Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2019 i The English Garden

Helen Billiald Helen is a freelance garden journalist who has a background in plant science and ecology. She’s passionate about the stories behind the creation of a beautiful plot, visiting Newton House on page 26. Gordon Hayward Gordon is a garden writer, designer and lecturer based in Vermont. His garden, created with his wife Mary, who is from Chipping Campden, is registered with the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Gardens. Carole Drake Carole is a garden photographer and writer interested in foliage, conifers and green gardens. Her tiny Somerset courtyard is full of bamboo, succulents – and ivy, which she writes about on page 73.…

Stranraer, Scotland Described as one of the most beautiful gardens in Scotland, Glenwhan Gardens is perched 300 feet above sea level, overlooking Luce Bay and the Mull of Galloway, with clear views to the Isle of Man. Forty years ago there was wild moorland here, but now there are visionary collections of glorious plants from around the world. Paths wind through all-season planting, sculpture and well-placed seats, all set around small lakes, which add to the tranquil, sheltered atmosphere. Open daily 10am-5pm. Adults £6; concessions, groups and students £4.50; season ticket £18; family ticket £13 (up to three children). Tea rooms on site. Dunragit, Stranraer, Wigtownshire DG9 8PH. Tel: 07787 990702; scotlandsgardens.org…

Christmas Gift Fair at Hyde Hall 29 Nov -1 Dec & 6-8 Dec, Essex Handmade gifts and a chance for kids to make their own and meet Santa. Normal admission + extra for children’s activities. Tel: 01245 402019; rhs.org.uk Christmas at Chatsworth 9 Nov-5 Jan, Derbyshire ‘In a land far, far away’ (right) is the theme this Christmas. Visitors will travel the globe, from a Nordic winter to a blossom-filled Japan. Adult: £25; children £15. Tel: 01246 565300; chatsworth.org Christmas Past and Present at Fenton House 30 Nov-15 Dec, London Festive magic, including early choral music, workshops, and mulled wine. Adult: £9; children: £4.50. Tel: 020 743 53471; nationaltrust.org.uk Christmas Floral Art at Polesden Lacey 5 & 12 Dec, Surrey This workshop teaches how to create a festive floral display.…

Structure the garden around a selection of vistas and focal points – essential parts of garden design that people often forget. Even when you’re designing a tiny garden, it’s so important to ensure you always have focal points. Create exciting spaces to take people on a journey. From our dining room your eye is led to a large urn; from the urn you’re pulled up the beech avenue to the summerhouse; from the summerhouse you look through a sculpture to find that it frames the face of a statue in the distance… Reclamation yards are wonderful places to buy statues and quirky objects that will make you smile. It helps to think outside the box in order to achieve success and add that extra wow factor. Gardening evolves and that’s…

The Arts and Crafts Movement, which was inspired by William Morris, gave gardens a new definition as a harmonious component of the house rather than a separate entity. Gardens were often designed in collaboration with architects, such as Sir Edwin Lutyens, and garden designers like Gertrude Jekyll. They are not meant as an end in themselves but were conceived as outdoor rooms that are married to the house. Key characteristics include simple structuring and romantic, medieval-inspired imagery derived from old English manor house gardens. Nothing about them is ostentatious, contrived or foreign. Designers used local materials and traditions, hedged enclosures, artistic flower borders, whimsical topiary trees, small hand-built structures, sundials, armillary spheres, and other traditional ornaments. Some of the key designers are Gertrude Jekyll, Edwin Lutyens, Baillie Scott, Robert Lorimer,…

Ivies grow best in limey soil; in acid soil, variegated forms will throw up a lot of green trails and the leaf form will not be so pronounced. Golden variegated forms show best in full sun; silver and green varieties grow as well in shade as in full sun. Trim annually to keep ivies in shape, restrict their size and – if you want only the juvenile form of the plant – ensure they do not become adult. Use shears to trim wall-grown plants.…

Ask a small child to draw you a flower and you will probably be presented with the classic daisy shape. This may be largely due to its pleasing simplicity but will doubtless also have something to do with the ubiquity of the daisy family, which contains over ten per cent of the world’s flowering plants. Your young friend may struggle to process the fact that, in the real world, the flowerhead atop the stalk is actually hundreds of tiny flowers or florets. The central boss is made up of tubular structures known as disc florets and what we tend to call petals around the edge are, botanically speaking, ray florets and usually sterile. This composite arrangement is highly efficient with a visiting insect, attracted by the showy ‘rays’, likely to…

‘Tender and True’ This is a traditional parsnip choice with a good flavour and girth as well as resistance to canker. Being almost coreless, it is slow to develop a woody characteristic. ‘Gladiator’ This F1 hybrid has good canker resistance and an RHS Award of Garden Merit. If you are showing parsnips, it’s a good one to choose with smooth skin and even roots. ‘Pearl’ A fairly new late-crop F1 hybrid that stores well and has good resistance to canker. Pale-skinned, uniform roots are longer and slimmer than those of other varieties. ‘Albion’ Keep ‘Albion’ in the ground over winter until you need its slender, uniform roots. An AGM and canker-resistance means it should perform well in most circumstances.…

“I went to breakfast with poor dear Mrs. Gregory and her niece. The latter fell in love with me, and I with her, and thus completed my first morning’s work at Chatsworth….” So wrote Joseph Paxton in his diary on the evening in 1837 that concluded his first day as head gardener for ‘the Bachelor Duke’, the 6th Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth in Derbyshire. Hannah Gregory, head housekeeper for the duke for 40 years, was the aunt of 26-year-old Sarah Brown. Paxton, then 23, was the son of a farm labourer. He had trained as a horticulturist and gardener and was now on the cusp of a meteoric rise through the spheres of gardening and industry. With Sarah’s dowry of £5,000, the social disparity between the two was clear,…

No one has covered this area of garden history before. Why do you think that is? That’s a question I’ve asked myself throughout this work. Garden history has developed as a branch of the history of garden design, and it just doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone to enquire about the money. Insofar as anyone has tried to measure it, the Retail Price Index or Consumer Price Index has been used. This produces much smaller numbers and that has minimised the question of how much it has all cost. I’ve based my calculations on comparative average salaries which has brought up a better picture. My own discipline of economic history has also ignored the topic. What are the consequences of this oversight? We’re missing an important part of British…

The garden may be a quieter place as winter gets under way, with fewer tasks on the to-do list, but that diminishes neither its value nor how pleasurable it is to be outside at this time of year. That’s especially true on those cold, perfectly crisp days of winter, like those we were lucky enough to capture in the gardens featured in this issue: Rodmarton Manor with its chunky, frost-dusted Arts and Crafts topiary, or the invigorating new winter garden at Wakehurst, for example. In fact being outside in the garden can sometimes be such a tonic that the weather doesn’t matter a bit. I spent a very soggy session planting my spring bulbs recently, but relished the time outdoors so much – after months stuck indoors renovating and decorating…

Jasminum nudiflorum flowers on the green stems of one-year-old wood, so to ensure a strong show of blooms the following year, prune it after flowering. We do this in late January if the weather has been mild. If it’s been cold, we will prune in March. For a sharp edge to box hedges use a tight string line and make sure trimmer blades are properly sharpened. At Craigfoodie, we mulch annually with composted pine bark, old potting compost or our own home-made compost. A good rule of thumb is to feed the soil rather than the plant. Inorganic fertilisers may result in short-term benefits, but organic compost applied to a depth of 2-3 inches, which is then broken down by invertebrates and microorganisms, produces a healthy soil structure, better…

Snowshill Manor A remarkable Cotswold property by Charles Wade, with a stone summerhouse named ‘The Jolly Roger’. nationaltrust.org.uk Hestercombe Gardens Sir Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll both worked on this 50-acre garden near Taunton. hestercombe.com Hidcote Inimitable garden created by American Lawrence Johnston, near Chipping Camden. nationaltrust.org.uk Great Fosters A historic Surrey hotel garden with contemporary influence from Kim Wilkie. alexanderhotels.co.uk Munstead Wood Erstwhile Surrey home of Gertrude Jekyll. The private garden is open by appointment. munsteadwood.org.uk Bryans Ground Three-acre Herefordshire garden developed in 1913, now owned by David Wheeler and Simon Dorrell. bryansground.co.uk…

At Christmas, hearing ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ transports me straight back to junior school, the smell of floor polish and school dinners hanging heavy in the air. While both woodlanders are mentioned in the first line of the carol, the other verses are all about holly; poor old ivy doesn’t get much of a look in. Holly is a respectable garden tree nowadays too, whereas ivy, by contrast, is seen as something of a pest if the shelves of ivy killer in garden centres are anything to go by. Granted these are aimed at controlling the native species, Hedera helix, which can get out of control if you don’t show it who’s boss, but even that can make a wonderfully useful garden plant. It’s great for wildlife, evergreen, resistant…

Wandering through the acres of glasshouses at Double H nurseries, you can’t help but feel you are being watched. Moth orchids are ranked hundreds-deep on the benches, their face-like flowers unfurling to the light: a breathtaking sight. This nursery, situated in the market town of New Milton, Hampshire, is famous for being the UK’s biggest grower of moth orchids, as well as chrysanthemums and roses. It’s a family-run firm, established in 1961, which is still proudly flying the flag as a producer of indoor plants in an industry that is traditionally dominated by Dutch growers. This is a great time to be growing houseplants, as the trend for indoor jungles is expanding faster than a Swiss cheese plant on steroids. Account manager Dan Pass – more romantically known as Double…

There’s an unavoidable dichotomy between gardening and technology. For most of us, the garden is a place to escape the modern world, where we can unwind, relax and enjoy being closer to nature. The last thing we want to do is ruin those moments of tranquillity with the pinging and beeping of a demanding smartphone. That said, the judicious introduction of a little helpful technology could free up precious garden time. If modern aids to watering or lawn mowing, for example, minimise the time spent on more mundane gardening tasks, there may be time to spare for more enjoyable or creative activities, or simply more time to sit back and enjoy the garden, and who wouldn’t love more of that? But where to begin, in the world of apps, software…

Visit Chatsworth from mid-July through to late August and you’ll be able to meet and talk with ‘Sarah Paxton’. Oddsocks Productions, a Derby-based theatre company, provides Chatsworth with professional actors in period costume who are there to talk with garden visitors each day during those six weeks. The actors portray, among others, Joseph and Sarah Paxton (who is pictured here, played by Carole Copeland), and gardener John Gibson. Actors prepare by reading archived letters and biographies of the Paxtons. They also learn about the present gardens with current head gardener, Steve Porter, whose knowledge of Joseph and Sarah is extensive. Chatsworth, Bakewell, Derbyshire DE45 1PP. Tel: 01246 565300; chatsworth.org…

• Check that greenhouse heaters are fully functioning and that their thermostats are working – ready for the colder nights. • Make sure any pruning required on birches, acers and vines is done before Christmas (after which their sap rises) to avoid the wounds bleeding. • If hard frosts are forecast, dig up any crops needed for the Christmas dinner, such as parsnips or leeks, while you can still get them out of the soil. • As leaves fall from deciduous shrubs, take hardwood cuttings of any you’d like to propagate. • Insulate taps and outside pipes to prevent damage. • Turn pots of growing amaryllis regularly so their lofty flowers don’t tilt towards the light.…

A good rule of thumb for any garden is to design with three tiers in mind: it’s an approach that works particularly well in a winter garden where you have limited colour to play with. I used several different plants as groundcover, planted en masse for maximum impact, including pink and white heathers and pink cyclamen. Then I worked in a series of small shrubs and, finally, small trees for height. Use shape and texture to create impact, since you will find yourself restricted in terms of colour at this time of year. Add colour sparingly, making sure the colours balance and complement each other. Keep your palette of plants to a minimum. Avoid the temptation to try to create a stamp collection of winter specimens!…

Thousands of you have voted for your favourite gardens from our shortlist of 30 of the country’s finest, all of which open for the National Garden Scheme. Now it’s time to reveal the winners of 2019’s Nation’s Favourite Gardens competition, supported by Viking. There’s a winner for each of the scheme’s six regions, plus one champion of champions with the most votes overall. Turn the page to discover these six special and most deserving gardens, and find out about the gardeners who have worked hard to create these beautiful spaces and generously open them for the benefit of the nursing and caring charities the NGS supports. Coton Manor, Northants Overall Winner & Regional Winner: Midlands It’s only once you’ve parked the car, crossed the quiet lane and headed through the…

H. helix ‘Buttercup’ Slow-growing climber or groundcover, with medium-sized, five-lobed gold leaves. H. helix ‘Tripod’ This strong climber has very narrow three-lobed leaves and a medium rate of growth. H. helix ‘Manda’s Crested’ Fast growing with a medium, wavy-edged leaf, shaded red in winter. A great all-rounder. H. helix ‘White Ripple’ A slow-grower with finely pointed dark green and grey leaves edged with white. H. helix ‘Golden Girl’ A versatile, medium-sized, five-lobed leaf, with gold margins and a crinkly edge. H. hibernica ‘Rona’ Offering fast-growing groundcover, this ivy’s young growth is marbled cream and green. H. helix ‘Silver Ferney’ A compact grower ideal for pots with small, forward-pointing, variegated leaves. H. pastuchovii ‘Ann Ala’ An elegant, fast-growing ivy, with long, shield-shape dark-green leaves.…

Since orchids are native to tropical climes, the average living room provides the ideal temperature for them, but make sure you don’t put plants close to radiators, or heating and cooling vents. Keep phalaenopsis in bloom away from fruit bowls, since the ethylene gas given off by ripening fruit can encourage flowers to drop early. Phalaenopsis don’t like to be baked in bright sunlight, so placing them near an east- or west-facing window is ideal. Orchids benefit from moist air, so putting them in bathrooms or kitchens will help to keep them happy. The best way of watering is to place the pot in a sink of water for a few minutes. Alternatively, place the pot under a tap and let water run over the surface of the orchid bark,…

• Parsnip seed loses viability quickly. Sow it all in one year – don’t save it. • Sow seed in warmed, loamy soil, from April to June, at 15cm intervals in rows that are 30cm apart. Germination can take up to a month. Harvest when their leaves start to turn yellow. • Carrot fly larvae feed on the root, causing rot. Protect plants with Enviromesh or create a two-foot-high enclosure. • Parsnip canker, from under-watering, physical damage or over-fertilising, can also cause rotting. Use a rot-resistant variety.…

Gardena The brand’s Smart System links with Gardena’s range of robotic mowers, irrigation controls and sensors, so they can be controlled from your phone (or from a PC, if you’d rather). Set their schedules to take your garden’s conditions into account. GardenTags This app will also identify unknown plants, using digital plant recognition and a community of other gardeners. Subscribe to the premium version and an unlimited personalised plant task calendar can be tailored to your garden. Gardenize Organise your garden and its plants by using this app to gather photos and notes about them all in one place. A good planning tool that helps you keep track of what’s growing where – ideal for crop rotation in the vegetable patch. Instagram The place to go for beautiful pictorial inspiration…

Wild about Weeds by Jack Wallington Laurence King, £19.99 When is a weed not a weed? That is the perennial question. Foxgloves, snapdragons, forget-me-nots and primroses all have decorative function but given half a chance will quickly consume more than their allotted space. Others, like Japanese knotweed, began as ornamental plants but soon went rogue, as well we know. Between these poles exists a world of plants that deserve a second look. This is according to Jack Wallington, the RHS-qualified garden designer, who neatly points to the virtues of these enthusiastic growers so scorned in discourse elsewhere. Wallington begins with the ways weeds can be brought into the garden, with notes on collecting and storing seeds, as well as ways to manage rebel plants and echo natural design and plant…

There are two words for what we give at Christmas: gift is the Old English word, and the more formal present comes from the Norman French, originally used in the sense of bringing something into the presence of someone, presenting something – a sense that we still use in formal introductions. I prefer the intimacy of the Old English word. Gardeners are generous givers of gifts. We often have a garden full of flowers to cut, or fruit and vegetables to share, plants to divide and cuttings or seeds to offer. A fondly remembered friend of mine once gave me as a house-warming present, a gardener’s bouquet of herbs and shrubs for rooting. There’s still just about time to take hardwood cuttings now, so a Christmas posy of evergreen or…