rhododendron ‘Corneille’.

Early summer is a great time for shrubs and trees. The arching white-flowered sprays of Deutzia gracilis are a prelude to the small white flowers on the tiered branches of Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum ‘Kilimanjaro Sunrise’. Our National Collection of Styracaceae shines, including Styrax japonicus, with its pendulous white flower bells, and Melliodendron xylocarpum with its star-shaped blush blooms. Grey willow leaves – and those of Pyrus salicifolia ‘Pendula’, clipped as mushroom domes along the lake terrace – sparkle as they emerge. Malus baccata var. mandshurica is covered in scented white blossom, Prunus ‘Shirofugen’ offers a beautiful end to cherry season and Crataegus laevigata ‘Paul’s Scarlet’ is both reliable and unusual. But for sheer

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