Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i Gardens Illustrated Magazine

The is the season to appreciate form and structure in the garden; clipped topiary shapes and standing seedheads, all thrown into sharp relief with a light coating of frost. This issue, we bring you fantastic winter garden featuring just such delights, from the organically shaped box and yew forms in the late Jacques Wirtz's garden (page 54) to ice-dusted perennials in a photographer's Cotswold plot (page 32). And there's insight into different ways to add winter interest in a design by charlotte Rowe that melds modern and traditional elements with aplomb (page 86). This month, we also celebrate the holiday season with gorgeous ideas for gardening gifts (page 15), tasty and warming winter recipes (page 78) and our fabulous festive florals photoshoot, with three beautiful projects for natural decorations to…

2-3 Advent at the Laskett Explore Sir Roy Strong's garden with mulled wine and mince pies. Weekend of 2-3 December (also 9-10 December), 2.30pm or 5pm. £12. The Laskett, Laskett Lane, Much Birch, Herefordshire HR2 8HZ. Tel 01432 805454. thelaskett.org.uk 7-11 Winter Flowers Week Five floral designers will transform the Garden Museum for Winter Flowers. Monday 11 December, 10am-5pm. £14. Garden Museum, Lambeth Palace Road, London SE1 7LB. Tel 020 7401 8865. gardenmuseum.org 9 Willow Weaving Learn how to create festive willow decorations on this half-day workshop. Saturday 9 December, 10am-12.30pm or 1.304pm. £50. RHS Garden Bridgewater, Occupation Road, Worsley, Salford, Greater Manchester M28 2LJ. rhs.org.uk…

Be sure to check opening times. Some garden visits may need to be pre-booked. I tend to read more gardening books in the winter months. While I love browsing bookstores, especially second-hand ones, I love the RHS Lindley Library in London. Open to visitors and researchers, it holds a world-class collection of current and historical books on plants, gardening and its history. To access the Lower Research Room, you need to make an appointment and you must be an RHS member to borrow books. 80 Vincent Square, London SW1P 2PE. Tel 020 7821 3050, rhs.org.uk/education-learning/libraries My horticultural career began, many years ago, with a brief stint at Bergianska Trädgården (Bergius Botanic Garden) in Stockholm, Sweden. As a career changer, keen to study horticulture, I needed proof of horticultural work experience…

Earliest garden memory Making miniature gardens out of rocks, logs and various uprooted weeds in a sandbox. First plant love The earliest plants I remember growing were busy Lizzies and sycamore seedlings on the windowsills back home in Ireland. But the first plants I was really excited about growing were gloriosa lilies. I grew them inside on bamboo canes and loved how exotic the flowers looked. Who has inspired your career the most and why? Jimi Blake. I first started working at Jimi's garden, Hunting Brook, when I was 19. I enjoyed his approach to plants and how he uses them as well as his fun perspective on gardening. Favourite landscape or garden that has influenced you My general enthralment with the rural Irish landscape lives on, especially in Tipperary…

ACROSS 1 Genus of white-flowering, red-berried shrubs aka Christmas berry – topless Ethiopian variety (8) 6 _____ confusa, commonly called Christmas box (10) 11 See 31 down 12 Art of paper-folding … an Aquilegia series of usually bi-coloured flowers (7) 13 Plantsman ___ Foerster has lark around! (4) 14 Fruit of 9 down – found in Christmas tree (4) 15 A Sempervivum cultivar, turning pink in summer – Ralph arranged partly (5) 16 The species of the British native anemone – as no more different (8) 17 Common name of Rhus coriaria – from alyssum, actually! (5) 19 Common name for Yucca filamentosa is ___ needle (5) 21 Genus of ‘spider flower’ – in part Miracle Omega (6) 22 Use secateurs lightly – a bargain! (4) 24 Eremurus (foxtail lily) with yellow/orange flowers, named after Latin ballroom dance (5) 26 Collective term for flower's…

Anna Potter Floral designer Anna demonstrates stylish ways to decorate your home, page 40. “By combining flowers with foliage and natural materials, you can create something truly unique.” Jacky Hobbs Jacky photographs her own Katie Guillebauddesigned garden, page 32. “Katie has woven a textural winter tapestry with grasses and seedheads loosely corralled by box, yew and phillyrea.” Liz Potter Liz offers tips on how to undertake a biodiversity audit, page 64. “We can all boost garden biodiversity, simply. Identifying the species that visit is easy now, thanks to digital tech.” CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Charlotte Harris Charlotte co-founded the values-driven landscape design practice Harris Bugg Studio with Hugo Bugg in 2017. She has won three Gold medals at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, as well as Best Show Garden in 2023. Fergus…

DIG IN SHOPPING SCAN HERE Watch the behind-the-scenes video of our photo shoot and find lots of other great gift ideas at gardensillustrated.com/christmasgifts…

CHRISTMAS FESTIVE FLORALS Is there anything so peaceful as a deep winter's day? There's a crispness that clears the senses. The land breathes; there is rest above and deep rumblings of unseen preparation below. Winter begins like a dark, ancient womb that nourishes and protects, encouraging a different pace; to slow right down, allowing one act to end and, behind the big velvet curtain of November, for a scene change to take place. With the limitations and scarcity of flowers at this time in the year, I notice that a deeper kind of seeing kicks in. To keep making and creating arrangements, we rely on more than the obvious showy blooms of the other more fruitful seasons. I love shy winter for choosing ingredients that would usually be overlooked or…

Meeting Matthew Biggs, it's easy to forget that you're in the company of one of Britain's most celebrated gardening broadcasters and authors. His broad smile, warmth and humility explain how he has endeared himself to a nation of gardeners for more than 30 years. Best known for his appearances on Radio 4's Gardeners’ Question Time and TV shows such as Channel 4's Garden Club, Matthew has also worked as a toilet cleaner, jobbing gardener, television director, author and RHS judge. He says that this eclectic range of jobs has led to him “careering through life, ducking and diving to keep a roof over my head, and saying ‘yes’ to everything that sounded interesting or fun, then worrying about it afterwards”. Born in Leicester in 1960, Matthew is one of three…

RECIPES WINTER This is simple home cooking, made from a place of love, not only for the people eating it, but for the land it came from Winter is the price you pay for living in the countryside. It is a starkly beautiful season, Mother Nature laid bare for all to see. Still and peaceful, yet wild and ruthless. Sharp heavy frosts blanket the land in a quiet fog broken only by the bones of trees. Unrelenting rain and impenetrable clouds steal the sun for weeks. We work outside, battling penetrating wind with rosy cheeks, dragon breath and fingers so stiff with cold they hurt. The long, quiet nights come with iron skies and haunting moons. rosy cheeks, dragon breath and fingers so stiff with cold they hurt. The long,…

MODERN TOUCH Easyfit Garden Festoon Lights, From £19.99, Castlegate Lights, 01642 714444, castlegatelights.co.uk SOPHISTICATED Festoon Linear Lights (black), From £50, Garden Trading, gardentrading.co.uk FAIRY LIGHTS Supreme Party Lights, £69.95, Sarah Raven, 0345 092 0283, sarahraven.com INDUSTRIAL Habitat Caged Bulb String Lights, £12, Argos, argos.co.uk COLOURFUL NOMA Berry LED Outdoor String Lights, £38.39, John Lewis, 0345 610 0367, johnlewis.com SUBTLE SPARKLE Copper Bare Wire Cluster Tree Garland, £26.95, The Worm That Turned, 0345 605 2505, worm.co.uk VINTAGE STYLE Edison-style Bulb LED Light String, £20.99, Crocus, 01344 578000, crocus.co.uk GOLDEN GLOW Rattan Lantern Solar Fairy Lights, £19.99, Lights4Fun, lights4fun.co.uk MISMATCHED Solar Vintage Style Bulb String Lights, £35, Cox & Cox, 0330 333 2123, coxandcox.co.uk…

Find the perfect gifts this Christmas, page 15. Bloom In Soap 07934 380046, bloominsoap.co.uk Buy Metal Online 0191 264 6464, buymetalonline.co.uk C Atherley 020 7483 8383, c-atherley.com The Cotswold Eco Company thecotswoldecocompany.co.uk Claverton Cloches 07521 467371, clavertoncloches.com Crocus 01344 578000, crocus.co.uk Daylesford Organic 01608 731700, daylesford.com Frond frond.uk/shop Glyndebourne Shop 01273 815033, glyndebourneshop.com Laura Barnes laurabarnes.co.uk Marshall Headphones marshallheadphones.com Moshulu 01404 510440, moshulu.co.uk National Trust Shop 0300 123 2025, shop.nationaltrust.org.uk The Natural Gift Company thenaturalgiftcompany.co.uk Plümo 020 8889 9945, plumo.com Re-Found Objects 01434 634567, re-foundobjects.com Rose & Rust 07980 382702, roseandrust.co.uk Rowen & Wren 01276 451077, rowenandwren.co.uk Seed Pantry 020 3976 2500, seedpantry.co.uk The Shop Floor Project 01229 584537, theshopfloorproject.com Sue Pryke suepryke.com Swiss Store 0344 567 8365, swiss-store.co.uk Toast 0333 400 5200, toa.st Unsent Studio unsentstudio.com The Worm That…

GARDENS ILLUSTRATED THE TRAVEL ISSUE • Escape abroad from your armchair with glorious gardens from France to California • See the spectacular new rooftop garden on Fiat's iconic former car factory in Italy • Discover how to style and care for houseplants • A designer dry garden for a holiday home in Greece • Anna Pavord's favourite garden travel books PLUS The best garden festivals around the globe…

DIG IN PLANTSPERSON'S FAVOURITES COTONEASTER FRANCHETII A semi-evergreen shrub with a graceful, arching habit. In early winter the branches are laden with scarlet-red fruits, until the blackbirds move in for a feast. The foliage is small and greyish-green in colour, with a pale, downy underside, giving this cotoneaster a lighter effect than some of its relatives. Elsewhere in the gardens, we have the larger C. lacteus, its decorative fruits borne in large, drooping clusters. Planted as specimen shrubs, rather than as a hedge, they're only pruned occasionally, in early spring, to retain the shape and size. Unfussy and tolerant of exposed sites. Height and spread 2.5-4m × 2.5-4m. Origin Southwest China. Conditions Most soils; full sun to partial shade. Hardiness RHS H6, USDA 6a-9b†. Season of interest Autumn to winter…

Lessons in regeneration Copenhagen Botanical Gardens’ 100-year-old propagation greenhouses have been saved from demolition and transformed into a new events and educational space by architecture studio Forma. The greenhouses were rescued and carefully dismantled before being reassembled to create a classroom at Banegaarden, a new green food and sustainable cultural destination in the west of the Danish capital. Væksthuset (which means greenhouse) includes learning spaces for children and adults, for inspiring and passing down climate-focused knowledge of reduction, regeneration and resilience. Find out more about the project at formastudio.dk…

by Sarah Raven, photographs by Jonathan Buckley, Bloomsbury, £27 ISBN 978-1526639349 Sarah Raven is known for her love of flowers, but is also a vegetable gardener and cook. She shares 30 years of learnings from growing ‘for abundance, flavour and ease’. The growing year is divided into two rather than the traditional four seasons, given how the climate is changing and many crops do well sown at different times. I also like the idea of ‘unbuyables’ – crops that are difficult to find in the shops. Reviewer Aaron Bertelsen is a vegetable gardener and author. by Nick McCullough, Allison McCullough and Teresa Woodard, Timber Press, £30 ISBN 978-1643261164 The collaborators travelled the length and breadth of the USA discovering remarkable gardens. The gardens all have one thing in common –…