The Layered Look Lessons from an English garden

The Layered Look:

P R E M I E

R iLandscapeTM

Thei C llinois + wisconsin Landscape Show T2021

O N T E N

Lessons from an English Garden

By Nina A. Koziol

Landscape design trends have come-

and gone over the years — and the centuries. Think about how Chicago’s Lurie Garden transformed the park district’s decades-old display of carpet beds to naturalistic meadows often coined the “New Dutch Wave of Perennial Planting” or the “New Perennial Movement.” These are just two of the terms used to describe gardens with swathes of interlocking blocks of perennials that create a meadow-like atmosphere.

But that’s not the case at the renowned gardens at Great Dixter in Sussex, England, the home of the late celebrated garden writer Christopher Lloyd. The sprawling manor house, built in the 15th century, features 19 different gardens including traditional English meadows, an orchard, exotic tropicals, a phenomenal topiary, a moat garden, wall and vegetable gardens, a prairie, and cottage garden borders that provide color, texture, and interest throughout the year. It’s formal, colordrenched, quirky, and wildly atmospheric.

“Great Dixter has long been a place of innovation for people including myself who find inspiration from this highly artistic and unique garden,” says Jill Selinger, Chicago Botanic Garden’s manager of continuing education and a member of the ILCA Education Committee.

So how is this swanky English cottage garden relevant to landscapers and designers working in the Midwest? The climate is certainly different (they are a cushy zone 7-8), and the plant palette is not quite the same. But in a live presentation, head gardener Fergus Garrett, recipient of the Royal Horticulture Society’s Victoria Medal of Honour, showed iLandscape365 participants how layering provides long-season interest and reduces maintenance.

“I know our climates are different, but this talk is very relevant to you,” Garrett said. “Don’t copy the plant material we have. Choose plants you like that will grow well for you. It’s critical that you’re observant of the seasons and the climate.”

Garrett joined Great Dixter in 1992 as head gardener and is now chief executive of the Great Dixter Trust. He’s a hands-on fellow, still doing the heavy lifting, design, and planting as well as writing and teaching.

(continued on page 24)

(continued from page 22)

Layer It Up

It’s all about finding gaps in your plantings and filling them with plants that provide a succession of bloom. At Dixter, the early bulbs come before the main perennials and shrubs burst into their summer glory. Some shrubs and small trees are paired with clematis or honeysuckle vines that continue the flowering season after the woodies have finished.

For example, in one narrow border between a building and a path, snowdrops are followed by Scilla and then ferns. “You may think it’s extra work, but we have to cut the ferns back anyway, which takes about three minutes each spring. By good plant placement and layered plantings of bulbs, you have three or four interesting periods a year as a result of that complex planting, and the whole of Dixter does that.” At the corner of the border a large cotoneaster used as a specimen provides form, texture, flowers, berries, and fall color.

In some pockets, snowdrops, crocus, or small Tete-a-Tete daffodils are followed by anemones and then hostas. “Some areas require little work — mulching or cutting back. It’s a complex mosaic of plants sharing space above and below ground. It could be Virginia bluebells with azaleas or hellebores, or dicentra that goes dormant, and then a flowering shrub takes over the space.”

There is little mass planting — no big drifts of one type of perennial — but there is plenty of repetition of plants intermixed in Dixter’s Long Border and a great succession of color and texture from spring through fall. It’s a mixed border where you’ll find shrubs, climbers, hardy and tender perennials, annuals, and biennials all growing together and contributing to the overall tapestry that makes up the “new” English cottage garden.

“The time to look at filling the gaps with snowdrops is not in autumn when everything is full. In the spring, you’re looking at the gaps on the ground between the daylilies. Is there a place for epimedium or snow drops? Start slow and find that gap. Plug it and watch what happens, and then you may add another layer.”

Spring and Summer Bulbs

Garrett likes using erythroniums (yellow-flowered trout lilies) and early bulbs because they “get themselves out of the way before the perennials come up.” He also uses many tall alliums as pop-up plants. However, they produce coarse, large foliage that begins turning yellow when the plant is finished blooming. “Alliums should be paired with perennials that will cover the spent foliage. Why not have alliums amongst the catmint before it flowers? The space ecology is quite important. You want the plant to push the allium leaves out of the way as it emerges.”

(continued on page 26)

The long borders offer a succession of color with spring bulbs, ornamental shrubs, grasses, annuals and perennials.

(continued from page 24)

Elsewhere, tulips and daffodils welcome spring before they are covered by emerging perennials, such as Japanese forest grass, mahonia, Rodgersia pinnata, and others. Garrett allows Mexican daisies (Erigeron karvinskianus), valerian (Centranthus ruber), and evening primrose to self-sow, contributing to the cottage garden effect.

“All of this mimics what happens in grasslands and woodlands where a lot of vegetation takes over as new plants push through. These plants live quite happily together year after year, sharing the same place. There are a wealth of perennials you could use that take over from the spring bulbs.”

The key is understanding which plants will work together. His goal, much like that of Roy Diblik’s, is to fill the space. Perennial density does reduce weeds, he told participants. “There are very few weeds where we have allium, convallaria, daffodils, narcissus, veratrum, and ferns. The adverse side: Some plants you think are thuggish cannot take the root competition from other plants. That’s the unknown thing until you start putting it together.”

The Long Border

In the words of the late Christopher “Christo” Lloyd, “The border’s season of interest is principally aimed at a mid-June to mid-August period, but in fact extends, albeit to a lesser degree at each end, from April to October. It is my belief that no gaps, showing bare earth, should be visible from late May on…the effect should be of a closely woven tapestry. I do not at all mind bringing some tall plants to the border’s front, so long as an open texture allows the eye to see past them. For all the work that goes into it, I want the border to look exuberant and uncontrived. Self-sowers, like Verbascums and Verbena bonariensis, help toward this.”

Garrett and his crew use several mulching experiments with reseeding annuals. “Those areas that haven’t been mulched have lots of self-sowers. By mulching around the perennials and leaving a pocket free of mulch, you may get your self-sower where the eye wants it.”

Although Lloyd died in 2006, Garrett has continued this evolving, long season of interest by using several types of annuals. Although they are not low-maintenance by any means, dahlias are used as focal points to extend vibrant color into autumn. Self-sowers, such as verbena, forget-me-nots, lunaria, and Rudbeckia hirta pop up in random fashion and are removed as needed. “Once the alliums finish, Queen Anne’s lace is followed by cannas, and everything else is permanent. In one border, Dahlia ‘David Howard’ provides an important splash of burnt-orange blossoms in autumn. But if you rely too much on annuals — bedding plants — you’re waiting for them to grow, and your border takes a dip visually. That’s why the mixed border situation is so important.”

Succession

Some other examples of succession planting include annual nigella (love-in-amist) followed by clematis sprawling over the ground. “Poppies are followed by Geranium ‘Rozanne’, and the little annual larkspurs give us a display before the phloxes bloom. Dahlias and Sanguisorba tennuifolia last through autumn. We do it in odd pockets, and it stops you in your tracks.” One of his favorite combinations is echinacea and agastache because of the contrast in flower shapes. He looks at the photos not only in color but in black and white where the contrast is very evident.

Some things Garrett wants you to consider: How big are the leaves? Will they squeeze out the plant below it? Will a dicentra cope with a hosta and vice-versa? “You need to stand back and look. Be observant and see where the spaces are. It’s about realizing that certain plants don’t grow very fast. Daffodils with phlox and day lilies — you don’t want to smother out the phlox.” It’s all about looking at the true spaces available. “Don’t say, ‘Oh, I’ve got a load of large bulbs’ and scatter them anywhere. But by (continued on page 28)

A few orchards and a scattering of trees were the only landscape when the Lloyd family arrived in 1910. Now, gardens surround the entire massive house.

(continued from page 26) all means, if you have tiny little bulbs like species tulips or daffodils, you can scatter them.”

The Prairie

“This section of long grass used to have rows of fruit trees until they were blown down by recent hurricanes,” Garrett explains on Dixter’s web site. “The meadow contains high concentrations of Common Spotted and Twayblade orchids as well as a number of North American prairie plants such as Veronicastrum virginicum, Eryngium yuccifolium, and Helianthus.” Plants are not cut down until the spring tidy-up begins, providing the beds and borders with valuable skeletons for a winter effect and a good food source for animals.

There’s plenty of inspiration on Great Dixter’s web site: https://www.greatdixter.co.uk.

Tropicals, potted plants, tender annuals and flowering vines are part of Great Dixter’s plant palette.