Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2016 i The English Garden

AFTER AUTUMN COAXES LEAVES EARTHWARDS, THE STEMS OF PLANTS COME INTO THEIR OWN LONG HERALDED AS A SEASON FOR REFLECTION and preparation for the months ahead, many of us know winter as a time to look inwards – and to stay indoors. But in so doing, we miss winter’s many natural miracles. There is no need to wait, says Wolfgang Bopp, director of Hampshire’s Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, not for crocuses to peak from the softening spring ground nor for the leafy abundance of summer. His winter garden – designed to persuade even the most reluctant fireside lingerer into the blazing beauty of winter – stands in triumphant vindication of this logic. “I like to fight that assumption that gardens are asleep between November and March. That there’s nothing happening…

Geranium ‘Rozanne’ Winner of the public vote for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show Plant of the Centenary in 2013, this hardy geranium forms large mounds of foliage covered with violet-blue flowers from spring until first frosts. Rehmannia elata The Chinese foxglove is an unusual perennial that will offer cheerful purple flowers all summer, provided it is grown in a warm, sheltered site. Knautia macedonica This scabious is a wonderful perennial that flowers for months on end and attracts Dingy Skipper butterflies among many others. Its lingering seedheads go on to provide food for birds. Clematis durandii A medium-sized deciduous clematis that is longer flowering than most, but is non-clinging, so needs to be trained and attached to its support.…

Imagine the core of a beehive on an early spring day. The queen bee, the mother of the hive, has accelerated her egg-laying. There are juvenile bees all over the place crying out for food. With voracious appetites they need much protein for growth as well as high-energy drinks. The source? Scout bees have been sent out, when the weather has allowed, looking for likely sources of nectar (high energy) and pollen (high protein). Imagine the rejoicing when they come across both products in large quantities and at the same location. Yes, they have alighted on hellebores, beloved by bees wherever these plants are to be found in the wild or in gardens. Within minutes the scout bees report back to the hive and the response is immediate. Any hellebore…

In the years following World War II, my grandfather had five allotment plots. He grew everything from asparagus to potatoes, and built his own greenhouses from scratch to feed his wife and five children. My mother remembers my grandmother being chagrined if a poor harvest forced her to stoop to a visit to the vegetable market. I suspect he found growing celery (Apium graveolens var. dulce) a breeze – unlike most modern gardeners. Consult any vegetable handbook and there are dire warnings about celery’s need for ‘an endless supply of water to hand’ (Anna Pavord, The New Kitchen Garden) and ‘rich, well-drained soil’ (Lucy Halsall, Step-By-Step Veg Patch). In summary, as DG Hessayon put it in The Vegetable Expert, ‘newcomers to vegetable growing soon learn that growing traditional celery involves…

In late winter, spring starts to call to all keen gardeners and we leap out into the garden. Then it snows or the ground freezes, and it is back to re-arranging the potting shed. So thank goodness for sweet peas. Not only can they be sown now but also they will flourish from an early start. Flawless sweet peas need big roots to support them and the cold days will delay the top growth while the roots quietly develop. The deeper the pot used the better. Pushing the seed into compost while dreaming of the colour and scent they will bring over the summer seems the perfect way to defy the weather. There is some debate as to whether sweet peas need chipping and soaking before sowing. Here at Easton…

COLOUR “During the shorter days, brighter colours really encourage people into the garden. Summer offers all sorts of colours, pinks and blues and everything in between, but come winter, I’m drawn to reds, oranges and yellows,” says Wolfgang. Dogwoods fit the bill perfectly, and Wolfgang recommends the robust, low-maintenance Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ (above) for vigorous layers of orange, red and yellow stems. Cornus alba ‘Baton Rouge’, also seen in the Sir Harold Hillier winter garden, boasts not only vivid winter colour with its scarlet stems, but also white flowers in spring, blueish-white berries in late summer and red-purple autumn foliage. TEXTURE Tree bark is an effective way to introduce texture and interest into a winter garden. The exfoliating bark of Stewartia pseudocamellia peels off in attractive oranges and reds,…

POTS OF COLOUR Terracotta pots filled with colourful annuals, such as thunbergia and Ipomoea tricolor ‘Heavenly Blue’, are a more recent addition to the planting schemes at Great Fosters. The plants are grown from seed in the garden’s greenhouses before being transferred to their final growing spots. INTO THE BLUE Geranium ‘Rozanne’ is among the perennials used as fill-in plants around the topiary in the parterre. “We’ve always gone for blues and silvers,” explains Russell. “Originally we used lavender, santolina and sage; now we have Alchemilla mollis and purple sage in two beds and ‘Hidcote’ lavender and geraniums in the others.” MODERN TOUCH The lake was created on the site of a Christmas tree plantation after 1990, with spoil from the excavation used to create the bund that diffuses noise…

Carol Gould comes from a green-fingered family, and it shows throughout her beautiful town garden in north-west London. Unusually, though, this garden, with its coherent layout of interlinking circles surrounded by choice plants, is the brainchild of two generations – Carol and her daughter, Kate Gould, whose medals awarded for her Chelsea Flower Show gardens include gold in 2013. It is nearly 20 years since the mother-and-daughter team redesigned the 23m x 10m south-facing plot in Kingsbury, northwest London. Carol, a retired law school registrar, and her late husband had moved to the semi-detached 1930s house during the 1970s. Unfazed by the ugly concrete path, narrow side borders, sickly apple trees and large fir, Carol had eyes only for the glorious backdrop of Fryent Country Park. “The park creates a…

The Arbour It is tricky to weave hidden areas into a small garden without obscuring views, but here a small arbour from Agriframes is cleverly tucked away under an Acer palmatum ‘Magnet’ and shrubs such as Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’, Euonymus alatus and Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’. It is largely veiled by a mantle of clematis such as pink-flowered Clematis texensis ‘Princess Diana’, and Clematis ‘Blue Angel’, ‘Minuet’ and ‘Gravetye Beauty.’ Circular Shapes The design of the 23m x 10m plot is based on a series of interlinking circles formed of box hedging, hard landscaping, lawn and gravel garden. “Circles often make spaces feel smaller, but when set within a rectangular plot, they maximise the depth of the planting at the corners which makes the space feel much more generous,”…

“All these bulbs do better planted from bulbs in the green in spring, rather than in their dormant state. So that is the way we sell them. They settle in quickly, and will start to flower from the next year. After three years, you can lift and divide them, creating carpets of colour through your garden.” Order yours today to take advantage of our great offer with exclusive free P&P worth £4.95 for readers of The English Garden. Hyacinthoides non-scripta (British native bluebell) Plant these true native bluebells in any collection of trees and shrubs and they will look like they have been there forever. Flowering time April-May. 25 bulbs in the green £14.50 50 bulbs in the green £24.95 Code: 260077 Galanthus nivalis Snowdrops are one of the first…

Hellebores are well able to look after themselves. Self-sown seedlings springing up in quite unexpected places are testament to this. The wild English hellebore (H. foetidus) can be seen growing unbidden in all sorts of odd corners and very much taken for granted (below). However, most garden plants respond to a little understanding and tender loving care. What may be a rather indifferent plant can be transformed by a few minor adjustments. Wild Turkish H. orientalis naturally grow in dappled shade in light woodland. We might take our cue here and say that some shade suits hellebores and in our English gardens there is usually a shady corner somewhere that needs a choice plant or two. Having said that, the self-sown seedlings in our garden in full sun have prospered…

Position Lovage will tolerate partial shade, but prefers full sun. I’ve never been able to kill lovage – it is one of the hardiest herbs there is. I love it as a plant in the border, it gives you good height: from standing still to full height in one season, it can get up to 2m tall. Soil It will grow in pretty much any soil barring heavy clay. It does like rich, moisture-retentive soil but it will seed itself around. You’ll achieve fresher growth in spring if you give it a layer of mulch and plenty of water. Harvesting In summer you can cut it down and you’ll get fresh growth. Cut the flower heads down and it will put its energies into the leaves. It grows really easily…

We grow over 100 varieties of sweet peas every year at Easton Walled Gardens. Some are notoriously unstable and over time lose their best qualities. However, carefully selected cultivars, such as some of our heritage sweet peas, defy the genetic drive to return to the species type. For instance, the heavily scented grandifloras, developed at the turn of the 20th century by Henry Eckford are still worth growing. Working from his small nursery in Wem, Shropshire, Eckford dramatically improved the small range of sweet peas then available by breeding varieties with larger flowers and increasing the number of colours available. Although when compared to modern varieties most grandifloras now have relatively short stems, they do have wonderfully strong scent. Try the bright cerise ‘King Edward VII’ or deep blue ‘Lord…

Monet’s Garden in Art By Debra N. Mancoff Frances Lincoln, £16.99 “Through the cultivation of his garden, he advanced his art,” the author says of her subject, Claude Monet. In her passionate study of the artist, Mancoff examines his journey from a newly recognized painter in Paris to his final years at Giverny, focussing on the link between his two grand passions – his garden and his painting. “The garden offered insight into Monet’s art, with a beauty and clarity that he could not put into words,” the author says. “During the late, productive decades of his life, Monet sought his sole inspiration in the garden.” She talks of his submission to the seasons and his excitement as spring approached, his exhaustion as he worked through summer to capture everything…

WOOTTENS PLANTS Established for 25 years, Woottens is a traditional plant nursery specialising in hardy perennials, with one of the largest collections of irises in England, which is open for viewing every year. Woottens also specialises in auriculas, pelargoniums, hemerocallis and violas. Mail order and design services. Qualified and passionate staff offering expert advice. Gardens open April–October. Open days and events held throughout the year. Horticultural courses running weekly. Tel: +44 (0)1502 478258 Email: info@woottensplants.co.uk  | Website: www.woottensplants.com Woottens of Wenhaston Ltd, Wenhaston, Suffolk, IP19 9HD WEASDALE NURSERIES Since 1950, Weasdale Nurseries have been growing hardy trees and shrubs on their site at 850ft elevation in the Howgill Fells, at the heart of beautiful Cumbria. Specialising in mail-order from the outset, their careful packaging system has become legendary and…

“‘Good morrow, Benedick: Why, what’s the matter, That you have such a February face, So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?’ Much Ado About Nothing, Act 5, Scene 4” February is a Beatrice and Benedick sort of month. It is a month of opposites, like the sparring middle-aged lovers of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing: on the one hand, all sharp glancing sunlight, like Beatrice with her rapier wit; on the other, ‘full of frost, of storm and cloudiness’, like Benedick with his wintry ‘February face’. It is a month of contrasts – not changeable, like March or April but fixed one way or the other. It is the sort of month that makes you long each day for the weather to change: for frost in an unseasonable warm…

COSY KINDLES Floral Kindle case, £15.www.etsy.com/uk/shop/BaggieAggie SMART SUITCASE Flowers of Liberty mini suitcase, £65. Tel: 020 7734 1234; www.liberty.co.uk ESSENTIAL GUIDE The NGS Yellow Book 2016, £11.99. Tel: 01483 211535; www.ngs.org.uk PRETTIEST PASSPORT Flowers of Liberty passport holder, £24.95. Tel: 020 7734 1234; www.liberty.co.uk HOLIDAY ESSENTIALS RHS 100 Flowers postcards, £14.99. Tel: 01483 211320; www.rhsshop.co.uk WILD WEEKENDS Wild Garden Weekends by Tania Pascoe, £16.99.www.wildthingspublishing.com ON-POINT Painted floral ballpoint pen, £10. Tel: 020 3010 1990; www.carolinegardner.com SCRUB UP Calathea wash bag, £37.50. Tel: 078909 20136; www.fannyshorter.com BARE ESSENTIALS Lychee Sorbet Skincare travel set, £15. Tel: 0345 604 9049; www.johnlewis.com SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND Weekend travel bag, £45. Tel: 0845 250 7170; www.joules.com STORE YOUR SUNNIES Leather sunglasses case, with palm-leaf print, £47.www.tovisorga.com STAY STYLISH Secret Garden chiffon scarf, £45. Tel: 020…

GOOD FORM The strict symmetry of clipped box in the Formal Garden is an amalgam of historic designs dating back over hundreds of years, originating in ancient Persia and translated into European gardens from the 14th century. In winter, when there is nothing else to distract the eye, the patterns are boldly distinctive. ANCIENT AND MODERN The tiered Amphitheatre looks both classical and contemporary. The Morrisons wanted an outdoor stage, a cultural practice that dates back thousands of years, but the contours of this landform, especially when the clipped grass is defined by snow, looks highly contemporary. EYE-CATCHING COLOUR This stand of coral bark willow (Salix alba var. vitellina ‘Britzensis’) merges into the background when it is in leaf, but in winter the orange bark flares in low sun. The…

Romsey Abbey is one of the finest examples of Norman architecture in the south of England. The Abbey, Romsey SO51 8EP. Tel: 01794 513125; www.romseyabbey.org.uk The Old House And Home, a quaint thatched pub, dates from the 17th century. 62 Love Lane, Romsey SO51 8DE. Tel: 01794 513175; www.theoldhouseat homeromsey.co.uk Winchester boasts a magnificent cathedral and the medieval Round Table in the Great Hall, Castle Avenue SO23 8UJ. Tel: 01962 846476; www3.hants.gov.uk The Isle of Wight is an hour-long ferry-ride away and has beautiful gardens to visit such as Osborne House, Queen Victoria’s former home.www.visitisleofwight.co.uk…

SCOTNEY CASTLE GARDEN A wildly romantic garden built round a ruined moated castle. The main house, now open, was built by Anthony Salvin in 1830. Among the ruins is a cottage garden designed by Lanning Roper. Lamberhurst, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN3 8JN. Tel: 01892 893829; www.nationaltrust.org.uk/scotney-castle STONEACRE Another garden of rooms, with exhilarating planting including a meadow, set against the picture-book backdrop of a 15th century half-timbered yeoman’s house. Small and atmospheric. Otham, Maidstone, Kent ME15 8RS. Tel: 01622 863247; www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stoneacre MADRONA NURSERY Not many nurseries offer a purpose-built Gothic tower, where you can take tea. The surroundings as well as the fine range of well-grown plants make this a delightful visit. Browse the considered display beds before you buy. Bethersden, Kent TN26 3DD. Tel: 01233 820100; www.madrona.co.uk…

• Designer Kate Gould Gardens, The Garden Design Studio, 26 Aldenham Road, Radlett, Hertfordshire WD7 8AX. Tel: 01932 839733; www.kategouldgardens.com • Arbour Agriframes, Journal House, Bristol, BS3 5RJ. Tel: 0117 934 1790; www.agriframes.co.uk • Seeds Chiltern Seeds, Crowmarsh Battle Barns, 114 Preston Crowmarsh, Wallingford, Oxfordshire OX10 6SL. Tel: 01491 824675; www.chilternseeds.co.uk • Plants Orchard Dene Nurseries, Lower Assendon, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire RG9 6AL. Tel: 01491 575075; www.orcharddene.co.uk…

The English name, laurustinus, perpetuates early confusion as to the true identity of this plant Viburnum tinus has long been prized in cultivation. Centuries before the plant hunters discovered the glories of wintersweet, hamamelis and mahonia, it was the major winter-flowering shrub, valued for its striking, bright pink buds, massed white flowers and long blooming season. The English name, laurustinus, perpetuates early confusion as to its true identity, combining the old Latin name tinus noted by the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder and its erroneous association with laurus, the bay. It was believed that both were related. Early records of its cultivation appear on flaky wall paintings in Pompeii but the origins of its establishment in Britain remain somewhat obscure. Horticulturist and author John Claudius Loudon noted that from 1596…

HAMAMELIS ‘RUBIN’ This is one of the best red cultivars. It has a very bushy growth habit and forms a rounded shrub that reaches 1.5m in height and width. It is important to plant it where low winter sunshine can shine through, so that the brilliant ruby red colouring of the flowers stands out as much as possible. Avoid planting it against a brick wall or fence because the flowers will blend into the background. This is a mid- to late-flowering variety, blooming from late January to mid February. Sadly, none of the red witch hazels has very much scent to speak of. HAMAMELIS ‘PALLIDA’ If I could only recommend one witch hazel, this would be it. It is one of the brightest yellow witch hazels, the flowers standing out…

What is the premise of your work? This book is about 50 plants that have made multiple contributions to all facets of Western civilization since the last Ice Age. The roles of plants are frequently surprising, often overlooked and hardly ever mundane. Each portrait brings together art and science to illustrate particular points for a specific plant or group of plants. The portraits are arranged in a chronological sequence showing when the plant first made significant contributions to western culture. What inspired you to choose this subject? I was challenged by the publisher. For a general audience, could I show whether plants had made any contribution to Western civilisation? Once the seed was planted, it became obvious that to make the case, the science of plants could not be ignored.…