Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2016 i Gardens Illustrated Magazine

Our aim at Gardens Illustrated is to inspire and inform readers about the endlessly fascinating ways in which people garden all over the world. In the second of our four-part series on Allt-y-bela, designer Arne Maynard’s garden in Monmouthshire, we look at how his clever plant choices and colour combinations create spring interest. On a much smaller scale and with an entirely different aesthetic, is the steeply sloping garden in Berkeley, California, that has been given a dramatic and highly original treatment by designer Mary Barensfeld. Not only does the garden look fabulous in all seasons from the house, but the owners can now walk to the very top, which affords spectacular views over San Francisco Bay. Many of the gardens we feature in the magazine are created by the…

Anemone pavonina This tuberous plant produces an attractive rosette of dissected green foliage in early spring. Flowering stems unfurl from the centre to reveal large vibrant blooms in shades of white, pink, red or purple with an occasional pale lemon. A central white – or occasionally, as here, pink – halo around a cluster of stamens completes the picture of this flamboyant flower, which has the appropriate colloquial name of peacock windflower. Stamens vary in colour through black, green and blue. If happy, will naturalise to form large colonies. Height 20cm. Origin Greece, Turkey. Growing conditions Well-drained soil in sun or dappled shade. Hardiness RHS H5, USDA 8b-10b. Season of interest Early spring. Corydalis solida ‘Beth Evans’ Delicate, even fragile, to look at, this corydalis is tougher than it seems.…

Who has inspired your career the most? The person who has had the biggest influence on my career is Sir Tim Smit. The Channel 4 coverage of his discovery and restoration of Heligan in 1996, when I was only 13, captivated me and set me on my path to restoring gardens. Horticultural heroes Sir Joseph Paxton. I look on him as one of the most remarkable head gardeners, considering all that he was able to achieve. When I think of Paxton it gives me the inspiration and drive to achieve the very best I can and make the most of every opportunity. Favourite gardens It has to be the gardens that I have worked in as they have all left a large impression on me: Hillier’s Garden in Hampshire, RHS…

In Brief What Spring-flowering woodlanders with flower, sepals and leaves arranged in threes or sometimes multiples of three. Some have stalkless flowers, while others bear slender stalks topped with small flowers. Origins Debate rages about how many species there are, as many variations are found in the wild. There are around five or six native to eastern Asia, while the rest, around 43 species, are from North America. Size Up to 60cm, but when happy trilliums will form wide clumps. Conditions Rich loamy, humus-rich soil in light shade. A leaf litter mulch helps to keep the soil cool and may make the soil slightly acidic, which trilliums prefer. I’ve had a life-long love of trilliums, captivating spring woodlanders with tricorns of leaf and flower. However it’s been a bitter-sweet affair…

More land art than landscape, the slope has been sculpted into a jagged series of interconnecting slices I believe that architecture and landscape should always be thought of together but in a steeply sloping garden the relationship between house and garden becomes even more important. To carve out some outdoor living spaces, you will have to carry out earthworks, which will need to be professionally constructed for them to be safe. When the slope rises away from the house, the retaining walls will become a dominant feature of the design so be sure to choose construction materials with intrinsic beauty, such as the board-formed concrete used here. Trees are one of the first elements I consider. In terms of their importance as an organisational principle, they are as important to…

In brief Name De Carishof. What Private garden that makes good use of structure and colourful displays of bulbs in spring. Where Klimmen, southern Limburg, the Netherlands. Size Almost one acre. Soil Loess – a chalky, clay-like soil. Climate Mild maritime. Hardiness rating USDA 8b. Among the rolling fields of southern Limburg – a hilly area in the very south of the Netherlands – is De Carishof, a white former farmhouse that dates back to 1640. The buildings enclose a large courtyard, so sheltered from the outside world, you’d never guess the house sits on a busy road. It’s a perfect, hidden space with an umbrella-shaped plane tree, and rows of pots filled with tulips, ferns and box topiaries that line the half-timbered walls. If this house were in the…

• There’s still time to enter a new garden competition launching at RHS Flower Show Tatton Park this July. The RHS Young Landscaper and RHS Young Plant Designer of the Year competition is open to anyone aged 28 or under. Three winners of each award will be selected. To register, email exhibitorapplications@rhs.org.uk by 7 March. • The title of the Society of Garden Designers Spring Conference, on 19 March, is State of Flux and it explores capturing the ephemeral in contemporary gardens and landscape. Speakers include James Basson and James Hitchmough. At the Royal Geographical Society, London SW7 2AR.sgd.org.uk • The Landscape Institute Annual Conference at Sheffield University takes place on 3–4 March, with speakers Andrew Grant, James Hitchmough, Brian Evans and Caroline Julian.landscapeinstitute.org • Book now for Arne Maynard’s…

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NATURES HAMPERS Natures Hampers is a family owned business in Sussex offering cruelty-free, beautifully packaged hampers. The hampers’ award-winning contents are carefully chosen keeping in mind the company’s natural ethos. The range includes Gardener’s Hampers, with items selected to complement the English gardener’s life. TEL 01435 810099 WEB natureshampers.com BACKDOORSHOES Created to solve the problem of how to make quick trips into the garden without getting soggy socks! Lightweight, waterproof and comfortable, Backdoorshoes® will not crack or perish and they slip on and off easily. Ladies’ designs are available in sizes 3-8, men’s sizes 6-13 and children’s sizes 11-3. Something for everyone. TEL 01202 232357 WEB backdoorshoes.co.uk ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE 2016 CATALOGUE NOW AVAILABLE. To complement our extensive collection of circular copper planters, new additions to our range include rectangular copper…

• A Yorkshire garden with clever structure • The best primulas and how to grow them • Wonderful woodland garden in Japan • How to combine spring bulbs for best effect • The secrets of natural bee keeping • Three stylish designs for front gardens ON SALE 31 MARCH Save money when you subscribe to the digital edition – see page 14. Also in selected Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco stores, as well as WHSmith, and all good magazine retailers.…

CHARLOTTE MOLESWORTH Charlotte has gardened from childhood, but taught art before turning to garden design consultancy. On page 64 she styled our feature on the topiary garden she and her husband Donald have created on a limited budget. “To understand the mechanics and ethos of our garden, you need to look behind the scenes as Rachel’s photographs show” CELIA HART Celia is an illustrator and printmaker who finds inspiration for her lino and woodcuts in the countryside surrounding her studio in southwest Suffolk. For her illustration for Frank Ronan’s column this month, on page 114, she found her travels in the USA came in useful too. “I sat down with Google maps to track Frank’s road trip route, reliving holiday memories and discovering new ‘must see’ places” JACKY MILLS Zoology…

She began writing, tentatively on the backs of envelopes and odd scraps of paper; starting in the middle so she could pretend she wasn’t really writing at all I’m Persephone,” says Katherine Swift, the gardener, writer, columnist and author of the acclaimed The Morville Hours. By way of explanation she describes her life as defined by darkness and light. Six months outside in the garden; six months inside, writing. I catch this wisp swamped by a jumper made for two, in determined writing mode, her mind feverishly knitting together the strands of her latest book. Strands are important in Katherine’s life. She has three rooms where she writes by electric light, with heavily lined curtains tightly drawn, so she cannot tell whether it’s summer or winter, day or night, and…

When Charlotte and Donald Molesworth married 35 years ago, they politely eschewed the usual range of wedding presents, and suggested instead guests bring “faded velvet curtains and unwanted yew and native hedgerow seedlings”. And it’s on the latter that the backbone of their garden is built. At first glance you’d think this garden had been in the family for generations, probably the result of a team of gardeners’ work and certainly the product of several hard-earned fortunes. Of course the Molesworths have put their hearts and backs into their garden, but it’s their ingenuity and imagination that has given it its soul. Creating a garden like this on a shoestring is an art. But combine Donald’s background in farming and Charlotte’s career in the arts (she used to work behind…

Beech is a favourite hedge that needs cutting twice a year: in the first week of June and at the end of summer. It offers a beautiful, but short, burst of autumn colour and holds its leaves in winter, but these fall and clutter borders just when tulips are flowering. Box is the easiest hedging plant to clip and stays neat with only one cut in late spring. Some of De Carishof’s box that was lost to the box tree caterpillar, has now been replaced with lavender. Hawthorn is used to enclose the small orchard. It flowers white in spring and bears little red fruit in autumn. “We like it because it links our land with the landscape” says Matthijs. “But it grows very fast and needs a cut every…

1 Dividing lines American landscape architect Steve Martino uses ‘cool’ receding colours and advancing ‘warm’ colours to distort perspective, rather like a set designer manipulating space. The strong colour planes of his ‘walled gardens’ reflect the stark light of the desert environment in which he works. Here, in a garden in Arizona, an orange wall captures the dramatic shadows of native desert succulents. 2 Sunshine strip A single high note of colour against a neutral background will pick out an architectural feature. At the former home of the late artist and film director Derek Jarman in Dungeness, brilliant yellow windows stand out against the tarred timber clapboards of the cottage. Look closer and you’ll see hidden detail: John Donne’s poem The Sun Rising is written on the blackened wall in…

PLANTING DESIGN FOR DRY GARDENS by Olivier Filippi Filbert Press, £35 ISBN 978-0993389207 Filled with alternative ways of looking at the design of green spaces in a hot, dry Mediterranean climate. Reviewer John Hoyland is a writer and plantsman. For the past 30 years French nurseryman Olivier Filippi and his wife Clara have been growing and researching plants that are adapted to the poor soil and the hot, dry summers of their Mediterranean home. More recently, they have been studying landscapes and ecological systems with similar climates. This book is a result of their search to find alternatives to lawns in areas with a Mediterranean climate. The lush green sward of cool, damp northern Europe is only achievable in these areas at huge environmental cost, and, as Filippi points out,…

Forest fires and regeneration; not a disaster at all but the natural way for Pinus contorta to carry on It is hard for us to think of conifer forests as a natural thing. Scots pine, juniper and yew, the only natives, if they ever were forests, are only punctuations in the landscape now, and in the tamed landscape at that. We have forests of Sitka spruce, but they grow evenly sized and spaced in straight rows and could never be mistaken for natural. The conifer to us has been reduced to a garden adornment and rarely allowed to flourish even there. Along the California coast you see a remarkable conifer that contorts against the wind into extraordinary shapes. At first I had to ask what it was and be shocked…

Enjoy a carefully chosen selection of fine private gardens in this rural, quintessentially English area: Parsonage House, Corpusty Mill and Columbine Hall live up to their evocative names; meet garden designers Lady Xa Tollemache at Helmingham Hall and George Carter at Silverstone Farm. In fact at all the gardens we visit there will be special guided tours to learn the essentials of creating exceptional gardens. For two nights of our trip we are accommodated at the iconic Swan Hotel, a half-timbered, 15th-century building set in the heart of Lavenham, Suffolk, considered one of the country’s most beautiful medieval villages. This is a stylish, comfortable hotel with fine food and a peaceful ambience. The following two nights are at Titchwell Manor Hotel, a small hotel on the north coast of Norfolk…

Ethereal elegance I was inspired to use grape vines after seeing some beautiful creations in the wine regions of southwest Germany. Rather than wait for our local Herefordshire vineyards to prune their vines, I used prunings from a wall-trained Vitis coignetiae instead. Interwoven with trailing ivy, these helped to soften a rather bulky terracotta pan, creating a nest effect. The deep, wine-red hues of the stems set the tone for the planting scheme. How to achieve the look Colours and shapes The dusky pink flowers of Helleborus (Rodney Davey Marbled Group) ‘Penny’s Pink’ held aloft on upright stems take centre stage. The marbled foliage complements the pale streaks on the ivy (Hedera helix) leaves; their slight reddening enhancing the overall smokey hue. The maroon lanterns of Fritillaria meleagris amplify the…

PLAYFUL ART Climbing trees The concrete courtyard at the entrance to the Youth Wing for Art Education at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem has been transformed by a contemporary treehouse built halfway up the trunk of an existing pine tree. The slatted wooden construction, designed by architects Ifat Finkelman and Deborah Warschawski, provides an elevated den that can be accessed via the elongated ramp or by clambering up the central pole. The undulating ground, covered with a soft rubber surface, is another play area. www.imj.org.il/en/ DESIGN AWARDS Nebulous sparkle Crystal Cloud, a billowing canopy of hand-sculpted wire mesh hung with 800,000 Swarovski crystals above a black mirror pool, by landscape artists Andy Cao and Xavier Perrot, has been named winner for Installation in Interior Design magazine’s Best of Year awards…

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WHAT’S WRONG WITH MY HOUSEPLANT? by David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth Timber Press, £16.99 ISBN 978-1604695908 A helpful guide that identifies common houseplant problems. OFFER PRICE £14.99 GARDEN DESIGN SOLUTIONS by Stephen Woodhams Jacqui Small, £25 ISBN 978-1910254028 A range of design ideas to inspire you to make the most of your outdoor space, from choosing hard landscaping materials to planting. OFFER PRICE £22 JAPANESE GARDENS by Seiko Goto and Takahiro Naka Routledge, £34.99 ISBN 978-0415821186 Discover the history and symbolism of Japanese gardens and the common Japanese garden types built in and outside of Japan. OFFER PRICE £31.99 RHS ALLOTMENT HANDBOOK & PLANNER Mitchell Beazley, £12.99 ISBN 978-1784721459 A month-by-month plan of what to plant and when, plus tips to help you get the most from your plot while…

1 ABBOTSBURY GARDENS A recent winner of the HHA/ Christie’s Garden of the Year Award and described by Alan Titchmarsh as ‘one of the finest gardens I have ever visited. Established in 1765 by the 1st Countess of Ilchester as a kitchen garden for her nearby castle. It has developed since then into a magnificent 30-acre tropical paradise with many exotic features including a Burma rope bridge. Address Bullers Way, Abbotsbury, Dorset DT3 4LA Tel 01305 871387 Web abbotsburygardens.co.uk 2 BUSCOT PARK & THE FARINGDON COLLECTION The gardens and pleasure grounds at Buscot Park were designed in the late 18th century and enhanced in the 20th century by the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Lords Faringdon. They include the spectacular water garden and the Four Seasons Walled Garden. Open 25 March-30…