Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2025 i The English Garden

Joanna Fortnam For 15 years Joanna was gardening editor of The Daily Telegraph. She grew up on a family-run commercial glasshouse nursery in Gloucestershire, not far from Owlpen Manor, which she visits on page 44. James Osmond James took a break from his photography career to raise his children, then retrained as a gardener. He now specialises in garden photography, and his pictures of The Old Rectory, Doynton can be found on page 58. Beth Otway Beth is a horticulturist with a passion for plants and nature. She has a big collection of houseplants and two National Collections of miniature orchid species. She visits orchid collector Inga Nikitiniene on page 73.…

Marta Lowcewicz The head gardener at London’s Barbican Conservatory on its ongoing renovation – and why you shouldn’t give up on houseplants I grew up in Poland where my grandma used to take me to her allotment and I’d help my parents in their garden. I always knew I’d be a gardener one day, and so did my friends and family! I studied horticulture at university and then took a job in a garden centre working with houseplants and tropicals. Meeting my husband was what brought me to London. My first job was with a company specialising in window boxes, but before long I got a temporary post at the Barbican Conservatory. That two-week job has turned into 16 years here and I’m proud of progressing from a short-term job…

The garden in winter can often seem like something to be endured rather than enjoyed for gardeners who dash to garden centres at Easter, departing with cars brimful of petunias and bags of compost. But, “if you can content yourself with quiet-toned colouring, and the beauties of surface and construction, there is much even in the darkest days of the year that is worth looking at.” So wrote E.A. Bowles, in My Garden in Autumn and Winter, the third book in his garden trilogy, published between 1914 and 1915. Though more than a century old, these books remain essential reading for gardeners. They provide an insight into the garden created by one of the most accomplished amateur gardeners of the past century. His garden and home at Myddelton House in…

A good time to visit The Old Rectory in Doynton is as dusk falls on a frosty December evening. Driving in through the gate, you’ll be cheered by the sight of two illuminated Portuguese laurel cylinders on either side of the stone steps that lead up to the front door. The twilight conjures a scene of enchantment with the symmetrical facade of the house framed by mirrored bands of pleached hornbeam, sculptural in their winter bareness. All this is a sign of what is to come: a garden with such strong geometry that its winter beauty rivals, if not exceeds, its summer peak. Clive Humby and his wife, Edwina Dunn, bought the early 18th-century house in 1997. The purchase almost didn’t happen, because Edwina went alone on a first visit.…

Once Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in around 1440, it was inevitable that gardeners would embrace the exciting new technology that sped up printing and reduced its cost. The first herbals began to appear in the 1500s, joining an array of bibles and religious tracts that the new movable-type presses were churning out across Europe. The first ‘commercial’ catalogue of plants is thought to be Dutch nurseryman Emanuel Sweerts’ Florilegium of 1612, which listed the plants he was offering for sale at the Frankfurt Fair. Copies survive today and sometimes appear at auction; bound in red morocco, intact editions include 110 hand-coloured engraved plates of the plants available to buy. Part One listed the bulbs for sale – unsurprisingly including a lot of tulips with tulip mania just around…

CHRISTMAS TREES Make sure to measure the space where it’s going to go before committing to a tree. There are all sorts of different varieties to choose from, but try to make sure that the tree is healthy before you take it home. If you run your hand along the branches, its needles should hold fast and feel flexible; if they feel stiff or brittle, they are more likely to dry out and drop. Once you get your tree home, trim the bottom of the trunk with a saw (or ask the seller to do it for you) before you set it in its stand, then fill the stand with cool, clean water. Be sure to keep the stand topped up regularly, so it doesn’t dry out. Trees don’t like…

Topiary looks especially smart in winter when its sharp lines and artful shapes are picked out by frost. I am filled with admiration for anyone who has mastered this particular dark art of gardening – neither fiddly pruning nor patience are my strong points, so my ‘topiary’ efforts to date consist of some rather large balls. Oh to have the skill and finesse that’s gone into creating the astonishingly intricate topiary pieces at Cressy Hall in Lincolnshire, or at Hungerdowns in Suffolk, where wonderful birds are joined by yew and box carved into all sorts of other shapes, including blocks that are part LEGO brick, part jelly cube. “I just chopped into the hedge to make a new shape,” says owner Sarah Vermont, with a nonchalance that belies the tremendous…

ALL PRICES ARE CORRECT AT THE TIME OF GOING TO PRESS. Practical Gifts Smart tools and accessories for hands-on gardeners to make those everyday outdoor tasks more enjoyable Budget Mid-Range Luxury Winter Wearables Dress up or stay casual with a selection of cosy clothing and little luxuries for indoor and outdoor wear Budget Mid-Range Luxury Elegant Homeware From candles and ornaments to more practical items, these gifts for the home will beautify any living space Budget Mid-Range Luxury For the Table Gorgeously stylish tableware that will turn just about any meal into a special celebratory event Budget Mid-Range Luxury…

In winter the bones of the formal garden at Owlpen Manor come to life. Highlighted with frost, the dark greens and greys of hedges and topiary take on the patina of an engraving. The manicured parterre in front of the house is empty of bride-bewitching flowers and the clustered cone, mophead and pepper-shaker topiaries framing the house take on the air of a storybook illustration, promising magic to come. The ground drops steeply away from the house down to the stream. It might once have made a good cheese-rolling hill, as per the local custom, but in early Georgian times an axial layout of tall stone terraces and steps tamed the slope and allowed this green work of art to unfurl along the valley. Dating from medieval times, Owlpen is…

York Gate, a one-acre garden near Leeds, was donated by the Spencer family in 1994 to Perennial, the charity that helps people working in horticulture and their families. While the garden was developed over the 1960s and ’70s by Robin Spencer and his mother, Sybil, it is Arts & Crafts inspired, with layered planting, garden rooms and topiary among its defining features. Head gardener Jack Ogg has been working at York Gate since 2023. Here he recommends ten evergreen and semi-evergreen climbers that are ideal for bringing interest to walls, fences and even larger trees during the cold empty months of the year. York Gate Garden, Adel, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS16 8DW. Tel: 0113 2678240; perennial.org.uk 1 Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’ “This large, wonderful and relatively thornless rose bears a profusion of…

14-16 November Sandringham Christmas Craft, Food & Gift Fair Operated by Living Heritage Country Shows, this fair plays host to over 250 stalls selling handcrafted items and gifts from artists and designers. There’ll be a range of food and drink, plus Christmas menu ideas from the Country Kitchen. Sandringham Estate, King’s Lynn, Norfolk PE35 6EN. sandringhamestate.co.uk 16 November Alnwick Christmas Market Alnwick Castle hosts a slew of varied seasonal events across the season, and from 16 November the festive spirit begins to build at the Alnwick Garden Pavilion, which hosts the annual indoor Christmas market. Browse stalls selling gifts and handmade crafts, then enjoy indulgent treats and bakes or warm up with a tipsy hot chocolate. Alnwick Castle, Alnwick, Northumberland NE66 1NQ. alnwickgarden.com 21 November – 22 December Winchester Cathedral…

Sticky Roast Sprouts with Dates and Pistachios I cannot overemphasise how utterly sublime Brussels sprouts cooked this way taste: the leaves charred and crisp, then tumbled in a sticky sweet-and-sour sauce of mashed dates and balsamic vinegar… they’re almost irresistibly moreish. The addition of a handful of coarsely chopped pistachios is by no means essential, although I do have a soft spot for the many muted shades of green that the nuts and leaves create together and I find that the buttery crunch of the nuts adds another layer of texture to the dish. This is one of those recipes where everything really comes together at the last minute. While you could, in theory, roast the Brussels sprouts in advance and simply reheat them in their sauce as needed, I…

Right now, I’m pruning the roses. I hate them looking so straggly and forlorn, and he-who-has-opinions can’t bear their wayward stems trying to snag him as he makes his way to the shed. I feel the roses are acting on my behalf in some way – after all, it was my shed, but it has been surreptitiously taken over by drills, pots of paint of a doubtful vintage and a selection of dubious-looking rags. Anyway, shed aside, the roses still need taming. I’ll give the shrub roses a swift going over now to stop them rocking around in the wind, simply shortening stems and opening up the tangled growth. The climbers undergo their brutal prune in midwinter, which requires my full-focus attention to get them within bounds, so they get…

In 1993 Sarah and Chris Vermont moved from Brixton, London, to Hungerdowns in Essex, an old farmhouse dating back to 1600 with a Georgian front added in 1757. In the garden there were existing hedges, but it was the higgledy-piggledy lime-mortared walls of the old farmyards that provided the visual impetus for Sarah to set about creating her series of garden rooms. “My rooms of flowers were once occupied by geese, hens, pigs and cows,” she notes. The 1.5-acre garden was mainly laid to grass and there was one small topiary bird. ‘Big Bird’, as it is now known, has grown considerably, and although there are not enough birds to fill the nursery rhyme pie (four- and twenty blackbirds is the required number), there are now 15 birds in total,…

When, at the age of 12, Inga Nikitiniene first saw a photograph of the pineapple orchid, Dendrobium densiflorum, her response was instinctive. “I knew immediately that I wanted to have this plant. I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t know its name, I didn’t even know that it was an orchid. But this image of a plant with yellow bunches of cascading flowers stuck in my head and I knew that I wanted to grow it.” In 1998 she received her first orchid, a cymbidium, as a gift from her husband. But she began to collect orchids more seriously in 2002 when she moved to the UK. “The UK has lots of shops that sell orchids, far more than I had back home in Lithuania, and that’s how I…

Helping HANDS Knitted gloves aren’t practical for gardening, but for a quick foray outside to gather Christmas greenery, a snug pair of fingerless gloves will keep hands warm. Try WoolOvers (woolovers.com) for a good range of woollen gloves – with and without fingers – and wrist warmers. For gardening, Niwaki’s winter gloves (niwaki.com) come recommended, as do the Warm ’n’ Waterproof Clip Gloves (treadstoneproducts.com), which have a fleecy lining and latex outer to keep hands warm and dry in cold weather. BOLD & BRIGHT SOFTLY MUTED…

This is my annual guilty pleasure. By early December I am as frantic as anyone. As I hurriedly plant the last of my bulbs and make sure to complete essential deadlines before the end of the year, I confess that, when it comes to a wreath for my front door, I turn to someone who does it better. The Christmas tree is no problem. It is my territory, the whole process, right from hauling the fragile, taped up boxes down from the attic. Beneath the layers of crumpled tissue are painted tin churches and angels bought in Mexico 35 years ago, regiments of radiant glass baubles and a small family of 60-year-old pink and silver mushrooms. I love the colours, the chaos, the memories – and I know that everything…