Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2018 i Gardens Illustrated Magazine

Roses start setting their hips early in the season but it is only once the temperature drops that they start to show their colour. All roses produce hips but we don’t typically see them as often as we do the flowers because, as gardeners, we tend to remove the spent blooms. Troy Scott Smith, head gardener at Sissinghurst Castle Garden where the rose is perhaps their most iconic flower, shares with us his selection of the best roses to grow for the brilliance of their hips. The list includes glossy orange Rosa ‘Meg’, inky black Rosa spinosissima and the hedgerow rose, Rosa rugosa, which has big, round, scarlet hips. Troy’s cultivation notes for hips and flowers include tying stems horizontally to encourage more flowers and later a timely retreat with…

Great Dixter has been described as one of the most dynamic flower gardens in the world and as such has a great deal to teach gardeners and garden enthusiasts about the traditional techniques used to get such outstanding results. With the magnificent gardens as the backdrop to your study day, head gardener Fergus Garrett will expertly guide you through the key tasks needed to be done at the start of the year to ensure your garden continues through to a flower-filled spring, summer and autumn. This is a busy time of year and Fergus’s talk will look at planning and preparation, including creating a timetable, composting and soil preparation, weeding, thinning out of self-sowers, working off of boards, splitting, dividing and planting self-sowers, timing of seed sowing and pricking out,…

GOOD TO KNOW No matter how long you’ve been gardening it’s always good to learn new skills, and West Dean College of Art and Conservation in West Sussex has an exciting programme of gardening courses planned for winter and spring. There are courses to suit all interests and levels of expertise, from workshops in creating Christmas decorations from foraged materials and making an open terrarium, to practical and lecture-based courses on different aspects of flower and vegetable growing and garden design. Tutors include garden designers Annie Guilfoyle, Jen Berry and James Alexander-Sinclair, head gardener Tom Brown, no-dig expert Charles Dowding and plantswoman Derry Watkins, and course fees start at £83. Find out more at westdean.org.uk FRESH LOOK Peonies have seen a justifiable boost to their popularity this year thanks to…

The Wadden Islands form a long archipelago in the North Sea that stretches from the Netherlands to Denmark. Five of the inhabited islands lie off the Dutch coast and the smallest of these is Schiermonnikoog. The island is rich in fauna and flora, and in 1989 was designated a National Park. Although it’s just nine miles long and two miles wide, the island includes a vast range of different habitats, including forests, saline grasslands, dunes, mudflats and polders – all filled with flowers. As you’d expect it’s especially rich in coastal plants, such as seabuckthorn, sea lavender, sea wormwood and sea aster as well as many different types of lichens and mushrooms. The island is also home to thousands of birds, including barnacle geese, spoonbills and hen harriers, making Schiermonnikoog…

Within the upper echelons of the international garden design community, Eric Ossart (standing on the right) and Arnaud Maurières are high priests of exactitude. “The detail is vital,” says Arnaud. “We can spend years finding the right plants to make our gardens, then propagating sufficient stock. We may live on site for a year, developing a general concept, then refining the detail. Every day we change something. It means we can only make a few gardens, but it is essential to our process.” Ossart and Maurières excel in producing beautiful, sustainable gardens in some of the most inhospitable parts of the world. If their profile is relatively low in the UK, it is because their work is so tuned to the hot dry climates of the southern Mediterranean, Africa and…

1 Eucalyptus kybeanensis A good choice for a specimen tree in a smaller garden, grown either as a standard or as a multi-stem. The foliage is reminiscent of that of an olive tree. Best grown in the ground. Unpruned height 4m. RHS H5. 2 Eucalyptus neglecta Enormous, rounded juvenile leaves, that mature to glossy, bay-like leaves. Happy in any soil including sandy and also waterlogged clays. Fast growing. Grow in border or a large pot. Unpruned height 6m. RHS H6. 3 Eucalyptus gregsoniana Much shorter than most Eucalyptus, with a smooth, silvery and cream bark. The new stems are a coppery red and the leaves elongated. Best grown in the ground for stability or in a heavy pot. Unpruned height 5m. RHS H5. 4 Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. pauciflora This selection…

THE STEP-OVER 1 Metre Steel Rod Fencing, £79, H121 x W100cm (8 rods), Manufactum, 0800 096 0938, manufactum.co.uk PLANT SUPPORT Elegance Screens, from £79, H140 x W62cm, Agriframes, 0117 934 1790, agriframes.co.uk REDUCED NOISE LEVELS Decibel Noise Reduction Fence Panels, £389.95 (set of three), H180 x W83cm, The Worm that Turned, 0345 605 2505, worm.co.uk CLASSIC LOOK Pointed Top Picket Fencing, from £36, H90 x W180cm, The Garden Trellis Co, 01255 688361, gardentrellis.co.uk AGE YOUR GARDEN Corten Steel Panels (Branches Design), from £410, H178 x W119cm, Harrod Horticultural, 0333 400 1500, harrodhorticultural.com SIMPLE DETAIL Woven Fence Panels, £81.20, H152 x W183cm, Jacksons Fencing, 0800 408 2234, jacksons-fencing.co.uk CONTEMPORARY Western Red Cedar Slatted Screen Battens, £1.69 for one 19 x 38mm batten, Silva Timber, 020 8150 8055, silvatimber.co.uk TOWN-HOUSE STYLE Wenlock…

Make sure your front door is perfectly dressed for Christmas festivities with this gorgeous wreath from The Real Cut Flower Garden. This year’s design by Charlie Ryrie uses preserved beech and a touch of gilded oak along with yellow and red stems of curly willow, dressed with a cheerful handwoven woollen ribbon from UK textile design studio Wallace#Sewell. Not only does the design offer something different from the usual evergreen wreaths, the leaves of this wreath are naturally preserved in glycerine, which means that the leaves won’t wilt, crinkle or drop but will last for months – even years if they don’t get weatherbeaten – eventually going a rich coppery bronze. HOW TO ORDER-READER OFFER SAVING OF £4.50 Wreaths are delivered by post, and for Gardens Illustrated readers will be…

TROY SCOTT SMITH Troy selects the best roses for hips, page 46. “The sheer exuberance of roses has long fascinated me, and this month I indulge in the beauty of their hips.” MARION NICKIG Marion photographs a frost-covered Tuin de Villa in the Netherlands, page 42 “A frosty winter morning perfectly highlights and accentuates the structures of Tuin de Villa garden.” MATT KEIGHTLEY Matt starts a new design ideas series, page 80. “My design series will provide a glimpse into the world that keeps my mind ticking. Design insight, inspiration and ideas.”…

1 Winter Sculpture Exhibition Join a free guided walk of the sculptures on show at RHS Garden Rosemoor’s Winter Sculpture Exhibition. Weather permitting, tours will take place most Wednesdays (excluding Boxing Day) at 2pm, until 17 February 2019. Call on the day to confirm. RHS Garden Rosemoor, Great Torrington, Devon EX38 8PH. Tel 01805 626810, rhs.org.uk 2 Garden Tour of Montalto Estate Explore the gardens and grounds of Montalto Estate in Co Down, Northern Ireland, which opened to the public this year. The estate features a winter garden, an alpine garden and trails that lead through woodland and around a lake. Wednesday – Sunday, 10am-4pm (last entry 3pm). Montalto Estate, Spa Road, Ballynahinch, Northern Ireland BT24 8PT. Tel 028 9756 6100, montaltoestate.com 3 Winter Garden Walk Enjoy a guided walk…

Russia’s public gardens tend to date from the early 18th century, developed during the reign of Peter the Great, who recruited European landscape designers to create gardens in the formal ‘English’ style. Clustered around Moscow or St Petersburg, they are easily visited independently. But to my mind, the richer horticultural narrative lies outside the cities in the dachas – small, country summer houses situated in their own parcel of land. They were traditionally of huge importance as family retreats, used for growing medicinal plants and food to preserve and pickle for the long winters. Dating from the time of the tsars, dachas were largely state owned during the Soviet period but have returned to private hands in post-Soviet Russia. The 2003 Private Garden Plot Act gave citizens the right to…

1 Eucalyptus ‘Shannon Blue’ A hybrid bred for the floristry trade, this vigorous plant has stems of rounded, glaucous, silver leaves. It can be grown as a hedge and retains its colour through the winter. Unpruned height 10m. RHS H5† . 2 Eucalyptus nicholii An airy tree with narrow, almost feathery, sage-green leaves. Its common name – narrow-leaved black peppermint – references its strongly aromatic foliage. Unpruned height 12m. RHS H5. 3 Eucalyptus pulverulenta ‘Baby Blue’ A compact, bushy cultivar that can be grown in a pot. The silvery-grey stems are long-lasting when cut for flower arrangements. Unpruned height 5m. RHS H5. 4 Eucalyptus gunnii The most widely grown species in the UK. It has peeling cream and brown bark, rounded, glaucous-blue juvenile leaves and elliptic or sickle-shaped, grey-green adult…

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 TREES by Jonathan Drori Laurence King Publishing, £17.99 ISBN 978-1786271617 Starting in England looking at two familiar iconic hybrid trees – the London plane and the Leyland cypress – the author takes readers eastwards in an anti-clockwise direction around the world. The 80 featured trees are a clever and diverse representation of the 60,000 distinct tree species that can be found on our planet, all with inspiring, descriptive and true stories that bring them alive. Reviewed by Tony Kirkham in the May 2018 issue. BRILLIANT & WILD by Lucy Bellamy Photographs by Jason Ingram Pimpernel Press, £20 ISBN 978-1910258637 Brilliant & Wild promises a garden from scratch in a year, with barely any maintenance or horticultural knowledge necessary. It could sound too good to be…

1 NYMANS Packed with plants chosen specially for interest over the winter months, ‘Winter Walk’ at Nymans is filled with the heady scent of witch hazels and daphnes. And in December, the Heather Garden comes into its own, with vibrant drifts of contrasting colour and views towards the South Downs. Handcross, West Sussex RH17 6EB | 01444 405250 | nationaltrust.org.uk 2 HEVER CASTLE & GARDENS WINTER WALKS 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. Hever, nr Edenbridge, Kent TN8 7NG | 01732 865224 | hevercastle.co.uk…

PLANT SPECIAL • How Sarah Raven created Perch Hill • The perfumier who taught David Austin to understand scent • Planting ideas for a perennial border • A beautiful garden on Scotland’s west coast, inspired by South African flora • Andy Sturgeon chooses his favourite gardening books…

JAMES BASSON James lives in the South of France where he runs Scape Design with his wife Helen, specialising in low-maintenance and dry gardens. He is a fervent advocate for creating sustainable landscapes. The winner of four Chelsea Gold medals, he was awarded Best in Show in 2017. FERGUS GARRETT Fergus was appointed head gardener at Great Dixter by Christopher Lloyd in 1993. He is passionate about passing on his knowledge through student and volunteer programmes at Dixter and through worldwide lectures. He was awarded an RHS Associate of Honour in 2008. ANNA PAVORD Anna’s books include her bestseller The Tulip and most recently Landskipping. For 30 years she was The Independent’s gardening correspondent. In 2000 the RHS awarded her the Veitch Memorial Medal. She lives and gardens in Dorset.…

STEPPING OUT Visiting a garden in winter is a great opportunity to appreciate the bones of its design – and offers you the chance to blow away the cobwebs and walk off too much delicious festive fare. If you’re looking for ideas, the National Trust has a huge selection of winter gardens to inspire. Among our favourite National Trust gardens to visit in December are Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal Water Garden in North Yorkshire (above), where the garden’s magnificent trees are reflected in the mirror-like pools of the Georgian water garden, and Powis Castle in north Wales, which has fabulous topiary. If you’re on the lookout for winter-planing inspiration, then head to Nymans in West Sussex, which has an excellent collection of winter-flowering heathers or Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire,…

EUONYMUS FORTUNEI ‘WOLONG GHOST’ Discovered by the plantsman and plant collector Dan Hinkley in the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan, China, this evergreen groundcover has narrow, dark-green leaves that are marked with silvery white veins and looks a little like a ghostly tinted Vinca minor . Over time, it will form a carpet and climb in other plants and can also be trained up a support. Fortunately, however, it’s not as invasive as ivy. It works well when combined with small-leaved hostas and hellebores. AGM*. Height 40cm. Origin China. Conditions Moist but well-drained soil; full sun to full shade. Hardiness RHS H5, USDA 5a-10b† . Season of interest Year round. SOLIDAGO RUGOSA ‘FIREWORKS’ With its bright-yellow flowers that are borne in dense, plume-like panicles on the ends of elegantly…

Earliest garden memory I grew up in the old town in Hastings and I remember all the self-seeded echiums rising like rocket ships above people’s fences and wondering what on earth they were. First plant love I love my Nan’s tree fern that she got in a local hardware store when I was a kid, I remember trying to cram it into the back seat of her Mini to get it home. It’s even more of a love story because now it is mine and it reminds me of her every day. Who has inspired your career the most? My old head gardener Troy Scott Smith at Sissinghurst. He taught me to question everything, persevere through criticism and to trust your instincts. A garden that has influenced you Ichijo-ji temple…

I’ve got really quick at making grass,” laughs ceramic artist Katie Spragg as she shows me pieces of her meadow sculptures tucked away on shelves in her southeast London studio. In this small space Katie makes plants using clay, moulding each piece in such a way that it appears to want to escape from whatever space she confines it to. If the pieces aren’t reaching through cracks in rocks or pavements, they are pushing against panes of glass in glasshouse-like structures. Illustration is key to the composition of each piece and Katie has covered the walls of her studio with drawings from places she has visited. These sketches, along with photographs and research, help create a final mock-up of the finished piece. The making process differs, depending on how detailed…

1 Eucalyptus parvula Reddish stems on rounded juvenile leaves. Mature trees have willow-like foliage and the grey bark peels to reveal a silvery trunk. Unpruned height 10m. AGM. RHS H5. 2 Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. debeuzevillei Prized for its marbled white and pale-grey bark and its spreading habit. The leaves are larger than in most species, with a leathery texture. Unpruned height 10m. AGM. RHS H6. 3 Eucalyptus kitsoniana Willow-like leaves and masses of small flowers. Performs particularly well as a screen or hedge. Will grow in wet soils and tolerates salt-laden winds. Unpruned height 5-10m. RHS H5. 4 Eucalyptus urnigera A fast-growing tree with peeling bark that is silvery white when young, maturing to a tapestry of grey, olive and gold. The young leaves and stems are silvery-grey, maturing to…

1. OLD COURT NURSERIES Michaelmas daisy specialists since 1906. Plants available by mail order in spring. Mail-order catalogue available by request or see online for more details. autumnasters.co.uk | 01684 540416 5. ORNAMENTAL TREES Family run business specialising in ornamental trees, fruit trees and large shrubs. Over 550 varieties to choose from, offered in various sizes from young plants to mature specimen trees up to 6 metres. ornamental-trees.co.uk | 01943 660870 9. WOOTTENS OF WENHASTON Rural Suffolk based nursery specialising in herbaceous perennials. Handmade festive door wreaths available by mail order throughout December and many Christmas gift ideas including plants, books and vouchers woottensplants.com | 01502 478 258 2. RV ROGER LTD Traditional third generation nursery, growing a huge range of heritage roses, fruit trees and hardy nursery stock in the Vale of…