12 minute read
June Topiary, follies and borders
from caszsd
ANGEL COLLINS GARDEN DESIGN www.angelacollins.co.uk
Sw t Honey (Kormecaso)
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ROSE OF THE YEAR 2020
A fl oribunda rose with a strong, bushy, upright-growth habit. The creamy-apricot, medium-sized blooms are lightly scented and appear in large clusters, repeat-fl owering throughout the season. Glossy, dark-green foliage shows outstanding disease resistance. This rose is perfect for mixed borders as well as in large containers. It can also be planted to form a low hedge.
Things to Do JUNE
Keep up to date in the garden with our monthly guide to key gardening tasks
Make a HERB GARDEN Leafy herbs are growing well now, providing flavourful aromatic crops for the kitchen. Plant up a pretty herb container for easy pickings
Most herbs grow well in containers, their luxuriant foliage and gorgeous scent making a stunning addition to the garden, and o ering welcome assistance in the kitchen. Many herbs prefer well-drained soil, so container growing is a better option in areas where soil is heavy, sticky clay. It also makes moving tender herbs under cover in winter more straightforward.
Garden centres stock small potted herbs that are perfect for combining in a mixed herb pot. Try shrubby sage for height, with golden oregano for a splash of bright leaf colour, and chives for their purple fl owers. Larger herbs, such as rosemary, lemon verbena and mint, may need their own containers. Thyme hates to be smothered by other plants so should also be grown separately (below).
Method
1 Choose containers with good drainage holes. 2 Fill them with a 3:1 mix of loam-based compost and coarse grit for drainage. 3 Herb plants from garden centres will fare better than the pots in supermarkets, which are many seedlings crammed into the same pot. Place the plants in the container and fi ll around their rootballs with more of the compost-grit mix. 4 Place in a sunny spot and keep compost moist, but not soggy. Use a fertiliser in summer to boost leafy growth. 5 Harvest herbs regularly to encourage fresh growth.
Checklist
O Spread mulch over bare soil after watering to conserve moisture wherever possible.
O Continue to mow your lawn regularly: do it once or twice a week, depending on the weather.
O Plant out vegetables, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes and runner beans, once they’ve been hardened o . Water regularly.
O Sow winter-fl owering pansies and polyanthus now to enjoy colour in the colder months.
O Sow fast-growing, hardy annuals such as clarkia, calendula and candytuft in time for late-summer-fl owering.
O Keep an eye on the water level of ponds and water features. Top them up if they need it.
O Protect brassicas against birds by using a bird scarer or keeping them under netting.
In the borders, campanula, Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’ and geraniums frame the house.
MISERDEN
GROWING HISTORY
Rich planting from a golden inter-war era, plus a host of trees revealing family heritage feature at Miserden, a Jacobean house with a Lutyens loggia
WORDS VANESSA BERRIDGE PHOTOGRAPHS MARK BOLTON
Turn o the A417 Gloucester /Cirencester road, and the lanes contract, becoming ever narrower as they wind up and down hills, past woods, stone cottages and fields of sheep. Double round a hairpin bend into Miserden, which is little more than a hamlet, and you’ll see signs – ‘The Village Shop’ and ‘The Village Hall’ – all in the same green with gold lettering. It creates a pleasing sense of cohesion within this mellow Cotswold village.
At the far end of the village stands the Jacobean house, built by the Sandys family who lived at Miserden from 1616 to 1832. It is shielded from north winds by a line of mature horse chestnuts mentioned in sales details for one of three 19th-century changes of ownership. Present owner Nicholas Wills laughs as he explains that, back then, the estate was described as being “ideal for a family of the first order”.
Miserden has always had a remarkable garden. An 18th-century engraving by Johannes Kip features vanished baroque parterres, but also shows the existing south terrace, from which the land still drops away dramatically on three sides before rising up to wooded hills. Walled gardens open onto rolling lawns, with the boundaries so delicately smudged that the 3.2-acre formal garden melts into the surrounding countryside. There are formal echoes beyond: opposite the house is a circle of small-leaved limes, planted in 2013 by Major Tom Wills, Nicholas’s father, to mark the centenary of the Wills family owning Miserden.
In 1919, the house was badly damaged by fire and a new east wing, with arched loggia, was commissioned from Edwin Lutyens by Tom’s grandfather, Noel Hamilton Wills. Along the parapet of the terrace, imposing yews have been planted, while next to Lutyens’ wing, an impressive Magnolia x soulangeana reaches almost to the roof.
The garden, with its Cotswold stone steps and walls, and the soft colour in its borders, is Arts and Crafts in
Above Hot colours at the top of the border, including Geum ‘Prince of Orange’ and gold Cornus ‘Spaethii’.
after Tom’s grandfather died), laid the bones of the garden, planting peonies, roses and hellebores, which evoke the atmosphere of a golden inter-war summer around the fine old house.
Nicholas took on overall responsibility for the estate in 2017, but Tom remains a presence in the garden. Gardening seems to be in the genes: Tom, whose father was killed in World War II, grew up at Ewen Manor near Kemble, where his mother opened the garden for the National Garden Scheme. Tom succeeded his grandmother at Miserden before her death in 1980, having retired from the army in 1973 and studied for two years at the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester. For over 40 years he dedicated himself to maintaining Margery’s legacy, while continuing subtly to change the garden.
Early tasks included replanting an overgrown shrubbery with flowering shrubs to give colour and interest across the seasons. A Davidia involucrata gives structure, surrounded by Azara microphylla ,
Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’, Physocarpus ‘Lady in Red’, Hoheria angustifolia and Eucryphia x nymansensis ‘Nymansay’. Looking to the future, Tom has planted an oriental plane: in 200 years’ time, it should fill the lawn below the shrubbery.
Di erent levels are articulated by planting: a potentilla hedge marks a bank in the lawns that slope alongside the south-facing front of the house. Two sets of grass steps access di erent levels of the garden; planted with lobelia and alyssum, they are like waterfalls down the lawn in mid-summer.
The walled area is the most intensively worked – although what attracts visitors’ attention is the multistemmed sycamore embedded in one wall. Believed to be 250 years old, it is the second oldest tree in the garden aside from the early 17th-century mulberry on the south lawn. A yew walk runs through the centre of the walled garden, with crenellations and arches reflecting those of Lutyens’ loggia.
In a garden where trees are as important as plants,
Clockwise from above
The banks of the rill lawn feature Berberis x ottawensis f. purpurea ; delphinium spires add glamour, set against bright-red rose ‘Royal William’; huge yew blocks line the south terrace of the house; scented bee favourite, Deutzia x elegantissima ‘Rosealind’.
a copper beech provides a glamorous canopy above the romantic double herbaceous borders. Laid out in the 1920s and 93m long, they are framed by wall and yew, and are a constant work in progress. Engulfed by ground elder, 13 years ago they were dug up. “We took up every single plant, saved what we could, washed the plants down and heeled them into the nursery area,” recalls Sandra Kilminster, who has worked here for nearly 30 years and supervises the borders. “We tractored the whole thing up, had it professionally sprayed, tractored it again, put down horse manure and left it fallow for two years.”
Once solid borders, each parallel border is now divided by gravel paths into four beds on either side of a rose-covered pergola. “We wanted each bed to have distinct colours, making the borders look even longer by using light and dark,” says Sandra. Colours mutate from lemon and blue, to gold and purple, and then there is a hot section with ‘Bishop of Llanda ’ and spiky orange ‘Apache’ dahlias, Actaea racemosa , and Hemerocallis ‘Crimson Pirate’. Around the pergolas are beds of pinks, blues and purples, including Achillea ‘Rose Madder’, Polemonium ‘Lambrook Mauve’ and sedums for
a misty-grey look. The borders keep to the same colour scheme on either side of the grass path, and along the reflected length, but di erent planting and textures are used to create the e ects. Roses on obelisks and fragrant deutzias and cornus jostle with campanulas, lychnis, nepeta and other perennials.
Changes are rung annually. The cold winter of 2010-2011 put paid to tender penstemons at Miserden, which is 800ft above sea level; these have now been replaced by phlox. “It’s a happy surprise,” says Sandra. “Although they generally prefer damp ground and good living, they run like horses here, and they o er the same colours as penstemons.”
The transformation of a bare lawn into a rill garden was a Millennium project in 1999. The rill, in the shape of the two-barred Cross of Lorraine, and a little summerhouse, were constructed in Arts and Crafts style using reclaimed timber and stone from the estate. Along one end run pleached, red-twigged limes, Tilia tomentosa ‘Petiolaris’.
Tom’s triumph is the arboretum, fashioned in part from Margery’s former rock garden. His love of trees was inspired by the forestry lecturer at Cirencester, and he is a member of the International Dendrology Society. Their UK spring tours gave him ideas for the arboretum, in which he has planted 75 per cent of the trees. These include acers, Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’, Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’, 40 sorbus, including pink-berried Sorbus hupehensis, deutzias, philadelphus, Cornus florida ‘Cherokee Chief’, and Cornus ‘Eddie’s White Wonder’.
Tom’s grandmother planted a tree when each
Top left Pineapple broom, Argyrocytisus battandieri, and rose ‘Mountain Snow’ against a stone wall. Top right Known as the Rose Walk after its original planting, this border now features Cotinus ‘Grace’, berberis and sambucus. Above The formal rill sits peacefully within the Cotswold landscape.
of her five children was born (a large cedar marks the arrival of her eldest daughter), while a beech avenue was planted for Tom’s father’s 21st birthday in 1933. Two oaks in the park celebrate the births of Nicholas and his sister, while Alnus incana ‘Aurea’ and the rare Metasequoia ‘Sunburst’ were 50th birthday presents to Tom. Miserden has opened for the National Garden Scheme for over 80 years: presentations from the NGS have included a snowdrop tree, Halesia monticola , after 50 years of opening, and Ulmus laevis for the 80th anniversary.
This is a garden of continuity. Head gardener Richard Preston was originally employed, aged 16, by Margery; 42 years later, he’s still here. Nicholas sums up his family’s achievements when he says: “The garden has a timeless quality, having changed sensitively over the years. It has the feel of a private garden which happens to be open to the public.” n
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Plants of the Month JULY
No summer garden is complete without annual sweet peas scrambling through obelisks and trellis, the air laden with their delicious scent
June and July, when these easy, annual climbers are at their peak, would be poorer months without sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) filling the garden and home with their delicious fragrance. There’s a vast range to choose from, but some old sweet pea cultivars remain justifiably popular, like the pretty pink ‘Gwendoline’, which has been a top-seller for years. It’s one of a group known as Spencer sweet peas because the gardener who introduced them, Silas Cole, was working for the Spencer family at the time. In 1900, one of the older sweet pea varieties he had been growing threw up a sport with larger flowers and wavy, frilly petals. He propagated it and named it ‘Countess Spencer’ – and before long there were Spencers in every colour you could wish for.
‘Just Julia’
This is another Spencer sweet pea, with softly rued flowers in lavender-purple and, of course, with a delicious summer scent. Sweet peas can be sown in spring or autumn (or both for staggered flowering displays), but many expert growers swear by autumn sowing. The resulting plants are ready to go outside earlier, which gives them a longer growing season and means that by the time they start to flower, the plants have a large, established root system and are growing strongly, resulting in better quality, longstemmed flowers. Sow from mid to late October in free-draining compost, 6-8 seeds per 12.5cm pot, about 5mm deep, and there’s no need to soak or chip prior to sowing. A coldframe or greenhouse is all that’s needed for germination: no heat is necessary.
IMAGES
SHUTTERSTOCK Many of the sweet peas that have become popular today have longer stems, thanks largely to the huge boom in people growing them for cut flowers. ‘White Frills’, pictured, has the required long stems, as well as an amazing scent that you almost don’t expect from such pure white flowers. A good alternative is ‘Aphrodite’, a similar white sweet pea that also has long, straight stems. If you find that your sweet peas keep producing flowers with short stems, watering is the key: remember to keep on doing it in hot, dry summer weather, or install a trickle irrigation system around your plants. After planting, be sure to give them a layer of mulch – garden compost or well-rotted manure – which will also help to hold the moisture in the soil surrounding them.
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