Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2017 i Gardens Illustrated Magazine

Anticipation is building for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. It’s a source of inspiration and excitement for design and plant enthusiasts alike. A chance to see established designers alongside first-time exhibitors, as well as seek out new must-have plants. There’s always an incredible amount to see at Chelsea and our insider’s guide, starting on page 37, previews what promise to be the most outstanding gardens this year. We also asked experienced judges, and talked to last year’s winner, to attempt to pin down the magic that makes one garden the Best in Show, and why this isn’t necessarily the same one that scoops the People’s Choice award. Gardens Illustrated has a long tradition of sharing the best in classic and contemporary design. In this issue we visit Rockcliffe House, a…

SEASONAL HIGHLIGHT Singing the blues Few sights are quite so joyful in May as a sea of English bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta). The UK is thought to have around half of the world’s population of bluebells, and whether carpeting the floors of ancient woodland in dappled light or forming a blue haze across open moorland, the bell-shaped flowers are always a magical sight. Two great walks where you can enjoy the flowers are Holwell Lawn (pictured here) near Widecombe-in-the-Moor in Dartmoor National Park (dartmoor.gov.uk), and the coastal grassland and heathland of Skomer Island, off the Pembrokeshire coast (visitpembrokeshire.com) – both take in heritage sites and stunning views along the way. For details of other bluebell walks visit gardensillustrated.com NEW ROSES A fine romance She may have a record eight Olivier Awards…

Prunus ‘Shirofugen’ It was Christopher Lloyd who introduced me to the elegance and beauty of this flowering cherry. He pointed out the copper tint of the new foliage and the long, pendant stalks, which hold pretty, double flowers that slightly darken with age and scatter to the ground in a confetti of petals. Its leaves also colour well in autumn before falling. Best grown as a multi-stemmed tree, which will enhance the spreading habit. AGM*. Height 4-6m. Origin Japan. Conditions Good moist garden soil. Hardiness RHS H6, USDA 5a-7b. Season Spring and autumn. Matteuccia struthiopteris Appearing earlier than many ferns, the shuttlecock fern is best planted in bold groups in a cool, damp woodland or on the margins of a pond or brook. Once established it will make suckering colonies…

You’ll find camassias galore on the stand of specialist nursery Hare Spring Cottage Plants, which is exhibiting at Chelsea for the first time. Look out for the creamy-white, semi-double Camassia leichtlinii ‘Semiplena’ (left) and the mid-blue beauty, C. leichtlinii ‘Blue Candle’. GPF199 • David Harber was inspired by the phases of the moon and the shadows of an eclipse to create his new sculpture The Eclipse (left). Interlocking rings in sapphire-blue stainless steel, with contrasting gold leaf on the inner surface, create a harmonious whole. MA332 • The centrepiece of Nigel Dunnett’s RHS Greening Grey Britain garden (part of the RHS stand) is a bespoke edible table. Made from reclaimed timber, it seats up to ten people and features espaliered fruit trees and herbs. The garden also includes an apartment…

1 Camassia leichtlinii subsp. suksdorfii This camassia, with a vivid-blue flower spike offset by a dark stem, is a relatively new introduction to Sweden. It spreads easily and Ulf likes to plant it in big clumps. 1.5m. RHS H4, USDA 5a-9b† . 2 Fritillaria ‘Beethoven’ This new cultivar is a pretty soft orange, with a brownish red stem. It tones beautifully with the branches of the bushes in early spring before they come into leaf. 60cm. RHS H7, USDA 5a-8b. 3 Sesleria nitida This greyish-blue moor grass is Ulf’s signature grass for spring. It has silvery buds and combines really well with early bulbs, especially narcissi and camassias, and later with Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’. 60cm. RHS H6, USDA 4a-9b. 4 Exochorda x macrantha ‘The Bride’ In bud, this lovely bush looks…

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1. DAISY ROOTS Healthy, hardy perennials and grasses, homegrown in Hertfordshire. Visit the nursery Fridays and Saturdays from March-October or shop mail order online from your armchair. Garden consultancy and design service. daisyroots.com  | 07958 563355 2. PADDOCK PLANTS An eclectic range of perennials, grasses, ferns and shrubs for your garden, including some more unusual varieties or plants new to the UK market. All grown peat free with no harmful chemicals. paddockplants.co.uk  | 023 8073 9912 3. DUCHY OF CORNWALL NURSERY Offering a wide selection of plants from camellias and magnolias to perennials and house plants, along with an award-winning café. Located in the beautiful Fowey Valley. duchyofcornwallnursery.co.uk  | 01208 872668 4. DOWNSIDE NURSERIES A huge selection of interesting plants listed on website – some specimen sized. Near Bradford-on-Avon and…

ANNIE GATTI Annie is an award-winning writer and editor, with a special interest in garden design and sustainable gardening. After several years as gardening editor at The Times she is now a freelance writer. On page 74 she discovers Ulf Nordfjell’s breathaking garden on Sweden’s Värmdö Island. “Ulf Nordfjell’s design for Villa Norrnäs is a masterclass in how to connect a garden to its surrounding landscape.” CELIA HART Celia is an illustrator and printmaker who creates beautiful linocuts and woodcuts from her garden studio in Suffolk. Each month she illustrates Frank Ronan’s column (see page 130), finding inspiration from her walks in the East Anglian countryside. “I enjoy finding a plant’s peculiar shapes and using them to set the scene and to tell a story that complements Frank’s words.” PERNILLA…

Late spring, before hotter temperatures wither and harden leaves, is the best time to try dishes made with cime di rape (turnip tops), chard, spinach and sorrel, and make use of herbs, such as parsley, tarragon, chives and dill, with a generous hand. One of my favourite sandwiches is egg mayonnaise, chopped not with cress but with a handful of fresh sorrel sliced into thin ribbons. At this time of year you can use fresh dill to make a dish of cured mackerel. In a bowl, mix together 85g of sugar, 70g of salt, 10g of crushed black peppercorns and a bunch of finely chopped dill (around 100g). Sprinkle a third of this herb mixture on the bottom of a gratin dish and lay two, fresh mackerel fillets, skin side…

Profile Name James Basson. Training BA Garden Design. Chelsea history Three gold medals and one silver gilt. Plot MA320. Sponsor M&G Investments. Contractor Crocus. Theme A sculptural garden that’s been carved out of an old quarry and softened with Mediterranean plants. James Basson My wife Helen and I moved to France in 2000 and started our own design and build company. I had to make all the errors to learn that the books were probably right: if you want to do sustainable gardens you have to be very true to horticultural practice. Clients want their gardens now – they don’t want to wait – and so we were planting in spring to start with but in fact you can’t plant in spring if you want to make a sustainable garden.…

Cool customer May is the time for planting up summer displays. Most of the plants in the garden at Rockcliffe are grown from cuttings from the previous season, but a few are bought or traded in. The display on the terrace is kept very cool and calm to work with the surrounding green and grey planting and with the box, Osmanthus and yew topiary. The moss growing on the pot links it beautifully with the old Yorkstone and the white paint sets off the planting. How to achieve the look Colours and shapes I fell in love with Pelargonium‘White Boar’ when I spotted it outside the front door of a Cotswolds vicarage. To complement the dark-patterned foliage, I combine it with Plectranthus ciliatus, pinching out the tips of the shoots…

In brief What A genus of at least 70 species of annual, biennial and herbaceous plants. Origins Mainly northern hemisphere, including within the Arctic Circle, with a few species found in sub-Saharan Africa. Season Summer flowering. Size Alpine species grow to just 10cm tall while some Papaver orientale cultivars reach 1.2m tall. Conditions Specific growing conditions vary with the species but in general Papaver need open, sunny situations and well-drained soil. Few flowers are as widely recognised as the poppy and people with little knowledge of plants will generally be able to identify one. In part this is due to its tenacious presence both in rural lanes and fields and on wasteland and verges in towns. Mainly, though, it is the poppy’s status as an emblem of remembrance that has…

Highlights from ten years of the garden writer’s column for the Observer, focusing on his gardens in London and Somerset.Reviewer Stephanie Donaldson is a garden writer. NATURAL SELECTION by Dan Pearson Illustrated by Clare Melinsky Guardian Faber, £20 ISBN 978-1783351176 Dan Pearson’s latest book is a month-by-month selection of ten years of his highly readable Observer columns. City and country are interwoven as he writes about his former London garden and his new home in Somerset, where he is transforming a 20-acre small holding into a garden that is a distillation of all that he has loved about plants and gardens from childhood, combined with what he has learned over the intervening years. Interspersed are occasional columns about his city allotment, the garden of the studio from where he runs…

BELIGHTFUL BUTTERFLY OASIS Do you like butterflies? Make the most of your garden or patio with this award-winning Belightful Butterfly Oasis. It is cleverly designed for feeding butterflies, and offers a fun way to support them. Sleek Scandinavian design connects form and function. Treat yourself or give as a gift. Tel +35844 2401 353 Web belightfuldesign.com ROSYBEE: PLANTS FOR BEES Rosybee really knows which plants attract bees because they count them. They sell the best-performing perennials and herbs in trays of six or ten; a great value way to pack in lots of plants or fill a large space. Their website also provides masses of information and details of their research. Tel 07710 096734 Web rosybee.com THE ORGANIC GARDENING CATALOGUE Plant Support Frame Kits. A long-lasting alternative to bamboo, these…

JUNE ISSUE • The romantic wild roses of Morville Hall • Discover the small, urban meadow garden of planting expert James Hitchmough • Digitalis for both traditional and contemporary gardens • Biodiversity in a rural Welsh garden ON SALE 25 MAY Save money when you subscribe to the digital edition – see page 28. Also in selected Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco stores, as well as WHSmith, and all good magazine retailers.…

Over the past three years, Leeds Castle head gardener Andrew McCoryn has been working on a vision to bring the gardens back to their true potential. He wanted them to burst with year-round colour, display flora and fauna from all around the world and introduce visitors to the contrasting gardens across the estate. The 12th-century moated Leeds Castle is set within 500 acres of beautiful grounds in the heart of Kent – the county described as the garden of England. Last year, the Leeds Castle gardeners developed the Castle Island Gardens to create an ancient feel, with traditional flowers such as magnolias, roses and lavenders in creams and white. By contrast, the Barbican Mill rockery boasts flora and fauna from all corners of the world, with Turkish bulbs and Australian…

Earliest garden memory I can vividly remember observing my grandmother taking cuttings and potting them up in the shed while I watched on in amazement. Is gardening a career change? My prior job was selling carpets and measuring up customers’ houses – I always seemed to look in the garden and discuss the plants with the owners (I never told my boss that). When my eldest daughter was born I decided to change my career to horticulture. I wanted to show that a job is not just something that we have to endure, but can be something that you love doing. Favourite garden It would have to be Trentham, I did my training here as part of the Historic and Botanic Garden Trainee Programme. I made good friends, learned worthwhile…

1 Cardiocrinum giganteum Emma grew this giant Himalayan lily in a pot. It looked wonderful but, being monocarpic, died after flowering. She collected the seed but it can take seven years to flower. 2m. RHS H5, USDA 7a-9b† . 2 Lonicera caprifolium ‘Anna Fletcher’ This stunner is the first climber in the garden to bloom, producing a profusion of creamy-white, fragrant flowers in spring. 4m. RHS H5, USDA 7a-9b. 3 Geranium palmatum Divided evergreen foliage surrounds pink flowers. Marginally tender but worth the gamble as it self-seeds prolifically. 1m. AGM*. RHS H4, USDA 8a-10b. 4 Syringa vulgaris ‘Sensation’ Easy to grow and one of Emma’s favourite lilacs. Each individual flower is surrounded by distinct white margins and it looks pretty cut for the house. 5m. AGM. RHS H6, USDA 3a-7b.…

“My first client had such a massive garden I couldn’t fit the plan on a single sheet of paper. I was petrified, but also unbelievably excited” It was on a hillside full of lupins that Ann-Marie Powell found her destiny. “I was in New Zealand, on the last leg of a gap year, and that ocean of colour just stopped me in my tracks. I was overcome by a vision of Mother Nature flying free with her skirts in the air, and I knew I wanted to create gardens.” This revelation came as something of a bolt from the blue. Ann-Marie was an outdoorsy sort of girl, but gardening certainly hadn’t featured in her life plans up until that point. Her father was in the army, so Ann-Marie and her…

• Discover the vibrant work of landscape artist Adrian Berg – including paintings of Regent’s Park, Kew Gardens and Stourhead – in the first comprehensive exhibition of the late artist’s work since his death in 2011. Hall Place & Gardens, Bexley, Kent DA5 1PQ. Until 3 September. Tel 01322 526574, hallplace.org.uk • The new Radicepura Garden Festival has opened in the botanical gardens of Fondazione Radicepura in Catania, Sicily. The festival features 14 gardens, from designers such as Michel Pena, Stefano Passerotti, James Basson and Kamelia Zaal, that have been designed to be seen throughout the summer. The festival will also include a three-day, garden-design workshop by Sarah Eberle on 16-18 June that includes visits to two private gardens on the Mediterranean island. Until 21 October, radicepurafestival.com • Join head…

GLORIOUS SHADE by Jenny Rose Carey Timber Press, £17.99 ISBN 978-1604696813 A practical guide to maintaining a shade garden with a useful calendar of seasonal tasks, plant directory and inspiring design ideas. THE DECKCHAIR GARDENER by Anne Wareham Michael O’Mara Books, £8.99 ISBN 978-1782436423 A collection of humorous but sensible tips that will help you get the most out of your garden if you’re ideas rich but time poor. MINIATURE MOSS GARDENS by Megumi Oshima and Hideshi Kimura Tuttle Publishing, £16.99 ISBN 978-4805314357 Tips and tricks for using moss in miniature gardens, from terrariums to bonsai displays and kokedama . THE CONTAINER GARDENER by Frances Tophill Kyle Books, £16.99 ISBN 978-0857833808 Over 40 ideas for container displays, with information on how to pair pots and plants, covering both sustainable and…

1 KENSINGTON GARDENS In spring and summer 2017, the historic Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace will be temporarily transformed into a White Garden. In the summer, pots of classic English white roses will surround the reflective pool in the centre of the garden and the planting will become more exuberant, with glowing ornamental grasses weaving through cosmos daisies and billows of graceful gaura. Address Kensington Gardens, London W8 4PX Tel 020 3166 6000 Web hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace 2 ABERGLASNEY GARDENS Aberglasney was made famous by the television series A Garden Lost in Time, which followed its restoration. Today it’s quite simply one of Wales’ finest gardens; a renowned plantsman’s paradise with a unique Elizabethan Cloister Garden at its heart. Aberglasney’s Grade II* listed mansion is a stunning venue for exhibitions and events.…