Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2022 i The English Garden

Ann Cooke Ann is a freelance writer and garden enthusiast. She is RHS qualified and writes a blog called Green City Gardens, which focuses on small space and urban gardening. She explores Biddulph Old Hall on page 44. Dr Toby Musgrave Toby is a historian, author and garden designer who writes about ‘forgotten’ garden features on page 63. His new book, The Garden: Elements and Styles, is out now. Find out more at tobymusgrave.com Bhupinder Sohanpal A former lawyer, Bhupinder presents RHS video series Get Set, Grow!, volunteers at Wisley and›writes about gardening and wellbeing. She visits Wisley’s new World Food Garden on p93.…

Stockton Bury Gardens Herefordshire There is an intimacy to this four-acre garden, which overflows with the exquisite planting of its creators. Discover unusual plants and knowledgeable planting combinations. Tel: 07880 712649; stocktonbury.co.uk Blenheim Palace Oxfordshire You can trace garden history and design styles across this vast 2,000-acre landscape. There are so many contrasts, from the Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown waterfall to the peace of the still lakes. Tel: 01993 810530; blenheimpalace.com…

• Order snowdrops to plant ‘in the green’. Divide existing clumps as their flowers fade. • Protect early fruit blossom from frost. Apricots and peaches both flower early, so keep fleece on hand to drape over them if frost is forecast. • Finish winter pruning wisteria, shortening shoots to two or three buds to promote the build-up of stumpy, flowering spurs. • When seed potatoes arrive, stand them eyes-upward on a light, cool windowsill to chit. • Overwintering chrysanthemum stools can be started into growth now, ready to take spring cuttings. • Sow a batch of sweet pea seed to ensure continuous flowers once autumn-sown plants have finished blooming.…

Set beside peaceful Coniston Water and embraced by the rugged Lake District fells lies Brantwood, the former home of the renowned Victorian writer, painter and philosopher John Ruskin. Amid this landscape, rich with inspiration, he set about crafting a range of individual gardens. Not only are Ruskin’s gardens incredibly beautiful, they were also based on ideas that are increasingly relevant today: environmentalism, sustainability and organic cultivation. Weaving together wild plants from Britain and other parts of the world, he created a tapestry of colour and leaf form that looks entirely natural yet is carefully managed. And it is here that he laid out his dramatic, angular path, the Zig-zaggy, rich with purgatorial allegory and leading upwards to a hillside ‘paradise’. Others left their mark as well: Ruskin’s cousin, Joan Severn,…

With its name translating from Latin as ‘enclosed garden’, the hortus conclusus was originally a feature of certain medieval monastic establishments and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Today, this sort of garden within a garden, a hideaway escape laid out just as one likes, has a lot of appeal. A quadripartite is a four-fold pattern. It’s a space that is divided into quarters by two perpendicular paths and it is effective, adaptable and widely used. This feature also has religious connections: it is the basis of the monastic cloister garden, which, in turn, symbolises the garden in Eden, the paths representing Eden’s four rivers. This is also a design device that is used in the Islamic chahar bagh, where the division of the garden is made by rills and pathways…

The labels say witch hazels perform best in acidic soil. If you grow them in acid soil the colour will be better, but they’ll still do perfectly well in good, neutral loam. While they don’t enjoy heavy clay or thin chalk, any good, moist but well-drained soil will be fine. Generally, witch hazels flower better and produce more colourful autumn foliage if they’re grown in full sun. I place mine on the edge of woodland areas, or in glades of light within. If you put them in deep shade, they won’t do so well. Once they’re established they’re quite good at tolerating a lot of drought, but I would have to say ‘tolerate’ rather than ‘perform brilliantly’. Although it’s better to give witch hazels space to grow and develop their…

ROGER HARVEY • Snowdrops need rich loam. If you have heavy clay, build up 20cm of friable loam on top. • Let the bulbs dry out over summer while they are dormant. • Plant early-flowering snowdrops in a warm, south-facing position. • For a vigorous, easy-to-grow snowdrop, look at ‘Wendy’s Gold’ (below), with bulbs as big as a narcissus, and yellow markings on the petals, both inside and out. Clumps of this snowdrop glow on a winter’s day. DEBBIE PUXLEY • When buying, make sure that any snowdrop you select isn’t in its first year of flowering. • Buy snowdrops when they are in the green (when they are flowering or have just finished flowering) and increase their numbers by dividing them while they are in the green. • Try…

YACON Forms clumps of underground tubers, resembling those of dahlias, with a crunchy taste and a sweet flavour. It can be used to make a low-calorie, sugar-free syrup. ACHOCHA This vine needs netting to clamber across and produces fruits with a fresh flavour like a cross between cucumber and green pepper. FIGS These succulent fruits are grown in pots in the World Food Garden; restricting their root run in this way tends to produce a heavier crop. RED-VEINED SORREL Harvest the attractive leaves while young and tender for salads. Don’t let the plant run to seed because it will soon spread around. CALLALOO This type of amaranth is grown for its plentiful leaves, which are used in a similar way to spinach in West Indian cooking. PEPINO MELON A shrubby…

A Passion For Snowdrops: A Personal Perspective by George G. Brownlee Whittles Publishing, £15.99 George G. Brownlee specialises in tiny things. A Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford and the Royal Society, the pathologist has made his career in researching nucleic acids in RNA and DNA. Perhaps, then, it is little surprise to learn that he is also a passionate galanthophile, training his eye on the minute differences between the many varieties and species that comprise the compelling Galanthus genus. Here Brownlee presents his own experience of growing these beautiful winter flowers. The foreword by Dr Chris Thorogood and Professor Simon Hiscock, both of the Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum, meanwhile, hints at the discipline with which Brownlee approaches his topic. This work gathers together the knowledge Brownlee has gained over…

I had expected a masterclass in topiary: clear and expert advice on developing winter bones for the garden. But as I open the gate into Charlotte Molesworth’s legendary garden at Balmoral Cottage, I am greeted not by a chessboard of clipped evergreens but a stand of towering sunflowers against an azure sky, the warmest welcome into a garden and the warmest way of thinking about a garden. I am swept away. Artist and gardener Charlotte Molesworth and her husband Donald have been making this gentle haven of a garden – famously populated by light-catching peacocks, plump tiers of variegated box and fairy-tale wedding cakes of yew – for almost 40 years. Originally the kitchen garden of Collingwood ‘Cherry’ Ingram’s Benenden estate, the acre of land was unused and overgrown when…

In a bid to banish wintry gloom, we bring you five out-of-season gardens in this issue, all linked by enjoying rich histories. Whether it’s the romantic garden that was created by Nigel Daly and Brian Vowles among the crumbling ruins of an Elizabethan mansion in the grounds of their home, Biddulph Old Hall, or the allegorical gardens created by Victorian writer John Ruskin at Brantwood in the Lake District, these gardens all tell a story beyond the plants and beautiful views. At Brantwood, visitors ascend the steep hillside via a path, the Zig-zaggy, which represents the ascent through purgatory as described by Dante, ending in a terrestrial paradise at the summit. Five months in at my new garden and ‘paradise’ remains some way off, but I have empathy with the…

Houghton is famous for its glorious Wisteria Walk. In summer, the 120m-long avenue is garlanded with cascades of sweetly fragranced, misty purple flowers. Head gardener Richard Ernst has these tips for growing wisteria over a garden pergola – even when it’s not quite on the same scale as the one in the Walled Garden. • In January/February, reduce the previous season’s growth to two to three buds. • Prune back all whippy new growth in July and August to five or six buds. • Wisteria will continue to grow vigorously, but we have to keep footpaths open for visitors, so we give the walkway a weekly trim to remove additional whippy growth.…

On apple trees: ‘For of all lovely things which grace the spring time in our fair temperate zone, I am not sure but this blossoming of the apple-tree is the fairest.’ On wildflowers and native plants: ‘…on the turf, the wild violet and pansy should be sown by chance, so that they may grow in undulations of colour, and should be relieved by a few primroses.’ On traditional garden flowers: ‘All dahlias, tulips, ranunculi, and, in general, what are called florist’s flowers, should be avoided like garlic.’ On the rose: ‘Red is …the loveliest of all pure colours; and …in the rose there is no shadow, except what is composed of colour. All its shadows are fuller in colour than its lights, owing to the translucency and reflective power of…

Immaculate and brimming with healthy plants, the 13 Victorian glasshouses at West Dean in West Sussex offer a masterclass on growing under cover. Set within the Walled Garden, they were built from 1890 to 1900 by Foster and Pearson. In addition to productive plants, such as figs, peaches and nectarines, they also contain ornamental plants – many from tropical and subtropical climes. At this time of year, their lush, exotic forms and bright colours are a tantalising contrast to wintry conditions. West Dean’s glasshouse gardener Kelly Dyer suggests those that are reliable subjects for a range of conditions: greenhouses, conservatories and even sunny windowsills. West Dean Gardens, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 0QZ. Tel: 01243 818318; westdean.org.uk 1 Anthurium sp. “These bear flowers that last forever,” notes Kelly of these…

Nothing signals the end to winter quite like a fanfare of brilliant daffodils bursting from the ground. These much-loved bulbs brighten even the chilliest spring morning with their trumpet-like blooms in a range of colours, including every shade of yellow, paper white, orange and even pink. Combine varieties from the different daffodil groups, and you’ll have flowers from late January all the way through to early May. Daffodils in the Tazetta Group are more commonly known as bunch-flowered or French daffodils. Not only do they provide a splash of colour as the garden comes out of dormancy, but their clusters of up to 20 florets per stem have a deliciously sweet fragrance, which has led to their use in the production of essential oils. Tazetta daffodils are native to Southern…

Anglesey Abbey, Quy Road, Lode, Cambridge CB25 9EJ. Tel: 01223 810080; nationaltrust.org.uk Cambo Estate, Kingsbarns, St Andrews, Fife KY16 8QD. Tel: 01333 450054; cambogardens.org.uk Colesbourne Park, Colesbourne, Cheltenham, Glos GL53 9NP. Tel: 01242 870567; colesbournegardens.org.uk Hodsock Priory, Blyth, Worksop, Notts S81 0TY. Tel: 01909 591204; hodsockpriory.com Walsingham Abbey, Common Place, Walsingham, Norfolk NR22 6BP. Tel: 01328 820510; walsinghamvillage.org Welford Park, Newbury, Berks RG20 8HU. Tel: 01488 608691; welfordpark.co.uk…

Joseph Mallord William Turner is indisputably one of Britain’s greatest landscape painters, but this man, famed for his peerless depiction of light, also nurtured a passion for architecture. A youthful draughtsman, he’d once mused that if choosing a profession again he’d be an architect. His rural retreat in Twickenham now stands restored, thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund and private donations, as an enduring testament to his design skills. It is surrounded by a beautiful small garden that captures the flavour of his time in residence. Turner was born in 1775 and was already enjoying great success by the time he came to build Sandycombe Lodge in 1813. The property was initially named Solus Lodge, indicating Turner’s desire for quiet seclusion. The foremost artist of his day, wryly acknowledging that…

Advolly Richmond The garden, landscape and social historian on the pleasures of research and how understanding plant history will make you a better gardener Many gardens are created to be experienced in a particular order. The Villa d’Este in Tivoli is a magnificent High Renaissance garden spread over terraces. The original entrance was at ground level, but now you enter via the villa at the top. When I visited with my daughter, I forced her to run down to the bottom entrance while taking in as little as possible! It was worth it to enjoy the gardens in the intended way, ending at the top with its breathtaking views of the Roman countryside. Garden history is for everyone. It relates not only to gardens but also to places like cemeteries.…

Under Cover Greenhouses and essential kit to protect tender plants and get crops off to a good start Woven Magic Bring timeless elegance to your home or garden with rattan furnishings and homeware…

‘NICE GAL’ Huge, rose-pink, semi-double blooms grow on short stems for greater wind-resistance on this lightly scented variety. ‘FESTIVA MAXIMA’ Ivory white flowers with a raspberry-ripple centre sit on sturdy stems, making this an ideal variety for cutting. ‘FÉLIX CROUSSE’ Ruffled magenta petals, finely cut foliage and a heavy scent on a stunning peony that grows to 90cm. ‘DUCHESSE DE NEMOURS’ A reliable choice with fragrant, rounded flowers that open to creamy white. ‘ALBERT CROUSSE’ An old French variety dating back to 1893, ‘Albert Crousse’ has pale pink, double blooms borne on long stems. ‘MR G. F. HEMERIK’ This easy-to-grow Japanese variety has single, lipstick-pink, anemone-type flowers and beautiful crimped foliage.…

One of the many delights to be enjoyed by delving into the diverse and varied expressions of garden art from the past two-and-a-half millennia or so is the discovery that gardens made at different times and by different cultures are a rich source of inspiration. Some elements, such as topiary, have cycled in and out of fashion down the centuries and remain popular today. Others are not as widely used as they should be, and then there is a glorious miscellany of overlooked features, planting styles and ornaments that, for whatever reason, have slipped from the collective garden consciousness. Yet with a bit of ingenuity and imagination, they can be dusted off and given a contemporary relevance. Falling into the ‘not used enough’ category is the rill: a narrow and…

Witch hazels are one of winter’s most distinctive shrubs, their quirky, spidery blooms making them instantly recognisable even before you’ve breathed in their inimitable scent. At their peak, these are shrubs that make a lasting impression, which is precisely the effect they had on Fiona Edmond, garden designer and owner of Green Island Gardens in Essex, and one of Plant Heritage’s National Collection holders of Hamamelis. “I first fell in love with hamamelis at the Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park, when we used to live nearby,” she recalls. “I used to crave outdoor space, so I would go in and be blown away by the colours in the middle of winter. The park beyond looked so bare and drab, but the witch hazels’ colour and scent was amazing.” After moving…

What is the fascination of this unassuming little flower? Snowdrop lovers all agree: it’s because they are harbingers of spring. “They are so pure, simple and uplifting,” says George Buchanan, whose collection of 82 species and 4 million snowdrops at Hodsock Priory in Nottinghamshire dates from the 1830s. “They push through in the worst weather,” adds snowdrop breeder Joe Sharman. “There’s something joyful about their determination.” A self-described ‘mad plantsman’, Joe explains: “When so little else is in flower, I can really focus.” With almost 40 years’ experience, he can spot the minutest difference within his 1,500-strong collection. But there are bigger variations, visible even to a raw beginner, and once you start noticing you quickly understand why snowdrops are so compulsive. The most familiar, carpeting woodlands in February, are…

The spectacular views from the rooftop of the new RHS Hilltop – The Home of Gardening Science, based at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey – are fringed by three beautiful garden spaces. From this vantage point, you get a bird’s eye view of each of the uniquely designed gardens: the Wildlife Garden, the Wellbeing Garden (laid out as garden rooms) and the World Food Garden. With curiosity akin to that of Alice when she set off into Wonderland, follow the boundary of planting panels that envelop the World Food Garden, adorned with newly planted fruit trees of pears, plums and apricots, full of promise. Surprise openings in these panels draw you in: follow the golden gravelled pathways and they lead you to the World Food Maze, filled with exotic and…

ROSA X CENTIFOLIA The opulent flowers of the cabbage rose are a fragrant highlight of early summer. CENTRANTHUS RUBER Red valerian will self-seed itself about for a wonderfully naturalistic effect. ROSA GALLICA ‘VERSICOLOR’ Rippled flowers of pale and magenta pink on this historic rose variety. DIANTHUS PLUMARIUS Low-growing pinks have old-fashioned charm and are perfect next to a path. ASTRANTIA MAJOR These pincushion-flowered perennials are an excellent choice for heavy soils. PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM This tissue paper-petalled, self-seeding poppy is ideal for a cottage garden. ROSA RUGOSA ‘ALBA’ A vigorous rose with single blooms in pure white, followed by orange hips. LYCHNIS CORONARIA Magenta summer flowers contrast with silvery felted foliage on this perennial. LAVANDULA ‘HIDCOTE’ One of the best English…

What is your personal experience of gardening while renting a property? My partner and I have been in our current home in Fulham, London, for ten years. We never intended to stay so long, but you get comfortable. I went in thinking it wasn’t our garden and we shouldn’t spend money on it, but it quickly became apparent that we were the only people suffering from the messy garden because we were the only ones looking at it every day. That’s when I decided to make a start on it. How have you developed your garden? The garden extends two metres from our French doors to a boundary fence that was collapsing under the weight of Russian vine and bamboo, so I cleared the vine and pulled back the fence…