Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2022 i The English Garden

Stefan Buczacki Stefan has been a writer and broadcaster for over 40 years. He holds the RHS Veitch Memorial Medal and the Garden Media Guild’s lifetime achievement award. He visits Gresgarth Hall in Lancashire on p22. Sandra Lawrence Sandra is a freelance journalist and the author of 16 books. Her most recent, Miss Willmott’s Ghosts, is a new biography of Edwardian horticulturist Ellen Ann Willmott. Sandra visits Spetchley Park on p32. Ian Tocher Ian is garden manager for Historic Royal Palaces at Hampton Court Palace, where he looks after the nursery, productive gardens and garden volunteers. Find out how he cares for Hampton Court’s Great Vine on page 97.…

Darryl Moore Landscape designer and co-founder of Cityscapes Darryl Moore sees opportunity for transformation in every unloved city space I grew up in New Zealand, and as a child I had a very typical outdoor kind of life. We took it for granted that walking through bush and camping was what people did: we had a very direct relationship with the land. We learnt to respect the landscape and its potential dangers while still interacting with it in a positive way. After moving to the UK as an adult in the 1980s, I worked in the music industry for a long time as a DJ and sound artist. I grew fascinated by the way sounds are shaped by the spaces they’re in, and started making field recordings. My focus gradually…

TREES Once leaves have fallen and trees have entered their dormant season, it’s the ideal time to get a brand new tree in the ground. Provided the soil isn’t frozen or waterlogged, you can plant new trees any time from October to April and look forward to it getting off to the best start. The only question is, which tree? There’s a huge choice, and it can be tricky to narrow it down. Unlike smaller herbaceous plants, trees take up much more room and you might have space for only one or two. It’s also harder to change your mind about a tree further down the line, so it pays to make the right choice. To help, we’ve rounded up a selection of fine trees for different purposes. Trees for…

A CUT ABOVE November, of all the months, is often hardest to plan and plant for. It’s not yet fully winter, and that brief, glorious, golden-hued sweet spot when fiery autumn leaves reach peak conflagration may or may not have passed. Precious time in the garden is reduced as thoughts of the shortest day and approaching festivities loom in the mind. But as any gardener worth their salt knows, there are always plants to depend on, and in November the choice is thankfully far wider than the limited displays in garden centres would have you believe. Try something fruity Ornamental fruit is often much longer lived than bright foliage colour. The usual berried suspects are trotted out with tedious regularity at the garden centre, various (but viciously thorny) pyracantha almost…

THE GREAT VINE Hampton Court’s Great Vine is recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest grapevine. At 254 years old it’s something of a celebrity. It was planted in 1768 under the instructions of the Palace’s then head gardener, Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. The plant originated as a cutting from a vine at Valentines Mansion in Essex, and is of the variety Vitis vinifera ‘Schiava Grossa’ (synonym: ‘Black Hamburg’), a sweet, black dessert grape. During his tenure at the palace, Brown received a handsome bonus for providing forced fruit such as strawberries, and this probably prompted the planting of the Great Vine. By the early 19th century, Hampton Court had an enviable reputation for the quality of its fruit and its crops were used to illustrate George Brookshaw’s beautiful…

If you or a family member enjoy a DIY project, than a coldframe is quite easy to make. It can be satisfying to use recycled timber – scaffold boards or railway sleepers for instance. Alternatively, tanalised softwood is readily available. If the boards are around 15cm wide, use two of them at the front and three at the back. The end walls need to be constructed from two layers of boards topped with a third cut on the diagonal so it slopes from the back to front walls and is flush with each. Join the walls together by screwing them into uprights in each corner of 5cm x 5cm timber. A polycarbonate sheet screwed to a wooden frame makes a good lightweight lid. Add a handle at the front and…

We were halfway through working on this issue when we heard the sad news that Her Majesty the Queen had died, and so it was with heavy hearts that we finished off its last few pages. The Queen has always been a steadfast part of the gardening world in the same way she has been a constant and cherished part of our lives for so many years. We will miss her, but we also look forward to the reign of King Charles III, whose own beautiful English garden at Highgrove has featured previously in these pages. He is a passionate gardener and a long-standing champion of the environment, and we wish him well in keeping these issues top of mind as we enter a new Carolean era. This year we…

ABELIA SCHUMANNII This semi-evergreen shrub has reddish branches and fragrant pink flowers. CUPHEA CYANEA The colourful cigar plant is a half-hardy perennial in most parts of the UK, so needs protection from frost. NERINE BOWDENII A sunny, sheltered spot suits these autumn-flowering bulbs best, here paired with Pittosporum ‘Tom Thumb’. FASCICULARIA BICOLOR Excellent drainage to prevent waterlogging is key to growing this bromeliad. LUMA APICULATA A large evergreen shrub with aromatic foliage and lots of small white flowers. Hardy in most parts of the UK. COTONEASTER FRIGIDUS A bushy shrub or small tree bedecked with generous clusters of red autumn berries.…

Graeme recommends mixing compost into the soil with which you backfill your tree’s planting hole, but don’t sit your tree on it. “If you’re not careful the tree will sink as soon as it gets wet, and then it can end up at the wrong level. It’s better to dig the hole to the depth of the rootball and let that sit firmly on the sub-base.” Measure the rootball and use a cane across the top of the hole to check its depth as you dig. “You don’t want to be adjusting the height of the hole once you’ve put in the tree. Every time you move it you risk damaging the tree.” Unless it’s a multi-stemmed tree or a sheltered site, stake your tree to prevent wind-rock, which affects…

CHRYSANTHEMUMS Chrysanthemums are enjoying a comeback. Hanging off the dahlia’s dazzling coat tails, they provide a cavalcade of colour right into autumn. But chrysanthemums have long been undervalued and misunderstood as garden plants and cut flowers. For years they were seen as either lurid bedding plants or time-consuming, glasshouse-grown exhibition blooms. And as cut flowers they were funeral stalwarts, or the ghastly plastic-wrapped bunches sold on garage forecourts. “When I started Green and Gorgeous in 2008, I looked to chrysanthemums as late-blooming focal flowers, to extend the season and keep weddings going into November,” says owner Rachel Siegfried. Grow them she did, but sell them she did not. “There was simply no market for them whatsoever, so I abandoned them for several years,” she explains. That was until November 2016,…

When planting vines outdoors, choose a warm, sunny site. A south- or west-facing aspect is good and against a wall is ideal, since this will provide warmth. Vines need a support system of wires, held up by vine eyes. They look great over a pergola or arch, providing fruit, shade for a seating area and strong autumn colour. Mix organic matter into a planting hole and add grit to aid drainage. Plant the vine with a cane, around 15cm from the wall or other structure, and mulch with organic matter. You can also grow vines in containers as standards. Vines benefit from a regular application of high-potash fertiliser, such as tomato feed, applied throughout the growing season until the grapes ripen. As their sap rises early, vines are prone to…

Access Garden Products A range of free-standing coldframes and miniature grow houses made from aluminium and safety glass. Tel: 01788 822301; garden-products.co.uk Agriframes Aluminium coldframes in various sizes with sliding doors and adjustable shelving for your plants. Tel: 0117 9341790; agriframes.co.uk Alitex Coldframes supplied by the metre for integrating with a greenhouse or to stand alone. Tel: 01730 826900; alitex.co.uk Claverton Cloches Cast iron Victorian-style cloches for protecting smaller plants in situ. Tel: 07521 467371; clavertoncloches.com Gabriel Ash A selection of coldframes made of cedar wood to go with the range of full-sized cedar greenhouses. Tel: 01242 662926; gabrielash.com Hartley Botanic Full-size greenhouses can be supplied with integral coldframes, or there’s the compact, standalone Patio Glasshouse for small-scale overwintering. Tel: 01457 819155; hartley-botanic.co.uk Two Wests & Elliott A range of…

A most delightful quandary of being custodian of an historic estate is figuring out who was responsible for what The acid yellow of an ancient ginkgo, caught in the sun’s dwindling rays. The shimmering pink-gold of a liquidambar, stark against a forget-me-not sky. The flutter of russet in a towering beech tree. Someone made this garden – but who? A most delightful quandary of being custodian of an historic estate is figuring out who was responsible for what, when nearly every member of a family has made their mark. Spetchley Park Gardens, just outside Worcester, have been spectacular since at least the early 19th century – although which member of the Berkeley family first began the gardening here is unclear. The estate’s grand ‘landscape’ is easier to date: the deer…

The garden at Brockholds Manor wears its autumn raiment with a relaxed charm. As the low afternoon sunlight falls across the lawn, it intensifies the warm butterscotch and toffee tones of the beech leaves and glints off the glossy scarlet Rosa rugosa hips in the hedges. In the borders, the textured seedheads of phlomis, sea hollies and alliums stand out against the clipped evergreen forms of box, yew and lollipop bay. This is a mellow garden; a place to linger and enjoy the soft luxury of autumn. When Juliet and Richard Penn-Clark moved here in 2016, the garden was mostly roughly mown lawn surrounded by a tangle of brambles, thistles and nettles. Yet despite its overgrown state, they were excited by the potential of the three-acre site. As a child,…

TOP 10 PLANTS Sculptural and shapely, multi-stem trees owe their good looks to traditional coppicing techniques. When trees are a year or two old, the central stem is removed, encouraging it to shoot the following year. Multi-stems grow more slowly than those with a single trunk, but whether they’re evergreen, deciduous, large or small, they will have a bearing on the surrounding planting. “Bulbs, perennials, annuals, climbers and shrubs will all be influenced by the type of tree you choose,” says garden designer Stefano Marinaz. “Think about the conditions you want to create, then select the tree you need.” Here he picks ten good multi-stem candidates for year-round interest. Stefano Marinaz Landscape Architecture, 9 Fishers Lane, Chiswick, London W4 1RX. Tel: 020 3727 7264; stefanomarinaz.com IMAGE SHUTTERSTOCK 1 Ginkgo…

You like po-tay-to and I like po-tah-to, you like pitt-oh-sporum and I like pitt-oss-porum… There is certainly more than one way to pronounce the name of this well-known genus, with apologies to Ira and George Gershwin. One thing is certain: pittosporum is so diverse, there is a plant for almost every garden need. From robust hedging to all-green box alternatives and even eye-catching container specimens, this broadly hardy evergreen shrub is justifiably popular. Primarily native to New Zealand, where the widespread species P. tenuifolium is known as kohuhu, pittosporum is believed to have developed on the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana. Its natural distribution, therefore, stretches up the eastern hemisphere towards Japan, reflecting the single landmass that existed several hundred million years ago. While there are around 210 species in the…

TAKING CUTTINGS ■ In February or March take basal cuttings from the new shoots of overwintered mother plants. Remove 10-15cm long stocky shoots with a clean, sharp knife and put into individual pots filled with gritty seed compost with added perlite to aid drainage. ■ Water the cuttings lightly and cover with polythene to keep moisture in (Rachel uses lightweight, recycled dry-cleaning bags). Keep in a frost-free glasshouse, place on a heat mat or use a heated propagator on a bright windowsill, but not in direct sunlight. Water sparingly but don’t let the cuttings dry out. Once rooted, after two to three weeks, remove the polythene. ■ Alternatively, order in rooted cuttings from good suppliers such as Sarah Raven, Halls of Heddon, Woolmans or Chrysanthemums Direct. GROWING ON ■ Pot…

TO CONCLUDE By the end of July the fig tree in my London garden was heavy with purple-green fruit, each one ready to burst and filling my cupped palm with its voluptuous weight, like a pouch of melted rubies from a forgotten fairy story. I had been away for a month, leaving the garden to intense heat and no rain. My shady fleet of Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Westfalen’ were distressed and crisp, their gorgeous carmine flowerheads tiny and wizened. But the fig tree was magnificent, sprawling contentedly and in perfect health in the sunniest corner – and its produce was dazzling. Whatever the nursery promises, if you grow a fig tree outdoors in the UK you will probably get a respectable crop only when conditions are exactly right – perhaps every…