Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2023 i Gardens Illustrated Magazine

At this time of year, it's hard to resist the temptation to pick up new plants at every show, fair and garden or nursery visit, so this issue we are bringing you expert recommendations for plants that peak now, including our head gardener's choice of top performing plants for May (page 24). Discover the delights of lesser-grown seasonal gems such as Disporum (page 44) and Matsumae cherries (page 70), as well as water plants for wildlife (page 80), and new ideas for alternative ‘bedding’ plants to fill gaps in summer borders and pots (page 58). We have plenty of beautiful garden inspiration too, from the wild bluebells of Enys Gardens in Cornwall (page 36) to the loose and lovely cottage-style planting in a small London garden designed by Butter Wakefield…

Be sure to check opening times. Some garden visits may need to be pre-booked. A half-hour drive from Bath, Bowood Woodland Garden is open for just six weeks each year from mid-April to early June, when it is at its seasonal peak. Famous for its rhododendrons and azaleas, the garden offers a dazzling display of colour in May. The woodland, which has a separate entrance to the main gardens, is based around the Robert Adam-designed family mausoleum, commissioned in 1761 by the widow of John Petty Fitzmaurice, the 1st Earl of Shelburne, and features two mi les of pathways where you can meander freely or follow a ‘Walk of the Week’. Devizes Road, Wiltshire SN119PG. Tel 01249 812102, bowood.org I often find myself heading off to small, independent nurseries for…

Manoj Malde is living proof that you should always follow your dreams. Having worked in the fashion industry for almost 20 years, he decided to pursue his passion for plants, swapping haute couture for horticulture. Today he runs a successful design practice, works as a TV presenter and an RHS judge and, since 2022, has been the RHS's ambassador for inclusivity. Not bad for a mid-life change of career. Born in Kenya, Manoj grew up surrounded by plants. “Although we didn't have a garden, we had this enormous balcony filled with roses, jasmine and colocasias,” he recalls. He and his family moved to the UK when he was four. “My brother started a veg patch in our new garden and I helped him. Then I became fascinated by houseplants and…

PLANTS NURSERY Who would have thought that of all the places you could start an aquatic plant nursery, it would be in your mother's spare room? For David Reynolds, this is exactly where he found himself in 2016. His mother, Dawn Fisher, remembers it well. “David was studying for a degree in computer science and one day was asked to help clear out a lake. Instead of throwing all the oxygenator plants away, he sold them on the internet and, not long after, decided to set up a plant nursery,” she says. “I was soon growing seeds in my guest room and in the garden. It was crazy really.” From that day, Lincolnshire Pond Plants was established and began selling the whole gamut of aquatic and marginal plants. Like all…

1 David Harber stand design David Harber has partnered with US landscape design practice James Doyle Design Associates to create his stand at Chelsea. Alongside the launch of new sculpture, Florio, the stand will feature planting chosen to provide a backdrop of warm colours and textures to highlight the forms and patinas of the sculptures. 2 V&V design collaboration Raj Tent Club is launching a new collection of tents, pergolas, deckchairs and sunshades at the Chelsea Flower Show, in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum. Based on designs from the museum's archives, two patterns – Chinoiserie and Clematis – decorate its latest offering. 3 New sweet peas revealed Grower Darren Everest will unveil two new sweet peas at the show this year. Both have frilled flowers in shades of…

Ken Thompson Ken's new myth-busting column re-examines some of our most widely accepted garden wisdom, page 31. “There's lots of ‘gardening wisdom’ out there, but just how wise is it?” Kirsty Fergusson Kirsty visits the littleknown Enys Gardens in Cornwall, page 36. “Enys has that magical quality of transporting you out of the everyday world; there's a timeless sense of quiet growth and renewal.” Eleanor Walpole Eleanor photographs a city garden with a country feel, page 52. “Abundant planting, clever shading and the peaceful fall of water invite a throng of wildlife to this exquisite hidden garden.” CONTRIBUTING EDITORS James Basson James lives in the South of France where he runs Scape Design, a practice specialising in low-maintenance and dry gardens. He is a fervent advocate for creating sustainable landscapes.…

The news last year that the RHS was no longer classifying slugs and snails as pests probably raised a few quizzical eyebrows among gardeners, but with biodiversity in crisis these are not the only unwelcome garden visitors we need to reassess. Inspired by Tom Massey's garden for this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show (see page 90), we've asked Tom and the Royal Entomological Society to help us rehabilitate the image of some of the most maligned garden insects in a series of exclusive new features, starting with the much-despised aphid (right). Find out more about why we need to learn to love even plant-munching invertebrates at gardensillustrated.com/bugs Talking point TURF WAR Is it time to call time on plastic lawns? The Society of Garden Designers (SGD) thinks so. With support…

PLANTING IDEAS I love the excitement of adding tender and borderline hardy plants to containers and the garden beds. It brings with it a temporary opportunity to experiment and be playful. At Dixter, we use bedding to play around with colours and textures, and to challenge ourselves to think about new growing techniques and planting approaches. WHERE TO BUY Recommended suppliers • Chiltern Seeds Tel 01491824675, chilternseeds.co.uk • Crocus Tel 01344 578000, crocus.co.uk • Great Dixter House & Garden Tel 01797 252878. shop.greatdixter.co.uk • The Glasshouse Tel 01580 714321, theglasshouse.co.uk • Moles Seeds Tel 01206 213213, wholesale.molesseeds.co.uk • Mr Fothergills Tel 0333 111 3936, mr-fothergills.co.uk • Plant World Seeds Tel 01803 872939, plant-world-seeds.com • Sarah Raven Tel 0345 092 0283, sarahraven.com • Special Plants Tel 01225 891686, specialplants.net These top-performing…

THE BOOK OF WILDING: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO REWILDING, BIG AND SMALL by Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell Bloomsbury Publishing, £35 ISBN 978-1526659293 From the masters of rewilding, a detailed look at creating wilder landscapes for all species for a healthier, more resilient environment. Reviewer Alys Fowler is a gardener and garden writer. This is a great tome of a book and certainly the one you'd reach for it you were minded to rewild some land. It is rooted in the practical experience of Tree and Burrell's Knepp Estate in West Sussex, but rather than being just a ‘how to’ manual, it is a deep philosophical dive into what rewilding is, where it can be used and how to negotiate the complex terrain of creating landscapes where humans and more-than-humans…

EREMURUS HIMALAICUS The first of our foxtail lilies to flower and a wonderful accent plant, rising out of the ground like a tall, white exclamation mark. I was initially concerned that strong wind would cause the flower spires to topple over, but they've never once needed staking. A simple yet striking combination is to team it with the white globes of Allium ‘Mount Everest’. The basal rosette doesn't like being swamped in spring, but once the foliage dies back after flowering, it is useful to have later-flowering neighbours that can fill in the gaps. Height and spread Up to 2m; space plants at least 30cm apart. Origin Afghanistan, Pakistan and western Himalayas. Conditions Fertile, well-drained soil; full sun. Best protected from strong winds. Hardiness RHS H6, USDA 5a-8b†. Season of…

PEOPLE GARDENING TALENT I'd love to work with a chef and grow vegetable varieties that would be used to create amazing dishes for a restaurant or hotel Earliest gardening memory Choosing a pack of pansies in the garden centre for a tiny corner in my mum's garden. I was so excited to plant them up, but they were all eaten by slugs. A good first lesson in the challenges of horticulture! First plant love Cacti. I was always intrigued by their various shapes and sizes, and how and why they grew that way. Who inspired your career the most? My grandad. When I was growing up I would visit him on Friday evenings, and he would tell me stories about his time as a forester. I always knew I wanted…

• Disporum are long-lived perennials that thrive in light to deep shade. They resent direct sunlight but will tolerate some if the ground remains consistently moist. • In common with other rare woodlanders, Disporum resent dry, hot summers and cold, wet winters, demanding moist but well-drained soil that is rich in organic matter. • Once established, the more vigorous species can tolerate a surprising amount of dry shade. More vigorous species, in particular the deciduous forms, are also reliably cold tolerant. If in doubt, you can apply a layer of leaves through winter. This is a good idea for young plants. Late frosts will make short work of early emerging shoots but mature plants shrug this off with a fresh crop of asparagus-like stems that are strong enough to push…

IN BRIEF What Small private garden constructed on a steep slope, featuring local stone in various textures and juxtapositions. Where Luxembourg. Size 680 square metres. Soil Heavy clay, improved with lava chippings, tufa and compost, and mulched with gravel. Climate Moderate continental climate with cold winters and increasingly hot summers. Hardiness zone USDA 7. When faced with a small, steeply sloping garden, many people might simply opt for grass and a few shrubs, but not the owners of this plot in Garnich, a village on the outskirts of the city of Luxembourg. Instead, they contacted Peter Berg, a German landscape designer known for making beautiful gardens in the most difficult of spots (his own has a height difference of 40m, front to back) using his trademark building material of natural rock. Though this garden had…

Darren Appiagyei's wooden vessels force the viewer to look at trees in a new light. Instead of working like a conventional woodturner and smoothing out the flaws in the wood, Darren highlights them. “My work is dictated by the imperfections, those cracks, those grains, those burrs, those barks,” he says. “I try to enhance those features that make the wood so beautiful and encourage people to look at it in a different way.” Darren first came across woodturning by accident while studying 3D design at Camberwell College of Arts. Set the task of learning a new skill, he spotted that the lathe was never used, and he realised that this was an opportunity to complete his learning task without waiting to use more popular equipment. He found working with wood…

Spires and rare shrubs The Botanic Nursery When Mary and Terry Baker did their first solo Chelsea exhibit, some 30 years ago, they featured The Botanic Nursery's rare trees and shrubs, plus the foxgloves that have since become their signature plants. They included species foxgloves that hadn't been seen before at Chelsea, having put them under lights to get them to flower. Ironically, they've rarely been able to have those particular ones in flower since. “Foxgloves are nice and easy to grow in the garden,” explains Mary, “but once you put them in a pot and try to force them into flower, even by two or three weeks, they become soft and flabby and susceptible to aphids.” Its thanks to Terry's constant nurturing of the 500 or so specimens they…

GARDENS OF THE NATIONAL TRUST by Stephen Lacey National Trust Books, £25 ISBN 978-1911657125 Fourth edition of this definitive guide, with new entries, and details of redevelopments and new projects. THE SEASONED GARDENER by Liz Zorab Permanent Publications, £20 ISBN 978-1856232647 Unlike many gardening books that run from January to December, this guide by self-sufficiency practitioner Liz Zorab starts in the autumn when harvesting is at its peak. THE GARDEN PROBLEM SOLVER Foreword by Adam Frost BBC Books, £16.99 ISBN 978-1785948220 An accessible, year-round troubleshooting guide to the most common gardening mistakes and problems, from the expert team at BBC Gardeners’ World. PLANTING WITH NATURE by Kirsty Wilson Birlinn, £14.99 ISBN 978-1780278049 The garden manager at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on how to reimagine our gardens to support wildlife,…