Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2020 i The English Garden

Advolly Richmond Advolly is a garden and social historian and a Gardeners’ World presenter. She also runs garden history courses for the National Trust and the University of Birmingham. She visits Goldstone Hall on p20. Widget Finn Widget is a business journalist and garden writer. She has recently downsized from a two-acre garden and is looking forward to the challenge of gardening in miniature. She visits Sapiston Secret Garden on page 56. Zara Napier Inspiration is always at hand in Zara’s Suffolk garden, but photographing unknown gardens and meeting passionate gardeners is what motivates her to travel with her camera. See her images on page 56.…

Maidstone, Kent This beautiful one-acre garden offers panoramic views out over the Weald of Kent. Its most impressive feature is its 600 varieties of snowdrops, flowering in tiered display beds over the winter months. As spring arrives, borders fill with more colourful blooms, and there is also an extensive collection of alpine plants on display in a large greenhouse. Other features include a productive vegetable garden and a natural spring-fed water feature. Spring Platt, Boyton Court Road, Sutton Valence, Maidstone, Kent ME17 3BY. Opens for the National Garden Scheme on Sunday 26 and Wednesday 29 January, 10.30am-3.00pm. Adult: £5. Children: Free. Call 01622 843383 to book your visit. For more details see ngs.org.uk; kentsnowdrops.com…

Winter walk at Wisley 10 January, Surrey Join RHS Garden Wisley’s curatorial team on a walk around the winter garden and learn about the plants that do well at this time of year. Tickets: £36 for non-members. Tel: 01483 224234; rhs.org.uk Heritage apples and pears From 11 January, Edinburgh Take a tour of the fruit garden at the Royal Botanic Garden, while Johanna Lausen-Higgins teaches how to grow trained fruit in your garden on this two-day course. Tickets: £90. Tel: 0131 2482909; rbge.org.uk Designing your own garden 19-22 January, West Sussex This course at West Dean is headed by Annie Guilfoyle and teaches site evaluation and creating a layout and planting plan. Tickets: £381. Tel: 01243 818300; westdean.org.uk What to do in the winter garden at Waterperry 20 January, Oxfordshire…

KNAUTIA MACEDONICA Maroon, pincushion-like flowers bob above a rosette of leaves all summer on this bee- and butterfly-friendly perennial. POTENTILLA FRUTICOSA ‘MAANELYS’ This little shrub has small leaflets and primrose-yellow flowers in summer. CISTUS X PURPUREUS Ideal for a sunny, well-drained spot, this shrub is covered with tissue-paper, bright-pink flowers all summer. PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM Opium poppies in all forms and colours will seed throughout the borders. Try a peony-flowered mix for ruffled blooms. GERANIUM SANGUINEUM A really good choice for groundcover, with mats of fine foliage and pink-purple flowers appearing over a long period. CLEMATIS ‘PAUL FARGES’ This clematis might have small flowers but there are lots of them, from June all the way through to September. GERANIUM ‘SUMMER SKIES’…

ROSA ‘JOIE DE VIVRE’ Clusters of ruffled, peach-pink blooms appear in flushes throughout summer on this bushy, compact, 60cm shrub. ROSA ‘BELLE DE CRÉCY’ An Old Rose with richly perfumed cerise flowers that turn violet as they age. It’s a strong grower, reaching 1.5m tall. CLEMATIS RECTA A handy herbaceous clematis for growing in a border, where it will romp among perennials to fill any gaps. GERANIUM PRATENSE ‘PLENUM VIOLACEUM’ A pretty, double-flowered cultivar of the meadow cranesbill, reaching 50cm tall. KNIPHOFIA ‘TOFFEE NOSED’ Golden-orange pokers appear around June and last well into August. ROSA ‘HAPPY RETIREMENT’ A repeat-flowering Floribunda blooming from June through until the first frost. GERANIUM SANGUINEUM VAR . STRIATUM Pink-veined flowers smother this…

“Creating a meadow is a labour of love,” announces Henrietta St. George. She speaks from experience, for five years ago she fulfilled her long-held ambition to plant a wildflower meadow in the garden of her Suffolk farmhouse. But she’s quick to add a note of caution: “It’s not for the faint-hearted!” Walk up an unmetalled lane towards a remote village church on the Suffolk borders, past a 16th-century, ochre-washed farmhouse surrounded by fields. Peer over the garden wall and you’ll find a traditional English meadow, bejewelled with blue cornflowers, red poppies and yellow toadflax, and, at its centre, a very untraditional yurt. The meadow is the creation of an unlikely partnership – an Englishwoman whose family has lived in the area for 500 years and a Sherpa from Nepal who…

Viburnums are a perfect example of stalwart plants: unsung heroes of the garden that perform in a fuss-free way, yet are also some of the best multi-seasonal plants you can grow. There are evergreen viburnums with smart, dark-green foliage and deciduous types that take on spectacular autumnal shades. Some bloom in spring, some in summer. Others produce sought-after winter flowers, and their lustrous berries range through red and yellow to blue and black. More than 150 species of viburnum are native to temperate parts of the northern hemisphere, two of which grow wild in Britain: the wayfaring tree, V. lantana, named because it was planted along trackways, and the hedgerow-dwelling V. opulus. The deciduous V. plicatum comes from China, Japan and Korea, and its cultivars are worth growing for their…

‘Let the train take the strain’ exhorted the 1980s advertising slogan. Certainly, travelling by rail is the most relaxing way to explore any country. On a recent tour, I visited several fine gardens no more than a hundred miles from the English/Scottish border, and none too far from a railway station. Their fascinating histories reflect many periods of British garden history. In England The rich and unusual planting at Howick Hall, near Alnwick, creates year-round enchantment from delicate bulbs in spring to an arboretum ablaze with colour in autumn. In the early 19th century, Howick Hall was home to Charles, 2nd Earl Grey, British Prime Minister from 1830-1834 and architect of the Great Reform Act, for whom the bergamot-flavoured tea was blended. In the early 20th century, Charles, 5th Earl…

RSPB Garden Birds by Marianne Taylor Bloomsbury, £25 Birds are the most easily seen and appreciated of domestic wildlife, and attracting them to residential spaces is simple. If your garden seldom receives a visit, winter is the ideal time to extend an invitation, since they will be eager for a ready source of food at this time of year. Happily, RSPB Garden Birds outlines all you need to do to welcome your guests. The work begins with ways to encourage birds to the garden and create habitats so they will choose to stay. This is followed by the biographies of 47 of our most common garden species, from wrens and tree creepers to sparrowhawks and tawny owls, as well as less common species such as the lesser spotted woodpecker and…

As a Capricorn, I quite like January because I can look forward to my birthday, but I know that for many, once the excitement of Christmas and New Year is over, January and the rest of winter can seem to stretch out bleakly ahead. But don’t worry: that’s where this issue comes in. Cheer yourself with thoughts of summer and everything you could achieve in your garden this year, by studying the gardens featured over our pages this month. They all excel at being quintessential English gardens, whether that’s because of their topiary, in the case of Hampshire’s Weirs Barn, or their traditional herbaceous borders, like at Arley Hall in Cheshire. If you want to see an exemplary country garden, take a look at Goldstone Hall in Shropshire, with its…

Widespread across the UK, the bright-yellow flowers of common gorse bloom from January to June, emitting a coconut scent. In folklore, the ‘kissing season’ happens while gorse is in flower, and you are not meant to kiss loved ones after its petals have disappeared. Luckily, once common gorse (also known as furze, whin or French-fuzz) is out of season, the two other gorse species present in the UK ensure there’s a variety in flower throughout most of the year.…

We were introduced to Uncle Tom’s Rose Tonic six years ago by international rose breeder Chris Warner, when despairing over a black-spot-infested, leafless ‘Iceberg’. It is a natural foliar feed containing potassium phosphate, and can be obtained from many rose nurseries or online. We apply the non-toxic tonic spray (it does not contain fungicide or insecticide) to all our roses every fortnight from March through until the end of October. The leaves are always healthy, shiny and green as a result. They produce masses of buds with vigorous second and third flushes of flowering that last into November. Using sharp, clean secateurs, we take some height out around the end of October to avoid any snow or wind-rock damage. We prune again in February and March and apply farmyard manure…

Pruning box when wet does work well: there is less sappy build up on the blades and it is a cleaner cut. But it can potentially make the plant more vulnerable to box blight. Scrupulously clear trimmings away to be on the safe side. Dip the blades in a 5% bleach solution between plants to prevent spreading infection. Choose a day that will be followed by fine weather to reduce the chance of box blight taking hold. Good box alternatives include Ilex crenata, Lonicera nitida and Euonymus microphyllus. Treat with a tonic especially formulated for box such as TopBuxus (topbuxus.co.uk).…

In early spring, mulch deeply with compost to suppress weeds and retain moisture in the event of a hot summer – Arley’s borders are covered in a blend of municipal compost and leafmould from the estate’s woodlands. Use groundcover plants such as hardy geraniums, tradescantia or salvias to help bind the taller plants together, which will hide bare stalks and stems. Grow plants such as campanulas with sufficient foliage to provide body and act as a constant foil to a succession of flowers. You wouldn’t want to be without campanulas – they provide a good amount of colour without being in your face: after all, not every plant can be a show-stopper. Repeat dominant clumps such as delphiniums, Scottish thistles, red hot pokers or anthemis to create a ripple effect…

CENTAUREA MONTANA The pink version of the perennial cornflower is less invasive than the usual blue. KNAUTIA ARVENSIS Lilac blooms sway on tall stems on this perennial that’s popular with pollinators. Try it in a sunny border or meadow. GLEBIONIS SEGETUM Annual corn marigolds were once common in the countryside but less so now. AGROSTEMMA GITHAGO Corncockle is a graceful annual with grey-green leaves and mallow-like flowers. PAPAVER RHOEAS No meadow is complete without the classic corn poppy, an annual with vibrant scarlet flowers. PHACELIA TANACETIFOLIA The lavender-blue flowers of this meadow annual are irresistible to passing bees.…

Owners of the gardens that were shortlisted in our recent competition to find the nation’s favourite National Garden Scheme gardens to visit, sponsored by Viking, joined The English Garden and guests at London’s Garden Museum on 4 November 2019 to discover the results. The six gardens that received the most votes in each NGS region each received an engraved stone plaque, courtesy of Haddonstone. Coton Manor Garden, in Northamptonshire, was crowned champion of champions, winning the most votes overall to earn the title of ‘The Nation’s Favourite Garden’.…

Viburnums will thrive in a variety of different conditions, so although they prefer acid soil they’re perfectly happy at Hyde Hall where the soil isn’t acidic. They’ll also tolerate low fertility and are happiest in sun to part shade. Hyde Hall is an exposed site but they cope – although you can get a bit of leaf burn on the evergreen types. The only thing they can’t handle is waterlogged soil. If you’re on poor soil they’ll benefit from a sprinkling of a general-purpose feed in spring, but other than that a bit of a mulch with compost is all that’s needed to keep their shallow roots moist and to feed the soil a little. They can be pruned, but prune heavily and they’ll start to look like generic green…

Vanessa Berridge took the ‘Heritage Homes & Gardens’ tour on Belmond Royal Scotsman. Prices start from £5,650 per person, based on two people sharing a cabin, and include all meals. Vanessa visited Howick Hall, Hutton-in-the-Forest, the Garden of Cosmic Speculation and Drumlanrig Castle, while Mount Stuart features on several other Belmond tours. Cambo and Kellie Castle are within reach of rail stations (although buses or taxis will be needed). Tours include lavish cabins, fine dining, excellent wines and exemplary service. On each return to the train, tartan-clad staff welcome guests with trays of drinks, and before dinner there are savoury canapés and 20 gins to choose from. Visit belmond.com or call 0845 077 2222.…

Which have been the most satisfying projects you have worked on during your career? You become immersed in each project and I’ve been lucky enough to work on only those things that I completely believed in. But having a smallholding – Franklin Farm, in Hampshire – with 4,000 trees on it and gradually tending that land over the decades has probably been the most rewarding of the lot. That relationship with the piece of land, where you walk it twice a day and notice tiny changes and see the soil shifting from a chemical desert to humming with life, is a good reward as you get older. Describe what you’ve done at Franklin Farm. Along with the humble farmhouse, which dates from 1440, I was lucky enough to get about…

There is a tiny pool in my garden. It’s hardly larger than a dinner plate – in fact really only the size a child would make for the fairies who undoubtedly live at the bottom of her garden – sunk in the turf of my front lawn. I call it the Hedgehog Pool. It got its name one very hot night in the drought the summer before last, when I went out into the garden seeking some cooler air and met a hedgehog: right there in the middle of the lawn. Hedgehogs are creatures of habit, and walk miles every night along their favourite routes. Thinking she might need a drink, I filled a terracotta saucer with water and placed it before her. I liked to think she might stop…

• Shred the Christmas tree and use the results as a mulch around ericaceous plants. • Keep an eye on any tubers and rhizomes being overwintered. Give them a light misting with water if they start to shrivel and dry out. If any start to rot, remove them from the store. • Use a broom to disperse worm casts on the lawn, but remember not to walk on frozen lawns or risk damaging the grass. • Take winter’s quiet as an opportunity to repair structures around the garden such as pergolas or archways, applying a coat or two of wood preservative if needed. • Cut away tatty old leaves from clumps of hellebores to show their beautiful flowers off at their very best.…

• This is the perfect time of year to plan for the new season ahead. Take photographs of the different areas of your garden and sit down with them to assess whether there are any bare spaces that could be used to plant wildlife-friendly shrubs and trees. • Once you have taken down your Christmas tree, chop off its branches and group them together in bundles. Place these bundles around your garden to provide welcome extra winter shelter for wildlife. • Continue to ensure that garden birds are well fed by leaving out extra food such as seeds, fat balls, dried mealworms and halved apples. • If you have a fish pond in your garden that has iced up during the freezing cold weather, try placing a hot pan of…

In the early years of the 20th century the Arts & Crafts architect Robert Weir Schultz bought a farmhouse and its 16th-century barns at Hartley Wintney in Hampshire and carried out one of the earliest recorded barn conversions to make himself a home. He set it in a garden laid out as an extension of the house with ‘rooms’ leading through it and with topiary as an important structural element. A century – and only two owners later – the topiary at Weirs Barn continues to form the backbone of the garden and wears its age exceedingly well. Topiary has been around for a very long time. The Romans used it in their villa gardens; it was all the rage in Renaissance Italy; and it came to Britain in the…

It’s easy to get swept away by enthusiasm for plants that once seen you simply must have, however long you’ve been gardening. But making calm, considered choices improves creativity and brings more successful results. Beth Chatto and Ruth Bancroft were outstanding gardeners who demonstrated the power of making more deliberate plant choices. Combining a passion for plants with the ability to put the right ones in the right places resulted in their groundbreaking gardens. There’s much to be learned from their approach, whatever the style of your garden. Beth Chatto and Ruth Bancroft had a shared gardening philosophy, which was simply to accept the underlying conditions in their gardens and choose plants to suit them. Both were creating gardens at a similar time, when terms such as ecology, water conservation…

Around 150 plant species chosen for scent, texture and colour feature in the 450m-long Winter Garden at Anglesey Abbey. To mark its 21st anniversary this year, head gardener David Jordan has embarked on a three-year project to refresh plantings and re-think certain areas. “We want to create new layers, including shrubs and bulbs that will keep the Winter Garden beautiful for future generations,” says David. Here, he selects ten of his all-time favourites. For planting success, he suggests a combination of trees and shrubs underplanted with smaller winter-interest plants and early and late-flowering bulbs to extend the season. Anglesey Abbey, Quy Road, Lode, Cambridge CB25 9EJ. Tel: 01223 810080; nationaltrust.org.uk 1 Lonicera x purpusii This attractive hybrid honeysuckle begins to flower almost as soon as its leaves fall in…

The pea and bean family consist of leguminous plants. The word ‘legume’ refers to their characteristic fruit: a pod that usually splits as it dries out to release round or bean-shaped seeds, which are often edible and then known collectively as ‘pulses’. These have nourished people around the world for thousands of years and include such crops as chickpeas, lentils and beans. Flowers in the Fabaceae family have five petals typically arranged like a sweet pea, with two ‘wing’ petals, an upright ‘standard’ petal and two lower petals more or less fused to form a ‘keel’. Flowers are often grouped into showy inflorescences that may be upright, as in a lupin, or may hang down like a laburnum or wisteria. In the genus acacia, typified by the florists’ mimosa, tiny…

FRANCE Known for its classic style, this is a country that offers many stylish twists on traditional gardening Les Jardins d’Etretat This seaside garden in Normandy was created in 1903 by actress Madame Thebault, who drew her inspiration from Claude Monet and gardener Auguste Lecanu. Contemporary sculptures and artworks are dotted around and offset by immaculate topiary. From the clifftop garden, enjoy panoramic views of the coast. etretatgarden.fr/ Les Jardins du Château de Brécy This historic garden in Normandy, dating back to the 17th century, is a rare example of its era. While the garden seems to have been created in a French classic style, it has a few Italian touches with its four terraces and the presence of sculptures. A delicately clipped box parterre sits close to the house.…