W ! E N OK LO
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BANK HOLIDAY SPECIAL! May 2, 2015
✔ Pack borders with bright bedding ✔ 6 crops to get kids growing! B rit a in'sed st ru t m o st in ✔ Plant up vo ice g in n e g a rd beautiful baskets Gorgeous magnolias for small gardens
! S D E E S E E FR £2.69
Worth
WHAT TO DO THIS
BANK HOLIDAY!
CAROL KLEIN
Start of annuals for brilliant colour Sow tasty courgettes & summer squashes Give greenhouse alpines a go! Take leaf cuttings of houseplants Treat your roses to keep them healthy
Get your garden in shape!
"Try my favourite epimediums!"
Advice and ideas from the UK’s top head gardeners
AboutNOW
Lilacs of all scents and sizes
Photos: Kircher Collection
‘Fairy Dust’
‘Miss Canada’
Dwarf with delicately scented fowers which open white from dusky-pink buds. Bushy, strong-growing. Pots, hedges or small borders. Height: 1.2m (4ft),spread: 90cm (3ft). Price: £14.40
Blossoming after the main season, the strong, upright branching fower heads have a spicy aroma. Vigorous growth, very leafy. Height: 3m(10ft), spread: 2.4m(8ft). Price: £14.40
‘Tinkerbelle’
‘President Lincoln’
American variety with pale pink, sweetly scented fowers from mid-late spring. Bushy habit, strong growth, mildew resistant. Height: 1.8m (6ft), spread: 1.2m (4ft). Price: £14.40
The best variety for its blue, violet-tinged fowers in mid-May. Strong, sweet scent. Plant clothed with lush, green foliage. Height: 3m (10ft), spread: 1.8m (6ft) Price: £14.40
Lilac scent-sation! Move boosts available UK range Words Ian Hodgson
L
ilac lovers are in for a treat as rare, unusual varieties, many previously unavailable to UK gardeners, go on sale. More than 30, particularly S. vulgaris hybrids, are being sold through Swiss-based plant breeder Lubera, with 50 varieties from the renowned Kircher
Collection in Germany. The move swells the range in the UK by 30 per cent. Amassed by enthusiast and grower Konrad Kircher over 20 years, his collection spans an astonishing 850 species and varieties from the USA, Canada, Europe and Russia. Order from Lubera, tel: 0845 527 1658 or visit www.lubera.co.uk
S
ix amateur garden designers are to compete for the chance to appear at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. The premise underpins new TV show The Great Chelsea Garden Challenge where the winner will design and build a garden feature on
4 Garden News / May 2 2015
Both series will air on BBC 2. BBC
Chelsea by design
through 500 years of history has been filled with insights into our social, political and cultural life to the present day.”
BBC
Next challenge – James Alexander-Sinclair, Joe Swift and Anne-Marie Powell
Main Avenue at the legendary floral event. Mentored by presenter Joe Swift, the six are to be given just four days to build show gardens in different styles, including cottage, formal and conceptual, which will then be assessed by RHS judge James AlexanderSinclair and Chelsea designer Anne-Marie Powell. Contestants will construct exhibits at Painswick Gardens, Sudeley Castle and RHS venues. Broadcast in May, the winner’s creation will be followed as part of the Chelsea Show coverage. ● Monty Don is to present four hour-long programmes entitled The Secret History of The British Garden to show how British gardening has changed from the 1600s to the 21st century. Said Monty: “My journey
Monty – garden history series
Fa ct
Magnolias have been in existence for millions of years, before pollinating insects evolved. Their flowers are pollinated by beetles, not bees.
Plant
hybrids such as ‘Leonard Messel’ stay a manageable size. M. liliiflora repeat-flowers in autumn, and the aptly-named magnolia ‘March Til Frost’ blooms sporadically until the frosts arrive. If you garden on alkaline soil choose a tulip magnolia, such as Magnolia soulangeana and its hybrids, or M. grandiflora.
OF THE WEEK
Magnolias! M
stay manageable enough for domestic gardens, reaching 2-9m (7-30ft) in height. Recent introductions from breeders in Europe and New Zealand have given us a vast selection to choose from, including many that flower from a young age,
Magnolia ‘Caerhays Belle’ AGM
Magnolia loebneri ‘Donna’ AGM
Huge pink chalices open wide in early spring. Needs shelter from strong winds and early frosts. Height up to 20m (60ft).
Taller and more upright than M. stellata with a similar mass of white fowers opening from pink buds. Height up to 9m (30ft).
Magnolia Daphne AGM
Magnolia ‘Genie’
Small with extraordinary yellow fowers, which appear with the leaves in April and May. Height 1.5m (5ft).
Suitable for most gardens, even on alkaline soil. Its blooms are the darkest purple-red. Height up to 3m (12ft).
Shu erstock
some with scented flowers, and in colours from burgundy and deep yellow to lime green. Star magnolias Magnolia stellata are perfect for small gardens, sending up clouds of white, pink or lilac-pink blooms in spring. Magnolia loebneri
Most magnolias thrive happily in neutral to acid soils but some, such as Magnolia grandiflora and Magnolia soulangeana, will also tolerate fertile alkaline soils if they have to. Magnolias have shallow roots, so find your magnolia the perfect spot first time, as they really resent disturbance. Avoid planting in a frost pocket or in an east-facing position because early flowers can be affected by spring frosts.
Erupting into fower, they begin the blossom season with a bang agnolias were first introduced to Britain from China, Japan and the Americas, and soon became firm favourites in British gardens. In the wild, these exotic trees can grow to monstrous proportions, but in the UK most
Keep them happy
5 Magnolias for small gardens
Photos: Burncoose Nurseries
Magnolia stellata
Ideal for a small garden or even a large pot, its masses of starry fowers are among the frst to bloom. Height 2m (6ft 6in). ● All these magnolias are available from Burncoose Nurseries, tel: 01209 860316; www.burncoose.co.uk
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May 2 2015 / Garden News 5
Down
YOUR WAY
Cosmic sensation!
A unique garden depicting the science and nature of the cosmos opens this bank holiday. The Garden of Cosmic Speculation in the Scottish Borders is the garden of architect Charles Jencks. Throughout the 12ha (30 acre) site, Jencks uses landform, structures and sculpture to depict everything from the structure of DNA through to the distortion of time and space in a black hole. The garden is opening for Maggie’s, a hospital-based facility for people with cancer. ● Open from 12-5pm, Sunday May 3. Location: Portrack House, Holywood DG2 0RW, Dumfrieshire. Admission £6. Visit www. scotlandsgardens.org
Lost Exmoor garden unearthed Archeologists fnd series of paths near ruins of demolished mansion
A
long-demolished mansion. The 9ha (20 acre) site at a height of 365m (1,200ft) belonged to wealthy Victorian developer John Knight who in 1818 started to improve the 8,094 8,094 094 ha (20,000 acre) estate forr farming and mining on the hope ope of a substantial inheritance. heritance. But after starting to build a huge mansion Old pathways and pleasure garden in are the only natural picturesque style clues the anticipated money did not materialise. Both he and his wife went abroad because of ill health, never to return. Unfinished, the mansion eventually fell into ruin and the
White quartz boulders may have been a feature of the lost garden
quirky garden lost in time has been recently discovered on Exmoor, Somerset. Archeologists at the remote village of Simonsbath unearthed a series of paths near the h ruins i off a
8 Garden News / May 2 2015
garden became overgrown. “A map of the 1880s shows a series of pathways, but that’s all we know,” said archaeologist Rob Wilson-North. “There are also a number of huge startling
white quartz boulders, probably a signature feature of the garden.” The area is now part of Exmoor National Park. Visit www.exmoornationalpark.gov.uk