Indholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2019 i The English Garden

Graham Porter Graham is BBC Radio Leeds’ gardening expert. His 50-year career includes stints as a head gardener and lecturer. His first book, The Yorkshire Organic Gardener, is out now, and he visits Scape Lodge on p42. Non Morris Garden designer and acclaimed blogger Non Morris has worked on a variety of private and public gardens over her career. She writes about Christopher Masson’s flamboyant Battersea garden on p58. Charles Dowding Charles pioneers time-saving methods of gardening, and is renowned for his ‘no-dig’ philosphy. He sells salad from his garden, teaches, and runs a YouTube channel. He shares his salad secrets on p115.…

Hertfordshire Set within a picturesque countryside landscape, the listed Tudor house (not open) at Alswick Hall in Buntingford provides the perfect backdrop to five acres of stunning landscaped gardens. These feature exceptional herbaceous borders, formal beds, a central water feature, plus an orchard where pretty spring blossom is already appearing. Visitors can enjoy the variety of its shady woodland walk or explore the wildflower meadow, which boasts a dazzling selection of daffodils, tulips, camassias and crown imperial fritillaries. Alswick Hall, Hare Street Road, Buntingford, Hertfordshire, SG9 0AA. Opens for the National Garden Scheme on 14 April, 12pm-4.30pm. Home-made teas and cakes, bar and hog roast. Adult £5; children free.…

Van Gogh and Britain, Tate Britain 27 March-11 August, London An exhibition showcasing the Dutch artist’s work alongside the British art that inspired it. Tickets: £22. Tel: 020 7887 8888; tate.org.uk Jilly Sutton and Helen Denerley, Moncrieff-Bray 27 April-27 May, Sussex Jilly Sutton’s wood carving is shown with Helen Denerley’s drawings and sculpture (right). Free admission. Tel: 07867 978414; moncrieff-bray.com William Pye, The Secret Garden 4 May-2 June, East Sussex An outdoor exhibition of William Pye’s metal sculptures. secretgardenkemptown.co.uk Ann Fraser, Rountree Tryon 7-18 May, West Sussex; 21-23 May, London Ann Fraser’s compositions combine different flowers on canvas. Tel: 01798 344207; rountreetryon.com Sculpture Exhibition 2019, Borde Hill 10 May-30 September, West Sussex See more than 80 pieces, including a huge kinetic wind sculpture by Will Carr. Tickets: £9.50 for adults.…

HELENIUM ‘MOERHEIM BEAUTY’ This late-summer-flowering perennial needs full sun to thrive. Deadhead regularly. HEMEROCALLIS ‘STELLA D’ORO’ Golden-yellow blooms and deep-green foliage set this popular daylily apart. HEMEROCALLIS ‘STAFFORD’ Open, coral-hued petals deepen to maroon before turning golden at the throat. LEUCANTHEMUM ‘SNOWCAP’ A dwarf shasta daisy that reaches just 45cm, but flowers as freely as others. HYPERICUM ‘ORANGE GEM’ This compact spreading plant provides border accents in a pretty salmon-orange shade. VERONICASTRUM ‘FASCINATION’ Flowering racemes look like mauve-coloured wands on this hardy perennial.…

• Garden design Lynne Marcus Garden Design. Tel: 020 8340 3409; lynnemarcus.com • Red bench and zinc table The Conran Shop. Tel: 0344 848 4000; conranshop.co.uk • Dining table Habitat. Tel: 0344 499 4686; habitat.co.uk • Metal dining chairs Tolix. Tel: +31 715 620409; tolix.co.uk • Bronze dog Beaux Arts. Tel: 01225 464850; beauxartsbath.co.uk • Cheese rack shelving Magus Antiques. Tel: 01666 503970; magusantiques.com • Stone globes Talisman. Tel: 0207 731 4686; talismanlondon.com…

Spring is the time for woodland gems to shine. These are plants that thrive in the dappled shade under deciduous trees and shrubs – and there are plenty to choose from. But if you’re looking for attractive groundcover foliage and exquisite flowers, then epimediums take some beating. Epimediums are native to wooded mountains and shaded rocky locations from the Mediterranean to the Far East. They’re a member of the berberis family, and most but not all of them produce flowers with distinctive pronounced spurs that give them a spidery appearance. The blooms are held on slender, branching stems that are almost invisible, so that the flowers appear almost to float in mid-air. This gives these pretty plants a hazy quality. The foliage too has much to offer, emerging in spring…

Having proper drainage gives you the desert-like conditions that succulents need to thrive. Without proper drainage your succulents might succumb to root rot. We recommend using a mixture of 60-70% general-purpose compost with 30-40% perlite, grit or sand – or a mixture of all three. Many borderline hardy succulents can survive in temperatures below freezing if free-draining conditions are met. Put them in vertical free-draining walls, rockery beds, or a dry, windy part of the garden. Because of their waxy, leathery leaves, all succulents can tolerate very windy conditions. Most prefer bright light and lots of air, but a few of them will cope well with a certain amount of shade. Knowing the requirements of your succulent is crucial when selecting where you’re going to plant it. Over-watering is the…

If you are considering creating a meadow, it’s important to know the difference between the various types. Conservation charity Plantlife says a ‘true’ meadow is an area of grass and perennial plants maintained by an annual hay cut. Expect to see flowers such as ox-eye daisies, knapweed, clover and buttercups in the mix – all perennials that will flower year after year. This is in contrast to meadows created by sowing cornfield-type annuals such as poppies, cornflowers and corncockles. Because they are annuals, a meadow of these needs cultivating each year for seeds to set and germinate – if it’s managed in the same way as a true meadow, it will last for only a year: something that often leads to disappointment. Then there are what have become known as…

• Sow spinach seeds in succession, once a month, for a continuous supply of greens. Switch varieties during the season. • Spinach will grow readily from seed sown direct into the soil in rows that are 30cm apart. The more space you give each plant, the larger the leaves will grow, so for classic salad baby leaves pack plants close together and harvest when young, about 30 days after sowing. • Spinach can bolt in summer but keeping it well watered will help prevent this. Avoid water stress. • Protect young seedlings from slugs and snails.…

MARCH This is the time to put in seeds of lettuce, spinach, dill, coriander and peas for shoots. JUNE Make a second sowing of lettuce, and a first of chicory for its hearts, and also frizzy endive. MID-JULY Time for a third sowing of lettuce, endives, chicories for autumn hearts, coriander and dill. EARLY AUGUST Salad rocket, mustards, pak choi, mizuna, land cress, chervil, winter purslane and spinach should be sown now. EARLY SEPTEMBER Put in all sowings for growing under cover through winter, plus lettuce, frizzy endive, kale and lambs lettuce. HOW TO SOW After five weeks’ growth in spring and three weeks’ in summer, plant out your seedlings 22cm apart and protect the first April plantings with 30gsm horticultural fleece laid directly onto the seedlings for three to…

Flower Market by Michelle Mason Pimpernel, £20 Colour is a wonderfully evocative thing. For centuries scientists have theorised about how we perceive it and the way it affects us: the despondency sparked by a screen’s blue sheen or the joy of lemon light glimpsed through curtains. Interior designer Michelle Mason’s new book celebrates colour and the ‘magic’ of certain chromatic combinations. Each page flaunts photographs of stunning botanical arrangements: seasonal flowers arrayed amid the salvaged objects she sells in her London shop, Mason & Painter. The book champions the fashionable preference for local, organic produce. To create her designs, Mason forages in parks or buys from the flower traders that mass on her doorstep every Sunday for the Colombia Road Flower Market. If you’re seeking a horticultural thesis, this publication…

No matter what your dream garden looks like, space needn’t stop you achieving it. The small gardens we’ve gathered together in this issue encompass every style you can think of. There’s a naturalistic meadow in landscape architect James Hitchmough’s Sheffield garden, Christopher Masson’s foliage-filled mini-jungle in London, a steeply sloping plot in Huddersfield, terraced to make use of every inch of space, and one of the most unusually shaped gardens we’ve ever seen, transformed into a chic haven by designer Charlotte Rowe. They’re diverse in shape, style and plant taste, but they’ve all got size in common, and none of them have let a lack of it hold them back. Also in this issue, you’ll find gorgeous succulents that can be squeezed in anywhere – a good job, since they’re…

The primrose’s name derives from the Latin, prima rosa, meaning ‘first rose’. This is testament to the ancient belief that primroses are the first flower of spring, although they are not part of the rose family. Primroses are often linked with fairies in folklore: a primrose posy on your door was said to invite fairy blessings to your home, while scattering the five-petalled flowers at your threshold was believed to keep them away. In the ‘Language of Flowers’, a primrose means: “I can’t live without you”.…

GLADIOLUS ‘RUBY’ A gorgeous cultivar of G. papilio, with deep, crimson-pink flowers on elegantly arching stems. Plant in well-drained soil. GALTONIA CANDICANS Tall spikes of white, bell-shaped flowers reach 90cm. Plant the bulbs in warm soil in May for flowers well into autumn. HEMEROCALLIS ‘LEMON BELLS’ This refined cultivar bears its trumpet-shaped flowers over a long period. AGAPANTHUS ‘BRESSINGHAM BLUE’ A vivid selection with deep-blue blooms, perfect for a spot with full sun. CROCOSMIA MASONIORUM This superior species produces sprays of large, vibrant, orange-scarlet flowers and clumps of sword shaped leaves. COTYLEDON ORBICULATA A succulent with a rosette of silver-grey leaves throwing up 70cm tall stems of coral, bell-shaped flowers in summer. ECHINACEA PARADOXA This delicate species has slender clear-yellow petals that curve downwards…

ALLIUM ‘MOUNT EVEREST ’ This white-and-green allium lends a freshness to spring schemes. Plant groups of the dormant bulbs in autumn. EUPHORBIA ‘FENS RUBY’ This creeping euphorbia can be invasive, but it is great for softening paths and areas of gravel or hard landscaping. CLEMATIS MONTANA VAR . GRANDIFLORA A vigorous climber for late spring flowers, happy to romp over fences and walls. NECTAROSCORDUM SICULUM An allium relative with heads of pendent flowers that have a pretty mother-of-pearl finish. Plant bulbs in autumn. AQUILEGIA ‘MUNSTEAD WHITE’ White flowers nod above mounds of fresh green foliage on a perennial that lights up shady spots. GALIUM ODORATUM Tiny, sweetly scented flowers emerge from mats of ground-covering foliage made up of whorls of…

IRIS SIBIRICA ‘SILVER EDGE’ Siberian irises are great for pond-side planting, suiting damp but well-drained soil and producing violet-blue blooms during early summer. PHLOMIS RUSSELIANA A fantastic plant for hot, sunny spots and well-drained soil: stems bearing whorls of yellow flowers emerge from rosettes of big sage-green leaves. PAEONIA ‘BOWL OF BEAUTY’ With its luxurious centre of cream-coloured petaloids, this herbaceous peony is always eye-catching. The flowers, produced in June and July, are scented. ROSA ‘GERTRUDE JEKYLL’ This perpetually popular David Austin variety produces many-petalled deep-pink flowers with an old-fashioned perfume. It’s a perfect climber for small spaces. CALENDULA OFFICINALIS Let this hardy annual seed around for blooms every year. It makes a super cut flower and the petals are also edible, making for…

• Even though I have a long thin garden with many rooms, I’ve ensured it’s coherent in its appearance. If you don’t work on achieving coherence, you end up with lots of little garbled spaces. Unite areas with subtle plant repetition or by keeping landscape materials consistent: I repeat colour and form, especially. I’ve also used the same reclaimed hardscape material – cobble setts, gravel and York stone – across the garden. • Make sure that there is always something to look at, no matter what the season. Don’t plant for a summer garden specifically; plant for a garden that will bring you enjoyment throughout the seasons. • Try not to reveal all the garden at once, even if your garden is small. Split it into different areas to make…

PLAY with Colour Rules of colour apply as much to gardens as they do to paintings and even interiors: dark colours recede, light colours advance. To create the sense that a garden is larger than it is, try painting the furthest wall a darker colour. Grey has been fashionable for some time and so may be on its way out, but a classic dark green, navy, charcoal or black will endure. Lighter colours close to the house will open up the garden initially. Using darker, plum-toned shrubs at the rear of beds will have the same effect as darker paint shades, while paler, more ethereal-looking plants such as ammi, thalictrum, erigeron, gaura and nicotiana will have a pleasing effect when grown towards the front. There is, however, an exception. Designers…

Soil should be moist, well-drained and rich in leafmould for most epimediums, although those from mountainous parts of Europe and Africa are happy in drier conditions. For container growing use John Innes No 2, and for acid-loving epimediums use an ericaceous compost. Container-grown epimediums will be more vulnerable to the cold so protect them by wrapping the pots with hessian or move them into a coldframe or greenhouse. Vine weevil infestations can be a problem, especially when growing in containers. Look out for notches in the leaves and check over the roots of new plants for the fat white grubs. If you have a weevil problem, water a biological control onto the compost. Rabbits are also partial to epimediums. When it comes to pruning, dry-shade-loving, spreading epimediums should be cut…

News in February that buglife is in catastrophic decline, with insects across the globe on course for potential extinction in just a few decades, may not have registered, amid the clamour of other B-word headlines. But the first scientific review of global research into insect populations has shown that 40% of species are declining and one-third are endangered – the authors say it’s the start of the sixth mass extinction in the planet’s history. In the face of these sobering figures, the efforts of gardeners to do their bit could seem at best trivial, at worst hopeless, but Mike Maunder, director of life sciences at the Eden Project says we shouldn’t be discouraged. “We have millions of hectares of private and public gardens across the UK, many of them in…

THE EDEN PROJECT “When there’s a large sowing of wildflowers you can see the beauty of them, and that’s when you really get the bug,” says Mike Maunder. Stunning seasonal displays peak in summer, between July and August. The NWC also sells wildflower seed mixes and plug plants for small and large-scale projects. edenproject.com GREAT DIXTER Meadows have always been the first sight to greet visitors to Christopher Lloyd’s former home, and famously form a soft-textured foreground for yew topiary. But acres of new meadows have been established here too over recent years, teeming with biodiversity. greatdixter.co.uk WAKEHURST PLACE Another of Mike’s recommendations, the East Sussex outpost of Kew has many meadow areas to admire, including those in its Loder Valley Nature Reserve. You’ll need a permit to visit, but…

New Zealand Spinach Not a true spinach but a useful annual with a bushy habit. Keep picking it for a constant supply of fleshy pointed leaves from summer until the first frosts. ‘Palco’ This F1 hybrid is resistant to bolting and downy mildew. A late-autumn sowing will overwinter, providing an early-spring crop for cut-and-come-again leaves. ‘Red Kitten’ An attractive upright spinach with red veins, which looks good grown in flower borders and crops well over the summer moths. Mr Fothergill’s provides seeds. ‘Perpetual’ Thompson & Morgan supplies this hardy variety, which is slow to bolt and ideal for autumn and winter crops. Grow it in sun or semi-shade for the best results.…

‘AMAZE’ A gem lettuce with green leaves flushed deep red at the edge. Plants are a uniform size and grow well in containers. Sow indoors from March. ‘GRENOBLE RED’ Ideal for winter, since it is resistant to frost, slugs and mildew. It grows for longer than most varieties if its outer leaves are repeatedly picked. ‘LOLLO ROSSA’ Pretty, red, frilly leaves define this variety, which has an Award of Garden Merit. It is quick and easy to grow from seed sown from February to July. ‘WINTER DENSITY’ A green cos lettuce with a compact dwarf habit, best sown under cover in autumn. ‘TRES FINE MARAICHERE’ An endive with dense, finely curled foliage and a medium-sized head. Sow it in spring and autumn. ‘VERTISSIMO’ This chervil is extremely cold-hardy and slower…

What is it from your parents’ Sussex garden that stays with you most? Sunlight on Japanese anemones. The sound of dusk. A grass snake in the compost heap. And I have plants that originated in that garden: I took cuttings and pieces when my parents died. They keep me connected with Sussex and with my parents in all kinds of ways: a growing green afterlife. How has it shaped the way you garden today? I learned the importance of letting daisies bloom in the lawn. And small beginnings, slow developments. My parents shopped selectively, sowed seed, divided and propagated, exchanged bits and pieces with people, gave plants time to grow. Like my mother, I am free with the carving knife: she was always cutting things up, making new plants. You…

THE BISHOP’S PALACE & GARDENS, WELLS Off Market Place, Wells, Somerset BA5 2PD Tel: 01749 988111 | www.bishopspalace.org.uk Over 14 acres of spectacular RHS partner gardens, including picturesque, romantic, formal and Victorian styles, a wildflower arboretum, specimen trees, a contemporary Quiet Garden and Community Garden alongside waterfalls, well pools, a moat with resident swans and a stunning medieval Palace. Don’t miss the Spring displays of tulips, magnolia and an outstanding foxglove tree. OPEN: Daily 10am-6pm. CERNEY HOUSE GARDENS North Cerney Cirencester GL7 7BX Tel: 01285 831300 | janet@cerneygardens.com | www.cerneygardens.com Cerney House gardens is a romantic English garden for all seasons. There is a beautiful secluded Victorian walled garden which features herbaceous borders overflowing with colour. The informal planting in combination with our beautiful setting gives a unique and charming…

SPRING REACH NURSERY Spring Reach Nursery grows a fantastic range of clematis, trees, hedging, ferns, shrubs, fruit, perennials, roses, climbers and grasses. SPRING BLOOMERS AVAILABLE NOW: Ribes ‘Elkington White’, Skimmia ‘Kew Green’, Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’, Chaenomeles ‘Scarlet Storm’ (left) and Osmanthus delavayi. Tel: 01483 284769 info@springreachnursery.co.uk|www.springreachnursery.co.uk Spring Reach Nursery, Long Reach, Ockham, Surrey GU23 6PG WORLD’S END NURSERIES World’s End Nurseries in Kings Road, Chelsea have been selling plants and landscaping gardens for over 45 years. Visit our ‘Oasis’ with Trees, Shrubs, Herbs, Roses and a large selection of Houseplants in our Greenhouse. We supply and install all that you may need for the Home, Garden, Patio, Balcony, Terrace and Roof. We are open 7 days a week between 9am-6pm (10am-5pm on Sundays} Tel: 020 7351 3343 contact@worldsendnurseries.com|www.worldsendnurseries.com 441-457 Kings…

• Start increasing the amount of water given to houseplants as they respond to increased light and day length with new growth. • Feed roses to ensure lots of flowers this summer. Scatter granular rose fertiliser around the base of the bush and work in with a fork; water in the feed if there is no rain. • Finish pruning dogwoods and willows grown for coloured stems. Most can be cut back to ground level each year for vivid, brand-new stems. • Deadhead daffodils once their flowers have faded to stop the plants expending their energy into seed production. • Try sowing some hardy annual grasses, such as briza, hordeum (below) and lagurus to add movement to summer borders.…

• If you have a pond, leave a small gap or hole in your garden fence to ensure that frogs will be able to access it during breeding season. • As the weather warms up, migrant birds will return to the UK for breeding season. They really benefit from shop-bought or home-made nesting boxes being put up in the garden. • Bumblebee queens emerge from hibernation in spring, on the hunt for nectar-rich flowers and nesting sites. To help them, plant bee-friendly plants in your garden, such as crocuses, hyacinths and borage. • After months of inactivity, badgers and their cubs leave their setts in warmer weather in search of earthworms, slugs and beetles. You can supplement their diet by laying out water and small amounts of fruit, mealworms, dried…

Late winter to spring Try small bulbs, such as galanthus, crocus and scilla, which die back by late spring. Small perennials which become semi-dormant over the summer include dodecatheon, incarvillea, Primula vulgaris and P. elatior. Then there are small perennials with some shade-tolerance, such as species of ajuga, omphalodes and viola. Early summer Use smaller numbers of perennials that flower now, such as Aruncus ‘Guinea Fowl’, species of geranium, stachys, Gladiolus cardinalis and Iris latifolia. Many of these will tolerate some shade; some may need a little tidying up after flowering. Late summer to autumn A small number of taller upright perennials will now visually dominate. Particularly useful are ‘emergents’, which project flowers on narrow stems but cast relatively little shade, such as certain species of agapanthus, kniphofia, dierama, echinacea,…

A BEAUTIFUL, NEWLY REFURBISHED HOUSE deserves a beautiful new garden to go with it, and when Alice and Tony Stewart moved into their lovely new home, they wasted no time in ensuring that’s what they got. According to Alice, this was especially important because the family have to walk through the garden to get to the front door. “Having built the house, the garden was a building site; a big mound of earth and mud,” she recalls. “We had to do the garden straight away.” Now, rather than having to negotiate a sea of mud, Alice, Tony, their two children and friends stroll between waves of Alchemilla mollis that edge the path with a froth of lime-green flowers. The garden and planting here is the work of designer Claire Mee,…

MAUREEN SAWYER’S GARDEN IN Stretford, three miles south of Manchester, may not be as small as some, but it is an unusual spot to manage. At 110m long and just 10m across at its widest point, its elongated shape required some imaginative thinking when she took it on in 1990. “There wasn’t much in it,” she recalls. “Only a dilapidated greenhouse, lawn, fruit trees and sheets of asbestos and corrugated iron.” A garden consultant and multimedia artist specialising in minute representations of seedheads and plants – often those growing in her garden – Maureen brought her creative eye to the problem and, using the central greenhouse as a starting point for a kitchen garden, developed a series of garden rooms from an almost blank canvas. “The greenhouse is big, 10m…

Succulents are having a moment. These sculptural plants, miraculous in their fractal whorls and jellybean-bright colours, are now coveted by gardeners of every persuasion. Their Byzantine shapes have been embraced by all, from Instagramming houseplant revivalists to traditional gardeners who want to add a touch of the exotic and quixotic. It helps that succulents are so impeccably photogenic; no other group of plants can grow into such remarkable and almost preternaturally attractive shapes. And one nursery in Cornwall is riding the wave of this trend: Surreal Succulents, run by Daniel Michael and Marc Lea at Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens near Penzance. Their name says it all; these plants are fantastical and extraordinary. Daniel started working with succulents as a gardener at nearby St Michael’s Mount, where hardy and more tender varieties…

COMMON PRIMROSE Early spring flowers in palest yellow on these crinkly-leaved perennials, which thrive beneath hedges and shrubs. SNAKE’S HEAD FRITILLARY Plant bulbs of these striking chequered flowers in damp meadow grass and they will slowly multiply to form a colony. STINKING HELLEBORE Stalks of apple-green flowers, often red rimmed, emerge from dark-green leathery leaves with a serrated edge. HEMP AGRIMONY The fluffy pink flowers of Eupatorium cannabinum are a magnet for butterflies such as peacocks and tortoiseshells. BETONY These spikes of purple flowers resemble wild orchids. Try growing it in heavy soil or as a meadow component. RAGGED ROBIN A superb choice for damp patches, stream or pond sides where it will produce its starry, ragged flowers. OX-EYE DAISY Fresh white blooms with a golden centre are held on…

It is in spring and summer that growing salad leaves comes to mind. Fortunately, these are easy crops that will thrive in almost any space, from balcony containers to dedicated beds in kitchen gardens. Per square metre, salad leaves are the most productive crop that can be grown – and the most valuable, when you consider the cost of equivalent supermarket offerings. Growing salad leaves at home is also an opportunity to sample special varieties that are seldom seen commercially, plus those that will extend the salad season into winter with the sharper flavours that develop at that time of year. Harvests are easier and arguably more nutritious when plants are grown according to their best season, and it is a pleasure to see how the salad bowl changes in…

With the soil warmed and prepared, the sap rising and birds singing, the thrill of planting out seedlings that have been sown in a greenhouse or on a windowsill when spring seems an improbability is unrivalled. This is one of the high points of the gardening year, with all the growing season ready to unfold before us. Perfectionists will prefer their planting rows to be as straight as marching soldiers, and it is true that it is particularly satisfying to see new lines of lettuces, perhaps alternating green and red, swelling with each passing week. A length of twine attached to two sticks is helpful for marking out rows – knot the twine at measured intervals for a thrifty planting spacer. Burgon and Ball has formalised this with a 1m…

What would it be like to live in a world without spring – a world without seasons, where everything was always perfect and unchanging? A world without the tide of happenings, surprises and disasters: all the delays and anticipations, the push and pull of memory and desire that wash through our temperate gardens every year. But you can’t have spring without winter. To adapt Saul Bellow’s phrase, winter is like the dark backing a mirror needs if we are to see anything. Winter, with its absence of colour, makes me long for tulips: their clean outlines, each one a pop of colour in the still-bare garden. For what other flower has such a wide range of colours? Whites from snow to clotted cream; yellows from primrose to egg-yolk; pinks and…