Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 23 i The English Garden

What has caught my eye in this issue, our traditional springtime ‘Small Gardens’ special? For starters, there’s Will Jennings’ tiny London garden with its assortment of romantic roses, which has raised my hopes that the bareroot ‘Phyllis Bide’ I’ve just planted will undertake the same shed-covering romp as Will’s. Then there’s the incredible colour co-ordination in Margaret and Peter Hargreaves’ garden at Grafton Cottage, a flower-packed labour of love for almost 50 years. Tony Woods’ design for a very smart garden near London Bridge is so clever: its central seating area, tall walls and umbrella mulberries afford an oasis of privacy and peace despite being in the heart of the city. At least two lilacs, the subject of our Plant Focus, are now on my wish list – just don’t…

Guy Barter The RHS chief horticultural advisor has been helping the nation with all manner of gardening quandaries since the 1990s I started my career working for the government in a lab as a microbiologist. Over time it became quite tedious, and after 11 years I decided to pursue horticulture instead. I’ve always been interested in gardening. My parents were great gardeners and my family grew watercress, so it wasn’t entirely a leap in the dark. At 29 I left London to study at the University of Bath for four years where I specialised in crop protection and vegetable production. I had my first allotment at 14 so I’ve always grown vegetables. The university was offering free training placements, so after graduating I worked at a nursery in West Sussex,…

Despite being just six miles south-west of Edinburgh city centre, Riccarton Mains House enjoys a surprisingly rural location amid open fields and woodland. Its terraced garden, packed with colour and studded with topiary and mature trees, slopes up from the back of the house in the direction of the nearby Pentland Hills. Although it has the quiet air of a place that has always been there, both the house and garden have in fact been developed over the past 50 years by Vicki and Michael Reid-Thomas, who bought the plot of land when it was home only to several derelict farm buildings. Creating the garden from scratch was a project that the couple embraced, but the site’s exposed location initially presented a challenge when it came to establishing plants. “When…

The area around London Bridge is a mass of complementary contradictions. Medieval streets snake past the monolithic glass of Britain’s tallest building, The Shard. There’s an authentic replica of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, which is actually just 30 years old, and a power station that provided London with electricity until 1981 now houses the Tate Modern art gallery. At the heart of it all, right next to the foodies’ favourite, Borough Market, sits a Victorian house that perfectly embodies this vibrant blend of old and new. Stepping in from the busy street outside, the hubbub suddenly fades as you brush past fragrant beds full of lavender, rosemary and thyme, passing along a path shaded by a canopy of mulberry trees to a seating area with a Corten steel fire bowl at…

Little is as evocative in spring as the fragrance of lilac blossom. Even if these shrubs didn’t carry such a powerfully sweet, heady scent, they would still be a spectacle, adorned with such an abundance of flowers at this time of year, their branches dripping with heavy panicles. Lilacs are seen as a little old-fashioned – something your grandmother might have grown, perhaps – but there’s nothing wrong with a little romantic nostalgia. After all, we’re living in a time when ‘Grandmacore’ is trending on TikTok. The ‘lifestyle trend’ of the moment embraces all things traditional in a bid to foster a sense of cosiness and security that harks back to memories of visiting grandparents – not all that surprising given the turmoil of the past couple of years. So…

Stylish Settings Any special occasion can be made all the more memorable with the addition of thoughtful handmade touches. Decorate personalised place cards for the Easter table with the motifs of the season using Cambridge Imprint’s Easter Printing Block Set (cambridgeimprint.co.uk). This set of eight easy-to-use printing blocks will depict patterned eggs, a speckled hen, a chick and a dancing hare. The blocks could also be used to make pretty greetings cards or even your own wrapping paper. Alternatively, try your hand at potato printing, à la Molly Mahon, who often uses leftover tester pots of emulsion or chalk paint for truly budget-conscious crafting. Cut up old sheets or pillowcases and turn them into block-printed napkins using the same technique, setting the paint in place with a hot iron so…

TO CONCLUDE I was entranced by delicate shoals of floating, pleated, cup-shaped flowers with the magical self-contained quality of exotic jellyfish When I first encountered Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Cupcakes Blush’, I wasn’t quite sure what I was admiring. But I was entranced by delicate shoals of floating, pleated, cup-shaped flowers with the magical self-contained quality of exotic jellyfish drifting in an aquarium. It was August and we were staying at Arne Maynard’s glorious house, Allt-y-bela. It is, I warn you, the ultimate B&B for a keen gardener. It is also the most charismatic place to stay in the rolling Monmouthshire hills and you have full freedom to roam and discover every part of his delicious garden quietly for yourself. I had spotted the floating, baby pink cosmos growing against the…

Nicola Stocken During her 30-year career, award-winning photographer and writer Nicola has conveyed the beauty of remarkable gardens and plants throughout the British Isles. She visits Will Jennings’ garden on page 31. Jodie Jones Jodie is a freelance garden writer based in London. She has spent decades interviewing the best designers, then applying what she has learned to her own patch. She admires Tony Woods’ work on page 61. Jo Whittingham A freelance writer and editor in East Lothian, Jo writes a monthly gardening column in The Scotsman and has edited many books, including No Dig by Charles Dowding (DK). She explores Riccarton Mains on page 39.…

An essential first step in designing any garden is to establish its attributes: soil type, the direction of the prevailing wind, where water flows or collects and how the sun will cross the space throughout the day. It’s important, too, to assess the garden’s surrounds. Perhaps there is a tree or climber that might be shared, or views that can draw the eye up or out and so provide a sense of there being more space than there actually is. The small courtyard that was presented to designer Tabi Jackson Gee for some TLC had little to recommend it, let alone a view to borrow. It was surrounded by bare, high walls, accessed via a narrow, characterless passage, and two lanky olive trees in pots were its only real feature.…

There’s no hiding in a small garden: often everything can be seen, all at once and all of the time, so any furniture has to look exactly right. It pays to think carefully before investing and to buy furniture that you love and will want to look at all year round. “In a really small garden, we actually design the garden around the furniture,” says London-based garden designer Charlotte Rowe, who frequently works her magic on the capital’s smaller spaces. “We have just finished a roof terrace where the client wanted a dining table and sofas, so we had to design the space from scratch around them.” Think about size and shape. Circular dining tables fit more people around them “but they waste a lot of space because of the…

The changing of the seasons is an aspect of gardening that can bring great joy, yet the long-awaited transition from spring to summer can also bring disappointment in the form of the tricky gap that occurs between late spring and early summer. Falling between the colourful ‘showtime’ of spring with its bulbs and blossom and summer’s display of herbaceous plants bursting into bloom, this pause doesn’t just result in a lack of colour. Fewer flowers also means less nectar, which can lead to a significant reduction in the number of bees and other pollinating insects in the garden. Changing weather patterns affect and delay plant growth and development, so a gap that might have lasted only a couple of weeks in years gone by can go on for much longer…

Pick up a New Skill From training espalier fruit trees and weaving willow supports, to propagating favourite plants and extracting botanical dyes, the gardening community will be buzzing with activity this spring and summer as specialists in their fields open their doors and travel the country to share their expertise. With workshops ranging from a morning to a couple of days, there is something to suit almost every interest and ability, making this the perfect time to try something new or brush up on forgotten skills. Arranging & Growing Cut Flowers Throughout spring and summer, RACHEL SIEGFRIED is opening the gate to her Oxfordshire flower farm. At her ‘Flower Club’ sessions, you’ll pick, condition and arrange cut flowers, then wander through the fields to harvest a bucketful to take…

Blossom time! As if in celebration of the garden warming up and daylight hours growing longer than those of night, our Japanese apricot, Prunus mume ‘Beni-chidori’ is festooned in almond-scented, madder-pink blooms. Such is the emotional punch of spring that the word ‘blossom’ has become heavy with meaning. It speaks of purity and abundance; a culmination, but with the promise of more to come. The blossom season may be brief but every garden needs at least one tree to herald the change of season. While the Japanese apricot is a great choice of tree for the smaller garden, so are many other members of the Prunus genus. Prunus padus ‘Pandora’ bears shell-pink flowers while P. sargentii has slightly darker rosy-pink blossom. Prunus ‘Ukon’ is somewhat different, displaying green-yellow to cream…

“I wanted to create the feel of a secret English garden; I like things that are old and romantic” There’s no knowing what lies hidden behind the impersonal facade of a Victorian terrace in South East London, so the first glimpse of Will Jennings’ intimate back garden is rather breathtaking, with its billowing, blushing roses and the scent of myrrh lingering in the air. “I wanted to create the feel of a secret English garden; I like things that are old and romantic, and roses live up to that billing,” says Will, who has created this miniature marvel in a Lilliputian space. The garden’s style is distinctly English, with foxgloves and hardy geraniums roaming freely, borders planted with roses such as ‘Kew Gardens’, ‘The Generous Gardener’ and ‘Olivia Rose Austin’,…

According to my 1964 edition of The Shell Gardens Book, cottage gardens are ‘small and sheltered, packed with flowers and full of haunting scents.’ The quarter of an acre surrounding Grafton Cottage on the edge of Barton-under-Needwood in Staffordshire, ticks all those boxes. In late summer the garden reaches ‘peak cottage’, full of heady scent and intense colour, overflowing borders busy with bees, hoverflies and butterflies, and every square inch used. But unlike the conventional cottage garden where colours are scattered randomly about as if stirred up in a mixing bowl, here the borders are colour-themed, making this a cottage garden with a contemporary twist. Grafton Cottage, the end house on a row of 19th-century water-workers’ cottages, has been home to Margaret and Peter Hargreaves since they married in 1975.…

Moisture-bearing sea mists and a protected situation make Caerhays in South Cornwall an excellent place to grow plants from China’s mountainous regions. Developed in the main after 1900, the Caerhays garden contains numerous important specimens from China, including plants sourced by E.H. Wilson and George Forrest, who worked for owner J.C. Williams. Since 1996, head gardener Jaimie Parsons has looked after the National Collection of Magnolias here, and in April and May these gorgeous flowers are in full bloom. Jaimie suggests ten good varieties for gardens large and small. Caerhays, Gorran, St Austell, Cornwall PL26 6LY. Tel: 01872 501310; visit.caerhays.co.uk 1 Magnolia sieboldii Flowering in April and May, M. sieboldii has a spreading growth habit. It reaches about 8m across and at 8m tall it is best for larger…

Singles, cactus, waterlilies, collarettes, pompons and balls: dahlia types are every bit as compelling as their colours. Combined, they make for some of the most captivating plants of the mid- to late-summer garden. So, whether you’re growing gentle ‘Café au Lait’ or ‘Wizard of Oz’, the timeless Bishops of Llandaff, Oxford, York and Dover, or glamorous ‘Fashion Monger’ or ‘Honka Black’, if there’s a way to make more of these wonderful plants then it should be perfected. “There are several ways to propagate a dahlia,” explains David Hall of Halls of Heddon, dahlia specialists in Northumberland for over a century. One is by seed. “But dahlias have variable offspring,” he points out, “which means you may not end up with the variety you started off with.” While this is handy…

The overall winner of the International Garden Photographer of the Year’s Competition 16 is Tony North of Manchester, UK, for his image of mountaintop flora on the island of La Palma, which also won in the ‘Breathing Spaces’ category. Tony said: “I am thrilled and honoured to be chosen as the overall winner. The image you selected has a special meaning for me. It took an enormous amount of effort to be in that place at the right time – on top of the caldera in La Palma in the middle of the night last May – and yet more effort to capture and process the shots.” Head Judge Tyrone McGlinchey said: “Tony has literally elevated the Breathing Spaces category to new heights, by photographing endemic mountain-top flora with a…