Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2017 i Gardens Illustrated Magazine

Late summer has become the new high point in the garden. Long, hot days give way to haziness, and a palette of plants with bold architecture and rich hues moves to the fore. Whitburgh House in Scotland (page 32) is a garden with an innovative take on contemporary planting ideas, where graphically chunky structure is paired with an incredible medley of perennial plants. Think Stipa, kale, Calendula and Cynara in emerald, aubergine, brilliant blue and burnt orange. The plants thrive under open Scottish skies. It’s cool planting in a cool place, created by an Edinburgh patron of the arts. On page 48, award-winning designer Ann-Marie Powell describes the ‘jostling jamboree’ of late summer plants that she has used on the sloping site of a West Sussex bolthole. She gives her recommendations…

Earliest gardening memory Aged five, helping my Dad lift potatoes at his allotment and the distinctive allotment smell of greens smouldering on a bonfire. What did you do before horticulture became your career? Somehow I ended up as a market research executive, spending my days behind a desk in London. When I was made redundant in 2011 I had space to focus on where I wanted to be, what I wanted to do, and what satisfied me most. I decided to retrain in horticulture at Northumberland College and I am so glad I did. What about the next generation of gardeners? There are many fantastic traineeships available for ambitious trainee gardeners in the UK, such as the Historic and Botanic Garden Trainee Programme that we offer at Trentham. The challenge…

“We first went to China in 1988. Everyone was still wearing Mao suits and we had minders wherever we went” Lord Charles Howick’s introduction to gardening wasn’t promising. “As children, we were told to cut the daffodils in the spring to sell at the gate. It was a terrible bore.” As he approaches his 80th birthday, Charlie Howick, as he prefers to be known, is internationally respected as the creator of an extraordinary arboretum at his ancestral home, just half a mile from the sea in Alnwick, Northumberland. Inside a broad shelter belt of Scots pine, oak and beech, thousands of wild trees thrive, all grown from seeds gathered from across continents, making Howick one of the largest private collections of wild-origin plants in the country. To walk there at…

1 Kalimeris incisa ‘Alba’ The domes of apple-green foliage are smothered throughout the summer with aster-like flowers. Tom has also specified a blue-flowered cultivar for the garden. 60cm. USDA 5a-9b† . 2 Stipa gigantea The arching stems of golden, oat-like flower heads can grow to great heights, but are so delicate that they form a transparent screen. 2.5m. AGM*. RHS H4, USDA 6a-10b. 3 Gaura lindheimeri The narrow, wiry stems carry a billow of small, white flowers from May to the end of August. It is a short-lived perennial that can be grown as an annual. 1-1.5m. AGM. RHS H4, USDA 5a-9b. 4 Allium schubertii A. schubertii has tiny, metallic-purple flowers on stems of differing lengths and structural seedheads that look like exploding stars. 50cm. RHS H4, USDA 5a-9b. 5…

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1. KEN MUIR As a family business with over 50 years experience, we pride ourselves on providing the highest quality fruit trees, soft fruits, canes and vines. We aim to help even novice gardeners feel comfortable growing their own fruit. kenmuir.co.uk | 01255 830181 2. HARE SPRING COTTAGE PLANTS Camassia and sidalcea specialists. National Collection Holder of camassia. Buy camassia and sidalcea online. harespringcottageplants.co.uk 3. THORNCROFT CLEMATIS NURSERY With over 400 cultivars of clematis and other climbers, we grow high-quality plants, offer expert advice and an award-winning mail-order service. thorncroftclematis.co.uk | 01953 850407 4. BOTANY PLANTS East Northdown Nursery. Kent CT9 3TS and Mucklestone Nurseries, Staffordshire TF9 4FA. 3,000 different trees, shrubs and perennials. RHS plantfinder codes SEND and MMuc. botanyplants.co.uk | info@botanyplants.co.uk 5. WOOTTENS OF WENHASTON 25 years’ experience growing high-quality herbaceous…

I have always thought the meadow more beautiful than the border anyway You get a slightly worthy book for Christmas and, because you are obliged to, read it, eventually. It is not well written, but it is from your youngest and most earnest brother, so scrupulous attention has to be paid for the review that must follow. Then, just as you are despairing that you might find anything positive to say, you perceive, through the fog of the prose, a meaningful idea: one that is not only worth knowing, but might change the way you are doing things. The book, called Grass-Fed Nation, is an attack on modern farming methods, describing how they are destroying the soil. So far, so much preaching to the converted there. I have long avoided…

STEPHANIE DONALDSON Stephanie is a gardener and writer who has spent every spare moment of the past 20 years creating a richly planted hillside garden on the south coast of England. On page 48 she visits a garden on the South Downs to see how Ann-Marie Powell has overcome the challenges of a steeply sloping site. “Ann-Marie has transformed a tricky site into a contemporary country garden that flows rhythmically down the hill.” THOMAS UNTERDORFER Thomas trained as a gardener in Schoenbrunn, Vienna and Kew. He’s worked in private gardens across the UK, and is currently head gardener at Rockcliffe in Gloucestershire. On page 42 he shows us how to create stunning container displays. “I love combining plants in containers to create schemes that fit their individual characters and enhance…

SEPTEMBER The Generous Gardener Autumn Plant Sale View an extensive range of unusual plants from leading nurseries, such as Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants, Special Plants Nursery and Arthur & Strange. 8 September, 10am-2pm. £5. The Coach House, Ampney Crucis, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 5RY. Tel 01285 850256, thegenerousgardener.co.uk RHS Garden Wisley Flower Show This annual flower show celebrates its 25th anniversary with a special six-day event featuring outstanding displays and products from more than 50 specialist nurseries and trade stands. It will also host the annual National Dahlia Society Show, and visitors are invited to enter the RHS People’s Dahlia Competition. 5-10 September, 10am-6pm. £12.60. RHS Garden Wisley, Wisley, Woking, Surrey GU23 6QB. Tel 01483 224234, rhs.org.uk/wisley Helmingham Hall Autumn Plant Fair with Artisan Market Specialist nurseries and local National Plant…

“Britons have had a taste for liquorice for nearly a thousand years, when it is thought that Crusaders returning from the Middle East brought it back with them for medicinal purposes” Liquorice is a black and white issue, its bitter-sweet taste causing you to either salivate or shudder. I was in the latter camp, the very smell enough to make me feel queasy, but a campaigning husband and wife farming team, Robert and Heather Copley, have converted me. After spending a morning with them harvesting ‘wet’ liquorice from their farm near Pontefract and eating the root straight from the ground, I can confidently declare that I’m a liquorice convert, having discovered, by the action of chewing it slowly, a fresh taste somewhere between sweetness and salt. Robert and Heather…

M uch as we’d probably all love to spend our summer days relaxing by the side of our own private swimming pool, challenges of space and budget make this more a dream than a reality for most. But there is something very special about water in the garden and you don’t need a swimming pool or a huge amount of space to take pleasure from its presence. When Marieke and Paul van Eijk were planning a garden for their new build in 2012, they liked the idea of including a pool to sit by but wanted to keep a large lawn for their children to play on. Their house, which they designed with local architects Bonnemayer Architecten, is a modern interpretation of a traditional long farm house with large windows,…

• Chelsea gold medal winner Sarah Eberle is running a garden design masterclass, ‘In the Mind’s Eye’, at Bury Court Gardens, Hampshire. The one-day course will help you develop the analytical skills that are key to understanding the visual strengths and weaknesses of a garden. 9 October, 10am-4.30pm, £120. burycourtbarn.com • Book now for the 2017 New Zealand Flower & Garden Show, which will take place at Waitakere, Auckland, from 29 November to 3 December. Directed by garden designer Kate Hillier, the five-day event will showcase New Zealand’s top landscaping and gardening talent, as well as international designers, and more than 100 horticultural displays.nzflowergardenshow.co.nz • The spirit of the International Garden Festival in Metis, northern Quebec, is captured in a new book Experimenting Landscapes: Testing the Limits of the Garden…

A private tour around 22 largely unknown gardens in East Anglia that is sure to tempt any garden lover to visit the area. Reviewer Henrietta Courtauld is one half of The Land Gardeners. SECRET GARDENS OF EAST ANGLIA by Barbara Segall, photography by Marcus Harper Frances Lincoln, £20 ISBN 978-1856233019 The use of the word ‘secret’ in the title conjures up the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, in which Mary Lennox discovers The Secret Garden hidden behind old brick walls. In this book Barbara Segall allows us to discover a largely unknown selection of gardens in East Anglia, most of which are open to the public at some point during the year. A foreword by the brilliant plantswoman Beth Chatto states so appropriately that ‘each of us, in our own…

Sarah Raven has put together her best, top-size, absolute favourite tulips in three, beautiful collections. Each collection combines colour, shape and texture to give stylish pools of colour in your garden in spring. All tulips have been trialled in Sarah’s own garden at Perch Hill in East Sussex and only the best have been selected to make up these exclusive collections. Gardens Illustrated readers can claim £5 off their orders of all three collections*. Sarah’s advice on planting tulips Plant between October and December. Planting after the first frost has set avoids the risk of disease. Choose a sunny spot with well-drained soil, or add grit to the planting hole to aid drainage. Plant at 20cm deep and 8cm apart. These collections also work well in pots. Use a loam-based…

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Rudbeckia hirta ‘Cappuccino’ Rudbeckia hirta ‘Cappuccino’ is a fabulous selection that will make sturdy branching plants and will flower throughout the summer into autumn until colder days draw the show to a close. The huge daisy flowers are dark mahogany in the centre, bleeding to an amber yellow, and look absolutely divine in the soft autumnal sunshine, or cut for the house. Each flower will last for weeks and deadheading will help to keep the show clean and encourage more blooms. These are vigorous and greedy plants, it is important to feed the soil with good compost when planting and with fertiliser into autumn. Height 1m. Origin Garden origin. Conditions Any rich soil that is not saturated; full sun. Hardiness RHS H3, USDA 3a-8b. Season Summer to autumn.…

ummer’s passing can feel sad, but take heart: the September kitchen is an uplifting place, filled with the reds, yellows and oranges of tomatoes, chillies, corn, peppers, raspberries and sunflowers. The hedgerows too are overflowing with one of my favourite foraged ingredients: blackberries. Stewed apple and blackberry compote is an essential breakfast component, but equally good is this simple preparation that results in blackberries that taste faintly of Turkish delight. Take a bowlful of blackberries and five or six leaves of rose geranium and layer together, with a dusting of sugar. Leave for a few hours, then remove the leaves. You will find the flavour of the blackberries subtly enhanced. If you like the flavour, try adding rose geranium leaves when making apple jelly. I love making corn bread with…

Making an entrance The entrance to my cottage on the estate reflects the ever-developing palette of plants I fall in and out of love with. The only constants are the two espaliered apple trees in dolly tubs, all other pots keep changing, depending on the season. In September I want it to look lush and exuberant. This ensemble is framed by two large Canna‘Musifolia’, which will never flower here simply because it is too cold, but I grow them for their foliage. How to achieve the look Colours and shapes Most of the plants around the door are grown in pots, with very few planted in the ground. I change the plants every few weeks, depending on what looks good, which ones are developing strongly and which are my current…

For too long, annuals have been looked down upon by some gardeners as not in the same league as perennials. “Oh, it’s just an annual,” people say dismissively. Well, last summer’s display of almost 90 annual cosmos at the RHS Garden at Wisley made it clear what valuable plants they are. There are about 30 species of cosmos, annuals and perennials, growing wild across subtropical America, and in Mexico in particular; two species extend their range into southern USA. The familiar garden cosmos, C. bipinnatus, grows naturally in rough meadows and scrub in Mexico, but has also established itself farther afield including much of southern and eastern USA as well as South Africa and Australia. The only other cosmos species widely grown is the perennial C. sulphureus, with orange or…

1 Field of dreams A great flickering mass of corn marigolds, knapweed and poppies: this is what we all have in the back of our minds when we imagine meadows – romantic, drop-dead gorgeous, colourful and waving gently in a warm breeze. This one is at the Old Vicarage, East Ruston, a garden that is well worth the trek to Norfolk. 2 Into the long grass This is something that can be achieved in all but the smallest gardens just by letting some of the lawn grow long and peppering it with flowers. The contrast between wild and mown is always inviting. 3 Spice it up Pilosella aurantiaca – aka fox and cubs, hen and chickens or devil’s paintbrush – brings a welcome zing of orange into a wild planting.…

50 THINGS TO DO WITH A PENKNIFE by Matt Collins Pavilion Books, £9.99 ISBN 978-1911216865 A fun book that mixes craftsmanship with savvy survival skills. THE BOOK OF SHED by Joel Bird Blink Publishing, £20 ISBN 978-1911274803 Find inspiration and useful information to help you plan for and create the perfect garden shed. THE NATIONAL TRUST TOUR OF BRITAIN by Anna Groves and Sally Palmer National Trust Books, £25 ISBN 978-1911358190 Admire stunning places across the British Isles that are cared for by the National Trust. URBAN BOTANICS by Emma Sibley, illustrations by Maaike Koster Aurum Press Ltd, £18 ISBN 978-1781316535 A collection of beautiful illustrations of house plants with advice on how to grow them. 111 GARDENS IN LONDON THAT YOU SHOULDN’T MISS by Kirstin von Glasow Emons Verlag,…

1 LOIRE VALLEY GARDENS EUROPEAN GARDEN Possibly the best-known potager in the world, Villandry is a stunning start of your tour of the beautiful and inspiring Loire Valley gardens. Experience the Loire Valley through its gardens, food and wine, staying within a private estate surrounded by a thoughtfully designed garden in the heart of the valley of the French Kings. Address Moulin de Maulne, 37330 Lublé, Loire valley, France Tel +33 (0)615503690 Web loire-valley-gardens.com 2 FORDE ABBEY Forde Abbey is a popular destination for families, garden lovers and historians alike. Set within 30 acres of award-winning gardens, you’ll find something of interest all year round. With our stunning dahlias in September, which are in abundance in the long borders and kitchen garden, when the herbaceous planting is at its best.…

• The allure of species pelargonium • Hardy and tropical plants combine in an imaginatively planted New York state garden • Rich autumn planting for late season interest • Celebrating the variety of apples at Gravetye Manor’s heritage orchard Save money when you subscribe to the digital edition – see page 30. ON SALE 14 SEPTEMBER Also in selected Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco stores, as well as WHSmith, and all good magazine retailers.…