Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2022 i The English Garden

Stephen Anderton Stephen is a long-serving writer for The Times and has written a biography of Christopher Lloyd and a study of Stourhead among many other books. He admires the Anglesey garden of Plas Cadnant on p78. Rebecca Bernstein Rebecca is a garden photographer who has been shooting some of the country’s most beautiful gardens for more than ten years, including Wyndcliffe Court, which features on page 57. Mark Bolton Mark is a well-known gardens and interiors photographer and has been shooting for magazines for 20 years. He loves gardening and cricket and lives in Devon. He visits Caervallack in Cornwall on page 88.…

Ellen Mary The broadcaster, podcaster, author and wellness coach is passionate about promoting the therapeutic benefits of gardening and reconnecting with nature I’ve been a plant addict since childhood but kept this quite secret from friends at school because it wasn’t cool then! Even my careers advisor dismissed my interest, so I ended up working in offices for various companies, mainly in HR. I found myself on my allotment at the end of each day, resetting myself to tackle another shift. That life wasn’t for me and, after taking RHS qualifications part time, I became a jobbing gardener. I started writing gardening columns for a local magazine and then I got a job producing and presenting content for Mustard TV, a Norfolk television station. This snowballed into hosting two radio…

I am champing at the bit to get my bean and courgette plants out. They were sown in March under cover, and I usually plant out in April – far earlier than most. My reasons for this are: springs are much warmer now; I have fleece ready to protect the plants if necessary; and the roots have time to travel down before the late-spring droughts, saving time on watering. This does depend on where you live, of course (I’m in the East Midlands), and you must keep an eye on the skies for impending sharp frosts. Last year there were late harsh ones, but the fleece kept them snug and a couple of slightly frosted plants grew back. I’m also in the process of planting new borders, mainly from cuttings,…

Published for the first time in March 1997, The English Garden marks its silver anniversary this year. While immense developments have occurred in publishing since the first issue hit the newsstands, our reason for being remains unchanged. Our tag line ‘For everyone who loves beautiful gardens’ has appeared on the cover of the magazine since those first bimonthly issues, and no celebration would be possible without championing the gardens, plants and gardeners that make the magazine. We’ve dipped into our archives to look at what we’ve lost and gained and what has remained the same over the past quarter century. People Make Gardens It is people who make gardens, who dream in the small hours and then dig the ground in all weathers to make those dreams come to life.…

RHODODENDRON ‘ KNAP HILL APRICOT’ The apricot-orange flowers of this deciduous azalea appear from early to mid May. VIBURNUM OPULUS ‘ROSEUM’ Lime-green flowers turn into white snowballs as they age; good autumn colour, too. DICENTRA FORMOSA ‘LANGTREES’ Mounds of fine foliage and ‘bleeding heart’ May flowers. IRIS ‘LANGPORT WREN’ Plant bearded iris rhizomes in your garden’s sunniest spot for dramatic May flowers. RHODODENDRON ‘ PERCY WISEMAN’ This semi-dwarf, cream-and-pink-flowered rhododendron reaches a compact 2m tall. MALUS HUPEHENSIS One of the prettiest and most prolific flowering crab apples, covered in white blossom in spring. Reaches about 5m tall.…

What better advertisement for Tulipa sprengeri than Amanda and Simon Mehigan’s garden in west Dorset? In dappled shade below an avenue of red oaks, this species tulip blooms scarlet amid a haze of blue forget-me-nots from the end of May and on into June. The latest flowering of all tulips and the only one that grows well in a woodland garden, it spreads itself about with gay abandon when happy. “They love leafmould and seem to cluster around the roots of the trees,” says Amanda. “Ours have done best at the top of the avenue where it’s most shady.” When the Mehigans bought the Old Rectory in the village of Netherbury in 1994, a dense block of conifers, so tall that they “made the rest of the garden dark and…

Down on The Lizard, England’s most southerly point, hidden along a leafy lane and bordered by undulating farmland is an ancient farmhouse and garden. Caervallack is a surprising and rather untypical Cornish garden: a former field that has been transformed into a romantic English garden spread across two acres. The garden is made up of a series of rooms, interspersed with various structures and sculptures and skilfully planted with much care and attention in an English romantic style by its owners, an artist and an architectural designer who have lived here for 27 years. This is the family home of Matt Robinson and Louise McClary, where they raised their children. Both have studios in the grounds and their creative sensibilities are evident at every turn: Matt designs beautiful buildings using…

Juliet Sargeant Brief For ‘The New Blue Peter Garden – Discover Soil’ I am creating a garden for the world’s longest running children’s programme, Blue Peter, which I watched every week growing up. I chose the theme of soil, which is the quiet environmental crisis that our children will need to solve if we don’t manage it. Inspiration I have been trying to get a ‘soil garden’ to Chelsea for years, ever since I saw my own extended family in Tanzania struggling to keep crops productive on their failing soil. Key Plants Iris ‘Kent Pride’, Lupinus ‘Cashmere Cream’, Verbascum ‘Clementine’, Coprosma repens ‘Pacific Night’.…

OUTDOOR COOKING LOUNGERS CHAIRS…

Pick & MIX As with all cut flowers, it’s advisable to condition snipped ranunculus stems by placing them in cold water overnight before the fun begins. Clear a space and assemble a collection of different vessels such as ceramic jugs, enamel pots and glass bottles. This way, if you have a mass of flowers, you can use them to style your garden table as well as taking them indoors to enjoy. Anything goes as long as the vessel is watertight. Head to flowersfromthefarm.co.uk to view their online directory and find growers of specific flowers near you. These ranunculus were grown by Green & Gorgeous in Oxfordshire. greenandgorgeousflowers.co.uk…

Beans, peas, and cucurbits, if they are not to run on the ground, all need supporting frames. Dwarf peas and broad beans need just simple twiggy hazel sticks pushed into the ground, but for bigger varieties the simplest solution is a teepee made from hazel poles: look to your local coppice for a ready supply. Structures need to be strong enough to withstand a prevailing wind and late-summer storms: four poles lashed together at the top with twine should be sufficient. A traditional A-frame run of supports, held together at the top with a horizontal bar, is a possibility for growing on a larger scale. A more decorative and fashionable element is an arch fashioned from hazel bent into shape: for a lesson on making one, try Alison Jenkins of…

In the late 18th century, John Wedgwood of the ceramic dynasty moved to Cole House near Bristol to pursue his interests in botany and horticulture. He also had other plans, writing to William Forsyth, head gardener to King George III, in a letter dated 29 June 1801: ‘I have been turning my attention to the formation of a Horticultural Society and have drawn up such heads as have appeared to me necessary for the first formation of the Society.’ On 7 March 1804, the Horticultural Society of London (later The Royal Horticultural Society) was founded in a room in what is now Hatchards, Piccadilly. The minutes note that the society was formed ‘for the improvement of horticulture in all its branches, ornamental as well as useful’, based on practice and…

SPRING REACH NURSERY A plant fanatic’s paradise on the edge of the beautiful Surrey Hills, just 10 minutes from the A3/ M25. Brilliant home grown shrubs, climbers, grasses, perennials, roses, ferns, trees, hedging and fruit, plus these May starlets: Astrantia ‘Gill Richardson’, alliums, bearded iris, Paeonia ‘Sarah Bernhardt’, Viburnum macrocephalum, Japanese and Chinese wisterias, and new season Japanese acers and trees also now in stock. Tel: 01483 284769info@springreachnursery.co.uk|www.springreachnursery.co.ukLong Reach, Ockham, Surrey GU23 6PG BEETHAM NURSERIES Beetham Nurseries is a family-owned, independent Garden Centre and Growing Nursery on the A6 in south Cumbria, just four miles from the M6 motorway. Established in 1984, we are proud to offer our customers something different and unique. The Growing Nursery is a traditional retail plant nursery where you will find thousands of herbaceous perennials;…

“A magical succession would be snowdrops, followed by lily of the valley followed by martagon lilies” On the wall of my study, positioned to quietly seduce me every time I enter, is a small square painting of palest pink lily of the valley. The delicate tiers of bell-like flowers are held upright against an earthy ground and framed by an elegant arch of leaves in singing green. The painting is by Charlotte Verity, who was Artist in Residence at the Garden Museum in 2010 and spent a year painting in Tradescant’s garden beneath the castellated walls of neighbouring Lambeth Palace. Here, among the formal framework of box with its spring halo of brilliant green, Charlotte’s observations were intimate and intense. In the published diary of her year, she notes: “April…

Holding the Chelsea Flower Show in September last year was a diverting change, but it also made the gap between last year’s and this year’s shows shorter than the usual 12 months. As a result, I feel as if the year is rushing by in double-quick time. Time flies quickly enough, I find: this year is somehow my seventh here at The English Garden, but that’s a fraction of the time this magazine has been bringing everyone beautiful gardens every month. In fact, this is our 25th year of publication and this issue celebrates the occasion. On page 25, our look back at the past quarter century in gardening reminds me just how much it has changed in this relatively short space of time. Changes I’m delighted to have witnessed…

The Plantation Garden Norfolk Maintained entirely by volunteers, this hidden garden in the city completely opens up when you go in. It has a special character unlike anything else I’ve seen and runs over numerous levels with many Gothic elements. plantationgarden.co.uk Beth Chatto Gardens Essex Beth Chatto was way ahead of her time and this garden is such an inspiration, especially for dry-garden ideas. How we care for our gardens in the changing climate is something we’ve all got to start focusing on. Tel: 01206 822007; bethchatto.co.uk…

Tickets for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show can be hard to come by, but we are giving away two all-day tickets for Tuesday 24 May – a sold-out, members-only day. Hotly anticipated show gardens include Ruth Willmott’s ‘Morris & Co.’, celebrating the works of Victorian designer William Morris, and Andy Sturgeon’s ‘The Mind Garden’. Turn the page for more prizes and to find out how to enter. A battery lawnmower from Stiga Enter our prize draw to win the robust and powerful Stiga Combi 748 Q AE smart battery lawnmower. Worth £852, it gives you stress-free, cord-free performance. Featuring a durable 46cm galvanised metal blade, it covers lots of ground with minimal effort, and its extra-powerful 1.5kW brushless motor provides efficient, comfortable mowing, consuming 30 per cent less energy than…

Three years after its last May outing, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is back in full swing in its usual slot. For 2022, usual headline sponsor M&G Investments has been replaced by The Newt in Somerset. And that’s not the only change. This year’s event ushers in a crop of fresh talent and new show categories, with wild plants and naturalistic planting design taking centre stage. As ever, the Great Pavilion will be filled with immaculate plant displays and this year, for the first time, it will host one of the new garden categories: All About Plants. Outside, the Sanctuary Gardens category offers inspiration for those with compact outdoor spaces. And, of course, there are always bountiful shopping opportunities. Each visitor will have their own favourite element, but everyone will…

Richard Miers Brief My brief for ‘The Perennial Garden ‘With Love’’ was to create a calming contemporary space that showcases many of the horticultural skills of the people Perennial helps. It celebrates the idea that gardens are a gift of love. Inspiration The garden is inspired by and pays tribute to all those working in landscaping and horticulture. Key Plants Eight flat-topped Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) take centre stage. They are flanked by four multi-stem Parrotia persica, with Cornus kousa ‘White Fountain’, a large multi-stem Ptelea trifoliata and three Taxus baccata.…

In June this year, the moat around the Tower of London will be awash with waves of colourful flowers in a ‘superbloom’ to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Excitingly it’s real flowers this time, but few will forget the poignant sight in 2014 when Historic Royal Palaces marked the centenary of the outbreak of World War I with an installation of hundreds of thousands of blood-red ceramic poppies. Fragile and ephemeral, poppies have such potent symbolism, not to mention potent effects: opium poppies are still the only source of the painkillers morphine and codeine. But aside from being an emblem of remembrance and an economically important crop, poppies are one of the most versatile – and prettiest – garden plants. What’s more, they are child’s play to grow from seed,…

• Happy birthday to The Cottage Garden Society, celebrating 40 years since its foundation. thecottagegardensociety.org.uk • It’s 20 years since Majestic Trees in Hertfordshire was set up by Steve and Janet McCurdy to supply top-quality mature trees. majestictrees.co.uk • Garden centre chain Notcutts is commemorating 125 years of retailing this year, with events across its 18 stores. notcutts.co.uk • The National Trust’s Plant Conservation Centre, where the rare and historic plants in its collections are propagated and safeguarded, turns 40 this year. • David Austin marks 60 years of its famous Handbook of Roses with a special, commemorative 60th edition. davidaustinroses.co.uk…

Don a wide-brim hat (National Trust, £25) to protect you from the sun and pack a throw (Striped throw by National Trust, £45; Madras Gold Check throw by Weaver Green, £55) to sit on during a visit to Chelsea this month. Also shown are a National Trust flower & herb drying rack (£5) and wooden trug (£26). Tel: 0300 1232025; shop.nationaltrust.org.uk…

In 1922, Charles Leigh Clay built a new house to replace the Georgian mansion at Chepstow that had been home to his family since the 1860s, but which had been requisitioned during the war. He chose a bare hillside, three miles away and 550 feet above sea level, for its spectacular view across the Severn. Wyndcliffe Court, described by Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘Cotswold Jacobean’, was designed by local architect Eric Francis and built from red sandstone quarried in the Forest of Dean. House and garden were created together, with the same sandstone used for the walls, terracing and summerhouse, and with linked detailing. The lily pool niche in the Rose Garden, for instance, reflects the scalloped porch canopy over the front door. Francis collaborated with garden designer Henry Avray Tipping…

PERSICARIA BISTORTA Excellent groundcover for moist areas of soil in sun or partial shade, with pale pink flower spikes appearing from late spring. PRIMULA PROLIFERA A tall candelabra primula for moist spots, with bold golden-yellow flowers and large clumps of crinkly green leaves. GERANIUM PRATENSE A pretty choice for mounds of foliage about 50cm tall, topped by violet-blue flowers from early summer onwards. THALICTRUM AQUILEGIFOLIUM These fluffy mauve flowerheads are perfect for mid-border texture at 1m tall. PRIMULA JAPONICA Give this candelabra primula light shade and moist soil. The cultivar ‘Apple Blossom’ has pale pink flowers. PHUOPSIS STYLOSA Ideal for the front of borders, this forms mats of foliage that produce pompons of tiny pink flowers from early summer. RHODODENDRON ‘PERCY WISEMAN’ Peach-coloured flowers on a compact evergreen…

Chris Beardshaw Brief For the RNLI Garden, the intention is a calm and confident garden that inspires inquisitiveness, looks back to look forward, and echoes the charity’s sense of permanence while offering a space in which to reflect on its diverse work. Inspiration The garden is intended to be a celebration of both the history and modernity of this multi-faceted institution, which has been saving lives at sea for almost 200 years. Key Plants The garden features a collection of statement trees reflecting materials traditionally used for lifeboat building, including three Dutch elm disease-resistant Ulmus parvifolia and two, 6m Pinus sylvestris.…

• Bulldog Tools launches its Pedigree range of hand tools, inspired by beautiful designs from the V&A collection, with patterns etched into the metal. pedigreegarden.co.uk • Sitting Spiritually will unveil their new ‘Four Seasons’ bench with four hand-carved inserts to choose from: daffodil, rose, oak or snowdrop. sittingspiritually.co.uk • Primrose Hall Peonies’ Great Pavilion exhibit, ‘The Enchanting Peony’ is the largest the nursery has ever created. The firm also launches two new alstroemeria in its heritage Parigo collection: Pink ‘Little Miss June’ and yellow ‘Little Miss Connie’. primrosehallpeonies.co.uk • Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants may not be exhibiting at Chelsea any more, but they are mentoring two newcomers: Kitchen Garden Plant Centre (kitchengarden plantcentre.co.uk) and Home Farm Plants (homefarmplants.co.uk). • Hartley Botanic’s new exhibit highlights the contribution greenhouses make to calm…

One of the most respected horticulturists in the country, Roy Lancaster left school at 15 to join the Bolton Parks Department. This was followed by a two-year stint at Cambridge University Botanic Garden, and he then embarked on a successful career at the Hillier Arboretum, now known as the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens. Over time he developed a television and writing career that continues to this day. It was, however, a tour of what was then known as Malaya, during his National Service, that put him on the path of plant collecting. Over the course of his career, he has led botanical and horticultural tours to places worldwide, including Kashmir, Ecuador, Georgia and the Caucasus. Here, Roy picks out ten of his personal favourite plants – some of which he…

May rushes in with almost unstoppable force. The dreams for the garden sketched out over the long months of winter, the seed orders placed from an armchair beside a fire, and the preparation carried out on icy days: they all lead to this point. At Thyme near Southrop in Gloucestershire, the gentle folds of the landscape have turned an exultant shade of green. Hedgerows are erupting with a froth of white, elder is beginning to open its honey-scented flowers, and clouds of cow parsley line the little lane leading down to the kitchen garden. As the last frosts pass, thoughts turn to planting out tender vegetables that will grow at pace in the warmer weather. And, as the evenings lengthen, chefs in Thyme’s kitchens call on Victoria Bowsher, under whose…