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E L U A ISS I C AS E SPISTM

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DECEMBER 2019

For everyone who loves beautiful gardens

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The Nation’s Favourite Gardens Discover the winners of our competition Festive inspiration Explore the DAISY family Warming parsnip SOUP ORCHIDS on a grand scale Creative ways with IVY

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CONTRIBUTORS

Helen Billiald Helen is a freelance garden journalist who has a background in plant science and ecology. She’s passionate about the stories behind the creation of a beautiful plot, visiting Newton House on page 26.

Gordon Hayward Gordon is a garden writer, designer and lecturer based in Vermont. His garden, created with his wife Mary, who is from Chipping Campden, is registered with the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Gardens.

Welcome T

he garden may be a quieter place as winter gets under way, with fewer tasks on the to-do list, but that diminishes neither its value nor how pleasurable it is to be outside at this time of year. That’s especially true on those cold, perfectly crisp days of winter, like those we were lucky enough to capture in the gardens featured in this issue: Rodmarton Manor with its chunky, frost-dusted Arts and Crafts topiary, or the invigorating new winter garden at Wakehurst, for example.

In fact being outside in the garden can sometimes be such a tonic that the weather doesn’t matter a bit. I spent a very soggy session planting my spring bulbs recently, but relished the time outdoors so much – after months stuck indoors renovating and decorating – that I really didn’t care about the rain trickling down my neck or my damp socks. But that’s the power of gardening, as anyone bitten by the bug will testify.

This issue we’re revealing the winners of our Nation’s Favourite Gardens competition, and each one of them is truly aware of gardening’s power – not just to raise phenomenal amounts for the National Garden Scheme by opening to the public, but to continually inspire them to strive for such perfection. The heartiest of congratulations to them all!

IMAGES JOSEPH VALENTINE; NEIL HEPWORTH

CLARE FOGGETT, EDITOR

Carole Drake Carole is a garden photographer and writer interested in foliage, conifers and green gardens. Her tiny Somerset courtyard is full of bamboo, succulents – and ivy, which she writes about on page 73.

ON THE COVER Perfect frosty symmetry in the Arts and Crafts garden of Rodmarton Manor, near Cirencester, Gloucestershire.

Photographed by Clive Nichols.

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DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 3

For everyone who loves beautiful gardens theenglishgarden.co.uk The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd, Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London SW3 3TQ Tel: 020 7349 3700 Email: theenglishgarden@chelseamagazines.com

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Through practical workshops, inspirational lectures and visits the Planting Design Diploma explores contemporary and traditional approaches to support and develop your planting design skills. This is a unique course not found anywhere else in Europe, delivered over 30 days from January to June at our home in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. The course is led by Andrew Fisher Tomlin, designer and Chartered Horticulturist, and we are fortunate to have leading specialists lecturers including Neil Lucas of Knoll Gardens, Tony Kirkham from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Nigel Dunnett from the University of Sheffield. Designer tutors include James and Helen Basson, Jo Thompson, Ann-Marie Powell, Carolyn Willitts and Amanda Patton.

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DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 5

December 2019

CONTENTS Gardens 26 Newton House The gargantuan task of restoring a crumbling Jacobean manor in Somerset and its extensive grounds was undertaken by Jane and Robin Cannon.

34 Wakehurst This new Winter Garden in Sussex rejects a formal botanical layout in favour of immersive swathes of plants chosen for seasonal scent and colour.

40 Craigfoodie James and Lindsay Murray couldn’t resist the challenge of the large walled garden and surrounding woodland of this grand home and gardens in Fife.

48 Rodmarton Manor In winter, Rodmarton Manor in the Cotswolds provides a masterclass in structure and containment, two of the principles of Arts & Crafts design.

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57 The Nation’s Favourite Gardens We announce the regional and overall winners of our competition, in association with the National Garden Scheme, to find the Nation’s Favourite Gardens to visit.

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Design 95 The Modern Gardener Don’t be daunted by technology: it can work with traditional gardening techniques to help with watering, weeding, lighting and lawn mowing.

101 Sarah Paxton Joseph Paxton was one of the foremost gardeners of the 1800s. Yet his astonishing career would not have been possible without his capable wife Sarah.

Plants 67 Top 10 Plants This selection of evergreen trees and shrubs will colourfully transform as winter temperatures plummet.

17 26 6 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

73 Plant Focus The fantastic wildlife benefits, diverse shapes and forms and cunning growth tactics of ivy, put it in a class of its own, says Carole Drake on a visit to Warwickshire’s Fibrex Nurseries.

79 Double H Orchids Exotic phalaenopsis orchids sell in their millions across the UK and thrive in our homes. Jane Perrone visits the country’s main grower, in Hampshire.

85 Armchair Botany This month, Jim Cable investigates the massive, interlinked daisy family, also known as Asteraceae.

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IMAGES CLIVE NICHOLS; HEATHER EDWARDS; GAP/LIZ EVERY; CAROLE DRAKE; SHUTTERSTOCK

91 In Season Slow to grow but a real treat to eat, parsnips are improved by a hard frost, which sweetens their creamy flesh.

Regulars 9 This Month Our guide to gardens to visit, places to go, things to do and nature to note.

17 Christmas Gift Guide Our ultimate guide to gifts for the different gardeners in your life.

107 The Reviewer December’s literary digest, and a chat with Prof. Roderick Floud.

114 Last Word Katherine Swift on the festive garden gifts that keep on giving.

Offers 32 Subscribe & Save Subscribe to The English Garden and save money.

77 Sarah Raven 20% off Christmas lights to add sparkle to your garden this winter.

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 7

DECEMBER

Gardens to Visit

Seek inspiration for your own garden by visiting one of Britain’s best

SGS GARDEN

Glenwhan Gardens

Stranraer, Scotland

Winter WONDERLANDS Enjoy the stark beauty of these winter gardens, with an emphasis on scent and sculptural forms, enlivened with the odd splash of colour

WORDS PHOEBE JAYES IMAGES HOWARD RICE; NATIONAL TRUST/CHRIS LACEY; RHS

Cambridge University Botanic Garden Cambridge Botanic’s winter garden (above) is a sensory haven with a diverse range of striking plants. Seasonal highlights include the headily fragrant Daphne bholua and the intense red stems of Cornus alba. Tel: 01223 336265; botanic.cam.ac.uk

RHS Harlow Carr

Bressingham

Enjoy winter shapes, colours and textures on this winter walk in Harrogate. Clipped yew, evergreens and conifers form the main backbone of the display, which is lit up by salix and cornus. Tel: 01423 565418; rhs.org.uk

Six distinct gardens occupy these 17-acre grounds in Norfolk. The winter garden is not to be missed – it’s a brilliant riot of coloured stems, snowdrops, hellebores, early bulbs and winter-flowering heathers. Tel: 01379 686900; bressingham.co.uk

Described as one of the most beautiful gardens in Scotland, Glenwhan Gardens is perched 300 feet above sea level, overlooking Luce Bay and the Mull of Galloway, with clear views to the Isle of Man. Forty years ago there was wild moorland here, but now there are visionary collections of glorious plants from around the world. Paths wind through all-season planting, sculpture and well-placed seats, all set around small lakes, which add to the tranquil, sheltered atmosphere.

Open daily 10am-5pm.

Adults £6; concessions, groups and students £4.50; season ticket £18; family ticket £13 (up to three children). Tea rooms on site. Dunragit, Stranraer, Wigtownshire DG9 8PH. Tel: 07787 990702; scotlandsgardens.org

Anglesey Abbey Dunham Massey Spread over seven acres in Greater Manchester, this winter garden (right) is the largest of its kind in the UK. You’ll find over 1,600 winter shrubs alongside beeches, oaks and birches. Tel: 0161 9411025; nationaltrust.org.uk

Lord Fairhaven designed this Cambridge garden to include areas of interest in every season. The winter garden is filled with fragrant sarcococca, while glorious colours blaze from scarlet willow and redbarked dogwood. Tel: 01223 810080; nationaltrust.org.uk

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 9

DECEMBER

Places to Go

Unmissable flower shows, plant fairs, courses and exhibitions to attend this month

Bare BONES Winter beauty at Sissinghurst Castle Garden 2 November-6 March, Kent Sissinghurst is now opening its doors on winter weekends so visitors can enjoy the garden’s bare beauty. The colder months are the best time to see its architectural framework, and the Tower provides a perfect viewing platform. Visitors can also peek at Dan Pearson’s Delos, designed to reflect the inspiration Vita and Harold took from Greece. Adult: £9.90; children £4.95.

Tel: 01580 710700; nationaltrust.org.uk

Winter GLOW Enchanted Christmas at Westonbirt Arboretum 29 November-22 December, Fridays to Sundays, Gloucestershire The Enchanted Christmas trail returns to Westonbirt this winter, with a new pathway through illuminated trees to an enchanted wonderland. Visitors can meet woodland characters and enjoy light displays along the way, before warming up at the Christmas village with festive market stalls, arts and crafts activities and mugs of hot chocolate or mulled wine. Adult: £15; children 5+: £7.50. Tel: 03000 674890; forestryengland.uk

LOOKING AHEAD: Festive ACTIVITIES 29 Nov -1 Dec & 6-8 Dec, Essex Handmade gifts and a chance for kids to make their own and meet Santa. Normal admission + extra for children’s activities.

Tel: 01245 402019; rhs.org.uk

Christmas at Chatsworth 9 Nov-5 Jan, Derbyshire ‘In a land far, far away’ (right) is the theme this Christmas.

Visitors will travel the globe, from a Nordic winter to a blossom-filled Japan. Adult: £25; children £15. Tel: 01246 565300; chatsworth.org

Christmas Past and Present at Fenton House 30 Nov-15 Dec, London Festive magic, including early choral music, workshops, and mulled wine. Adult: £9; children: £4.50. Tel: 020 743 53471; nationaltrust.org.uk

10 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

Christmas Floral Art at Polesden Lacey 5 & 12 Dec, Surrey This workshop teaches how to create a festive floral display.

Tickets: £35. Tel: 01372 452048; nationaltrust.org.uk

Christmas Trail at Claremont 7-23 Dec, Surrey Take the kids on a magical trail around the gardens at Claremont Landscape

Gardens this Christmas, where you’ll help Ruby Robin find her friends along the way. Normal admission + £1 for trail.

Tel: 01372 467806; nationaltrust.org.uk

WORDS PHOEBE JAYES IMAGES NATIONAL TRUST/MARK WIGMORE

Christmas Gift Fair at Hyde Hall

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Heritage counts

DECEMBER

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

Checklist Check that greenhouse heaters are fully functioning and that their thermostats are working – ready for the colder nights.

Make sure any pruning required on birches, acers and vines is done before Christmas (after which their sap rises) to avoid the wounds bleeding.

If hard frosts are forecast, dig up any crops needed for the Christmas dinner, such as parsnips or leeks, while you can still get them out of the soil.

Use garden-foraged or bought dried flowers to make an everlasting posy this Christmas, to give as a gift or to decorate the house Dried flowers are back as a stylish floral trend this year.

Rachel Wardley of Tallulah Rose Flower School at Levens Hall, Cumbria, explains how to create a naturally everlasting posy of flowers this Christmas, swaddled in vintage fabric and tied with a silk ribbon – a wintry gift that will last.

Rachel sourced the dried flowers, foliage, seedheads and grasses for her winter posy from Lincoln flower farmer, Sandra Bright. You can dry your own at home or keep it seasonal and British by finding your local Flowers from the Farm grower at flowersfromthefarm.co.uk.

Method 1 Group your selection of dried flowers by type. This will make choosing them more straightforward and will mean that your stems are less likely to become tangled.

12 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

2 Take a couple of stems of flowers and foliage in your left hand if you’re right-handed, or vice versa if left-handed. Take a couple more and cross them over the ones in your hand.

3 Rotate stems anticlockwise, add more stems and rotate again. Keep adding and rotating, building up the posy.

4 Alternate the heights of flowers and foliage and use a mix of different-sized flowers too. Add foliage, pods and seedheads for interest.

5 Once all the stems have been used, tie securely with twine.

6 Gift-wrap with fabric and tie with ribbon to finish your posy. tallulahroseflowers.com

As leaves fall from deciduous shrubs, take hardwood cuttings of any you’d like to propagate.

Insulate taps and outside pipes to prevent damage.

Turn pots of growing amaryllis regularly so their lofty flowers don’t tilt towards the light.

WORDS RACHEL WARDLEY; PHOEBE JAYES IMAGES JESSICA REEVE; SHUTTERSTOCK

AGELESS Beauty

DECEMBER

Nature to Note

Your monthly guide to encouraging and caring for garden wildlife

Seeds of CHANGE Feeding goldfinches is boosting numbers Appearance: These colourful little birds have black wings with a bright-yellow wing patch, a black tail with white spots and a noticeably pointed beak. Unlike juveniles, adult goldfinches also carry a splash of red across their face.

Habitat: Goldfinches can be spotted across the UK all year round. They reside anywhere with trees, bushes and seeding plants – gardens, parks, heathland and orchards.

Nesting in trees in late spring, they migrate south for winter.

What you can do: Some good news for once: goldfinch numbers are increasing, largely due to people leaving food out for them. Put out Nyjer seeds in a special Nyjer feeder in winter and plant your garden with teasel. Teasel flowers feed pollinators in summer, while their seedheads attract goldfinches, who literally ‘tease’ the seeds out.

Winter heather Over the long, bleak winter months, when most of the other heathers and wildflowers are lying dormant, Erica carnea, which is otherwise known as winter heather or heath, emerges triumphant to brighten up the gloomy scene.

The name ‘heather’ is derived from the Old English word ‘haeth’, meaning untilled land, and this forms the root of the word ‘heathen,’ which refers to someone who is living out in the wilderness and away from the church.

14 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

Help wildlife this DECEMBER Give birds a high-fat diet; keep ponds free of ice; put up nest boxes for robins; gift a wildlife charity membership In the coldest weather, birds benefit from a high-fat diet, which will help them put on insulating weight. Leave suet balls or cakes out in a feeder or on a bird table for them, but always remove any netting, which can trap feet and beaks If you have a pond that is prone to freezing over, float a ball on it to help prevent ice so that fish, newts and frogs have enough oxygen. Float a ping pong ball in bird baths so a small area stays ice-free, letting birds drink.

Put up an open-fronted nestbox for robins. They are one of the earliest birds to nest – sometimes as early as January – although they don’t usually start breeding until March.

Unsure what to give a fellow wildlife lover for Christmas? Try

a Wildlife Trust or RSPB gift membership, both of which come with various benefits and support the brilliant work these organisations do for UK wildlife

WORDS PHOEBE JAYES IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK

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GIFT GUIDE

Gifts for Gardeners Find the perfect present for gardeners and garden lovers with our inspiring selection of Christmas gifts, from affordable stocking fillers to high-end treats DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 17

GIFT GUIDE

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Flower Power

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Floral-themed accessories for the home and practical gifts for out on the cutting patch 10

1. 6 wild flower napkins, £85. crafteditions.co.uk 2. Sweet pea tin with seeds, £3.50. Tel: 01476 530063; visiteaston.co.uk 3. Block print cushion in small lotus jal blue, £62. themewsfurnishings.com 4. Linen cross back apron, £69. Tel: 0333 4005200; toa.st/uk 5. Small terracotta tapered modern pot, £115. Tel: 0800 1114699; davidaustinroses.co.uk 6. Sentei garden scissors, £29. Tel: 01747 445059; niwaki.com 7. Sutton Lane Meadows kneeler, £20. Tel: 0300 1232025; shop.nationaltrust.org.uk 8. Coral pink canvas women’s classics, £38. Tel: 0800 0281816; toms. co.uk 9. Orange scarf, £65. Tel: +45 88 77 93 98; ilsejacobsen.com/gb/en 10. Ceramic mini floral vase, £6. Tel: 0845 1308229; tch.net

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Herbal Remedy Choose from scented salves and oils or gift these accessories for growing and making

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1. Herb pots in raspberry, £15.95. Tel: 0345 5480210; annabeljames.co.uk 2. Amber glass dropping bottle, glass dropper, £33 for 12.

Tel: 01480 272279; coleparmer.co.uk 3. Le’Xpress 900ml infuser teapot by KitchenCraft, £30.99. amazon.co.uk 4. PROVENCE essential oil blend, £14. petitsrituels.com 5. Rustic cast iron plant etagere, £130. Tel: 0344 5672400; thefarthing. co.uk 6. Old herb choppers, from £26. Tel: 01434 634567; re-foundobjects.com 7. Victor traditional cast iron kitchen scales, £82. Tel: 0345 2591410; artisanti.com 8. Withington bowl – large, £15.

Tel: 01993 845559; gardentrading.co.uk 9. Green wood herb marker bundle, £3. Tel 0845 1308229; tch.net 10. Eucalyptus salve, £10. Tel: 01747 834634; nealsyardremedies.com

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GIFT GUIDE

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Plot to Plate Inspiration and essential tools to ensure a bumper crop for grow-your-own enthusiasts

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1. Bespoke greenhouse, £POA. Tel: 01730 826900; alitex.co.uk 2. Vegetable cart, £595.

Tel: 01434 409085; ibbidirect.co.uk 3. Classic VegTrug – medium, £179.99. vegtrug.com 4. Natural Elements vegetable jute sack, £10.95.

Tel: 01722 506045; dinghams.co.uk 5. Garden apron, £25. Tel: 01993 845559; gardentrading. co.uk 6. Long thin trowel, £17.95. Tel: 03332 401228; sophieconran.com 7. Aldsworth vegetable store, £125. Tel: 01993 845559; gardentrading.co.uk 8. Stainless steel longhandled Dutch hoe, £29.99. Tel: 0345 2668010; dobbies.com 9. The Vegetable Garden by E. R. Janes, £12.54. countryhouselibrary.co.uk 10. Weather clock, £385. bramwellbrown.com

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Gifts inspired by the natural world for the garden wildlife lover in your life 1. Hanging outdoor plant pot, £19.95. Tel: 01302 741000; melodymaison.co.uk 2. Emma Bridgewater garden birds large tray, £33. Tel: 01769 579077; daisypark.co.uk 3. Acorn bird house, £18.95.

Tel: 01270 812717; idyllhome.co.uk 4. Hanging beaded beetle, £10.95. Tel: 01434 634567; re-foundobjects.com 5. Planting for Honeybees by Sarah Wyndham Lewis, £12.50. Tel: 020 8332 3123; shop.kew.org 6. Patrick and Philippa robins bird bath, £19.99. Tel: 0344 567400; thefarthing.co.uk 7. Bird feeder and scoop, £18.95. Tel: 0345 5480210; annabeljames.co.uk 8. Copper seed feeder, £24.99.

Tel: 0345 2668010; dobbies.com 9. Shetland wild bee house, £25. Tel: 01993 845559; gardentrading. co.uk 10. Emma Bridgewater robin 1/2pt mug, £19.95. Tel: 01769 579077; daisypark.co.uk

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GIFT GUIDE

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Neat Freaks For those with a love of topiary here are the perfect accessories for creating the smartest shapes 1. Gardening lopper, £39.95. Tel: 03332 401228; sophieconran.com 2. Great Warwick pot, £1,550.

Tel: 01608 684416; whichfordpottery.com

3. Practical guide to pruning, training & topiary by Richard Bird, £15. Tel: 0808 1188787; waterstones. com 4. Cordless long-reach hedge trimmer, £359.

Tel: 01276 417678; shop.stihl.co.uk 5. Darlac lightweight ladies shears, £18.99. Tel: 01344 578833; rhsplants.co.uk 6. Ball topiary frame,

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£21.99. Tel: 01344 578 800; waitrosegarden.com 7. Botanical botanica topiary wallpaper, from £95 per 10m roll. Tel: 020 8442 8844; cole-andson.com 8. Darlac expert topiary shears, £22.99.

Tel: 01344 578111; crocus.co.uk 9. RHS lead lite cube, from £10.99. Tel: 01344 578111; crocus.co.uk 10. 6ft platform tripod ladder*, £275. Tel: 03333 444229; henchman.co.uk

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For Foodies Delicious things to nibble and sip, plus stylish kitchen kit for budding masterchefs

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1. Sprouts medium oblong plate, £39.95.

Tel: 01782 210565; emmabridgewater.co.uk

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2. Tales and Recipes from the Kitchen Garden by The Pig, £30. Tel: 01590 622354; thepighotel.com 3. Christmas village apron, £26. Tel: 03333 202663; cathkidston.com 4. Hand print oven mitts, £24. Tel: 03332 401228; sophieconran.com 5. Granite pestle & mortar, £20. Tel: 01993 845559; gardentrading. co.uk 6. Embroidered calendar and biscuits, £183.

Tel: 03332 401228; sophieconran.com 7. Silent Pool gin, £37. Tel: 01483 229136; silentpooldistillers. com 8. Leeden handle basket, from £12. Tel: 0800 0831233; daylesford.com 9. Blackbird & bramble placemats, £24.95. Tel: 0345 5480210; annabeljames.co.uk 10. Mature cheddar truckle,

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£36. Tel: 01392 851 222; quickes.co.uk

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GIFT GUIDE

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For gardeners with more traditional tastes, these timeless accessories will be just the ticket 1. Woodland seat, £6,720. Tel: 01420 588444; gazeburvill.com 2. The English Garden binders, £6.99. chelseamagazines.com 3. Blue Arden cup & saucer, £35. Tel: 01773 740740; burleigh.co.uk 4.

Lorenzo water feature, £299.99. Tel: 0118 9035210; primrose.co.uk 5. Louis Phillipe teapot, £295.

Tel: 020 7734 8040; fortnumandmason.com 6.

Hemispherean armillary with squared base, £181.

Tel: 0800 6888386; blackcountrymetalworks. co.uk 7. Silk foulard scarf, £145. Tel: 020 7734 1234; libertylondon.com/uk 8. Feathers pot, from £24.95. Tel: 03332 224555; highgrovegardens. com 9. Rose arch, £300. Tel: 0800 1114699; davidaustinroses.co.uk 10. Clarence urn, £155.

Tel: 01604 266084; haddonstone.com

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NEWTON HOUSE

Salvaged DREAM The gargantuan task of restoring a crumbling Jacobean manor and its extensive grounds was undertaken by Jane and Robin Cannon, who sought to preserve the legacy of its previous inhabitants by revealing existing vistas in new ways WORDS HELEN BILLIALD PHOTOGRAPHS HEATHER EDWARDS

The frosted box squares of the formal garden, with topiary spirals rising from terracotta pots set on cushions of lavender.

A

long the banks of the River Yeo, wrapped in a tapestry of walled gardens, orchards, avenues and woodland, sits a fine Jacobean manor. On a cold clear morning, frost picks out the long lines of box hedging crisscrossing the formal gardens and splinters a course across greenhouse glass. It sharpens the pleached limes, turns rosehips to sugared confectionery and rims topiary and bulrushes alike.

None of this settled beauty suggests the reality facing Newton House just a decade ago. Half a century of decline had seen its former gardens subside beneath waves of brambles and scrub until only their ivy-clad walls, crumbling outbuildings and a fragment of the former 90-foot glasshouse remained. Inside the house, dwindling family fortunes meant only 12 radiators heated 40 rooms, electric lighting could best be described as ‘sparse’ and the leaking roof urgently needed replacing.

The task of coaxing this Grade I-listed property and 60-acre grounds back from the brink was taken on by Jane and Robin Cannon. “It was a romantic

28 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

Above Fine views of

the restored Jacobean manor house from across the formal garden, with deep-red roses in the foreground.

dream really,” explains Jane, of their decision to buy the house. “It was foolish, but it needed to be saved and we wanted to breathe life into it for the next 100 years. Our view is that we’re only the custodians, and we wanted to salvage the dreams and memories of those who had lived here for so many centuries.”

Spurred on by this mixture of hope and ambition, the Cannons became custodians of the once-splendid Newton House in October 2007 – the first time the property had been sold in its 400-year history.

The emotionally exhausting task of restoring and updating the house would continue over the next ten years, ultimately resulting in the impressive family home of today. At the same time, work began in the grounds with a tree surgeon and three gardeners cutting back and clearing decades of undergrowth, with bonfires burning daily for the first four months.

From here Jane and Robin could begin to lay out the structure of the gardens, viewing it as a complete

redesign rather than a restoration. “We started with a blank piece of paper,” explained Jane, “and we just pored over it.” From the start, their guiding principle was that the garden must have vistas and focal points, whether statues, sculptures or trees: “There always had to be something at the end of each vista.”

Access and layout needed to be sensitively arranged to knit together different areas of the new garden. Of the five original medieval carp ponds only two remained, and these were carefully dredged so as not to damage the clay liners. A new 12m bridge was built to Above The restored span the larger pond, greenhouse contains leading across to the crops of sweet potato, huge old Wellingtonia melons and cucumbers.

Right Lutyens benches (Sequoiadendron surround the formal giganteum) and what garden’s central feature: was once a small formal a finial that echoes the pleasure garden. Today roof line of the house.

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 29

it is a strikingly simple white garden, marked out with alternating birch trees and mock orange, whose late-autumn foliage glows even brighter against the icicle-white tree trunks to either side.

New access links the kitchen to the walled kitchen garden where the restored greenhouse stands in pristine glory. By using the original 90ft footprint and copying old metalwork discovered in one of the outbuildings, the expanse of glass could be faithfully reconstructed. Today it gives Jane the freedom to experiment with new harvests. As well as the peaches growing against its back wall she produces sweet potatoes, melons and cucumbers along with a precious winter supply of squeakily fresh micro-salads.

Behind the kitchen garden is the new formal garden, where more than 3,000 box plants trace out a network of low hedges, their sharply clipped sides a visual anchor for the winter months. At its centre, the Cannons struggled to find a suitably strong focal point until in the end Sarah had “one of those three-o’clock-in-the-morning ideas, to scale up a finial from the roof line and make it a feature in the centre of the garden”. Around the finial they planted a square of lime trees that brought the area 30 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

Above A quirky troupe

of bronze frogs plays jazz at the edge of a carp pond spanned by a new 12m bridge.

Below Lingering rose blooms are dusted with sparkling winter frost.

immediate gravitas, while underneath their pleached branches sit four gleaming white Lutyens benches.

Planting across the gardens is a marriage of Jane and Robin’s individual styles. For Robin, formality and structure were essential, while for Jane a cottage garden atmosphere was key. The result is a space that has strong bones, yet is softened with pools of informal colour from thousands of naturalised daffodils in spring, followed by a succession of irises and alliums, roses and agapanthus.

At first, all of the formal garden’s box squares were intensively planted with beds of cut flowers, and perennials, but three years ago Jane and Robin made the decision to simplify this area and pare back its planting, both to reduce its intensive nature (have you tried deadheading 74 standard roses lately?) and to enhance the strength of its design.

Today, many of the box squares surround spiral yew topiary pots sat on lavender ‘Hidcote’ cushions and edged by sharply mown lawn. “We found this simpler form of gardening was pleasing to the eye,” says Jane. It also meant that the gardens could be maintained with the help of just one gardener and one groundsman. In winter, the repetition of pots runs through every corner of the garden, from the standard bays edging the kitchen garden’s glasshouse, to yew cones framing the front of the house and the spiral centrepieces of the box hedge squares.

Further repetition appears in the newly planted avenues where alternating green and purple beeches frame a vista up to the summerhouse, while to the east a shorter avenue of limes and urns entice you down to the river where kingfishers flash by. The cider orchards have been pruned and gaps filled with new fruit trees, while the discovery of tin-pressed tree names and letters written by former head gardener Mr Priddle and sent from the trenches of the First World War mean original fruit trees are once again growing along the garden’s walls.

At the front of the house the Cannons have planted a simple staggered willow grove, which, as Jane points out, is not a conventional formal plant choice for a Jacobean manor. But their colour and form add a lightness of touch and complement the deer and peacock sculptures that are scattered across the front lawn.

With sculpture, it’s the quirky elements that catch Jane’s eye: “it’s all about enjoyment and the things that make you smile,” she says. In the stripped-back winter months these sculptures entice you on through Clockwise from top left the garden, from a girl Frosted rosehips; an skipping through a hula- armillary sphere within hoop along a gravel path the walled garden; seedheads of rudbeckia to a hippo hiding at the are left in place to add edge of a pond or a 20ft structure during the urn from India that was cold, winter months. unearthed at Toby’s Reclamation Yard near Exeter.

Quirkiest of all is the six-frog jazz ensemble, poised mid-performance on the edge of the carp pond, as if they might leap in to cool off once the show is over. “They’re wired up to the house,” says Jane, “and when we open the garden, we play jazz on them. It’s a real Marmite moment: people either love it or don’t like them disturbing the peace.”

As a rising sun begins to melt the hoar frost from the lily pads and gunnera at their feet, it’s difficult to imagine anything disturbing the peace in this enchanted valley. ■ Newton House, Newton Surmaville, Yeovil, Somerset, BA20 2RX. No open days are currently planned for 2020 but details will be added to the website at newtonsurmaville.co.uk

Eye-catching FEATURES Jane Cannon offers her advice on creating a visually exciting garden filled with focal points Structure the garden around a selection of vistas and focal points – essential parts of garden design that people often forget.

Even when you’re designing a tiny garden, it’s so important to ensure you always have focal points.

Create exciting spaces to take people on a journey. From our dining room your eye is led to a large urn; from the urn you’re pulled up the beech avenue to the summerhouse; from the summerhouse you look through a sculpture to find that it frames the face of a statue in the distance…

Reclamation yards are wonderful places to buy statues and quirky objects that will make you smile.

It helps to think outside the box in order to achieve success and add that extra wow factor.

Gardening evolves and that’s the exciting thing about it. You plant something and if it’s in the wrong place you can change it. Nothing is set in stone.

Seek out the work of sculptors who make you smile. Personal favourites include Vanessa Marston, Lloyd le Blanc and Judith Holmes Drewry.

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 31

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Sensory DELIGHT The new Winter Garden at Wakehurst in Sussex rejects a formal botanical layout in favour of immersive swathes of plants chosen for seasonal scent and colour, including deliciously fragrant witch hazel, vivid dogwood and drifts of heather WORDS SARAH GILES PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS

34 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

WA K E H U R S T

Slim birches and skeletal stands of Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ edge paths and add structure.

I

“Then the cherry trees add another strong bark f you need some inspiration to keep your colour that picks up the winter sun really well.” garden looking good right through the There has been a Winter Garden at Wakehurst for colder months, a visit to the Winter Garden nearly 40 years, but the previous planting had started at Wakehurst in West Sussex is an absolute to lose its edge and when the gardens received a £1m must. Also known as Kew’s ‘Wild Botanic legacy from an admiring benefactor in 2014, it was a Garden’, Wakehurst is owned by the National Trust, good opportunity to rethink the design – a task that but is used and managed by the Royal Botanic was undertaken by Francis Annette, Wakehurst’s Gardens, Kew. As well as being the home of the garden supervisor. “I wanted to key into our ‘wild Millennium Seed Bank, which houses and protects botanic garden’ theme and think about what the seed from the world’s most threatened and useful winter landscape outside of Wakehurst looks like,” wild plants, it’s a lovely place to visit, and the Winter he says. “On walks along the South Downs, the Garden, which opened in January this year and is sense I got was that what you engage with in winter now maturing nicely, has been designed using plants is not lots of individual plants but the shape of and planting ideas that make the most of winter them en masse, and I used that as my inspiration. scent and colour. All this is brought to life by the special kind of low sunlight that’s a key characteristic While the old winter garden was all about admiring each specimen separately, the new one is more of the colder months. about putting them on a larger canvas for a more At the garden’s heart is a collection of elegant impressive visual effect.”

West Himalayan birch trees (Betula utilis var.

Ed agrees: “The palette of plants that we’ve used jacquemontii), their dramatic white trunks is not dissimilar to what was in the previous winter interspersed and contrasting well with the coppery tones of five Tibetan cherry trees (Prunus serrula var. garden, and some of the existing plants worked really well and had earned their right to remain. But the tibetica). Both the birch and the cherry trees were planted as mature, ten-foot specimens to give instant old layout was very traditional, with big island beds and as much soil and mulch on show as there were impact, and that’s certainly had the desired effect. plants. Our aim was to present plants in a different “The birch trees provide the framework that ties way and create a new version of the garden that no everything together. As your eye roams through the one could feel ambiguous about when garden, it’s constantly picking up the Below Gleaming white they walked through it – we wanted lovely white lines of their trunks,” trunks of West Himalayan to really stir the senses. The Winter notes Ed Ikin, who is the head of birch are illuminated by Garden exemplifies our aim of evoking landscape, horticulture and research. glowing, golden grasses.

Above Wide curving emotion in our visitors paths are edged with – after all, if we can’t local Horsham stone to get people excited about echo the construction the beauty of plants, of the manor house.

Right The rich, lambent we’re never going to colours of dogwood and get anyone involved in leathery bergenia add conserving them. The lustrous focal points. stereotypical botanic garden is made up of lots of individually interesting plants, but we don’t want to be pigeonholed like that at Wakehurst. Instead, we prefer to play with form, style and beauty and create something that is a really immersive experience.”

A prime example of the en masse planting that typifies this new space is a vast swathe of Bergenia ‘Eroica’. As it gets colder, its foliage turns a fabulous burgundy and the effect is all the more breathtaking because of the large numbers planted together. Its reddish tones are set off by bushy tufts of semievergreen Carex morrowii and echoed in the bright

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 37

red stems of dogwoods Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’ and C. sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’. These contrast with yellow C. sericea ‘Flaviramea’, and all three varieties are stool-pruned once a year at the beginning of April to keep their colour.

The dogwoods are underplanted in some areas with swathes of the pink, winter-flowering heather Erica x darleyensis ‘Rubina’ and in others with bronze-leaved Carex comans. Elsewhere, a sea of the white-flowered heather Erica x darleyensis f. albiflora ‘Silberschmelze’ is interspersed with compact round hummocks of Rhododendron yakushimanum, mahonia and gorgeously scented daphnes – both the standard pink-white D. bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’ and the less well-known, darker pink D. bholua var. glacialis.

38 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

Clockwise from top left

Shapely box balls with spiky Yucca filamentosa; frosted, fragrant flowers of Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Pallida’; Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Feuerzauber’ glows with deep russet tones; waxy white flowers of Daphne bholua; deep pink Daphne bholua var. glacialis has an almost crystalline beauty.

Dotted through the whole space are tall stands of Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’, contrasting beautifully with shorter Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Little Bunny’. “I used the tall grasses in the same way as the birches, to lift the eye as you look across the space,” says Francis, “but whereas the birch trunks are solid, the grasses pick up the slightest breeze and add movement.”

Naturally, witch hazels are included in the garden too, both for the colour of their flowers and for their scent. The fiery orange flowers of Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Jelena’ work particularly well with the white birches, and a venerable ‘Pallida’, retained from the old garden, has grown into a splendid shape, its sulphur-yellow flowers setting off everything else around it beautifully. A Horsham

stone bench with a bespoke oak top in front of this witch hazel is carefully positioned so that anyone pausing there will catch its delicate fragrance. Carpets of hellebores (H. x hybridus ‘Red Lady’, ‘White Lady’ and ‘Harvington Lime’) and pink Cyclamen coum under a huge copper beech complete the scene.

Winding paths are edged with local Horsham stone to echo the stone of the mansion house. “The former winter garden had just a single pathway, making it hard to engage with the plants, so we added a series of curving paths to give a sense of journey and lead visitors around the space, with elements of surprise around corners and views through the planting,” says Francis.

The garden is flanked by a south-facing wall with Wakehurst’s imposing stone mansion house at its western end, both of which offer a degree of shelter. Along the wall, cloaked in Clematis cirrhosa and backed by a vast yucca, is a border designed to complement the Winter Garden but with a separate and rather more formal personality of its own. Box balls in three different sizes provide structure, interwoven with grasses and edged with Festuca glauca ‘Intense Blue’. In summer, tender plants and succulents in pots from the glasshouses are plunged out along this wall. There is also a series of three incomplete box circles here, with stands Above A vivid sweep of pink, winter-flowering of pennisetum in the heather Erica x ‘missing’ parts of the darleyensis ‘Rubina’ with circles, as if spilling over Hamamelis ‘Rubinstar’. from the informal to the formal part of the garden.

Ed and Francis have taken great pleasure in watching the garden mature and fill out over the past 12 months. “The heathers have knitted together beautifully and even the young daphnes put on 30 or 40cm of growth over the summer,” says Ed. “In all, 33,000 plants, including bulbs and corms, have gone into making this a very special place to be, especially on a cold and frosty day, and it’s become the immersive space we always hoped it would be.” ■ Wakehurst, Ardingly, Haywards Heath, Sussex RH17 6TN. Open 10am to 6pm every day except Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Tel: 01444 894066; kew.org

Work with the SEASON Tips on designing your own winter garden from Francis Annette, garden supervisor at Wakehurst A good rule of thumb for any garden is to design with three tiers in mind: it’s an approach that works particularly well in a winter garden where you have limited colour to play with. I used several different plants as groundcover, planted en masse for maximum impact, including pink and white heathers and pink cyclamen. Then I worked in a series of small shrubs and, finally, small trees for height.

Use shape and texture to create impact, since you will find yourself restricted in terms of colour at this time of year.

Add colour sparingly, making sure the colours balance and complement each other.

Keep your palette of plants to a minimum. Avoid the temptation to try to create a stamp collection of winter specimens!

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 39

Second CHANCE Craigfoodie in Fife was last on sale when James and Lindsay Murray were househunting in the 1970s. When it returned to the market in 2002 they couldn’t resist the challenge of its large walled garden and surrounding woodland WORDS JULIA WATSON PHOTOGRAPHS RAY COX

Quadrants in the walled garden feature a clock lawn on the right, a parterre on the left and a vegetable garden.

CRAIGFOODIE

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 41

E

Top Looking up the

malus lawn towards the house, with a tilted slate sphere sculpture working with the slope.

Above Gardener Tom Spence takes down old plant supports.

ven towards the tail end of the year, as autumn turns into winter, Craigfoodie’s garden pleases the eye.

Perched on the side of a hill in Fife, the white-harled, 17th-century house looks out across a walled garden that is every bit as decorative underneath a dusting of frost as it is at the colourful height of summer.

Craigfoodie has been the home of James and Lindsay Murray since 2002, when they decided to leave nearby St Andrews, where they had lived and worked for many years – James as a solicitor and Lindsay as a teacher. “Our children had grown up and it was time for a move,” says Lindsay. By coincidence, Craigfoodie had been on the market when they had been house-hunting as a young couple in 1972, and now here it was, up for sale once again.

The chance to acquire this historic gem second time around seemed irresistible.

The house, built by Edinburgh lawyer John Bethune in 1680, needed work, and the garden, too, would prove to be a challenge. Although the Murrays had had a large garden in St Andrews, they recognised that they would need help at Craigfoodie, especially in rethinking the Walled Garden. It had elements they liked, such as the clock lawn onto which the drawing-room windows looked, but there were other aspects – a row of leylandii, a path ending

42 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

abruptly in the middle of the garden, areas of rough grass dotted with old raspberry canes – that they knew they would want to change.

“The attraction of the garden is that Craigfoodie sits in an elevated position, south-facing, with lovely views of the valley, and that it is set into the Walled Garden rather than having it miles away,” says James. “It had great potential to become a rather interesting garden.” What they needed was a way of bringing everything together.

The Murrays tackled the challenge with landscape designer Michael Innes, who recently worked on the garden of Dumfries House in Ayrshire, after it was rescued by the Prince of Wales. Michael gave the Murrays’ Walled Garden coherence by dividing it into four quadrants, each with its own character, and he and his team carried out much of the hard landscaping: widening paths, raising the hillside terraces next to the house and building stone steps.

Michael also gave invaluable advice on planting.

“We’re on our own water supply,” James explains, “so we wanted to ensure that we didn’t have to water all the time, particularly in these sustainable days.”

As the garden was transformed, Michael worked closely with Tom Spence, who has been the gardener at Craigfoodie since the Murrays moved in. Today the Walled Garden has a strong underlying structure with a long central path leading to the tennis lawn,

Above These old steps from the drive are now strictly ornamental, planted up with ferns, iberis and aubrieta.

Left Delicate yellow flowers on Jasminum nudiflorum.

Below Box pyramids and old staddle stones form a striking feature.

and a cross-shaped path lined with crisply pleached limes underplanted with ‘White Triumphator’ tulips, bearded irises and nepeta. Near the crossing point, a yew topiary bird, a legacy from the past, still holds sway and is regularly pruned to keep it in shape.

The clock lawn below the house fills one of the quadrants, its ‘hours’ marked by the grass between the beds. The beds themselves hold calamintha and geraniums, with standard bays, Laurus nobilis, and ‘Iceberg’ roses for height.

Four plats, each with a clipped dome of weeping pear, surround a circular pattern of box, underplanted with thyme In planning the balancing parterre on the other side of the path, the Murrays wanted a design that would look similarly clock-like and found inspiration in the roundel of the gate to the tennis lawn. Four plats, each with a clipped dome of weeping pear, Pyrus salicifolia, surround a circular pattern of box, underplanted with thyme (a jokey nod to the clock theme), and a central pyramid of yew. And down the far side, against the garden wall, runs a generous herbaceous border that comes into its own in summer.

Beyond the clock lawn, in an area where soft fruit was once grown, there is now a malus lawn, where a dozen Malus ‘Evereste’ crab apples provide a spectacular display of spring blossom followed by glowing colour in autumn. They are set into a simple pattern of four mown-grass rectangles, which are planted en masse with Crocus tommasinianus DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 43

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Above The orange crabs of Malus ‘Evereste’.

Left Red persicaria and hesperantha enliven the border by the house.

Below The youngest branches of the row of pleached limes that runs across the centre of the walled garden glow a vibrant red in winter.

in pale and dark blue to add to the wonderful spring show.

A slate ball built by artist Joe Smith acts as a centrepiece to the malus garden: lovely in its own right, and a perfect solution to the fact that the walled garden slopes from top to bottom and also has a slight tilt from west to east. “We realised that you couldn’t have a traditional statue, because nothing would look straight,” says James. “This is a tilted sphere, so it works very well on the sloping ground.”

Next to the malus garden is the Pump Garden, which has an ancient pump as its focal point. A row of leylandii once stood here and it was while he was looking at the path beneath them that Michael Innes noticed that what looked like ordinary pavers were, in fact, the upturned surfaces of old staddle stones. Set back the right way up, and interplanted with box pyramids, they make an unusual and strikingly sculptural feature.

“We originally thought we might like to have a rill there,” remarks James, “but it turned out to be too complicated in terms of electricity and so on, so we decided to have, in effect, a dry rill.” In the bed between the staddle stones, blue ripples of chionodoxa are followed by ‘Purple Princess’ tulips, centaurea and thyme.

Craigfoodie, means ‘the crag above the bog’ and the house has always drawn its water from natural springs on site The fourth quadrant of the Walled Garden features vegetable beds and orchard trees. The name of the house, Craigfoodie, means ‘the crag above the bog’ and just as the stone to build it was quarried from the hill on which it stands, the house has always drawn its water from natural springs on site. Nowadays, the streams are channelled together, and the ground is no longer boggy, yet the tilt of the garden means that the bottom left-hand corner is the most reliably moist area, well suited to growing produce in Craigfoodie’s neutral, loamy soil.

On the middle and upper terraces beside the house, where the garden is at its driest, the Murrays grow drought-tolerant species such as euphorbia, phlomis, cordyline and phormium. The palm tree Trachycarpus fortunei thrives here, and so does Melianthus major – a fairly tender species that sometimes gets cut back by a hard frost, but is nevertheless capable of surviving the Scottish winter.

The Murrays grow their soft fruit up here, too, conveniently close to the kitchen, and there are DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 45

several seating areas for Right No one is sure quite what type of bird leisurely meals and for the inherited ancient enjoying the view. Birds topiary is supposed made out of scrap metal to be, but it is kept in by artist Helen Denerley meticulous shape. perch by the steps.

Beyond the Walled Garden are various woodland walks. A gate below the middle terrace leads up to the knoll, where the Murrays have created a viewpoint in memory of their son, Duncan, who died in a tragic accident in France in 2009. A curved seat made from dark Trossachs slate by sculptor James Parker offers a bird’s-eye view of the garden, backed by eucalyptus and with a bed of spring and autumn heathers at its foot. It is a peaceful and lovely place.

James and Lindsay are always adding to the woodland. Over the years, they have planted hundreds of native trees such as aspen, birch and sorbus, and they recently put in a group of ornamental trees that included weeping golden cedar, Dawyck beech and ginkgo in celebration of James’s 70th birthday.

Snowdrops, aconites, daffodils and primroses have gone in by the thousand to light up the walks in spring, and Lindsay is eager to plant further shrubs such as azalea, pieris, magnolia and camellia for extra spring and autumn colour. Craigfoodie is set fair to become even more beautiful. ■ Craigfoodie, Dairsie, Fife KY15 4RU opens occasionally for Scotland’s Gardens Scheme.

Tel: 01334 870291.

Gardening for WINTER INTEREST Craigfoodie’s Tom Spence offers his expert advice on maintaining an attractive winter garden Jasminum nudiflorum flowers on the green stems of oneyear-old wood, so to ensure a strong show of blooms the following year, prune it after flowering. We do this in late January if the weather has been mild. If it’s been cold, we will prune in March.

For a sharp edge to box hedges use a tight string line and make sure trimmer blades are properly sharpened.

At Craigfoodie, we mulch annually with composted pine bark, old potting compost

or our own home-made compost. A good rule of thumb is to feed the soil rather than the plant. Inorganic fertilisers may result in shortterm benefits, but organic compost applied to a depth of 2-3 inches, which is then broken down by invertebrates and microorganisms, produces a healthy soil structure, better nutrient availability, and good plant growing conditions.

I cut back most of the herbaceous perennials, an exception being kniphofia, which does not like being cut

46 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

back hard. They have their flowers taken off and the leaves are cut back by half to make them look tidy without leaving them susceptible to cold-weather damage.

Winter is a good time to carry out jobs such as repairing timber edging in the vegetable garden and maintaining paths with the addition of pea gravel.

I pot up bulbs in autumn and plant them out in early spring. It is difficult in a large garden to plant all the bulbs in autumn, and in spring it is

easier to locate gaps in the planting scheme where extra bulbs may be required.

Planning is very important, although it is also important to remember when gardening that the weather is nothing if not unpredictable, so you need to be adaptable.

In a formal garden like this, features such as clipped Laurus nobilis in various forms, Pyrus salicifolia ‘Pendula’ and the pleached lime hedge Tilia europea will add interest during the winter months.

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Both house and garden at Arts and Crafts Rodmarton Manor were designed by Sidney Barnsley in 1909.

Exposed STRUCTURES In winter, Rodmarton Manor provides a masterclass in structure and containment, two of the principles of Arts & Crafts design WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS

RODMARTON MANOR

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 49

Frost-sprinkled geometric yew topiary leads to the summerhouse.

I

t is probably better not to calculate the miles of hedging at Rodmarton Manor, near Cirencester. Nor, for that matter, the varied topiary animating the borders and vistas that define this Arts and Crafts garden. It is certainly not a task that owner John Biddulph particularly wants to undertake any time soon. “I dread to think how much there is,” he says.

“I think I’d be rather put off.”

Clipping the box, beech and yew is one of the key tasks in this garden, and takes around three months to complete. In a normal year, work begins with the box in July and ends with the beech in October. “It is a monumental task given the quantity of hedging there is – and it is not just the clipping, but clearing it up as well,” notes John. Yet the hedging and topiary are precisely what provide this garden of rooms with its identity. While fulsome planting may be heaven to experience in summer, by winter, when the architectural forms are picked out with a dusting of frost or snow and low sunlight falls on the lawns, the intrinsic nature of the garden is revealed.

Like most Arts and Crafts properties, it is impossible to consider the garden without looking at the house and appraising it within the ethos of the whole. Rodmarton began as the vision of John Biddulph’s great-grandparents, Claud and Margaret Biddulph. In 1894, Claud, the younger son of Michael, the first Lord Biddulph, was given a tract of land from the larger Kemble Estate that his elder brother inherited. Claud and Margaret sought to build a principal family home on this land, imagining a modest country house, towards which Claud might put £5,000 a year.

At a similar time, brothers Ernest and Sidney Barnsley, an architect and furniture maker respectively, were growing disillusioned with burgeoning mechanisation and urbanism and moved their families out of London to the Cotswolds.

Their intention was to build a life aligned with the Arts and Crafts ideals espoused by William Morris.

Judith B. Tankard, garden historian and author of Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement, notes that the Barnsleys were among the first Morris disciples to do this. They, along with their friend Ernest Gimson, easily one of the most influential Arts and Crafts designers, drew heavily on vernacular designs and materials, and a number of properties in the area bear their thumbprint, not least Owlpen Manor, which was restored by Sidney Barnsley. In time the trio caught the attention of Lord Bathurst and settled, at his favour, in Sapperton, not far from Rodmarton Manor.

Claud and Margaret are unlikely to have been early Arts and Crafts apostles, but an introduction from Lord Bathurst led to the pair commissioning the Barnsley brothers to design and build Rodmarton. “Claud and Margaret shifted their

Fulsome planting may be heaven to experience in summer, but by winter, the intrinsic nature of the garden is revealed Top In the front drive, a holly hedge and formal topiary introduce the mood of the garden.

Above Early morning sun picks out strong shapes against the soft tilt of the Cotswold landscape.

focus towards Arts and Crafts, and what that meant for community and village life,” explains John, who, with his wife Sarah, took on Rodmarton in 2016.

Construction began in 1909 but their wholehearted commitment to the project – and the hiatus enforced by World War I – meant that it was 20 years before it was completed. By that time, Ernest Barnsley had died and his son-inlaw, Norman Jewson, had taken over. Moreover, Edwardian visions had become outdated, but a DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 51

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Right Varied topiary forms dusted with frost in the Troughery.

Below A stone urn in the Leisure Garden, where early irises and snowdrops bloom.

much as it was in Margaret and Scrubey’s day.

Close to the house it is an exercise in enclosure, containment and revelation. On the south side, especially, walls of Cotswold stone and the many hedges contrive to make such spaces as a Leisure Garden, the Troughery comprising stone troughs planted with alpines, and the Topiary Garden.

These all run off a path lined with spring and white borders, with cyclamen, aconites, hellebores, crocuses and snowdrops in winter.

“The east-west axes of the design are key to the garden because they link each garden room,” says John. West of the house, a double herbaceous border, which appears to be planted in the Jekyll style, terminates in a stone summerhouse, reputedly a favourite place of Margaret’s in the day.

Beyond this, as with so many gardens of the time, scale increases and planting relaxes. “There is an overall declining formality as you move from the house,” explains John. The dense rooms of the south

century on the Grade I listed house and Grade II* listed garden remain the embodiment of Arts and Crafts principles. While the house is filled with handmade furniture constructed by Sidney Barnsley and Gimson, as well as hangings and embroideries crafted by villagers, the garden reflects the influences of both William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll, the fashionable designers of the time.

Before she married, Margaret Biddulph attended Studley Horticultural and Agricultural College for Women in Warwickshire, and she later convinced a tutor there, William Scrubey, to join her at Rodmarton as head gardener. Changes over the past 100 years are inevitable, yet the garden remains

The garden reflects the influences of both William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll, the fashionable designers of the time terrace give way to a ha-ha and farmland views of the Marlborough Downs.

Rodmarton originally had two kitchen gardens: an inner one, positioned within the Walled Garden by the house, and an outer garden located beyond the garden rooms of the terrace. “That was all cultivated when I was a boy,” recalls John. Over the years it has mostly been grassed over and today the outer kitchen DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 53

Arts & Crafts DESIGN FEATURES Judith B. Tankard extensively studied this period in Gardens of The Arts and Crafts Movement.

Here, she describes the style The Arts and Crafts Movement, which was inspired by William Morris, gave gardens a new definition as a harmonious component of the house rather than a separate entity. Gardens were often designed in collaboration with architects, such as Sir Edwin Lutyens, and garden designers like Gertrude Jekyll. They are not meant as an end in themselves but were conceived as outdoor rooms that are married to the house.

Key characteristics include simple structuring and romantic, medieval-inspired imagery derived from old English manor house gardens. Nothing about them is ostentatious, contrived or foreign.

OTHER ARTS & CRAFTS GARDENS Snowshill Manor A remarkable Cotswold property by Charles Wade, with a stone summerhouse named ‘The Jolly Roger’. nationaltrust.org.uk

Designers used local materials and traditions, hedged enclosures, artistic flower borders, whimsical topiary trees, small hand-built structures, sundials, armillary spheres, and other traditional ornaments.

Hestercombe Gardens Sir Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll both worked on this 50-acre garden near Taunton. hestercombe.com

Some of the key designers are Gertrude Jekyll, Edwin Lutyens, Baillie Scott, Robert Lorimer, Thomas Mawson, Alfred Parsons, Ernest Gimson, Sidney Barnsley and Edward Barnsley.

John and Sarah have reshaped a sequence of limes, the tidied forms now letting evening sunlight into the house garden is planted with ornamental trees and a vast snowdrop collection, for which Rodmarton is well known. This was initiated by John’s grandmother in the 1960s and ’70s and continued by his father.

For all this, Rodmarton is not static. John and Sarah have inevitably made improvements, such as reshaping a sequence of limes that had been left to grow for 60 years, the tidied forms now allowing evening sunlight into the house. “We took the plunge and repleached them but the clear-up was immense,” notes John. The White Borders had also got out of hand, so Sarah came up with a design that included grassing some of it over, and adding yew pyramids and standard roses. That’s 54 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

Top The east-west axis in the Spring Border.

Above Clipped birds in the Walled Garden, which houses the inner kitchen garden.

been a success and it’s a return to how the borders were in the 1930s.

But in winter you can look out of the house and really see the structure and form of the garden.

Once the herbaceous borders are cut back, the topiary, the pleached limes and the troughs planted with alpines all become clear. ■ Rodmarton Manor, Rodmarton, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 6PF. Open Wednesdays, Saturdays and Bank Holiday Mondays, May to September, 2pm to 5pm. Snowdrop days on 2, 9, 13 and 16 February 2020. Tel: 01285 841442; rodmarton-manor.co.uk

Hidcote Inimitable garden created by American Lawrence Johnston, near Chipping Camden. nationaltrust.org.uk Great Fosters A historic Surrey hotel garden with contemporary influence from Kim Wilkie. alexanderhotels.co.uk Munstead Wood Erstwhile Surrey home of Gertrude Jekyll. The private garden is open by appointment. munsteadwood.org.uk Bryans Ground Threeacre Herefordshire garden developed in 1913, now owned by David Wheeler and Simon Dorrell. bryansground.co.uk

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NATION’S FAVOURITE GARDENS

Winners Revealed You voted in your thousands for the shortlisted entries in our competition to find the Nation’s Favourite Gardens to visit.

Here we announce the regional and overall winners

IMAGE NICOLA STOCKEN

T

housands of you have voted for your favourite gardens from our shortlist of 30 of the country’s finest, all of which open for the National Garden Scheme. Now it’s time to reveal the winners of 2019’s Nation’s Favourite Gardens competition, supported by Viking. There’s a winner for each of the scheme’s six regions, plus one champion of champions with the most votes overall.

Turn the page to discover these six special and most deserving gardens, and find out about the gardeners who have worked hard to create these beautiful spaces and generously open them for the benefit of the nursing and caring charities the NGS supports.

Coton Manor, near Northampton, is renowned for its plant-packed herbaceous borders.

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 57

NATION’S FAVOURITE GARDENS

Above The Old Rose

Garden at Coton now features a parterre in shades of pink and blue, with sedum, agapanthus and caryopteris.

Coton Manor, Northants

Overall Winner & Regional Winner: Midlands

It’s only once you’ve parked the car, crossed the quiet lane and headed through the stableyard that the gardens of Coton Manor are revealed, skilfully masterminded by Ian and Susie Pasley-Tyler on the land behind the warm honey-coloured manor house. Actually, the framework of the garden was originally laid out by Ian’s grandparents in the 1920s, but it was when Ian and Susie took over the house and garden 30 years ago that the garden began to take its present form: an evocative, exemplary English garden with ancient bluebell wood, vistas around every corner, streams, ponds and wildflower meadows and, of course, sumptuous borders. “Back then, I was little more than a hobby gardener,” recalls Susie. “But the advantage in being so

58 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

inexperienced was that I didn’t recognise it was such a major undertaking, so I never felt daunted.”

From the outset, she focused on the borders, developing those created by her late mother-inlaw and planting new ones, each with a distinct character. Now Coton is renowned for its beautifully conceived borders, which are constantly fine-tuned to supply co-ordinated colour and interest from spring to late summer. It’s a huge, labour-intensive job and the couple are assisted by two full-time gardeners and regular part-time help, as well as volunteers. “When we took over we had no idea it would become so central to our lives,” admits Susie.

Coton Manor’s visitors clearly appreciate all the effort, voting it not only the regional winner of the Midlands but also our overall champion – congratulations to the Nation’s Favourite Garden!

Coton Manor, Guilsborough, Northampton NN6 8RQ. Tel: 01604 740219; cotonmanor.co.uk

Larch Cottage, Cumbria

IMAGES NICOLA STOCKEN; VAL CORBETT

Regional Winner: North

The hamlet of Melkinthorpe in Cumbria’s Eden Valley may be quiet, but our regional winner for the North, Larch Cottage Nurseries, is a hive of activity. It was established in the 1980s by its owner, landscape designer Peter Stott, originally to supply plants for his landscaping work, but over the years has developed into a destination in its own right.

Now, as well as browsing plants for sale, visitors will find a romantic garden to browse for inspiration with Italianate walls and pillars draped in greenery – “more Umbria than Cumbria”. Meandering paths take in abundant borders, urns and statuary as well as a chapel, built from scratch by Peter for his wedding to his wife, Jo. There is also the Red Barn, a two-storey gallery with exhibitions by artists and ceramicists, and an Italian Above The romantic restaurant, La Casa Verde. chapel, built by Peter Larch Cottage Nurseries, Stott, in its idyllic Melkinthorpe, CA10 lakeside setting.

2DR. Tel: 01931 712404; Left Browse plants among Italianate walls. larchcottage.co.uk DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 59

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NATION’S FAVOURITE GARDENS

The Manor House, Bedfordshire

IMAGES CLIVE NICHOLS

Regional Winner: East

Crunch up the gravel driveway towards our regional winner for the East, the Manor House in Stevington, Bedford, and it won’t be long before you are immersed in its delights – and its surprises, too.

Garden designer and author Kathy Brown and her husband Simon have been here since 1987. When they moved in, Kathy was in the middle of writing a book about container gardening and one removal lorry brought their furniture, while another one was needed just to bring all their pots!

Over the past 32 years they have gradually shaped and filled their four and a half acres with a series of garden rooms that reflect their wide-ranging passions and interests, from the literature of John Bunyan to the art of Mark Rothko and Matisse.

While it’s sympathetic to the rolling Bedfordshire countryside surrounding it, the couple haven’t been afraid to experiment with some unusual and daring ideas: a red, blue, white and yellow painted wall that pays homage to Mondrian, for example.

Another influence is the Browns’ fascination with all things Chinese, which has led to a large collection of herbaceous and tree peonies, and inspired Simon to clip a sinuous yew hedge into a friendly-looking Chinese dragon.

His pruning skills are also evident in the orchard, which is full of apple, pear, damson, medlar and quince blossom in spring, the lawn below punctuated by cobalt-blue camassias and scented pheasant’s eye narcissus. Elsewhere, Prunus ‘Shirofugen’ is smothered in candyfloss pink, while mauve tresses of wisteria clothe the walls.

Behind the house, beautifully planted pots spill over with bleeding heart, double English daisies and other cottage-garden delights. There’s a playfulness to the garden that, Simon says, is intentional. “You can have a little bit of fun,” he says with a smile.

The Manor House, Stevington Church Road, Stevington, MK43 7QB. kathybrownsgarden.com

Top A round pool is ringed with ‘Spring Green’ and ‘Queen of Night’ tulips.

Above The yew hedge, reinvented as a Chinese dragon by Simon.

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 61

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NATION’S FAVOURITE GARDENS

Horatio’s Garden, Wiltshire

IMAGES CLIVE NICHOLS; NGS

Regional Winner: South West

The first Horatio’s Garden at Salisbury Hospital’s Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre was designed by the award-winning Cleve West and went on to win several design award accolades. But it has since gone on to win an even bigger place in the hearts of those who spend time in it, whether that’s patients, who often face long stays at the centre, or friends and family visiting them. It’s a beautiful sanctuary giving patients contact with the outdoor world and helping their rehabilitation. A series of curving limestone walls echoing the spine doubles as seating, while planting includes grasses to catch the wind, aromatic herbs and a froth of textural perennials including fennel and aruncus.

The charity is named after Horatio Chapple, who had the original idea for a garden after volunteering on the ward at Salisbury Hospital where his father was a spinal surgeon. Tragically, Horatio was killed by a polar bear during an Arctic expedition in 2011 – donations that followed his death allowed the garden he had envisaged to be created. Since then, three more Horatio’s Gardens have been created at spinal centres in Scotland, Stoke Mandeville and Oswestry.

Horatio’s Garden, The Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre, Salisbury Hospital, Odstock Road, Salisbury SP2 8BJ. horatiosgarden.org.uk

Kew Green Gardens, London Regional Winner: South East

The National Garden Scheme’s ‘Yellow Book’ is chock-full of gardens that open to visitors as groups, one entry ticket giving access to lots of lovely gardens. This particular group of gardens, running down to the River Thames from leafy Kew Green, is “absolutely unique”, says the legendary county organiser for the NGS in London, Penny Snell.

The group comprises five like-minded neighbours, living at 65 to 73 Kew Green, all with slightly different gardens, but all with the common aim of supporting the scheme. “It’s such a community effort,” says Penny. “Some have different conditions, some are shadier and have more trees, but they are all just lovely to be in – not particularly designed as such, just gentle English gardens that are an absolute joy to visit because they Above Stipa gigantea are so tranquil.” and Centranthus ruber Kew Green Gardens, spring up within the walls of Horatio’s Garden.

Kew, TW9 3AH. Opens Left Ferns and alliums 2-5pm 24 May and thrive in the shade in one 6-8pm 31 May 2020; of the gardens that open ngs.org.uk in the Kew Green group.

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 63

NATION’S FAVOURITE GARDENS

Wollerton Old Hall, Shropshire “It’s impossible to avoid clichés when talking about Wollerton Old Hall. It’s the quintessential English garden,” says garden TV presenter Carol Klein, who has filmed several times at this Shropshire property – the regional winner for Wales and The Marches.

“But as far as its concept, planting and the creativity involved in its making is concerned, there’s not a cliché in sight,” she adds. “From the moment you enter, and wherever you wander, you’re aware this is something special. It’s not so much a garden visit as a series of treats, one after another.”

The garden has been lovingly created over the past 30 years by Lesley and John Jenkins, the pretty, pink-painted and rose-festooned Tudor hall where they live setting the scene for the garden’s delights.

The garden is laid out around a series of paths, creating rooms separated by hedges of yew and beech. Working out from the house, Lesley decided on the nature of each of the rooms and planting began in earnest, with ideas gleaned from other gardens – the hot-coloured Lanhydrock Garden acknowledges its inspiration – and gardeners, such as Rosemary Verey. There are rooms that are more pared-back, too. The Rill Garden for instance is a 64 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

Top Blowsy roses and

delphiniums in the Rose and Sundial Garden.

Above Slender steeples of yew line the wide grass path of the Yew Walk, the first glimpse of the garden at Wollerton.

place of quiet contemplation, “but it is Lesley’s love of plants that shines through,” says Carol.

“The joyous lesson to be drawn from Wollerton is that gardens can both acknowledge their setting and place and simultaneously be creative. This is an English garden par excellence.”

Wollerton Old Hall, Market Drayton, TF9 3NA. Tel: 01630 685760; wollertonoldhallgarden.com ■

IMAGES JOE WAINWRIGHT; CLIVE NICHOLS

Regional Winner: Wales & The Marches

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All are welcome at York’s only remaining priory church ADVENT CAROL SERVICE A service of carols and readings to start Advent with the Holy Trinity Choristers Sunday 1st December at 5.00 pm

PARISH CAROL SERVICE A service of Christmas carols and readings with the Holy Trinity Choristers Thursday 12th December at 7.00 pm

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The Christmas Story told for young and old Christmas Eve at 4.00 pm

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Sung Eucharist at 11.00 am

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All Change

TOP 10 PLANTS

These evergreen trees and shrubs transform as winter temperatures plummet

S

WORDS CLARE FOGGETT IMAGE CLIVE NICHOLS

ummer has its blowsy flowers and bright colours, but winter brings with it more subtle pleasures: diminutive flowers with delicious scent; interesting bark revealed by falling leaves; and unexpected changes noticed only by the most observant. The ten plants here reward careful inspection during

the winter months because that’s when the season’s colder temperatures bring about an unusual effect.

All of them are evergreen, but their leaves often change colour in cold weather. Reddening occurs in some, as green chlorophyll production tails off and anthocyanins in the foliage come to the fore, while in others, summer colours become more intense.

1 Nandina domestica ‘Fire Power’ Heavenly bamboo, as this shrub is also known, is a semi-evergreen that sometimes drops a few leaves over winter. But those that remain turn red and orange in autumn, adding a splash of colour to the winter border. ‘Fire Power’ is a dwarf form, reaching 45cm.

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 67

TOP 10 PLANTS

2 Podocarpus ‘Chocolate Box’

3 Pinus contorta ‘Chief Joseph’

A conifer that forms a small, dome-shaped bush, this podocarpus cultivar gets its name from the deep brownish-purple tint its foliage takes on after the first hard frosts of winter. During the rest of the year, the leaves are dark green. Try it in a sheltered position with grasses – and it also works well in a container. Grows to 1m.

Bright green for most of the year, this pine becomes a luminous beacon during winter when its needles turn a brilliant shade of golden yellow. It forms a Christmas tree-shaped pyramid and is a slow grower, reaching about 1.5m after ten years. Give it a spot in full sun to encourage the brightest winter colour.

4 Calocedrus decurrens ‘Berrima Gold’ 5 Cryptomeria japonica ‘Vilmoriniana’ This tough, easy-to-grow selection of the incense cedar will happily make itself at home in most conditions – except perhaps the most intense sun, which may scorch its bright lime-yellow summer foliage. As temperatures fall, that golden-green deepens to orange-bronze, infusing the garden with a warm glow.

68 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

Forming a neat rounded globe, this cultivar of Japanese cedar holds an Award of Garden Merit. It’s smothered in small, darkgreen needles for much of the year and could easily be grown as an alternative to a box ball. But unlike box, come the cold weather, its needles turn a distinctive red-brown. Grow it in a sheltered spot.

IMAGES GAP: LIZ EVERY/JOHN GLOVER/RICHARD BLOOM/S&O; CLIVE NICHOLS

6 Bergenia ‘Sunningdale’ There are lots of elephant’s ears with leaves that change colour from green to maroon and purple over winter. ‘Sunningdale’, with its carmine-pink spring flowers and crinkly-edged foliage is a particularly nice cultivar, but ‘Abendglocken’, ‘Eric Smith’ and ‘Bressingham Ruby’ are all excellent too: their glossy leaves turn a striking burgundy in cold weather.

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 69

7Hedera helix ‘Parsley Crested’

8 Cryptomeria japonica ‘Elegans’

An ivy with a difference, this climber’s wavy-edged leaves already set it apart, but they also tend to flush with red-purple tones as the weather gets colder, adding another element to the display. This is a vigorous grower – good if you have a large expanse you wish to cover – reaching 5m if it’s not checked by a trim.

Another Japanese cedar cultivar with colour-changing properties, this one has fine, almost feathery foliage turning purple-bronze for the winter months, and back to green for the rest of the year.

‘Elegans’ is as elegant as its name suggests, forming a graceful pyramid of pendulous branches and reaching 5m in 20 years.

9 Euonymus fortunei

10 Leucothoe ‘Scarletta’

Variegated cultivars of this stalwart evergreen, such as ‘Emerald ‘n’ Gold’ and ‘Silver Queen’, furnish the garden with foliage all yearround and look super wall-trained or grown as groundcover. Take a closer look at their leaves’ cream or yellow markings in winter and you may notice pink or red tints brought on by the cold.

This shrub can often be found in garden centres at this time of year, sold as a small winter container plant. It is an excellent choice for a pot filled with ericaceous compost, but in the border it needs acid soil. In summer its glossy green leaves are edged with red, and they deepen to a festive maroon in autumn and winter.

70 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

IMAGES GAP: DIANNA JAZWINSKI/NEIL HOLMES/RICHARD BLOOM

TOP 10 PLANTS

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72 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

Munton’s obelisks& cages come in six styles and three sizes. Use them singly or in pairs to support scented columns of sweet peas, roses or other annual climbers.

www.muntons.net

PLANT FOCUS Upright, non-climbing Hedera helix, ‘Congesta’ is an unusual, evergreen non-flowering ivy.

Ivy League The fantastic wildlife benefits, diverse shapes and forms and cunning growth tactics of ivy, put it in a class of its own, says Carole Drake on a visit to Warwickshire’s Fibrex Nurseries PHOTOGRAPHS CAROLE DRAKE DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 73

PLANT FOCUS

A

t Christmas, hearing ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ transports me straight back to junior school, the smell of floor polish and school dinners hanging heavy in the air. While both woodlanders are mentioned in the first line of the carol, the other verses are all about holly; poor old ivy doesn’t get much of a look in.

Holly is a respectable garden tree nowadays too, whereas ivy, by contrast, is seen as something of a pest if the shelves of ivy killer in garden centres are anything to go by. Granted these are aimed at controlling the native species, Hedera helix, which can get out of control if you don’t show it who’s boss, but even that can make a wonderfully useful garden plant. It’s great for wildlife, evergreen,

74 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

Above Neatly clipped,

perfectly symmetrical ivy frames a door at Herterton House in Northumberland.

resistant to pests and diseases, will thrive where just about any other plant will wither and die – including the dreaded ‘dry shade’ – and is ideal for clipping and shaping.

Cultivars of Hedera helix come in myriad colours, patterns and shapes: not all ivy leaves are ivy-leaved.

H. helix ‘Cockle Shell’ has applegreen, cupped leaves with prominent veining and pale purple stems, while H. helix ‘Clotted Cream’ has the look of a heuchera, with blotched creamand-green leaves edged with a frill.

There are even non-climbing bush forms, such as non-flowering upright dwarf Hedera helix ‘Congesta’.

Interestingly, ivy produces two distinct forms of growth, juvenile and adult, which are often present on the same plant. The juvenile form has three- to five-lobed leaves, grows in a twining fashion and clings onto the nearest support with tiny rootlets.

After climbing for a couple of years, it enters adulthood as leaves lose their distinctive shape, stems thicken and the plant becomes shrubby, flowers and produces berries.

Most ivies grown in the garden are cultivars of Hedera helix and H. colchica, and some rarely or never make adult growth, staying forever young. Fibrex Nurseries in Warwickshire holds a National Collection of 390 varieties; visit their stand at a flower show to see ivies trained as standards, over arches and as dense columns, where regular pruning keeps the plants in their juvenile form, behaving themselves and looking strikingly architectural.

Myths about ivy abound. In the ancient world, Dionysus, god of wine, wore a wreath of ivy, while both holly and ivy have long been brought into houses during the winter along with other evergreens to give us hope in the renewal of spring. More recently, unhelpful myths have arisen about ivy’s threat to trees and buildings. Ivy is not parasitic: when it climbs trees the rootlets do not penetrate the bark, though when the plant reaches the top of the tree and produces its adult, bushy form it may become dense, acting like a sail in high winds. Dead or diseased trees may break or fall as a result, which is perhaps nature’s way of culling the old to make way for the new. On buildings with existing damage ivy will indeed make it worse, but on sound walls it can be a benefit: research by English Heritage

Right At Bourton House and Oxford University in the Cotswolds, ivy is showed that ivy keeps trimmed so it cossets walls 15% warmer in just the lower trunks of winter, and 36% cooler these trees, like a pair of leafy leg warmers. in summer – as well as protecting masonry from frost, salt and pollution.

Ivy is a must for any wildlife garden worth the name. In autumn its tiny yellow flowers are an essential food source at a time when invertebrates have few other options and adult plants can be noisy with bees, wasps, hoverflies and butterflies such as commas, red admirals and small tortoiseshells.

It’s also an important food plant for some butterfly and moth larvae including the iridescent holly blue butterfly, Celastrina argiolus, whose spring brood feasts on holly, its autumn brood on ivy. Ivy’s spherical black berries are a nutritious food for birds, staying on the plant long after many other fruits have gone; and ivy provides shelter for insects, birds, bats and other small mammals. A thick curtain of

High SOCIETY Fibrex Nurseries’ Angela Tandy, advises on the best ivies – from climbers to groundcover

H. helix ‘Buttercup’ Slow-growing climber or groundcover, with mediumsized, five-lobed gold leaves.

H. helix ‘Manda’s Crested’ Fast growing with a medium, wavy-edged leaf, shaded red in winter. A great all-rounder.

H. helix ‘Golden Girl’ A versatile, medium-sized, five-lobed leaf, with gold margins and a crinkly edge.

H. helix ‘Silver Ferney’ A compact grower ideal for pots with small, forwardpointing, variegated leaves.

H. helix ‘Tripod’ This strong climber has very narrow three-lobed leaves and a medium rate of growth.

H. helix ‘White Ripple’ A slow-grower with finely pointed dark green and grey leaves edged with white.

H. hibernica ‘Rona’ Offering fast-growing groundcover, this ivy’s young growth is marbled cream and green.

H. pastuchovii ‘Ann Ala’ An elegant, fast-growing ivy, with long, shield-shape dark-green leaves.

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 75

PLANT FOCUS

GROWING ADVICE

variegated ivy hanging down In the garden at Herterton Above left A sea of groundcovering ivy a wall in my garden serves as House in Northumberland, ivy at Wollerton Old Hall. a ladder, which resident frogs has been so carefully shaped Top right An insulating use to clamber up to the pond and clipped that it appears blanket of ivy on a wall on the terrace above. almost painted onto the wall, at Broadwoodside in Gifford, East Lothian.

Ivies work well in formal forming wide green arms that Above right Ivy is trained settings too. At Wollerton rise to embrace a doorway. to form a padded arbour Old Hall in Shropshire, it laps Is this a northern trope? The at Bourton House. around the base of wooden only other place I’ve seen barrels sprouting neat lollipops and slender it done so carefully is Broadwoodside in pyramids of box in a courtyard beside the Scotland where thick panels of green ivy are house. New leaves emerge a paler green than hung on the wall, as precise and sharp-edged the older foliage, giving a gorgeous painterly as wallpaper, with a strict margin between effect. At Bourton House in Gloucestershire, ivy and gutter, providing vivid contrast with a small-leaved ivy is wrapped tightly around the purple cotinus and acid-yellow euphorbia an arbour, giving it a soft, padded look, while growing in front. at the Mill House in Dorset another smallTake another look at ivy and think leaved form colonises chicken wire shaped creatively: it could turn out to be your best into a low hedge, a combination that mimics friend, not your enemy. ■ clipped box edging very effectively. Used for topiary, ivy stems can also be trained over a Fibrex Nurseries, Honeybourne Road, wire framework to form substantial pieces Pebworth, Stratford-upon-Avon, – a far quicker process than growing and Warwickshire CV37 8XP. Tel: 01789 720788; clipping a single shrub into shape. fibrex.co.uk 76 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

Caring for ivies

How to get the best from these diverse plants Ivies grow best in limey soil; in acid soil, variegated forms will throw up a lot of green trails and the leaf form will not be so pronounced.

Golden variegated forms show best in full sun; silver and green varieties grow as well in shade as in full sun.

Trim annually to keep ivies in shape, restrict their size and – if you want only the juvenile form of the plant – ensure they do not become adult. Use shears to trim wall-grown plants.

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DOUBLE H NURSERIES A phalaenopsis or moth orchid in full, vibrant flower is unsurpassed; Hampshire-based Double H nurseries is the country’s largest grower.

Tropical Touch Exotic phalaenopsis orchids sell in their millions across the UK and are comfortable in our homes. Jane Perrone visits the country’s main grower, Double H nurseries in Hampshire PHOTOGRAPHS IAN THWAITES DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 79

PLANT FOCUS DOUBLE H NURSERIES

W

Below Steamy conditions

in the hot glasshouse where millions of young orchid plants grow on until flowering size.

andering through the acres of glasshouses at Double H nurseries, you can’t help but feel you are being watched.

Moth orchids are ranked hundreds-deep on the benches, their face-like flowers unfurling to the light: a breathtaking sight.

This nursery, situated in the market town of New Milton, Hampshire, is famous for being the UK’s biggest grower of moth orchids, as well as chrysanthemums and roses. It’s a family-run firm, established in 1961, which is still proudly flying the flag as a producer of indoor plants in an industry that is traditionally dominated by Dutch growers.

This is a great time to be growing houseplants, as the trend for indoor jungles is expanding faster than

a Swiss cheese plant on steroids. Account manager Dan Pass – more romantically known as Double H’s ‘chief orchid enthusiast’ – says this is reflected in the nursery’s own figures. “Orchids are definitely in demand, with a ten per cent growth in our customer base last year,” he notes.

Pass is keen to dispel a few myths about moth orchids, aka phalaenopsis or ‘phals’ as they are often known in the business. While they may look fragile and exotic, they can thrive in absolutely any home, without the need for specialist knowledge or equipment. “People think that because phalaenopsis look so beautiful, they are really delicate, but actually that’s a fallacy. They are far hardier than we give them credit for,” he explains.

In the wild, in Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and the Philippines, moth orchids are epiphytes, meaning they live anchored on tree branches.

Living up a tree may seem quite a leap to the average British home, but surprisingly we can provide exactly what phalaenopsis need: the bright, indirect light of an east- or westfacing window, centrally-heated rooms offering steady temperatures around 20ºC, and regular watering.

Over the course of 2019, around two million orchids have left the gates of Double H, headed for sale at retailers everywhere from Waitrose and Marks & Spencer to Tesco and Sainsbury’s. Flowers come in almost every conceivable colour, some pure white, others splashed with carmine, others flushed yellow or lined with pink. The nursery sells an array of phalaenopsis hybrids, bred to adapt easily to life in our homes, including nine cultivars that hold Awards of Garden Merit from the RHS. The process of raising so many plants is tightly controlled using technology from start to end and takes 13 months. The orchids arrive from the nursery’s partner growers in Germany as year-old seedlings, packed into large trays with their thick roots tangled together. A combination of people and machines separates and pots each plant in orchid bark, spacing them evenly for transport onto the huge glasshouse benches where a computer-controlled environment keeps them growing at exactly the right rate.

For 28 weeks the plants are kept in the nursery’s hot zone where the

temperature hangs at a sultry 28ºC: as far as the eye can see, there are clusters of fleshy young leaves, gathering strength ready for the task of producing astonishing flowers. For the human visitor, it’s a relief to push open the dividing door and move out of the soupy heat and into the 19ºC cool zone, which is where the plants are headed next.

For the phalaenopsis, the change in temperature gives them the short sharp shock they need to kickstart flowering: there’s nothing that makes an orchid begin to bloom more quickly than thinking it’s about to die. Sensors that monitor light intensity, humidity, temperature and carbon dioxide levels ensure that the sprinklers overhead kick in when the plants need water. Sticky traps placed among the plants allow staff to monitor for pests, so that biological controls – using beneficial insects to kill pests – can be quickly deployed rather than having to resort to chemical pesticides.

After around five weeks at 19ºC, the orchids are warmed to around 22ºC to encourage the buds to develop and open. Once the plants have achieved the required leaf size and number of flower spikes, these stems are clipped onto stakes or trained into different shapes – spirals, hearts or cascades – to suit the ever-changing fashions of the orchid market.

If you don’t like the look of the stiff stems, it’s fine to remove the stakes and clips when you get your

Above left A sea of

orchids in bud, with flowering initiated by cooler temperatures.

Top right Each seedling is potted by hand into a bark potting mix.

Above right Flower spikes are clipped to stakes and hoops prior to being dispatched.

orchid home, advises Dan Pass, letting them droop naturally as they would do in the wild.

Double H pushes innovation in the orchid market in order to keep up with its competitors; in recent years that’s included introducing a range of scented moth orchids. All trace of perfume has been bred out of phalaenopsis over the last few decades, so it’s delightful to stand in front of Double H’s scented orchid trial bench and sniff blooms that smell of lemon, or even a delicious nutmeg. Look out for ‘Sunny Smell’, ‘Diffusion’ and ‘New Life’ which are already on sale, with more in the pipeline.

But it’s an area that Pass refers to as “the bench of craziness” that really catches the eye. Here, experiments in artificially coloured orchids produce a rainbow of odd blooms, some more pleasing than others: plants are injected with dye and the hole is then sealed with a tiny wax plug to create colours that are not currently possible by natural means.

“It’s a Marmite product,” admits Pass. “Some people love them and others hate them.”

Most will never find their way to a supermarket, including a particularly lurid combination of pink and neon green, but it’s indicative of the lengths these growers will go to in order to stay ahead of the game. If you do fall for a dyed orchid, says Pass, it’s worth remembering that the plant will revert to its natural colour when it reblooms.

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 81

DOUBLE H NURSERIES Right Shorter-stemmed Right now, reducing orchids are easier to the amount of plant transport and need less packaging used is at the plastic packaging – a forefront of Dan Pass’s move Double H are keen to support with new mind: “There’s always ranges in development. been a lot of plastic in indoor plants, and we’ve been at the forefront of reduced packaging or even better, no packaging,” he explains. Taking part in Waitrose’s plastic-free Unpacked scheme has provided Double H with ample evidence that change is certainly possible. “I’ve been banging on about going packaging-free for years and it’s clear that the appetite is there,” he notes. “Demand is there and awareness has gone up.” It helps that orchids are actually tough plants, unlikely to be affected by the odd knock on the journey from nursery to shop floor. Now Double H is working on a new range of orchids with shorter stems but more flowers, which Pass hopes will be even better suited to transport without plastic sleeves.

If you need another reason to choose British next time you shop for an orchid, consider this: Double H’s phalaenopsis spend less time in delivery lorries than their Dutch-grown counterparts, meaning they arrive on the shelves fresh and ready to make an impact in your home. It may be a long way from its native lands, but phalaenopsis looks set to remain a fixture in our homes for many years to come. ■

Caring for MOTH ORCHIDS Phalaenopsis growing advice from Dan Pass at Double H nurseries Since orchids are native to tropical climes, the average living room provides the ideal temperature for them, but make sure you don’t put plants close to radiators, or heating and cooling vents. Keep phalaenopsis in bloom away from fruit bowls, since the ethylene gas given off by ripening fruit can encourage flowers to drop early.

Phalaenopsis don’t like to be baked in bright sunlight, so placing them near an east- or west-facing window is ideal.

Orchids benefit from moist air, so putting them in bathrooms or kitchens will help to keep them happy.

The best way of watering is to place the pot in a sink of water for a few minutes. Alternatively, place the

82 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

pot under a tap and let water run over the surface of the orchid bark, down through the roots and out of the bottom of the pot for about 20 seconds. Tap water is fine and watering should be done weekly.

Make sure your orchids aren’t left sitting in a pool of water for longer than half an hour: waterlogging will rot the roots and is the most common cause of orchid death.

The roots act as a watering indicator.

The surface of an orchid’s roots is covered in a layer of cells know as velamen, which can photosynthesise.

If the roots are plump and green, the plant is getting enough moisture.

Dried-out, silvery roots indicate the orchid needs more water.

To get phalaenopsis to reflower try moving them to a cooler room for a few weeks to trigger new blooms.

Make sure you cut off any old flower stems once they finish blooming. When there is just one flower left, cut back to just above the node where this flower emerges from the stem. This way you will prompt a quick rebloom: cutting flower stems right back to the base will produce larger flowers, but it will take longer.

Phalaenopsis leaves can become dusty, so wipe them with a damp cloth every now and again. Fertilise every four weeks during the growing season with any orchid fertiliser or use a highpotash feed such as Tomorite, applied at a quarter strength.

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GARDEN DESIGN & CARING FOR YOUR GARDEN Distance Learning Courses study anytime, anywhere in the world

A stepping stone to a new career.These two correspondence courses are a step by step guide to either designing your own garden or learning how to plant and maintain an existing garden: drawing up plans, hard landscaping, site analysis, planting, month by month tasks etc.Taught through a comprehensive course book, with projects submitted by post.

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Garden of Medicinal Plants – Chelsea Physic Garden

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LIFE SIZEANIMALSCULPTURE Free UK delivery

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ARMCHAIR BOTANY

Daisy Chain Jim Cable continues his series exploring the most important plant families and their garden-worthy members. This month, it’s the turn of the massive, interlinked daisy family, also known as Asteraceae

ILLUSTRATION DIANNE SUTHERLAND

A

sk a small child to draw you a flower and you will probably be presented with the classic daisy shape. This may be largely due to its pleasing simplicity but will doubtless also have something to do with the ubiquity of the daisy family, which contains over ten per cent of the world’s flowering plants.

Your young friend may struggle to process the fact that, in the real world, the flowerhead atop the stalk is actually hundreds of tiny flowers or florets. The central boss is made up of tubular structures known as disc florets and what we tend to call petals around the edge are, botanically speaking, ray florets and usually sterile. This composite arrangement is highly

efficient with a visiting insect, attracted by the showy ‘rays’, likely to pollinate several disc florets.

Pollination results in a head of seeds, and each fertilised floret produces a one-seeded fruit with hairs to aid dispersal. This brings us back to childish delight, in the form of the dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), which also has a taproot and leaves in a basal rosette: common features of Asteraceae. The latex that bleeds from a picked dandelion can be used to make rubber: German company Continental launched Taraxagum bicycle tyres earlier this year, made from Russian dandelion. Latex is also found in another Asteraceae member: Lactuca or lettuce.

Find ten of the best daisy family plants for an English garden, over the page.

Rudbeckia’s flowers are typical of those plants in the Asteraceae family, with petal-like, showy ray florets radiating from a head of disc florets.

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 85

ARMCHAIR BOTANY

Left Achillea ‘Terracotta’. Middle Cichorium intybus or chicory. Right Chrysanthemum ‘Anne Ratsey’.

Achillea ‘Terracotta’ The daisy flowers of this yarrow are small and numerous, grouped in level, umbel-like clusters. It is these strikingly flattened plates that make them such a favourite of garden designers: their form serves the same purpose as members of the cow parsley tribe, contrasting with upright and rounded elements in a scheme. Their colour is a treat too, evolving as the flowers age from burnt orange to a soft yellow against a foil of ferny grey foliage.

Cichorium intybus Also known as chicory, this European native perennial develops a large taproot and a basal rosette of leaves in its first year. At this stage it is often mistaken for a dandelion and weeded out. This is a shame, since in succeeding years it sends up tall stems bearing a wealth of soft blue flowers with ‘petals’ that appear blunted with miniature crimping scissors – hence its delightful common name of ‘ragged sailors’. This is a plant for a sunny spot in a wilder area of the garden. The roots are used to make Camp Coffee, a cheaper and caffeine-free substitute for the real thing.

Chrysanthemum ‘Anne Ratsey’ A reliable and hardy chrysanthemum that keeps the spirit of summer alive in the late-autumn border with its soft yellow daisies that don’t appear until October. This is an ideal, 86 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

mid-border herbaceous plant. Throughout summer, prettily lobed, olive-coloured leaves clothe the stems, which slowly reach a height of 80cm. Plant it behind fellow November bloomer Hesperantha coccinea ‘Major’ for a joyous redyellow colour clash, with wispy Stipa lessingiana layered between the two.

Dahlia ‘Bishop of Auckland’ The ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ seems to steal all the attention from the other episcopal dahlias. But there are other dark-leaved beauties in the series – all loved by pollinators – including this crimson-flowered specimen. On light, free-draining soils, dahlias won’t need lifting after the first frost. Instead, cut back the blackened stems and protect the underground tubers with a deep mulch of homemade compost, or fallen leaves held in place with chicken wire.

Pilosella aurantiaca As the trend for looser, more pollinator-friendly planting schemes gathers pace, weeds are now becoming rather trendy. True, you will have to keep an eye on this enthusiast but forgive its seeding around and rampant runners: the two-tone, burnt-orange flowers are a unique delight. They are delivered all summer long and look lovely in a vase with grasses and cornflowers. Control freaks can grow it in pot and deadhead before it sets seed!

IMAGES ALAMY; GAP/MARTIN HUGHES-JONES/JS SIRA/ROB WHITWORTH; CLIVE NICHOLS

Top left Dahlia ‘Bishop of Auckland’. Top right Pilosella aurantiaca.

Above left Onopordum acanthium. Above right Bidens aurea ‘Hannay’s Lemon Drop’.

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 87

ARMCHAIR BOTANY

Left Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’. Centre Gerbera ‘Sweet Sunset’. Right Echinacea purpurea ‘White Swan’.

Bidens aurea ‘Hannay’s Lemon Drop’ Bidens aurea deserves to be more widely grown and this superior form even more so. It injects a fresh delicacy into the late summer and autumn border. In the first half of summer, low shoots bearing spear-shaped, serrated leaves form a humble chorus to the main cast. But when summer perennials begin to fade, it gets into its stride, reaching 80cm in height and displaying an abundance of pale-yellow daisies on willowy stems. Each ‘petal’ is tipped with white, which adds a pinch of quirkiness.

Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ No herbaceous border should be without this easy perennial sunflower, which reaches a height of around 1.2m but doesn’t usually need staking. From August until the first frosts, the mid-yellow daisies just keep on coming and are 88 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

adored by pollinators – particularly hoverflies. The flowers wane in a charming manner losing their ray florets and leaving centres that fade to brown within a green calyx. The clump spreads freely, so dig up chunks during the dormant season to keep it in check and share with fellow gardeners.

Gerbera ‘Sweet Sunset’ Once very much florists’ plants for interior decoration, the gerbera clan now includes the ‘Garvinea Sweet Series’ bred as garden plants. They have a contemporary feel so work best in simple modern planting schemes or containers. The flowers are held well proud of a lush cushion of foliage.

‘Sweet Sunset’ displays large dazzling orange daisies over a long season and can remain outdoors over winter in mild gardens. Keep them on the dry side all year round.

Echinacea purpurea ‘White Swan’ Echinaceas have a reputation for dying in the winter, but if you plant in a sunny spot in free-draining soil and choose a reliable cultivar such as this one, you shouldn’t be disappointed. A basal crown of foliage sends up leafy stems from July bearing flower buds that open to reveal green discs surrounded by white ‘petals’. The central cones become more prominent and turn orange while the ‘petals’ drop down as these elegant flowers mature. Deadheading prolongs flowering well into autumn. ■

IMAGES GAP/NICOLA STOCKEN/JOANNA KOSSAK; CLIVE NICHOLS

Onopordum acanthium The Scotch thistle is a biennial worth introducing to a wide mixed border for its bright silvery presence. When grown from seed, in its first year it forms wide rosettes of spiny leaves covered in light-reflecting white down. The following summer it will send up flowering stems to a height of 2m bearing purple thistle heads. It self-seeds but not in a problematic way. Simply thin out the conspicuous seedlings to keep the right amount of vertical drama.

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IN SEASON

The Root of the Matter WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY IMAGE GAP/JONATHAN BUCKLEY

Slow to grow but a real treat to eat, parsnips are improved by a hard frost, which sweetens their creamy flesh in readiness for the roasting tray

T

here is a battery of greenhouse equipment to help us outfox the winter cold and dark, and it is true that there is pleasure in extending the growing season. But as the days shorten, keep in mind the vegetables that are all the better for a frost: leeks, certain kales, Brussels sprouts and, famously, parsnips. Icy cold converts starch to sugar, making for sweeter, less floury roots.

A comparatively slow crop to grow, parsnips are best eaten when they’re smaller, at about 5cm across

on the shoulders. Any larger and they are likely to be woody and inedible, although some varieties are chunkier than others.

Parsnips are denizens of the roasting tray and the soup tureen. Slice them into batons, roast, then top with parmesan before a final flash under the grill; make a creamy gratin with honey and wholegrain mustard to complement their peppery sweetness; or dot them around the sides of a winter roast, where their spongy flesh will soak up pan juices – the more oniony and caramelised the better.

Above Wait until the first

frosts have worked their magic to harvest the sweetest parsnip roots.

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 91

IN SEASON

Growing advice

Parsnip seed loses viability quickly. Sow it all in one year – don’t save it.

RECIPE: SPICED PARSNIP SOUP Serves 4 INGREDIENTS 4 tbsp sunflower oil 1 onion, roughly diced 1 clove garlic, chopped 1 tbsp mild korma curry powder 680g parsnips, peeled and roughly chopped 320ml organic coconut cream sea salt and freshly ground black pepper ½ lemon, juiced

METHOD 1 Set a large saucepan over a medium-low heat. Add the oil and, once hot, stir in the onion and garlic. Fry gently for 8 minutes, or until soft and golden.

2 Mix in the curry powder, cook for a couple of minutes, then add the chopped parsnips. Cover and continue to cook gently for ten minutes, stirring occasionally.

3 Add the coconut cream and 400ml water, then

bring to the boil, season, and simmer gently for 30 minutes, or until the ingredients are soft.

4 Purée and return to the pan, then thin to taste with about 565ml water. Reheat the soup when it’s ready to serve. Add the lemon juice, salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

From Simply Veg by Sybil Kapoor (Pavilion Books, £17.99). Images by Karen Thomas.

Sow seed in warmed, loamy soil, from April to June, at 15cm intervals in rows that are 30cm apart. Germination can take up to a month.

Harvest when their leaves start to turn yellow.

Carrot fly larvae feed on the root, causing rot. Protect plants with Enviromesh or create a two-foot-high enclosure.

Parsnip canker, from under-watering, physical damage or over-fertilising, can also cause rotting.

Use a rot-resistant variety.

‘Tender and True’

‘Gladiator’

‘Pearl’

‘Albion’

This is a traditional parsnip choice with a good flavour and girth as well as resistance to canker. Being almost coreless, it is slow to develop a woody characteristic.

This F1 hybrid has good canker resistance and an RHS Award of Garden Merit. If you are showing parsnips, it’s a good one to choose with smooth skin and even roots.

A fairly new late-crop F1 hybrid that stores well and has good resistance to canker.

Pale-skinned, uniform roots are longer and slimmer than those of other varieties.

Keep ‘Albion’ in the ground over winter until you need its slender, uniform roots. An AGM and canker-resistance means it should perform well in most circumstances.

92 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK; GAP/SARAH CUTTLE; ALAMY

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THE MODERN GARDENER The low-voltage LED lights in Philips’ Hue range can be controlled through an app on your smartphone.

Brave New World Don’t be daunted by modern technology – it can work in tandem with more traditional gardening techniques to help with tasks such as watering, weeding, lighting and lawn mowing DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 95

THE MODERN GARDENER

T

here’s an unavoidable dichotomy between gardening and technology.

For most of us, the garden is a place to escape the modern world, where we can unwind, relax and enjoy being closer to nature. The last thing we want to do is ruin those moments of tranquillity with the pinging and beeping of a demanding smartphone.

That said, the judicious introduction of a little helpful technology could free up precious garden time. If modern aids to watering or lawn mowing, for example, minimise the time spent on more mundane gardening tasks, there may be time to spare for more enjoyable or creative activities, or simply more time to sit back and enjoy the garden, and who wouldn’t love more of that?

96 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

Above Hozelock’s clever

Cloud Controller lets you programme and adjust garden irrigation using your phone.

But where to begin, in the world of apps, software updates and sensors?

Let’s start simply, with one of the most straightforward gardening tasks of all: mowing the lawn. It’s easy to see why someone might choose a robotic lawnmower if they particularly hate cutting the grass, but keen, ‘proper’ gardeners are supposed to relish the weekly ritual, aren’t they?

“I quite like mowing the lawn.

When you’re walking up and down behind the lawnmower you can let your mind wander and think about things – it’s therapeutic,” says gardening broadcaster, author and RHS judge Martin Fish. “So when I agreed to trial a robotic mower, I did initially feel like it was doing my job and I was a bit sceptical about how well it would do it.” But, as Martin confesses, his robotic mower (now affectionately named Monty) has grown on him. “When I’m away at shows I can be gone from two or three days or up to a week and I used to dread coming back and having to cut the lawn if it had grown too long, but with Monty we come back and the lawns are mown.” The mower is programmed to go out daily in all weathers and cut just a few millimetres of growth each time and, as a result, Martin’s lawn is now thicker and healthier than it has ever been under this little-and-often regime, and he seldom needs to use fertiliser. “There are no stripes but the lawn does have a lovely billiard-table finish,” he explains.

Martin still keeps a regular mower, using it in autumn with the bag attached to collect fallen leaves, and says he and Monty work ‘in partnership’. “He’s cheap to run, there are no emissions and no petrol fumes, the process has a low carbon footprint and it recycles the nitrogen in grass so I don’t have to use artificial fertilisers. If I moved house I’d definitely use a robotic mower again,” he confirms.

Monty is a Husqvarna Automower, but all the mower manufacturers now include robotic mowers in their range, including Worx Landroid, Honda’s Miimo, STIHL’s iMow, Gardena’s Sileno, John Deere’s Tango and Robomow. When they first arrived on the scene, robotic mowers did seem quite expensive compared to conventional push mowers, but there are plenty of budget-friendly models available now as well as those at the top-of-the-

IMAGE GAP/ELIZABETH MERCER

range. Choice of model depends on the size of lawn that needs to be covered, then there’ll be some initial set up – robotic mowers use a perimeter wire around the edge of the lawn area to sense where they can mow up to and you will need to install its docking station, where it heads to recharge – but once they are in place you can sit back and let your new robotic friend do the work, or go on holiday with no worries about the state of the lawn when you return.

Many robotic mowers, such as Gardena’s Sileno and its Smart System, can be controlled via apps on your smartphone, so you can adjust its mowing programme from wherever you are in the world.

Gardena’s Smart System also links up with the company’s irrigation equipment. It’s possible to install drip irrigation and sprinklers in up to six separate zones and control the watering of them all from afar. Add Gardena’s Smart Sensor and it can detect whether or not water is required, eliminating wastage. Hozelock’s Cloud Controller does the same thing, linking with its app so that watering schedules can be set up and adjusted – it can also send local weather updates so you know whether it’s torrential rain or blazing sun back at home.

You could take watering accuracy to the next level by installing a home weather station that also connects to your smartphone, letting you adjust irrigation to meet the precise conditions your garden is experiencing at any given moment.

Netatmo’s Smart Home Weather Station can be set up with a rain gauge, an anemometer for wind speed and direction, and sensors that measure temperature, humidity and air pressure. The data feeds back to your phone so that you know exactly what the weather is like and are able to adjust irrigation accordingly.

Top left Sit back and let

an automatic irrigation system do the hard work of watering.

Top right Gardena’s Sileno robotic mowers include models for smaller lawn sizes.

Above An easily installed Philips Hue spotlight.

The same kind of control can be applied to garden lighting as well. Systems such as Philips Hue include outdoor lights that can be connected to a smart lighting system and controlled from the accompanying smartphone app or, for those who have them, via voice assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa. The lighting is low-voltage LED, so you don’t need an electrician to install it, and includes spots, wall lights and lighting strips. Colour and ambience can be adjusted, and timings programmed. Set the front garden lights to come on just before you get home, for example, or team them with traditional motion sensors to deter unwanted visitors.

This new technology isn’t all purely functional; some can enhance our enjoyment of the garden too. Lots of us snap photos of our plants and garden using smartphones rather than traditional cameras these days – a really handy way to keep DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 97

THE MODERN GARDENER a record of planting range of tools, such as scheme successes, and its HLA 56 long-reach failures, while we’re out hedge trimmers run on in the garden. Modern lithium-ion batteries. smartphone lenses capture brilliant images, but you can view plants and flowers in even closer focus by adding a clip-on macro lens such as those from Olloclip, which are perfect for capturing those fine details.

If all this technology seems a step too far, remember that some new technologies have revolutionised gardening so completely and have been adopted so eagerly that it’s quite difficult to recall how things were before they came along. Last month the Nobel prize in chemistry was awarded to the three scientists who, in the 1970s, pioneered lithium-ion batteries, those revolutionary lightweight and compact batteries that now enable gardeners to trim hedges, strim edges, mow the lawn and even saw through woody branches completely free of fossil fuels or risky electric cables. Their modern incarnations are powerful with excellent run times and they’re much quieter than traditional power tools too. Proof that technology and garden tranquillity can coexist. ■ Left STIHL’s cordless

Good Apps FOR GARDENERS A few taps and your smartphone can become an invaluable helping hand Gardena The brand’s Smart System links with Gardena’s range of robotic mowers, irrigation controls and sensors, so they can be controlled from your phone (or from a PC, if you’d rather). Set their schedules to take your garden’s conditions into account.

GardenTags This app will also identify unknown plants, using digital plant recognition and a community of other gardeners. Subscribe to the premium version and an unlimited personalised plant task calendar can be tailored to your garden.

Gardenize Organise your garden and its plants by using this app to gather photos and notes about them all in one place.

A good planning tool that helps you keep track of what’s growing where – ideal for crop rotation in the vegetable patch.

Instagram The place to go for beautiful pictorial inspiration from fellow gardeners, the gardens you love to visit, cutting-edge florists, famous designers and anyone else you care to follow – and you can post pictures of your own.

SmartPlant Good for new gardeners, especially for identifying plants. New plants from some garden centres come with SmartPlant barcodes that can be scanned. The app then logs the plants you buy and tells you how and when to care for them.

Candide Another good app for identifying mystery plants, with a marketplace so you can buy, swap and sell plants with other Candide users, plus like-minded gardeners to chat to. You can also find garden centres and gardens to visit nearby.

Moon & Garden If you’re an advocate of sowing and planting according to the lunar calendar, this app will help you keep track of its waxing and waning and lets you keep on top of what to do in the garden according to the lunar cycle.

RHS Grow Your Own A helping hand for fruit and vegetable growers that helps you choose the most suitable varieties for the space and time available, advises on how to grow them and helps you look after them – with calendar alerts each month.

98 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

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SARAH PAXTON

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Joseph Paxton was one of the pre-eminent gardeners and architects of the 1800s, enjoying an astonishing career that took in Chatsworth and the Crystal Palace. But as Gordon Hayward argues, none of this would have been possible without Paxton’s capable and devoted wife Sarah, who was every bit his equal

IMAGE CHATSWORTH

“

I

went to breakfast with poor dear Mrs. Gregory and her niece. The latter fell in love with me, and I with her, and thus completed my first morning’s work at Chatsworth….”

So wrote Joseph Paxton in his diary on the evening in 1837 that concluded his first day as head gardener for ‘the Bachelor Duke’, the 6th Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth in Derbyshire.

Hannah Gregory, head housekeeper for the duke for 40 years, was the aunt of 26-year-old Sarah Brown. Paxton, then 23, was the son of a farm labourer. He had trained as a horticulturist and gardener and was now on the cusp of a meteoric rise through the spheres of gardening and industry. With

Sarah’s dowry of £5,000, the social disparity between the two was clear, yet they married nine months later.

During their decades of marriage, Sarah would bear eight children. At the same time she played a central role behind the scenes of her husband’s vast enterprises in horticulture, glass-range design and public park and urban planning, culminating in the design and construction of the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, which opened in 1854. Sarah was, in so many ways, indispensable to his breathtaking rise.

Biographies and countless articles have been written about Joseph Paxton. His contemporary, Charles Dickens, quipped that Paxton was “the busiest man in England”. For 40 years Paxton was

Joseph Paxton met his wife-to-be, Sarah, on his first day as Chatsworth House’s new head gardener, in 1837.

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 101

head gardener at the Chatsworth estate, the Duke’s Lismore Castle in Ireland and at Devonshire House in London. Paxton was everywhere: travelling across Europe with the Bachelor Duke; in London founding one horticulture magazine, then another, then a newspaper; working with train lines; and designing the Crystal Palace, requiring the work of 2,000 men at six times the size of St Paul’s Cathedral. All the while he was working away at Chatsworth to the point where it became the pre-eminent garden in England. All this is astonishing when you consider Paxton was the youngest of the seven children of a Bedfordshire farm labourer, starting his career, aged 15, as a garden boy at Battlesden Park near Woburn.

But what of Sarah Brown? She was three years older than Paxton, taller and came from a 102 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

Above Now housing

camellias, plants in the 1st Duke’s glasshouse, which dates from the 1690s, would have been under the Paxtons’ care.

prosperous mill-owning family in Derbyshire. Unlike Joseph, who had to earn his place as head gardener at Chatsworth, Sarah was already established in society. Joseph’s accomplishments, many of which required him to be away for weeks and even months at a time, were made possible in large part by Sarah’s strong character and willingness to remain at home, ably overseeing the work in the garden as well as Paxton’s myriad business ventures.

During their frequent periods of separation, Joseph and Sarah wrote to one another daily. These letters, now in the archives at Chatsworth, reveal a deep affection as well as a full partnership across Joseph’s many enterprises. Sarah was his advisor. As Margaret Flanders Darby writes in her essay ‘Joseph Paxton’s Water Lily’: “Sarah was fully one-third of

IMAGES CHATSWORTH; ALAMY

SARAH PAXTON

Above Paxton’s grandest a domestic three-pronged partnership, she wrote: “There has been some project, the Crystal in which she was the bourgeois partner splendid Orchidae in flower. Lately Palace, built for 1851’s to an aristocrat and a commoner…

Coelogyne gardnerianum… beautiful, Great Exhibition.

Sarah supplied the prudence, the and many others equally.”

Below Paxton became one of England’s most caution, the sense of propriety, and the One month later, Sarah wrote to extraordinary architects, capacity for social detail.” her husband with a full report on the while Sarah oversaw While Paxton became the foremost Orchid House, a letter that reflects works at Chatsworth. gardener in England and the Duke’s her considerable knowledge of and sole agent in all financial matters, Sarah acted appreciation for what was widely regarded as the throughout their married life as his proxy in finest orchid collection in England: “The Orchideous managing Chatsworth’s vast gardens and its many house (or as little George calls it the Orkediffidus gardeners. On 4 March 1838, for example, she House) is quite gay. There are so many beautiful wrote to her husband, who was travelling with the plants in flower: Maxillaria chlorantha with 25 Duke: “Gillingham and all his expanded flowers, Dendrobium moniliforme with gang have been filling up the 50, Coelogyne barbata with 3 drooping spikes plantation at Ashgate yellow and white, quite beautiful; a superb Laelia this last month; it has taken dendrobium heterocarpum, sweet scented new; 57,000 plants. I hope it will Dendrobium coerulescens, and a most lovely little be a good job. Noton of Pilsley flower a Sophronia, I am delighted with. It is on a has been pleaching the hedge stick not flowered before. I wish you could see it.

by Pilsley road.”

There are many others equally beautiful. Amherstia For nine months, from nobilis and Daughter are growing most vigorously – late 1838 into 1839, Joseph they will astonish you.” travelled with the Bachelor Four months later, Joseph wrote to Sarah: “I Duke through Geneva, Venice, wish the arboretum and all the gardens both at Rome, Palermo, Pompeii, Chatsworth and the gardens to be kept in very Athens and beyond. In his excellent order all through the summer… I dare absence, Sarah oversaw say the Orchidea will have grown quite out of my the work in the gardens, knowledge. I was delighted with your last account of greenhouses and parkland, them and so was The Duke.” keeping her husband abreast One of the more complex periods at Chatsworth of all the changes. In one letter preceded the visit of Queen Victoria in 1844. Joseph she wrote: “Jobs crowd thick wrote to Sarah on 16 November 1843, while trying upon me at times, but my to get away from Devonshire House in London to health is so good, I am able to make his return to Derbyshire: “Pray tell Andrew all get through them.” In another the garden walks must be in the most perfect order letter dated 29 November 1838, – a little new gravel to be got for the Orchard and

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 103

SARAH PAXTON

The Duke had also been

deeply devoted to Sarah. As part of the celebrations for the opening of the Crystal Palace in June, 1854, the Duke presented her with 104 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

Above left The Great

Stove, Paxton’s most famous glasshouse at Chatsworth, was demolished in 1920.

Above right Sarah made sure orchids such as Coelogyne barbata flourished while her husband was absent.

Gordon Hayward is an international garden designer, author and an honorary member of the Garden Club of America.

Interactive history at Chatsworth Visit Chatsworth from mid-July through to late August and you’ll be able to meet and talk with ‘Sarah Paxton’.

Oddsocks Productions, a Derby-based theatre company, provides Chatsworth with professional actors in period costume who are there to talk with garden visitors each day during those six weeks. The actors portray, among others, Joseph and Sarah Paxton (who is pictured here, played by Carole Copeland), and gardener John Gibson. Actors prepare by reading archived letters and biographies of the Paxtons. They also learn about the present gardens with current head gardener, Steve Porter, whose knowledge of Joseph and Sarah is extensive.

Chatsworth, Bakewell, Derbyshire DE45 1PP. Tel: 01246 565300; chatsworth.org

IMAGES ALAMY; JOSEPH VALENTINE

scattered over the old and every part to be perfect…

The Lime Trees at Edensor must be cut immediately and every part of Edensor made perfect. The Queen will go to Church… Tell George all the cart road to the conservatory from the arboretum walk is to be covered with white or yellow gravel… There must not be a drop of water crossing the arboretum walks and if any places are green or slippy, gravel must be put on. Near the grotto there wants gravel on a long lot of the walks… I have ten-thousand things to tell you and ten-thousand kisses.”

Sarah had to order in just over 12,000 oil lamps to illuminate the Queen’s evening stroll in The Great Stove, a new greenhouse Paxton had designed and built. Theirs was an equal partnership between a man and a woman in a Victorian society that regarded a middle-class woman as rather like a delicate hothouse plant on a pedestal: a being in need of protection.

Sarah needed no pedestal, no protector. At the same time, her devotion to her husband is clear from the closing words of her letters to him: “Goodbye my own beloved.”

a bracelet inscribed with the words, “Beloved and Worthy”. Four years later, in March 1858, on the death of the Duke, Joseph resigned his position. The clerks and foremen at Chatsworth duly wrote to Sarah, whom they addressed as Lady Paxton: “We the Clerks and Foremen of the different departments under Sir Joseph Paxton at Chatsworth having had for a long time business transactions with your Ladyship which in consequence of the lamented death of the late Duke are now about to cease, and being desirous of testifying our respect and esteem for you for the kindness and civility with which you have always treated us, we beg now to present you with a ring with the words ‘Chatsworth March 25 1858’ engraved on the inside as a testimonial of the respect and esteem we entertain for you.” ■

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BOOKS

The Reviewer

WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY

A selection of the best writing on the shelves this month

Wild about Weeds

A Beautiful Obsession

Planting the Natural Garden

by Jack Wallington Laurence King, £19.99

by Jimi Blake & Noel Kingsbury Filbert Press, £25

by Piet Oudolf & Henk Gerritsen Timber Press, £30

When is a weed not a weed? That is the perennial question. Foxgloves, snapdragons, forget-me-nots and primroses all have decorative function but given half a chance will quickly consume more than their allotted space.

Others, like Japanese knotweed, began as ornamental plants but soon went rogue, as well we know. Between these poles exists a world of plants that deserve a second look. This is according to Jack Wallington, the RHS-qualified garden designer, who neatly points to the virtues of these enthusiastic growers so scorned in discourse elsewhere.

Wallington begins with the ways weeds can be brought into the garden, with notes on collecting and storing seeds, as well as ways to manage rebel plants and echo natural design and plant communities. A second section comprises a directory of plants grouped by function: campanula and yellow corydalis for steps, herb Robert and white deadnettle for shady places.

Chapters are interspersed with interviews featuring notable gardeners such as Penny Snell and James Basson.

In all, this is a helpful, stimulating reference work.

Jimi Blake is known for developing Hunting Brook Gardens in Co. Wicklow, south-west of Dublin, where his bold and imaginative planting schemes have been winning plaudits ever since he opened the gardens on his family estate in 2002.

In A Beautiful Obsession, fellow plantsman Noel Kingsbury sketches out the path Jimi took to reach this point, exploring family influences, visits to Great Dixter and input from another famed Irish gardener, Helen Dillon.

Subsequent chapters detail the gardens themselves. A final chapter that contains a helpful directory of some of Jimi’s favourite trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials at Hunting Brook provides further food for thought.

Noel’s conversational writing style belies the detail contained within these pages: it is clear that each of these men is as passionate about plants as the other, and this title presents a real feast for fans of distinctive planting combinations and ideas. Michelle Noel’s eye-catching contemporary page design does much to contribute to the mood here, as do dozens of superb images of the gardens themselves.

“With Henk I learned that planting is to do more with plants: ambience, seasonality, emotion, these are important; with Henk we discovered plants that were good out of flowering, he pointed this out to me a hundred times, we looked at plants at times other than their prime,” Noel Kingsbury quotes Piet Oudolf as saying of his friend and co-author Henk Gerritsen in his introduction to Planting the Natural Garden.

Henk, who died in 2008, was the person who introduced Piet to the wonder of plants seemingly out of season and, in 1990, the pair wrote their first directory of perennials, Droomplanten. This was re-issued as Planting the Natural Garden in 2003.

Twenty-five years on, this updated edition includes the better cultivars to have emerged since initial publication, plus plants that reflect Piet’s own work.

Part I is an illustrated directory; Part II considers uses, for exuberance, structure or autumn; Part III offers planting plans and combinations.

The result is beautiful in its simplicity and is nepeta for dreamers and plantaholics. Irresistible and essential.

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 107

SEASON

MOTION

s t f i G s a m t s i r h C ening presents This season’s perfect gard

Silent Pool Gin

Silent Pool Gin is an award-winning spirit, handcrafted in Surrey from 24 botanicals and water from The Silent Pool. Their beautiful Christmas gift range features glassware, candles and tea light holders in their signature design, luxury crackers each containing a Silent Pool Gin miniature, botanical infused smoked salmon, gin mists and Silent Pool Gin itself. Perfect for gin lovers.

www.silentpooldistillers.com Tel: 01483 229136

Welford Park

Perfect presents for the Galanthophile in your life! Featuring snowdrops galore, these high quality aprons £17, tea towels £7, oven gloves £13 and table napkins £5 come in delicious apple green or sky blue 100 % cotton. Made in the UK. Visit website for full range.

Exclusive English Garden code SNOWDROP19 for 10% discount.

www.welfordpark.co.uk Tel: 01488 608691

ROSA – A Life in Roses

Worx 2-in-1 battery pruner

www.janiepirie.co.uk Tel: 01473 311970

www.worx.com Tel: 0345 202 9679

This book by botanical artist Janie Pirie is a perfect gift for rose lovers and a book to treasure. Hard-backed, linen bound and presented in a slip box this luxury, limited edition (each one numbered and signed) shows 36 exquisite illustrations by this double RHS gold medallist. An exhibition of all original illustrations will be at The Mall Galleries, London 5-10 November.

A versatile and lightweight tool, the Worx Zen is so easy to use, you will wonder how you coped without it. Quick-change blades transform shears to a mini hedge pruner and trimmer. This 2-in-1 battery pruner is comfortable to hold and makes such light work of pruning. It’s great for topiary! And the batteries share across any Worx 20V tools.

Fabulous Fern collection from the RHS

The botanical trend continues to flourish with houseplants being the hottest ‘home accessory’ of the moment. The RHS exclusive Fern collection honours this with bold fern leaf prints adorning a range of soft furnishings, indoor pots, stationery and accessories, all inspired by pressings from the Herbarium at RHS Wisley.

Perfect for festive gifting.

www.rhsshop.co.uk Tel: 01483 211320

TLC for the green-fingered

Woods of Windsor Gardener’s range is the perfect gift for any gardener. After days spent digging and planting, exposure to the elements can leave hands dry. The luxury collection includes a wash, scrub, cream and balm and is infused with the refreshing fragrance of Blackberry & Thyme. Naturally derived ingredients restore hardworking hands.

www.woodsofwindsor.co.uk Tel: 01264 320 433

BOOKS

Q&A Economic historian Professor Sir Roderick Floud has turned his gaze to garden history.

An Economic History of The English Garden is the fascinating result of his research it was applied elsewhere. Better metal and glass constructions are a product of greenhouses, but because people haven’t looked at the industry, this hasn’t been noticed.

How did you research the topic?

The National Archive has a vast amount of material on gardens, as does every record office in the country. The big estates like Longleat, Chatsworth and Waddesdon all have lots and lots of records. For the sake of scale, I deliberately looked at the records of only a few of the great houses and six county record offices. It took about ten years to complete, with the last six years being full time – subject to grandchildren. I couldn’t look at Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which probably have equally exacting records. There is also much more material to be found in the records of nurseries, greenhouse builders and central heating specialists.

How does gardening contribute to GDP? No one has covered this area of garden history before. Why do you think that is?

That’s a question I’ve asked myself throughout this work. Garden history has developed as a branch of the history of garden design, and it just doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone to enquire about the money. Insofar as anyone has tried to measure it, the Retail Price Index or Consumer Price Index has been used. This produces much smaller numbers and that has minimised the question of how much it has all cost. I’ve based my calculations on comparative average salaries which has brought up a better picture. My own discipline of economic history has also ignored the topic.

The direct contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was £12.6 billion in 2017, which is larger than aerospace manufacturing. The indirect contribution comes to about 1.2% of GDP. Compared to a contribution of about a half a percent in the 1700s, gardening is doing at least as well now as it has done in the past. There are difficulties with measuring its contribution, however. GDP counts the value of output only in monetary terms. It doesn’t value things like work in the garden, which today is generally unpaid, although the machines we use do get into GDP. Neither does the amount of land used for gardening enter GDP. Gardening takes up 15 per cent of the land area of our towns and cities and if you ascribed a housing development value to that you would get into trillions of pounds very quickly.

INTERVIEW VIVIENNE HAMBLY

What are the consequences of this oversight?

We’re missing an important part of British economic and social history. In the great age of gardens, right up until WWII, gardening took up a big part of the labour force. Developments in gardening have impacted everyday life – and our landscape. The only lakes in England south of the Lake District are those in the great gardens. Central heating was developed for greenhouses at least 100 years before

How does perception affect gardening today?

The perception of gardening as a leisure pursuit, a frippery, and something ‘done by women’ has meant it hasn’t been taken seriously and we are failing to train the professional gardeners of the future. Fifty per cent of the population describe themselves as gardeners, making it more popular than any other activity, including football. It is a huge industry.

An Economic History of the English Garden

by Roderick Floud, Allen Lane, £25

DECEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 109

GARDENS & NURSERIES FOR WINTRY INSPIRATION WEASDALE NURSERIES

HEDGING UK Weasdale Nurseries have been growing hardy trees and shrubs on their site at 850ft elevation in the Howgill Fells, at the heart of beautiful Cumbria, since 1950.

Specialising in mail-order from the outset, our careful packaging system has become legendary and guarantees safe arrival of the delicate contents anywhere in the UK. Contact us for your free copy of our highly readable, illustrated catalogue, listing over 900 different plants available from November to April.

Hedging UK are specialist growers of quality hedging plants.

Plants are available to purchase at wholesale prices across the UK through our mail order service.

Buy direct from the grower, delivered direct to your door.

Readers of The English Garden get a 5% discount (quote TEG2019).

Tel: 015396 23246 sales@weasdale.com | www.weasdale.com Newbiggin on Lune, Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria CA17 4LX

Tel: 01704 827224 or 07789 922457 sales@hedginguk.com | www.hedginguk.com Boundary House Farm, Holmeswood Road, Holmeswood, Lancashire L40 1UA

SPRING REACH NURSERY

HARDY EUCALYPTUS Spring Reach Nursery grows a fantastic range of clematis, trees, hedging, ferns, shrubs, fruit, perennials, roses, climbers and grasses.

Grow your own cut foliage for bouquets, arrangements, wreaths and garlands!

23 different easy-to-grow species for gardens, allotments or farms.

See our website for plants and our new book, “Fantastic Foliage and how to Farm It” by the UK’s Eucalyptus expert.

We grow over 60 species of hardy Eucalyptus from seed at our UK nursery.

High quality stock, all Air-Pot grown for a healthy root system.

Suppliers to the public and trade.

RHS Chelsea Gold winners.

FREE DELIVERY OFFER; QUOTE “ENG19” (expires 31.12.19) Excluding Highlands and Islands.

Stars of the early winter are Daphne ‘Perfume Princess’, Euphorbia ‘Tasmanian Tiger’, Libertia ‘Taupo Blaze’, Leucothoe ‘Zeblid’, Phormium ‘Firebird’ and Nandina ‘Fire Power’.

Tel: 01483 284769 info@springreachnursery.co.uk | www.springreachnursery.co.uk Spring Reach Nursery, Long Reach, Ockham, Surrey GU23 6PG

Tel: 07515 261511 office@hardy-eucalyptus.com | www.hardy-eucalyptus.com Hardy-Eucalyptus, Grafton Nursery, Grafton Flyford, Worcester WR7 4PW

DAISY CLOUGH NURSERIES LTD

ASHWOOD NURSERIES

A busy nursery in rural Lancashire, Daisy Clough specialises in a carefully selected range of over 700 perennials and grasses. Open seven days a week, the nursery also offers a good selection of shrubs, trees, container plants and fruit.

Plenty of homegrown vegetable plants are available through spring and summer.

The 2019 plant list is available to view on the website. There is a beautiful shop selling garden sundries and homeware and a fabulous new tearoom to round off your visit.

Tel: 01524 793104 info@daisyclough.com | www.daisyclough.com Daisy Clough Nurseries Ltd, Station Lane, Scorton, Preston, Lancs PR3 1AN

A traditional working nursery situated in the West Midlands. We specialise in Hellebores, Hardy Cyclamen, Salvias, Hepaticas, Dwarf Conifers, Hydrangeas, Lewisias, Snowdrops, Primula auriculas and offer many more choice plants.

We feel Ashwood Nurseries is a plantsman’s paradise.

Our mail order service sends plants, garden essentials and gifts to UK and EU destinations. Special events throughout the year. Please visit our website for more details. Open daily.

Tel: 01384 401996 mailorder@ashwoodnurseries.com | www.ashwoodnurseries.com Ashwood Lower Lane, Kingswinford, West Midlands DY6 0AE

ROUSHAM HOUSE & GARDEN

BRADLEY GARDENS Christmas shopping and festive cheer all in a Victorian walled garden.

Our late night shopping event is on the 28 November from 5pm-8pm so enjoy a Christmas inspired meal in the Glasshouse café, visit one of our many shops in the garden and be tempted by wreaths and winter planting in the nursery.

Browse ladies’ accessories and visit the festively decorated interiors store and gift shop filled with traditional decorations and inspirational gifts.

Opening time Tuesday to Sunday 9.30am to 5pm.

Rousham represents the first phase of English landscape design, and remains almost as William Kent left it, one of the few gardens of this date to have escaped alteration. Many features which delighted 18th century visitors to Rousham are still in situ, such as the ponds and cascades in Venus’s Vale, the Cold Bath and sevenarched Praeneste, Townsend’s Building, the Temple of the Mill, and, on the skyline, a sham ruin known as the ‘Eyecatcher’.

OPEN: Daily from 10am, last admission 4.30pm. No children under 15 and no dogs. Entry fee £8 per person.

Tel: 01661 852176 www.bradley-gardens.co.uk Sled Lane, Wylam, Northumberland NE41 8JH

Tel: 01869 347110 www.rousham.org Rousham, Bicester, Oxfordshire OX25 4QU

ARDMADDY CASTLE GARDENS

HEVER CASTLE & GARDENS

The gardens at Ardmaddy Castle lie in a spectacular setting in a horseshoe valley with the elevated castle to seaward.

The walled garden is full of magnificent rhododendrons, unusual shrubs and plants, a clock garden, crevice garden, fruit and vegetables all within dwarf box hedging. The woodland walk, with its 60ft Hydrangea petiolaris, leads to water gardens with damploving plants and grasses. A Plantsman’s garden.

Vegetables and Plant Stall.

Open daily, 9am until dusk.

Wrap up warm and blow away the cobwebs, walk off the Christmas pudding and take a stroll in the gardens where the warm bark of the redwood trees glows against the winter sky.

On the way up to the Castle the yew topiary stands majestically and the Winter Garden displays attractive and interesting colours and structures. For the more energetic take a bracing walk around the Lake.

OPEN: See website for opening dates.

Tel: 01852 300353 minette@ardmaddy.com | www.ardmaddy.com/places-visit/ Ardmaddy, By Oban, Argyll PA34 4QY

Tel: 01732 865224 www.hevercastle.co.uk Hever, Edenbridge, Kent TN8 7NG

TENDERCARE NURSERIES

WAKEHURST Book a visit to our awardwinning Nursery where our experienced horticulturists will help you pick the best choices for your budget and garden conditions. We deliver and plant with an Establishment Warranty.

See our website for our Planting and Design Services.

Treat yourself to a HSP Garden Room this Christmas! Ex Display models - up to 40% off.

Tel: 01895 837120 sales@tendercare.co.uk | www.tendercare.co.uk.

Southlands Road, Denham UB9 4HD. Next to Junction 2 on the M40.

Wakehurst, Kew’s wild botanic garden in Sussex, is home to over 500 acres of dramatic landscape ranging from ornamental gardens, temperate woodlands and a nature reserve. In the winter months, discover the newly redesigned planted Winter Garden, bursting with vibrant colours and fragrance.

At the heart of Wakehurst, step inside the Millennium Seed Bank, the world’s largest wild seed conservation project, to see the important work of Kew’s scientists.

OPEN: Daily from 10am. Gardens close 4.30pm (November to February), 6pm (March to October).

Gardens closed 24 & 25 December.

Please see website for details to plan your visit and upcoming events.

Tel: 01444 894066 kew.org/Wakehurst Ardingly, Haywards Heath, Sussex RH17 6TN

Shop with us

ANIMAL SANCTUARY

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT US AT WWW.THEENGLISHGARDEN.CO.UK

GARDEN TOOLS

Secateurs, hedgeshears and the world’s finest pruning saws in superb, tempered Japanese steel KST 230

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Foxley Estate Office, Mansel Lacy, Hereford HR4 7HQ

Hayauchi 490

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Pocketboy 170

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Silky Fox Saws

Visit silkyfox.co.uk to find your local stockist

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enquiries@silkyfox.co.uk The Horticultural Correspondence College

HEDGING

GLEBE FARM HEDGING Over 100 varieties of field and pot grown hedge plants and young trees. Nationwide delivery. for advice or a catalogue contact us on

t: 01206 323200 www.glebefarmhedging.co.uk Glebe Farm, Langham, Colchester, Essex CO4 5PP e: hedge-plants@btconnect.com

THE HEDGING SPECIALISTS

Home-study

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Free info FREEPHONE 0800 083 9191 or 01409 220 777 Or email: info@hccollege.co.uk www.hccollege.co.uk

GREENHOUSES

CLOTHING

Cornishwear Cornish smocks perfect for gardening Made in Cornwall www.cornishwear.com hello@cornishwear.com 01736 732236

SKIN CARE

DermaGuard Excellent protection for your hands against the damaging effects of soils, sap, water and all garden chemicals.

Just one application of our lotion guarantees to protect for up to four hours – even when hands are wet. Safe for horticulture.

£69 free p&p

250ml £6.50 • 500ml £12.00 POST FREE The Skin Care Company Ltd St Asaph LL17 0HH

FREE Order Hotline: 0800 917 2219 www.dermaguard.com

Reversible Cotton Jackets – various designs 01263 732643 GARDEN FEATURES

Chairworks Ltd www.chairworks.info | 0208 247 3700 | info@chairworks.info 112 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

BAMBOO CLOCHES

www.giftsandgardens.com

GARDEN FRIENDS

Made from thick aluminium that will not rust, and painted beautifully by hands on both sides. Cats, Chickens, Hens, Cockerels, Pheasants, Owls, etc.

Made of bamboo woven into an open dome and available in 5 sizes. These attractive cloches protect plants and seeding from damage by animals, footballs, light frost and wind-chill. Fleece and newspaper can be used to cover the plants inside the cloches during periods of heavy frost. The micro climate inside the cloches promotes growth and allows rain through to the plants.

CANDLE LANTERNS

Made from iron with rust resistant paint. All candle lanterns have a window which can be opened at the bak to place a night light candle on a tray within.

Sentimental Stones

Wooden Keyrings : 90 Locations

Hanging Wooden Signs : 70 Messages

Topiary : Pig, Dog, Rabbit, etc

Hanging Teak Baskets

Gifts and Gardens, 32 Bourne Lane, Much Hadham, Hertfordshire SG10 6ER, UK. Tel 01279 842685

Wooden Doorstops

www.giftsandgardens.com

LAST WORD

Gifts That Keep on Giving

T

here are two words for what we give at Christmas: gift is the Old English word, and the more formal present comes from the Norman French, originally used in the sense of bringing something into the presence of someone, presenting something – a sense that we still use in formal introductions.

I prefer the intimacy of the Old English word.

Gardeners are generous givers of gifts. We often have a garden full of flowers to cut, or fruit and vegetables to share, plants to divide and cuttings or seeds to offer. A fondly remembered friend of mine once gave me as a house-warming present, a gardener’s bouquet of herbs and shrubs for rooting. There’s still just about time to take hardwood cuttings now, so a Christmas posy of evergreen or winter-flowering shrubs would make a lovely gift.

Choose flowered shoots, but include unflowered leafy ones, which your recipients could root for themselves. Winter-flowering honeysuckle (Lonicera purpusii) and Christmas box – sarcococca – would be good subjects for this, both of them divinely scented and with a good chance of being in flower at Christmas. To this you could add trails of ivy or evergreen periwinkle (my favourite is Vinca

114 THE ENGLISH GARDEN DECEMBER 2019

A posy of evergreen or winterflowering shrubs makes a lovely gift”

major var. oxyloba, formerly known as ‘Dartington Star’, with delicate, slender-petalled, violet-blue flowers), which wouldn’t be in flower, but roots so easily at the leaf-joints that you would probably find a piece already rooted. Add rose hips for colour then tie them all up in hessian. If you are lucky enough to live in a mistletoe area (as I do), include a berried bit of that, for a properly Christmassy note.

Or you could go for dried flowers instead.

Lavender makes a lovely, long-lasting, fragrant winter bouquet. Pick the stems before the flower buds are fully open for the best result. And pot pourri made with herbs and rose petals from the garden never fails to please. Another friend of mine never fails to include a few pressed flowerheads with his cards and letters. Gently opening envelopes with his handwriting on them is always a delight.

A gift of alcohol always goes down well at Christmas, and flavouring it with produce from the garden or surrounding hedges adds a personal note. Sloe gin, damson gin, quince gin – they couldn’t be easier to make – but you need to plan ahead. Damsons and sloes are ready for picking in September, quinces in October. One very good tip I came across recently is to freeze the sloes beforehand; this splits the skins, and avoids the tiresome business of pricking the fruit.

Jars of jams or preserves, too, made from produce in the garden, make a great gift at any time. If sending to a child, you could team several little jars of jam with a copy of Jam, the delightful picture book by Margaret Mahy (now sadly out of print, although second-hand copies are easy to find).

These days we are all conscious of the cost to the environment inherent in the presents we buy, whether in terms of air miles, plastic or the energy expended in production. We don’t really need more ‘stuff ’. Give your loved ones a little bunch of flowers, something cheering to drink – maybe a little something to nibble – and a good book: the best pre-Christmas gift I received this year was a slim paperback of Vita Sackville-West’s novel The Heir, in which an English garden, rather than Union Jacks and crosses of St George, exemplifies all that’s best about England and Englishness. ■

ILLUSTRATION JULIA RIGBY PORTRAIT BEVERLEY FRY

This Christmas, Katherine Swift suggests making a gardener’s bouquet of herbs and shrubs for rooting, or a fragrant winter spray of dried flowers

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