Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2024 i The English Garden

I’ve spent much of the past month preparing the final section of a new border that completes my plan for the garden. Really it’s been far too wet to be trampling over and digging the soil, but with plants desperate to get out of their pots and into the ground, there was no choice. I’ve heeded the telling-off I gave myself last issue (for never remembering to plant for autumn interest), and have invested in a beautiful Euonymus hamiltonianus ‘Miss Pinkie’ for its pink berries, a Euonymus alatus for its scarlet leaves, and a lovely Hydrangea paniculata for its gracefully fading autumnal flowers. ‘Bingo!’ I thought… until we started work on this issue and it dawned on me that I’ve neglected to add anything evergreen for winter. Whether it’s the…

Florence & James Kennedy The owners of Petalon, an ethical Cornish flower farm and delivery service, on going above and beyond their B Corp certification Florence: A decade ago, James bought a bouquet of flowers that was fairly uninspiring. After visiting the flower markets, I realised it would be possible to create bunches that were original and affordable by using a few stand-out stems like delphiniums in each arrangement. James had just begun a bicycle-making business in East London, so I started hand-delivering bouquets to clients by bike. As our customer base increased, we hired more cyclists. We were no longer able to make deliveries this way once the pandemic struck, so we started using the post and business boomed; people were keener than ever to enjoy flowers during lockdown.…

“Only in winter, when nature is pared right back, can you fully appreciate the brilliance of the garden’s design and the full extent of the borrowed landscape. A tree in full leaf blocks part of a vista, but a skeletal tree reveals the landscape beyond it,” muses artist Francis Hamel. “Winter brings the structural bones of Rousham’s design into sharp focus. When composing any painting you need to get the structure down first; only then can you dress it, so every painting, in a sense, begins in winter.” Snowfall itself is transformative. Francis recalls “that thrilling moment when you enter the gardens and everything is suddenly unfamiliar”. It’s these timeless qualities that compel annual pilgrimages of garden designers, photographers and artists to Rousham in winter. It tells a tale of…

Even on the shortest and darkest days of the year, the garden surrounding Ivy Croft, a small timber-framed former cider house west of Leominster in Herefordshire, is threaded with colour, texture and scent. Trees are wrapped in bark as tactile as satin and shrubs bear tiny scented flowers that sparkle like sugarcraft. The cider apple trees that once surrounded the cottage were grubbed up long ago, and in their place is a lucidly designed garden made by Roger Norman and his late wife, Sue, over 28 years, filled with a collection of choice plants. From the beginning their aim was to have something of interest in the garden all year round. Roger and Sue gave up well-paid jobs in suburban Surrey to move to Herefordshire in 1982 and live the…

Even without its connotations of Christmas, holly comes into its own in winter. When so much of the garden is leafless, holly truly makes a splendid sight, its glossy evergreen leaves providing the sort of vibrant verdancy that’s so very welcome at this time of year. When its branches are clothed with glossy red berries, even better. Jonathan Webster is curator of RHS Garden Rosemoor in Devon. “What I like about the garden is seeing it change through the seasons,” he says. “Certain plants sit in the background, but when the season’s right they suddenly stand out. It’s the same with the hollies: when the trees around them have lost their leaves and the hollies are full of berries, their lovely foliage really does make the place shine bright.” RHS…

“I think conifers are deeply misunderstood plants,” declares Daniel Luscombe, curator of Forestry England Bedgebury National Pinetum in Kent. “They’re underused by gardeners, and all too often wrongly used.” Daniel ascribes their fall from grace to the fashions of the 1960s, when dismal island beds were cut into every suburban lawn and crammed with squat dwarf conifers and gaudy heathers in the name of low-maintenance gardening. Prior to that, conifers had been the superstars of the horticultural world, from the first Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) that appeared in Britain in the 1630s (later to become ‘Capability’ Brown’s signature tree), to the flood of stately giants that poured into Britain from the Americas throughout the 19th century. For the Man Who Had Everything, there was no clearer statement of wealth…

TO CONCLUDE We took our apples home, still dazzled by their improbable size and storybook perfection On 11 November last year, I was shopping in Bury St Edmunds’ bustling Saturday market. As the clock struck eleven, the steady, heart-catching call of the ‘Last Post’ filled the clear blue sky above us and the market came to a standstill. Once the two-minute silence was over, everyone stirred again and I found myself staring with disbelief at the largest, rosiest apples I have ever seen. “Four for £1.50,” said the stallholder. “‘Howgate Wonder’. The sweetest cooker you’ll ever eat.” We took our apples home, still dazzled by their improbable size and storybook perfection, and had no choice but to stuff them with raisins and – having carved a precautionary ring around their…

Sarah Raven Since the publication of her first book, The Cutting Garden, Sarah has pioneered a new kind of productive gardening, combining colour, beauty and biodiversity. Find her advice on gardening for birds on page 85. Jonathan Buckley Jonathan is based in Gloucestershire, so getting to Sarah Raven’s East Sussex garden in heavy snow was a challenge. But the bird-filled winter wonderland there made it all worthwhile. See his photos on p85. Anisa Gress Anisa’s horticultural training has given her a strong foundation to support three decades of gardening writing. She has a soft spot for growing dahlias and sunflowers in her Kent garden, and visits Long Barn on page 48.…

CHRISTMAS GIFTS December is the time to settle down and get cosy as you compile your Christmas gift list for the gardeners in your life. Our festive gift guide is packed with inspired present suggestions, from practical gardening gear to beautiful homeware, elegant accessories and edible treats. Sia Lantern, £70; Rattan Chunky Basket, £95; Sadra Rattan Log Basket – Natural £125. nkuku.com ALL PRICES ARE CORRECT AT THE TIME OF GOING TO PRESS.…

GEOFF HODGE A freelance writer, editor and broadcaster, Geoff has worked in the gardening industry for more than 30 years. His books include Pruning and RHS Botany for Gardeners . His Cambridgeshire garden features a wide range of plants and is regularly called into action for testing the latest gardening tools and equipment. ALEX MITCHELL Alex is a gardener and writer. Formerly the Evening Standard’s weekly gardening columnist, her five books include Crops in Tight Spots and Gardening on a Shoestring . Her Kent garden features a large gravel area of drought-resistant plants, and she runs a pick-your-own flower farm. PRUNING TOOLS BEST FOLDING PRUNING SAW Corona Max RazorTOOTH 20cm Folding Pruning Saw £27.95 This was one of the longer folding pruning saws tested, featuring a curved, chrome-plated, high-carbon SK5…

A garden without birds, I think now, is as hopeless as a garden without flowers. Ensuring your outdoor space is as rich in birdlife as it can possibly be is a good thing to be thinking about over the winter months: it’s an ideal moment to lay the foundations or improve on them. You may not notice the birds at first, as you step out of the back door in the main growing season and start attending to what is uppermost in your mind. Has that bud opened? Is that rose finished for the year? Are the beans big enough to be picked? But within a moment or two, the subliminal presence of birds will make itself felt, whatever the season. Birds are one of the most wonderful additions to…

Gardens are a wonderful resource at any time of year, but around Christmas they offer a bounty of decorative material, not to mention food, to use in the winter festivities. Head outdoors, basket and secateurs in hand, to gather the likes of bay, spruce, yew, holly and sarcococca to bring into the house for fabulous garlands, wreaths and table arrangements. Use dried hydrangeas, teasels and poppy seedheads to embellish them or to add a finishing touch to wrapped presents. And nothing is ever as good as homegrown vegetables, whether they’re Christmas potatoes, winter squash, parsnips or – love them or loathe them – Brussels sprouts. Decorate the house For garden designer Sean Pritchard, Christmas is a very special time of year. He decorates his Somerset cottage in harmony with its…

In the heady heat of late summer, battling with overgrown borders and biting insects, I really start to look forward to the winter frosts and those crisp days of winter when order and composure reign supreme outdoors. The autumn tidy up has happened, albeit leaving a good selection of sturdier herbaceous stems and grasses to add interest to the evergreens and the starker, more stately silhouettes of deciduous trees and shrubs. This is a lovely time to add a layer of mulch – anything dark, rich and organic will set the garden off an absolute treat. There’s something about spreading a goodly layer of garden compost, well-rotted manure, or leafmould, that’s almost like tucking the beds up nicely for a winter snooze. If you can get hold of some spent…

TOP 10 PLANTS Container planting works best with a permanent element around which seasonal bulbs and annuals are added – and hardy evergreens are ideal for the job. With varied textures and colours, they’re strong enough to stand alone while providing a robust foil for brighter violas, pansies, narcissus, hellebores and snowdrops. They also offer seasonal interest of their own, thanks to discreet flowers, berries and cones. The garden at Great Dixter has impressive container displays, so assistant head gardener Coralie Thomas is well placed to suggest ten super evergreens for pots. Great Dixter, Northiam, Rye, East Sussex TN31 6PH. Coralie leads the course ‘The Art and Craft of Gardening’ at Great Dixter, starting on 5 February 2025. Tel: 01797 253107; greatdixter.co.uk 1 Cedrus atlantica Glauca Group You might find this…

Budding Promise A cherished lichen-stippled terracotta trough makes a fitting home for this elegant line-up of wintry perennials, with the sophisticated muted colour scheme echoing the quiet of the season. In early December these plants will mostly still be in bud – but with the certainty of full bloom by the New Year. It’s usually best to buy container plants in bud and, for me, many are even more appealing in their full-of-promise early stages. This planting’s strength lies in its sharp contrasts of leaf shape, size and texture, which attract and excite the eye. The large, round, shiny leaves of bergenia contrast with the jagged texture of the hellebore foliage, while the very fine winter heather peeps through. Prized for its pervasive perfume, the purple-stemmed, glossy-leaved sweet box forms…