Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2016 i The English Garden

Gardens in art A documentary based on the Royal Academy of Art’s landmark exhibition Painting The Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse (which runs at the Academy to April 26) will be released in cinemas nationwide from 12 April. Drawing from the expert knowledge of curators, garden enthusiasts and artists, the film examines the work of Claude Monet and a host of renowned painters in remarkable, rarely seen detail. Locate participating cinemas by visiting www.exhibitiononscreen.com Spring festival Devon’s historic Powderham Castle, which dates from 1066, hosts this year’s Toby Buckland Garden Festival, which will take place on 29-30 April. The festival is personally organised by nurseryman and broadcaster Toby Buckland and offers garden enthusiasts the opportunity to meet expert growers and industry figures in a friendly and jovial atmosphere. A broad…

Galvanised gardening trug, £19.95. Tel: 08456 023774; www.greenhousesensation.co.uk Seed tray tamper, £3.49. Tel: 0114 233 8262; www.burgonandball.com Tin seed box, £12. Tel: 01778 560 256; www.sophieallport.com Small Kew flower pot, £14. Tel: 020 8332 3123; www.shop.kew.org Terracotta pot brush, £12.95. Tel: 0845 6023774; www.greenhousesensation.co.uk Wooden herb markers, £2.99 Tel: 020 7708 6396; www.giselagraham.co.uk Copper indoor watering can, £59. Tel: 08000 960938; www.manufactum.co.uk Wacky tomato grow kit, £14.99. Tel: 0845 2180258; www.plant-theatre.co.uk Stainless steel dibber, £10.49. Tel: 01604 672511; www.gardenmachinesltd.co.uk Beech potting bench, £290. Tel: 01844 217060; www.henandhammock.co.uk…

MAGNOLIAS “We cultivate several varieties of magnolia at Trelissick,” says Tom, “including Magnolia stellata with its white, star-shaped flowers and light scent.” Hybrids such as ‘Serene’, ‘Iolanthe’ and ‘Caerhays Surprise’ suit frost pockets or gardens because they are later flowering so should avoid frost damage. CAMASSIAS “We have a mix of formal and informal planting and it’s important to reflect the style of planting with different types of plant,” explains Tom. Camassias are used in both herbaceous borders and grass banks to contrast with daffodils and tulips. They can cope with light shade, so are ideal for a woodland scheme. WISTERIA SINENSIS “Our wisteria was planted, we think, when the wall was built in the 1830s,” says Tom. “It creates real ‘wow’ factor when it is in flower, as it…

• Buy British whenever possible. Plants and bulbs grown locally to you, or at least in this country, are more likely to be suited to local growing conditions. So many small nurseries have gone out of business, we need to support them. • A good general growing mix for alpines in pots, sinks and troughs is John Innes number 2 or 3 mixed 50-50 with coarse grit. That gives good drainage but supplies enough nutrients. • For alpines in troughs, place stones vertically, half-buried in the soil. That way the plants can send their roots down the side of the stones to keep cool. Tufa is the best medium for growing alpines in a natural setting. • Explore every aspect that your garden has to offer. Hot, sunny south-facing spots…

BOX SPHERES This double border in a raised bed with box balls of varying sizes gives pleasure in the garden and from the kitchen window. Like many features in the garden, this collection, given to Polly for a birthday present, marries formality with a relaxed natural style. The round box plants are underplanted with the frothy daisy, Erigeron karvinskianus. PEAR AVENUE The ‘Chanticleer’ pear avenue makes a good display all through the year, but as with many of the plantings made in recent years, Polly has had to make harsh decisions and take out several trees. “In this case, the roots travelled down to the tennis court, breaking up its surface. It is awful felling a tree but they had been planted too densely,” she says. BENCH IN A NICHE…

WHITE BED To the west of the house is the rose garden, enclosed by a sturdy backdrop of yew hedges. A central bed is filled with ‘Iceberg’ roses to create a cool display of white flowers. This follows on from tulip ‘White Triumph’, which is planted among the roses to pull off the same trick, adding sharp white blooms. SIMPLE SYMMETRY All pots are planted in pairs, reinforcing the formal, focussed feel of the planting in the garden by the house. On the lower terrace, tulip ‘West Point’ one of the best bright yellow tulips, adds spring exuberance to this area. Symmetry is enforced in repeated containers and underplanting, which enhances the mirrored feel. TULIP TWOSOME The blousy tulip ‘Angélique’ is paired with purple violas to make a stately spring…

• Designer Stephen Woodhams Studio 9, 33 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AA. Tel: 020 7735 3798; www.stephenwoodhams.com • Builder Morgan Oates, Morgan Oates, 6 Edensor Road, London, W4 2RG. Tel: 020 8987 9470; www.morganoates.com • Garden furniture is the Network collection by Roda. View designs at the European Design Centre, 77 Margaret Street, London W1W 8RS. Tel: 020 7323 3233; www.rodaonline.com • Paving by London Stone Contact directly for local stockists. Tel: 08442 251915 or 01753 212950; www.londonstone.co.uk • Sculpture by Tom Stogdon, an associate of the Royal Society of British Sculptors, based in Oxford. Tel: 07798 625 647; www.tomstogdon.com • Pots and water feature Pots supplied by Stephen’s company and are available in three colours, including cream, shown here; the water feature was also supplied by Stephen. • Irrigation…

If a single shrub epitomises the spring glory of foliage it must be Pieris, that Asian, lime-hating shrub seen at its beautiful best in large public gardens where rhododendrons and camellias vie for attention. New cultivars are introduced every year but ‘Forest Flame’ is still hard to beat if you have room for a large shrub – it reaches 3m in height. New growth is bright salmon-scarlet but it needs careful placement because full sun is required to get the best colour, while late spring frosts or strong winds can damage young leaves. Pieris japonica ‘Flaming Silver’ is a good alternative where space is limited because it has dramatic spring foliage edged with white when mature, making it a good all rounder. Of course, Pieris has pretty flowers, too, usually…

I must be the only gardener in the land who has tried and failed to grow ground elder. When this plant made a foray under my fence from a neighbour’s garden I rather welcomed it; I’d been reading about medieval gardeners’ use of Aegopodium podagraria, along with other weeds such as dandelion and good King Henry, as pot herbs and was keen to give it a try. Mindful of its fearsome reputation as a pernicious weed, I pulled out the tender young shoots – all two of them – and fried them up with some dandelion leaves and bacon lardons, then waited for the next wave of the invasion. It never came. The ground elder never regrew and I had to buy some variegated ground elder – both to eat,…

Most summer bulbs need to be grown in a warm, frost-free environment. A heated greenhouse or a warm windowsill indoors is the perfect place to start these plants into steady growth. Pot individual bulbs into containers of multi-purpose compost just wider than the bulb itself. Water sparingly until the bulbs start to shoot into growth, then water each time the compost is dry. Gradually accustom the resulting young plants to outside conditions after all risk of frost has gone, then plant in their permanent positions. Check the final height and spread of the plants, taking care to leave enough room between each plant. Planting closely increases the risk of fungal diseases such as mildew and botrytis in warm, humid conditions. The majority of summer bulbs prefer a site that is…

LAVENDER ( Lavandula angustifolia ) makes a strong pressed flower, lovely made into a laminated bookmark to insert into a favourite volume. CORN MARIGOLD ( Chrysanthemum segetum ), a daisy-like cornfield wildflower, bearing golden flower heads on branching stems. RAGGED ROBIN ( Lychnis flos-cuculi ), crops up on grass verges and in meadows. Its toothed, pink flowers are loved by bees and butterflies. COMMON MALLOW ( Malva sylvestris ) bears pretty pink flowers all summer. Take care when laying out the paper-thin flowers for pressing. PIMPINELLA ( Pimpinella major ‘Rosea’), a cow parsley-like perennial with finely cut leaves borne on stiff stems bearing flat pink flowers. LOVE-IN-THE-MIST ( Nigella damascena ) flowers are tricky to press without…

How would you describe your book? Sceptical and funny, I hope. There is an immense wealth of writing about roses that has fallen below the radar today, because it appeared in magazines rather than books, from the Gardeners’ Chronicle to the Rose Annual to the Journal des Roses. I have tried to indicate the delights of this literature by generous quotation. How did you narrow down such a large group of plants to just 40? Very few of the entries are about a single variety of rose: most of them deal with categories of roses, such as Bourbons, Noisettes, Hybrid Perpetuals, Hybrid Teas. So there will be more than one named variety in most of the sections. Which of the roses has the most amusing story? I am fond of…

SPRING REACH NURSERY Spring Reach Nursery grows a fantastic range of clematis, trees, hedging, ferns, shrubs, fruit, perennials, roses, climbers and grasses. READY NOW Daphne Rebecca +Jacqueline Postill Rootballed Hedging and new season’s Roses and Fruit Visit one of Surrey’s finest nurseries – a gardener’s paradise! Just five minutes from RHS Garden Wisley – follow junction 10 off the M25. Open Mon–Sat, 10am–5pm; and Sun, 10.30am–4.30pm. Tel: +44 (0)1483 284769 Email: info@springreachnursery.co.uk  | Website: www.springreachnursery.co.uk Spring Reach Nursery, Long Reach, Ockham, Surrey GU23 6PG BLUEBELL ARBORETUM & NURSERY Specialists in hardy trees, shrubs and climbers including a huge selection of unusual and rare species and varieties. Expert advice is available from our helpful staff. The nursery is surrounded by a nine-acre woodland garden (RHS Partner Garden), and visitors are…

NGS Garden of the Month The Chalet, in Surrey, is a sight to behold in spring when its 55 acres of formal garden and ancient woodland are carpeted with tens of thousands of fragrant daffodils. The estate boasts an impressive ornamental pond, complete with koi, and visitors may well spot grazing deer and their fawns, while enjoying a homemade tea on the terrace. The Chalet opens on Sunday 3 and Sunday 10 April from 11am to 4.30pm. Entry £5, children free. Tupwood Lane, Caterham, Surrey, CR3 6ET. Tel: 01483 211535; www.ngs.org.uk Monthly checklist • Sow hardy annuals directly where they are to flower, but check the soil is warm to the touch to ensure good germination. • Gradually start mowing the lawn more regularly, as grass increases its rate of…

RHS LONDON SPRING PLANT EXTRAVAGANZA 1–2 April, London The RHS Horticultural Halls host this plant fair, which includes the RHS London Orchid Show. Find displays from growers, societies and botanical gardens. Entry £5/£9. www.rhs.org.uk LANCASHIRE PLANT FAIR 10 April, Lancashire Unearth everything from English cottage garden plants to more unusual species at the Hoghton Tower plant fair, open from 11am-3pm. Entry £1. For more details see, www.meadowviewplants. co.uk ESSEX PLANT HERITAGE SPRING FAIR 16–17 April, Essex Find a good variety of plants available for purchase from over 30 local nurseries and growers at RHS Hyde Hall. Refreshments will be available from the on-site restaurant. 10am-4pm. Admission free to RHS members, £11 for nonmembers. www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/hyde-hall BIRTLEY HOUSE, RARE PLANT FAIR 17 April, Surrey This Rare Plant Fair offers a convenient way…

• If the pond is overrun with weeds, scoop them out and leave them close by so that helpful insects can make their way back into the water. • Never move frogspawn into a different pond. This can spread non-native plant species and amphibian diseases. • Introduce oxygenating plants to the pond to keep the water in good health over summer. Try grassy arrowhead (Sagittaria graminea) or water violet (Hottonia palustris) for low-maintenance options.…

MOST GARDENERS, AFTER FORTY FIVE years in the same house, might be thinking of hanging up their tools – or at least considering their low-maintenance options. Nothing could be further from the minds of Rod and Jane Leeds who work an acre of garden known as Chestnuts, in the village of Preston St Mary, near Sudbury in Suffolk. A retired headteacher, Rod is well known in the world of specialist plants. A former president of the Alpine Garden Society, he is involved with many RHS plant committees and is the author of several books on bulbs, including The Plantfinder’s Guide to Early Bulbs. Jane, too, has joined Rod, judging for the Alpine Garden Society, running plant days and getting involved in their local branch of the AGS. Yet, turning the…

IF IT IS TRUE THAT FORMALITY IS GIVING WAY TO INFORMALITY in gardening style, then look no further than Shandy Hall in the village of Coxwold, North Yorkshire. The medieval, topsy-turvy house was once the ‘sweet retreat’ of the Anglo-Irish vicar and literary sorcerer Laurence Sterne who wrote The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman in the 1760s, and even if you haven’t read the mischievous book, you may have seen the film, A Cock and Bull Story, featuring Steve Coogan and Stephen Fry. Like many country vicars, Sterne was a fond gardener, writing to a friend in 1760: ‘if you honour me with a letter, it will find me either pruning or digging or trenching or weeding or hacking up old roots or wheeling away rubbish’. Beware: his…

FOUNTAINS ABBEY AND STUDLEY ROYAL WATER GARDEN The grounds of this 18th-century water garden hidden in the Skell Valley also contain the romantic ruins of a magnificent medieval abbey. Ripon, North Yorkshire HG4 3DY. Tel: 01765 608888; www.nationaltrust.org.uk YORKSHIRE LAVENDER GARDEN This specialist nursery also has a series of lavender-themed gardens with spectacular views over the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Yorkshire Lavender Farm, Terrington, York YO60 6PB. Tel: 01653 648008; www.yorkshirelavender.com SCAMPSTON WALLED GARDEN An 18th-century walled garden with contemporary design and planting by Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf that sees a mixture of late flowering perennials and grasses. Scampston Hall, North Yorkshire YO17 8NG. Tel: 01944 759111; visit www.scampston.co.uk •…

• Box plants are cut once a year, ideally before the end of May. This allows them to make vigorous re-growth during the remainder of the growing season. It also reduces their susceptibility to blight. Use sharp cutting tools and cut on a dry day. Collect and remove all prunings and allow good air circulation around the plants. Feed after pruning. • Daffodils. After flowering has finished, nip off spent flowers and allow the foliage to die down naturally to help the bulbs build up their reserves for flowering in the following year. Sprinkle fish, blood and bone fertiliser around the base of the plants. • If in doubt, never prune a cherry. The trees never regrow well after being pruned. The only exception is diseased or damaged branches, which…

Brachyglottis ‘Sunshine’ Soft and sensuous foliage is held on ghostly white stems that makes this summer-flowering shrub sleek and stylish in a modern garden. Its flowers are much brasher: bright yellow and daisy-like. Polystichum setiferum Divisilobum Group This graceful fern adorns the living walls, adding a lush and verdant green among brown, red and russet hues. Heuchera ‘Marmalade’ The beauty of heucheras lies in the many colour changes their foliage goes through during the year. Amber, bronze, peach and green shades may all be in evidence but always in soft and subtle shades. Phyllostachys nigra Up to 4m tall, this bamboo makes an elegant screen, blurring garden boundaries and adding a slender leaf canopy to the landscape.…

GROW A PEACH TREE Warmth-loving peaches and nectarines will benefit from the protected shelter of a greenhouse, and make a pretty wall-trained tree, their branches trained into a fan or espalier. Their uplifting spring blossom is beautiful in shades of pale sugar pink and they’ll bear a deliciously juicy crop, made all the more satisfying if it was helped along by hand pollination – use an artist’s paintbrush to simply dab pollen from one flower to the next, in the absence of bees. Try peach ‘Duke of York’, which has the RHS Award of Garden Merit or nectarine ‘Lord Napier’. PLANT A GRAPEVINE A stalwart of traditional glasshouses, grapevines are a brilliant greenhouse plant, with a delicious harvest, too. Older specimens, trained along the eave, look super when well pruned,…

Position Grow giant goosefoot in raised or regular vegetable beds. It doesn’t do well in a container but adapts to different positions. Does best in full sun. Care Seed germination is more typical of a wild plant and germination is fickle. Sow seed relatively liberally where you wish it to grow, then forget you’ve sown it for a year because hardly any will come up. You’ll have plants the second year and every year after that. Harvesting The entire plant is edible when it is young. The stalk toughens with age but the leaves and sideshoots are marvellous all through the summer. To prepare, chop the leaves and juicy stems, boil for two to three minutes, then drain.…

CAUTLEYA This hardy ginger provides a tropical twist in a summer border with its lush, jungly foliage and exotic flowers. HEDYCHIUM Flowering in September and beyond, ginger lilies grow well in semi-shade. H. gardnerianum is the hardiest. RHODOHYPOXIS A striking helping of hot pink, red or white blooms is produced on these low-growing rockery plants. CRINUM x POWELLII Stately trumpet flowers stand tall – up to 1.5m – to add restful soft pink to a sunny garden in late summer. IXIA This is a superb choice for sandy, well-drained soil. The upright flower stems are perfect for cutting. TIGRIDIA This speckly bloomed bulb is a true summer show-off and produces a bright splash of multi-colour in late summer.…

There are few more easily accessible garden crafts than flower pressing. All that is needed is a handful of small flowers, some fine foliage, tissue paper and a heavy old book – traditionally this would often be a Bible or volume of music. Many common garden flowers are ideal for pressing but so, too, is the variety of wildflowers and fern-like leaves that may be gathered from meadows and country hedgerows provided they are not protected. Never a week passes without there being something to press. Winter brings common snowdrops and silvery lilac crocuses so delicate that, when pressed, they’re almost translucent. Come spring and there are sweet violets and celandines to be picked in woodland, and as the year progresses the selection of both garden and wildflowers broadens. The…

Grow Your Own Cake By Holly Farrell Frances Lincoln, £16.99 We all know that gardens and cake go together. No visit to a beautiful garden would be complete without an equally appealing slice of something special in the adjoining tearoom, after all. This book takes that perfect marriage a step further by delving into growing your own produce specifically for baking. The images are inspiring, the recipes straightforward and easy to follow. You can pick your cakes by season or from the chapters on afternoon tea, puddings and savoury bakes. The growing advice is sound and enthusiastic, particularly for those new to growing their own. There is a helpful section of general advice at the front of the work, with more detailed information on individual crops to accompany the recipes.…

LEEDS CASTLE Maidstone, Kent ME17 1PL Tel: +44 (0) 1622 765400 | Email: enquiries@leeds-castle.co.uk  | Website: www.leeds-castle.com Celebrate the Year of the English Garden at Leeds Castle in 2016 with a programme of outdoor events including Chelsea Fringe, guided walks with the Head Gardener and beautiful colours and smells in the Castle gardens. OPEN: All year round. THE BISHOPS PALACE WELLS Off Market Place, Wells, Somerset BA5 2PD Tel: +44 (0)1749 988111 | Website: www.bishopspalace.org.uk Over 14 acres of spectacular gardens including picturesque, romantic, formal, and Victorian styles, a wild flower arboretum, specimen trees, contemporary Garden of Reflection and a Community Garden, alongside waterfalls, well pools, a moat with resident swans and a stunning medieval palace. Rare Plant Fair 20 March, Garden Festival 10-12 June. OPEN:…

Recently I have been struggling with a dilemma. On the western boundary of my garden is an old garden wall, about 1.5m high, made of local grey rubble sandstone and bound with crumbling lime mortar. It is about 100m long and may once have been taller, for it has no capping on the top. The whole thing is festooned with ivy (Hedera helix). Ivy is one of those plants that have both juvenile and mature foliage. Its mature stems have larger, glossier, unlobed leaves, and bear enormous heads of yellowy green flowers in autumn and early winter, followed by handsome black berries. I know I should remove the ivy, which threatens to pull down the wall. However, the flowers are a vital late food source for many pollinating insects, including…

Garden Birds tea towel, £10. Tel: 01782 407733; www.emmabridgewater.co.uk Hedgehog food, £7. Tel: 020 8332 3123; www.shop.kew.org Suet bird feeder, £12.99. Tel: 01344 578 000; www.crocus.co.uk Swarovski Optik binoculars EL 42, £1,449. Tel: 01772 252188; www.wilkinson.co.uk Ornate bird bath, £22. Tel: 01376 573 302; www.thegardenfactory.co.uk Birdcam wildlife camera, £99.99. Tel: 0345 034 7733; www.shopping.rspb.org.uk Hobnail glass bottle bird feeder, £12.99. Tel: 020 7352 5656; www.chelseagardener.com Beehive birdhouse, £15. Tel: 0300 1232025; www.shop.nationaltrust.org.uk The Wildlife Gardener by Kate Bradbury, £14.99. Tel: 01483 211320; www.rhsshop.co.uk Frogitat ceramic frog house, £16.95. Tel: 0800 0854865; www.arkwildlife.co.uk…

BELLEVALIA FORNICULATA A member of the muscari family and originally from southern Europe, this bulb is the most striking blue and will flower in April. It’s not difficult to grow but likes a well-drained soil. Approximately 20cm high. FRITILLARIA PALLIDIFLORA Sometimes known as the Siberian fritillary, this species has a slight speckling on the pale background of its petals and its broad leaves. It will grow to about 30cm tall. Prefers a soil that doesn’t dry out in summer. ROMULEA BULBOCODIUM ‘JENNY ROBINSON’ Vibrantly coloured ‘Jenny Robinson’ is diminutive in size and probably best appreciated in a pot or trough. Give it a well-drained growing medium and a warm position in full sun. UVULARIA SESSILIFOLIA One of the prettiest dwarf bulbs, Uvularia needs a humus-rich soil and similar…

• If in doubt, phone a friend. I do this regularly, meeting up with and taking advice from my garden consultant and friend, Cherry Sandford (www.cherry-designs.co.uk). Cherry sees the garden with a more detached eye and offers ideas and feedback. Whoever you ring needs to be on the same wave-length and to have a good eye. • Treasure self-sown seedlings and plant them up. They will be the least expensive and most rewarding means of bulking up your plants. • Enjoy the garden more and worry less. The garden used to keep me awake at night, but now I find pleasure in what there is and what I can do to enhance it. • Cherry’s advice is to think ahead for next season, next year. We take photographs, write notes…

SYRINGA VULGARIS Lilacs make large shrubs but are hard to beat for their beautiful once-yearly display of scented, nectar-rich flowers. EPIMEDIUM X VERSICOLOR ‘SULPHUREUM’ Pale lemon flowers on wiry stems appear with red-flushed new leaves. LAMIUM MACULATUM The leaves of dead nettle are adorned with a silver stripe. It is a perfect fuss-free ground cover for a shady border. PRUNUS AVIUM ‘PLENA’ Double white flowers cover this variety of our native wild cherry with clouds of blossom in spring. SMYRNIUM PERFOLIATUM Don’t mistakenly dig up the parsley-like seedlings; they will produce their zingy flowers in their second or third year. GALIUM ODORATUM Sweet woodruff forms pretty mats of fine green foliage that are topped with white, scented flowers during spring. PULMONARIA OFFICINALIS…

FEW GARDENS CAN LAY CLAIM TO HAVING the ruins of a 12th-century priory within their perimeters, or boast five lakes dug by the hands of Benedictine monks. Yet despite having this rich history, the gardens at Little Malvern Court, Worcestershire, are far from a relic of the past, in fact many features of the garden are a mere 33 years old. Little Malvern Court has been home of the Berington family by descent for nearly 500 years. The current owner, Alexandra Berington, took over the garden from her mother and father in-law in the early 1980s, and the 10-acre garden was given a major transformation by Arabella Lennox-Boyd and Michael Balston. Close to the house, an air of intimacy and formality was created, using yews, box and pleached limes to…

Barbara and Johannes Sulzberger have asked Stephen Woodhams to design their garden in Chelsea not once but twice. They first commissioned him to design their garden in 1999, and lived happily with the result for 15 years. Then, in 2014, they made plans to extend the house into the basement, which meant the garden would have to be dug up. They asked Stephen to design their ‘second’ garden, too. “If you get asked back, you know you must be doing something right,” laughs Stephen. The garden had stood the test of time well but Stephen admits: “It looked like it had been designed 15 years before.” Barbara didn’t want to make huge changes, but explains: “We wanted to keep the feel of it but to make it look more modern.…

‘This currant is the finest of Ribes and in the very front rank of all spring-flowering shrubs.’ A welcome sight when blooming in spring, and loved by Victorian gardeners, Ribes sanguineum, the flowering currant, was collected by Archibald Menzies, in 1792, on an expedition to survey the west coast of North America, with Captain George Vancouver from 1791-95. Menzies, whose task was to survey the local flora, ‘found it at various points along the coast and collected herbarium specimens’. It was later found by Lewis and Clark on 27 March 1806, and they, too, pressed specimens, which languished in storage until discovered by Fredrick Pursh (1774-1820), when compiling his Flora Americae Septentrionalis, in 1814. He named it Ribes sanguineum (Ribes from the Arabic or Persian name ribas or acid tasting;…

‘GULL’ This is a fascinating form discovered in Turkey and is one of the best so-called pinks. It is more white in colour than pink but the great thing about this grape hyacinth is that it shows gradations of colour as the flowers age. The buds are white, tinged with pink, but after a few days the flowers change to a pretty rose-pink towards the base of the flower. As the flowers go over, they show a deeper magenta shade. This is a short variety, reaching 10-12cm in height. ‘GOLDEN FRAGRANCE’ A mixture of shades of yellow and brown make this an unusual variety. The fertile flowers are golden yellow and the sterile flowers are tinged a bronze-brown. As well as unusual colour it also has an unusual scent, with…

Planting bulbs in autumn provides one of gardening’s most joyous rewards: new life bursting forth in spring, all the result of some light pottering with a trowel. That joy can be repeated in summer too, by planting summer-flowering bulbs in spring. Invest a little time planting the bulbs now and a host of refined and beautiful flowers will give the garden an extra floral flourish. Bulbs that flower in summer are not as hardy as those that flower in spring, preferring warmer conditions before producing the first signs of life. To start the plants into growth this month a greenhouse, conservatory or warm windowsill comes in handy. Alternatively, plant them straight into warm soil in May. The diversity of flower shape and colour in summer bulbs is wide and while…

You may have seen these exotic flowers in luxury tropical bouquets but it is unlikely you’ve seen these Thai plants growing in a garden in this country. Yet curcuma tubers are no more difficult to grow than frost-tender begonias and dahlias. Start them into growth in early spring on a warm windowsill or in the greenhouse for months of summer colour on the patio. Each flower spike is a work of art and is perfectly shown off above pleated foliage. Height: 60cm. Spread: 30cm. Curcuma are supplied as tubers. THE CURCUMA COLLECTION CURCUMA ‘GREEN PEARL’ Deep burgundy leaves fading to fresh lime green. Bring it into the house in autumn for winter windowsill flowers. (TCK69437) £11.99 (£10.79 for subscribers) CURCUMA ‘TWISTER’ This stunning variety has striking magenta-coloured foliage fading to…

STEP 1: Gather only the newest and freshest flowers when they are dry – ideally, once early morning dew has dried but before the sun causes flowers wilt. Press each gently onto the paper. STEP 2: Group flowers of a similar size and structure together because they will dry at the same rate. Ensure they are not touching, or they will stick together. STEP 3: Traditionally, flowers were pressed between blotting paper slipped into the pages of a heavy book. Various styles of flower press available today, but it is best to choose one that distributes pressure evenly as it is applied. STEP 4: Place fresh flowers onto the surface of a piece of blotting paper or plain tissue paper, laid on top of a piece of stiff cardboard. Avoid…