Innholdsfortegnelse for Christmas 2018 i Gardens Illustrated Magazine

In the Gardens Illustrated Plant Special we venture far and wide, from the shores of Wester Ross in northwest Scotland to Cornwall’s cliffs and valleys on Britain’s southernmost tip. Durnamuck in the Scottish Highlands is the definition of a garden on the edge of a landscape. Will Soos and Sue Pomeroy who met while working at the botanic garden of Inverewe – Will was responsible for the walled garden and Sue worked as a propagator – bought a croft there to build a home. Durnamuck benefits from the warmth of the Gulf Stream and, inspired by their travels in Chile and South Africa, Will and Sue have made an incredible garden using plants that are unseen in colder parts of the UK. Watsonias, crocosmias, dieramas, restios and grasses grow cheek-by-jowl.…

Following our highly successful first Rose Tour in 2018 with rose expert Michael Marriott on his home patch in Shropshire, we now venture to southern England on a gentle journey to enjoy more roses in some wonderful gardens. Visits feature classic gardens, such as Sissinghurst Castle, Mottisfont Abbey, Nymans and Pashley Manor, as well as a selection of exceptional private gardens, including Town Place with its 600 or so roses, Clinton Lodge where you’ll find old roses all trained at nose height for maximum opportunity to appreciate scent, Frankham Manor with its all-pink rose garden and Redenham Park, where roses form a key part of the rich tapestry of planting. If you love the perfume of roses on an early summer’s day and have always promised yourself time to discover…

The varied and dramatic landscapes of Northern Cyprus are renowned in the botanical world for an astonishing variety of flora. The showy lily family is well represented with Fritillaria persica, Fritillaria acmopetala and tulips growing wild here. You’ll find spectacular limestone mountains, ancient olive and citrus groves, and a superb unspoilt coastline, with just a few scattered towns and villages along the way. Since the partition of Cyprus in 1974, Northern Cyprus has remained largely isolated (the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is still recognised only by Turkey). It feels authentic and retro, like a last undeveloped corner of the Mediterranean. Local initiatives seek to protect nature’s abundance by controlling overgrazing and celebrating the endemic island flora. Inspiration for the trip Since partition, the island’s capital Nicosia has also been…

While at horticultural college I studied interior landscaping, which essentially means growing tropical and sub-tropical plants inside, something that immediately went out of fashion and my course was promptly axed. I’ve since been a gardener, a garden writer and a garden designer. I am trained in none of these areas but owning a lot of books and having dipped into most of them I can say that I owe much of my success and most of my knowledge to them. I find being around books and the information they contain incredibly reassuring and anchoring. I paid too much for my house in Brighton because it has its own library and then promptly built another one in my studio at work. Looking around I now wonder if I’m classed as a…

GRAHAM GOUGH Graham offers a borders masterclass, page 36. “The past 20 years have been spent developing Marchants Hardy Plants, designing a garden, and growing and painting with the plants I love.” LARA CALL GASTINGER Lara illustrates our nature journal feature, page 52 “My own journal distils a lifetime’s observations of the plants around me into each week of the year.” MARTIN STOTT Martin discusses rose scent with perfumier Robert Calkin, page 44. “Robert’s vocabulary for describing and discerning different rose scents will take your appreciation of rose blooms to a new level.”…

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,…

Everyone knows that roses smell beautiful, but how many of us linger to inhale the different fragrances until the notes of each plant become a familiar melody? If you were led round your garden blindfolded, could you identify your roses purely by their scent? One man who might succeed is Robert Calkin – one of the world’s great scent experts. Eighty-four-year-old Robert spent 40 years as a ‘nose-to-hire’ in the perfume industry, teaching the skills required to understand and create scents for perfumes and laundry products. Twenty years ago, he was approached by rosarian David Austin and asked for help in classifying accurately the scents of roses created at the Albrighton nursery in the West Midlands. Though a reasonably keen sense of smell is a primary prerequisite for any career…

1 Zinnia elegans ‘State Fair’ An annual that produces large, double flowers in a multitude of colours, including red, orange, purple, yellow and pink. Flowers from June until the first frosts. Great for attracting butterflies. 75-90cm. USDA 2a-11† . 2 Celosia argentea var. cristata ‘Scarlet Plume’ Produces dramatic, long-lasting scarlet feathers above bi-coloured dark-red and green foliage. Suitable for full sun or part shade. 45cm. 3 Nicotiana alata ‘Sensation’ A half-hardy, fragrant mix of mauve and pink cut-and-come-again flowers from June to late summer. Attractive to bees. 75cm. USDA 10a-11. 4 Tagetes patula x erecta ‘Chameleon’ An unusual and intriguing cultivar that bears single, double and crested flowers of different colours all on the same plant. No two plants are ever the same. 45cm. 5 Salpiglossis sinuata ‘Little Friends’ A…

For over a decade, I have been making the long journey to west Cornwall for the sole purpose of visiting Lower Kenneggy Nurseries. Situated in rolling countryside, just off the Helston road to Penzance, the nursery is half a mile from the coast. It offers many wonderful, unusual plants and is managed by proprietor and plantsman, Stephen Mules. Stephen purchased four acres of land in the 1980s with the intention of creating a market garden growing a few ornamental plants to support his sideline gardening business. Vegetable production proved to be rather arduous and poorly paid, however, while the nursery side of the business prospered and eventually took over. Stephen recalls the nursery’s beginnings: “I started growing ornamentals, including a wide range of fuchsias and bedding plants. Gradually, I’ve developed…

1 Don’t be overly polite. If everything is too tasteful, the garden will become bland. Remember, there is no such thing as a bad colour, although there can be bad combinations of colour. 2 You need a few star turns – those show-stopper plants that will get all the attention. But you also need a bit of rice with your curry – the hedges, paths and terraces that hold the garden together. And if I had my time over again, I would put in more structural planting. 3 Sowing seed and propagating from cuttings are two of the best things you can do to improve your mental state. Raising your own plants is tremendously relaxing. 4 Harvesting from your garden, whether you are cutting vegetables or a vase of flowers,…

1 WAKEHURST Kew’s wild botanic garden in Sussex, has more than 500 acres of ornamental gardens, woodlands and nature reserves. Beautiful whatever the season, the gardens are internationally significant for collections, scientific research and conservation. You can also visit Kew’s unique Millennium Seed Bank, where science and horticulture work side by side. kew.org/wakehurst  | 01444 894066 2 GILBERT WHITE & THE OATES COLLECTIONS Gilbert White, the 18th-century writer and naturalist was a keen gardener. At his home in Selborne see his 25-acre garden recreated, with historical plants and White’s quirky details. The garden is attached to a wonderful museum, shop and café, where you can buy and taste plants and produce from the garden. Selborne, Hampshire GU34 3JH | gilbertwhiteshouse.org.uk 3 BLARNEY CASTLE Blarney Castle and Gardens are…

JANUARY ISSUE • A peek inside the private Californian garden of Australian designer Bernard Trainor • Tom Stuart-Smith’s design for a private Spanish garden • A striking Moroccan garden near the Atlas Mountains • Fabulous foliage and form in Oregon • The best plants to grow in 2019…

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.…

1 Erica cinerea f. alba ‘Alba Major’ A prostrate evergreen shrub with bright-green foliage and short racemes of white flowers from July to September. Spreads to 40cm. 30cm. RHS H7† . 2 Alonsoa warscewiczii Slender, wiry purple-tinged stems are packed with bright-scarlet flowers from June until October. 50cm. RHS H4. 3 Inula hookeri Fine-rayed yellow daisies, 6cm across, at the end of summer. Can spread rapidly on rich, moist soil. 75cm. RHS H6. 4 Pinus mugo Compact, slow-growing conifer with a rounded habit. Needs sharply drained soil in full sun. 1m after ten years. RHS H7, USDA 2a-7b. 5 Kniphofia ‘Toffee Nosed’ Tough, grey-green foliage and slender spires of apricot flowers, from June to August, that fade to cream. 1m. AGM*. RHS H5. 6 Osteospermum ‘Nairobi Purple’ A spreading plant…

1 Grevillea rhyolitica A good medium-sized shrub for a sheltered site that will take light frosts. Flowers are produced on pendent racemes above ovate foliage from late spring into summer, and all year at Lower Kenneggy. 1-2m. RHS H3† . 2 Aeonium ‘Cyclops’ A dramatic hybrid, with long stems topped with dark-purple rosettes, each with a green eye. Panicles of starry yellow flowers are produced in spring. Makes a striking pot plant. 1.5m. RHS H1C. 3 Tibouchina paratropica Makes numerous round, pink flowers through the summer. It can die back to the rootstock in colder greenhouses over winter; otherwise it remains shrubby. Resents being kept wet. 60cm. RHS H3. 4 Canna ‘Phasion’ Wonderful foliage with pale amber stripes on a darker background. Looks brilliant when backlit and is a useful…

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 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 Pickering, North Yorkshire. Multiple RHS Gold Medal awards. Plant Centre open all year round. rvroger.co.uk  | 01751 472226 3. WEASDALE NURSERIES LTD Hardy trees and shrubs from hardy beginnings at an elevation of 260m above sea level. Ask for a copy of our splendid 126-page mail-order catalogue today. weasdale.com  | 015396 23246 4. TWELVE NUNNS Buy our Harvington Hellebores® as pot plants now. Thirty different varieties. Carefully packed and planting advice enclosed. Propagated and…