Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2024 i Gardens Illustrated Magazine

I always feel that April is spring proper, with the arrival of bright and brilliant tulips. This issue, we celebrate with a visit to The Laskett in Herefordshire, where, since Sir Roy Strong handed the garden over to the charity Perennial, the team has set about filling the rooms with tulips (page 34). Discover which cultivars they rate and how they set out the bulbs for the most impact. We also check out the new Mayfield Park in Manchester, the setting for the inaugural RHS Urban Show this month (page 52); sneak a peek at a private rooftop terrace in London designed by Maitanne Hunt, with creative ideas for dealing with a compact urban space (page 94); and explore a breathtaking garden in Corfu, on the cliffs overlooking the Ionian…

11 Sustainable Gardening Learn to garden working hand in hand with nature. Thursday 11 April, 11am-1pm. £62. West Green House Gardens, Thackham’s Lane, nr Hartley Wintney, Hook, Hampshire RG27 8JB. Tel 01252 844611, westgreenhouse.co.uk 13 Hanami Blossom Day Discover Japanese art and culture among the blossoming orchards at Brogdale Farm. Saturday 13 April, 10am-3pm. £15. Brogdale Collections, Brogdale Farm, Faversham, Kent ME138XZ. Tel 01795 536250, brogdalecollections.org 21 Spring Plant Fair Browse a range of nurseries at Arundel Castle at the spring plant fair of the Plant Fairs Roadshow. Sunday 21 April, 10am-5pm. £5. Arundel Castle, Arundel, West Sussex BN189AB. Tel 01903 882173, plantfairsroadshow.co.uk…

Earliest gardening memory Deadheading pelargoniums with my grandmother Daphne. Carefully being taught how to hold the scissors, and working side by side. First plant love Onions, which ironically I can’t eat. I became obsessed with growing a show-sized onion after visiting a local Onion Fair with competitions for giant vegetables. Life before gardening? I spent four years training as an apprentice coat maker at Henry Poole & Co on Savile Row and subsequently worked freelance. After years working in a basement workshop, the pull of a work life outdoors became too great to ignore. Inspiring mentors? Jack and Laura Willgoss. I first worked at their nursery Wildegoose as a volunteer, and their passion for plants and their encouragement of me is something I will always be grateful for. Horticultural heroes…

PLANTS NURSERY Nursery owners Cédric Basset and Manon Rivière don’t do ordinary: they’ve spent their careers discovering and growing unusual plants. Since January 2020, they have been running Pépinière Aoba in Brittany, France. Aoba means greenery in Japanese, so it’s an apt name for a nursery that specialises in species from Asia, with a focus on foliage, climbing and shade-loving plants. Its range is impressive, with more than 5,000 species, and includes national collections of epimediums, polygonatum, Japanese hydrangeas, species irises and Lardizabalaceae. Before they set up Aoba, Cédric and Manon each had their own nursery in the east of France, where winters are cold and summers scorching, so it made sense for the couple to combine their two plant catalogues and make the move to milder northern Brittany, where…

• Listen to your garden. If something needs constant attention, it probably doesn’t want to be there. • There are no rules that work for every garden or gardener. If something doesn’t work for you, don’t struggle, but consider change. For example, no-dig beds are generally excellent for lowmaintenance productive veg growing, but If you’re on really heavy clay, you may be better growing conventionally. Or consider building Hugel beds from mounds of rotting wood and decaying matter, covered with compost. • Work with your garden’s rhythms but don’t fuss. Clear excess debris from beds in spring and fork over lightly to allow plants air and light. Allow weeds and fallen plant matter to act as protective companion cover crops over summer. Break up dense mats and check and mulch…

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GROUNDED IN THE GARDEN: AN ARTIST’S GUIDE TO CREATING A BEAUTIFUL GARDEN IN HARMONY WITH NATURE by TJ Maher, Pimpernel Press, £25, ISBN 978-1914902079 In his first book, Irish artist and plantsman TJ Maher shares his gardening philosophy and reveals how he created a beautiful garden that is a haven for insects and birds. It includes his tulip choices, recommended trees for small gardens and advice on pot displays. OUTSIDE IN: A YEAR OF GROWING AND DISPLAYING by Sean A Pritchard, Mitchell Beazley, £30, ISBN 978-1784728854 Featuring ideas that are inventive and charming and don’t require oodles of blooms, garden designer Pritchard shares how he grows, harvests and arranges flowers and foliage from the garden of his bohemian Somerset cottage all year round. SMALL SPACE REVOLUTION: PLANTING SEEDS OF CHANGE…

Giacomo Guzzon Landscape architect Giacomo selects the best Carex, page 44. “Carex offers a multitude of forms, textures and sizes; a valuable addition to any garden, even in challenging spots ” Annaïck Guitteny Annaïck photographs a French nursery, page 70. “I was amazed at the range of plants grown by Cédric and Manon, showcasing their horticultural knowledge and passion” Charlie Ryrie Garden writer Charlie explains how she made her garden less labour intensive, page 84. “It’s particularly poignant to look back at the garden I loved so much, now I am exploring a new plot” 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…

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DIG IN THE GARDEN CHRONICLES My plans, it turned out, were naïve. My small, thin box of a garden was to have a simple palette of dark-green bones with occasional flashes of white. The ‘bones’ were yew, ivy and hornbeam. The white flashes were to be Arnmi majus, cosmos and roses. I ordered an avalanche of snow-white brunnera, some climbing roses and a pair of white Paeonia rockii from a trusted specialist, and waited. My careful plans started to unravel as soon as some of those white brunnera turned out to be blue and the roses sported distinctly yellow buds before the white petals unfolded. To rub salt into the wound, the peonies took three years to flower and their four voluptuous, ball-gown blossoms showed up as a rather loud…

In an era obsessed with categorisation, John Wyer declines to be pigeonholed. He is an accomplished designer, writer, artist, entrepreneur and philanthropist, a keen cyclist, voracious reader and obsessive home cook. But, because the company he established 30 years ago also builds gardens, he tends to be labelled as a landscaper. “I think that is true, at least outside the industry,” he says, “but it doesn’t bother me. I’ve never really conformed to a type.” Growing up in south London as the middle child of five, this tendency mainly took the form of arguing. “In fact, our whole family was known for it. Dinnertimes could get quite lively. We would argue about everything, from politics to religion, to who was going to borrow the car. I was brought up to…

Watching the weather is par for the course for many gardeners, but with climate change, and extreme weather events becoming more frequent, we are all feeling the impact. Recent reports suggest that we have just experienced the wettest winter in 130 years, and with flood warnings widespread, the way in which we garden will need to change. Most plants will tolerate a brief, one-off immersion, where the water quickly drains away, but ground that is boggy over long periods is a completely different situation. The season and the impact on dormant plants or those that are actively growing will also differ, as where water replaces air in the soil, roots are unable to breathe and they will rot and drown. Gardens now need to be planned in such a way…

DOWNTOOLS BOOKS Tell us about the new book and why you wrote it Not everyone has the luxury of hiring a garden designer, so I wrote this book to empower people to design their own gardens. Everyone deserves a beautiful garden that resonates with their personality and lifestyle. I delve into the crucial aspects of garden design, including colour palettes, sustainability, biodiversity and budgeting. What did you learn from writing it? Writing Your Outdoor Room has allowed me to share my expertise and has deepened my respect for the editorial craft - a collaboration that has resulted in a book that I am proud to call my own. If there’s one idea you’d like to share from the book, what would it be? Plan your garden on paper and avoid…

We all know that climate change is happening, but I’m not sure we really understand just how things might be in the future, what the implications are for nature and what we gardeners can do about it. My fear for the future is that so much of the land we have set aside for nature - National Parks, nature reserves etc - will be ploughed up for food production. Coastal flooding will become a major problem and there will be associated salt-water incursion into areas near the sea, which is often good farmland. The impact on global agriculture could be severe. The enormous gains of science-led agriculture since the Green Revolution of the 1960s onwards will be lost if we lose so much prime farmland. New hi-tech food sources, such…

ART FLOWERING TALENT The eagle-eyed among you may recognise the name Rosanna Morris from these pages. Rosanna (not to be confused with our new back-page illustrator) has long been one of our regular writers, but she’s now swapped her pen for a paintbrush to capture the essence of some of her favourite garden plants, from the simplicity of snowdrops to the luxuriance of irises and double tulips. “I love the diverse beauty of the flower,” she says, “and I aim to capture the textures and colours, the speckles and stripes.” Rosanna’s love of painting dates back to childhood when her great-aunt Rose, an accomplished artist, gave her a set of watercolour paints, but she has only recently rediscovered her passion. Her small gouache paintings are already attracting plenty of attention,…

RIBES SANGUINEUM Flowering currants may be an oldfashioned choice, but as I become better acquainted with the gardens of northern England, I appreciate this deciduous spring-flowering shrub ever more. It is dotted throughout Lowther, reminding us of the garden’s Edwardian past, and is spectacular in full bloom with its drooping clusters of pinkish-red flowers. I am a great fan of the blackcurrantscented foliage. From an early age, when I was gardening with my grandparents, you would often find me with my nose among the currant bushes. Height and spread 2.5m × 2m. Origin North America. Conditions Moist, well-drained soils; full sun to part shade. Will tolerate some drought. Hardiness RHS H6, USDA 5a-8a†. Season of interest March - April. PRUNUS SPINOSA A blackthorn in full bloom, with its clouds of…

• Carex are best grown in moist and water-retentive soil in part-shade locations. There is considerable variation among the species, but they generally tend to perform best in friable, sandy, loamy and not-too-dry soils. Unless the soil is particularly poor, there is no need for additional feeding. • It is imperative you plant them in the right habitat, matching the environmental conditions where these species originate. Lowland species require constant moisture, while upland species need good drainage; otherwise, they will fail. • Cool-season grasses and grass-like plants, such as Carex, are best planted in spring or autumn when the temperatures are lower and they are actively growing. Growth slows down in the heat of the summer, so it is best to avoid this period. In colder climates, sedges are best…

THE REVIEW You wait forever for one great book to capture the enduring appeal of bulbs, with advice on how to collect and combine the best - and then two come along at once THE TULIP GARDEN: GROWING AND COLLECTING SPECIES, RARE AND ANNUAL VARIETIES by Polly Nicholson, photographs by Andrew Montgomery, Phaidon, £29.95, ISBN 978-1838667689 GROWING BULBS IN THE NATURAL GARDEN: INNOVATIVE TECHNIQUES FOR COMBINING BULBS AND PERENNIALS IN EVERY SEASON by Jacqueline van der Kloet, Timber Press, £28, ISBN 978-1643264028 As the bulb catalogues start to appear in late summer, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the range on offer. There’s also the risk of complacency as you look out over a fulsome summer garden. Come the chilly days of winter, however, we might rue such foolhardiness…