gardens

SOLUTIONS FOR SHADY SPOTS - HOSTAS & SPRING PLANTS 

the English 

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FEBRUARY 2013 www.theenglishgarden.co.uk 

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LILY BULBS 

Experts’ plant picks 

12 MONTHS OF TOP PERFORMERS 

BY BETH CHATTO, SARAH RAVEN, 

TOBY BUCKLAND & DERRY WATKINS 

GARDENS ABROAD 

FOR EVERYONE WHO LOVES BEAUTIFUL GARDENS 

A WORLD OF IDEAS 

Inspiration from 

around the globe 

£3.99 A$9.50 

PLUS EDITOR’S CHAINSAW CHOICE 

CARROTS & CHICORY for soup and salad recipes 

How the USA changed English GARDEN DESIGN 

SNOWDROPS - growing these hardy little gems 

Get the best from your scented HYACINTHS

On the cover: 

Rou Estate, Corfu 

(pg 34) 

Photograph: 

Clive Nichols 

THE ENGLISH 

GARDEN AWARDS 

2012 

Garden Media Guild 

Journalist Of The Year 

Stephanie Mahon 

2011 


Environmental Award 

Anne Gatti 

The Nichee 

Magazine Awards 

Best Niche Lifestyle 

Consumer Magazine 

2010 


Gardening Column 

Of The Year 

Mark Diacono 

2009 


Gardening Column 

Of The Year 

Jackie Bennett 


New Garden Media 

Talent Of The Year 

Stephanie Mahon 

2008 


New Writer Award 

Joe Reardon-Smith 

We take you on an 

inspiring armchair tour 

to gardens in Corfu, the 

USA, Thailand & Italy 

Let’s be honest - the month of February 

is a quiet one in the garden. 

We survive on a visual diet of 

SNOWDROPS (pg 83), hellebores 

and viburnums, and wait eagerly for 

the drama of unfurling foliage and bursting buds. 

While you watch and wait (and take this valuable 

opportunity to plan and clear), we thought 

you might like to rev up the gardening engines 

with a few gardens beyond these shores - so 

we are taking you on an inspiring armchair 

tour to gardens in Corfu, the USA, Thailand 

and Italy. I, for one, now have the Italian garden 

of NINFA (pg 29) on my bucket list. 

The rest of the issue is simply brimming with 

planting advice. We’ve asked some of the country’s 

leading nurserymen and women to come up with 

their favourite plants for each month of the year 

(pg 72). Add to this our pick of PLANTS FOR 

SHADE (pg 9) and expert advice on choosing and 

growing HOSTAS (pg 92) and you’ll have no 

choice but to be enthused about planting ideas for 

spring. Did you know there are actually slugresistant 

hosta varieties? 

If you read our last issue, I’m sure you saw our 

NEW COOKERY SERIES by Silvana de Soissons 

(pg 67). Her tasty home-grown recipes will now 

be coming to you every month. Not being the 

best of cooks, I have thoroughly enjoyed joining 

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editor’s letter 

Silvana (above right) in her wonderful country 

kitchen and picking up tips, and, of course, I just 

had to taste-test the dishes for you! Cookery is 

an extension of gardening, and if anything will 

keep you digging the veg patch enthusiastically, 

it is the thought of great food. 

In our upcoming March issue, the wonderful Chris 

Beardshaw is our guest editor, so don’t miss out. 

Have a fantastic gardening month, 

FREE! 100 GREAT PLANT OFFERS 

We have created a one-of-a-kind, FREE gardening 

App with Thompson & Morgan, which has 100 

incredible deals on plants for your garden. 

Simply download ‘100 Great Plant Offers’ from 

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get started. Happy shopping! 

WE’RE NOW ONLINE TOO! 

JASON INGRAM 

Tamsin Westhorpe, Editor 

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Gthe english 

ARDEN 

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The English Garden (UK issue) ISSN no 1361-2840. Printed in England. 

Member of the Audit 

Bureau of Circulations 

February 2013 the english garden 5

Contents 

FEBRUARY 

10 THE RAKE News & events James Alexander-Sinclair talks 

floristry, herbs and the weather 

14 SHOPPING Love is in the air Treat your gardening loved 

one to useful Valentine gifts 

17 LE MANOIR Fresh start Introducing the new orchard 

24 EDITOR’S CHOICE Chainsaws Which model will be 

suitable for the domestic gardener? 

67 NEW SERIES SEASONAL RECIPES February feasts 

Join Silvana de Soissons for delicious treats by her warm Aga 

100 VOLUNTEERING Grow & Give Join in the fundraising for 

Garden Re-Leaf Day and a plant raising money for Breast Cancer Care 

105 THE REVIEWER What’s new in books, blogs and broadsheets 

114 IN CONVERSATION WITH... Noel Kingsbury 

The international garden writer explains why we should travel 

abroad for gardening ideas 

Design 

57 HISTORY OF DESIGN Georgian How new plants from 

across the ocean changed the face of English gardening 

63 DESIGN EYE Real grass versus artificial plus funky 

features and great ideas for border edges 

96 

67 

6 the english garden February 2013 

On the cover 

48 

34 

29

Gardens 

29 ITALY The lost world If you are a true romantic, then the 

famous garden of Ninfa is your perfect destination 

34 CORFU Island paradise A luxury eight-acre Mediterranean 

retreat dripping with wisteria, full of colour and life 

41 THAILAND Émigré’s escape A tropical haven in the heart of 

Bangkok, where lush foliage offers a calm retreat from the city 

47 Tantalising trips More inspiring global gardens to visit 

48 CALIFORNIA Private view Designer Brandon Tyson’s three- 

acre garden between bay and mountains is breathtaking 

Plants 

9 PLANT SWATCH Plants for shade Flowering plants 

that can cope with and thrive in that awkward spot 

72 EXPERT PICKS Nursery favourites We asked 12 

nurserymen and women what their key plants are for each month 

83 PLANT FOCUS Snow queens Top galanthus varieties 

89 TREES The strong survive Horticulturist Benedict Pollard on 

how to protect our precious trees from disease 

92 NURSERY All hostas great and small A visit to Bowdens 

in Devon reveals that slug-resistant hostas do exist 

96 HORT’S DESIRE Sparkling sirens of spring David 

Wheeler meets the men behind R. A. Scamp Quality Daffodils 

Offers & competitions 

23 SUBSCRIBE and get your first five issues for just £5 

81 10 FREE * oriental lily bulbs FOR EVERY READER 

worth £24.99 PLUS many more great plant offers 

83 

41 

92 

Buy single issues of The English 

Garden online now - Pre-order 

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SAVE £1 on the cover price! 

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and enter the discount code TVR34 


IMAGES/HEATHER EDWARDS COMPILED BY/CINEAD MCTERNAN 

LIGHTEN UP 

Decorate tricky shady spots with spring or early summer flowers 

and you’ll add a new type of sunshine to your garden 

Cardamine waldsteinii 

Lady’s Smock or the cuckoo flower (above) is one of 

the earliest of the 130 cardamine species to flower. 

A good groundcover plant with a dense, spreading 

habit. Delicate blooms held in groups of 10 to 12 

appear from early March. By late spring, it retreats 

underground and is dormant for the remainder of 

the year, allowing other plants to take its place. 

Reaches 60cm in height. 

CULTIVATION 

Prefers damp soil under a deciduous tree, and will 

be at its happiest in a wildflower meadow. Divide 

rhizomes after flowering or collect seed of this 

herbaceous perennial. 

GROWING IN SHADE 

Having success with plants in 

shade is very tricky. Improve your 

soil by digging in plenty of organic 

matter and you will have far more 

chance of success. There are many 

bulbs that will cope in shade - 

try Anemone nemorosa and 

Fritillaria meleagris. 

Hacquetia epipactis 

A neat low-growing plant reaching just 5cm, with 

a spread of 30cm. Prized for its lime-green bracts 

with yellow centres (top right), which last through 

February and March (the flowers turn brighter green 

as they mature). This clump-forming hardy perennial 

is trouble free if grown in the right place. 

CULTIVATION 

Enjoys a well-drained but light chalky soil that is 

moist or even boggy. Has a reputation for being 

tricky to please in terms of positioning. Also it does 

not like root disturbance and grows quite slowly on 

rhizomes. Propagate by division after flowering. 

Needs protection from slugs and snails. 

plant swatch: flowers for shade 

Primula chionantha 

An unusual species of primula that is a member of 

the primrose-polyanthus group, with more linearshaped, 

upright foliage than is typical. Vanillascented 

flowers (above right) appear in late spring 

and early summer. Good for containers or rock 

gardens. Height: to 45cm. 

CULTIVATION 

Fully hardy. Grow in humus-rich, moist soil in partial 

shade. Some of its cultivars can be difficult to grow 

in the UK, as they like to be covered in snow in the 

dormant season. Sow fresh seed in pots in late 

winter or early spring and keep in an open frame. 

Divide between autumn and early spring. 


the rake 

BISCUIT BOOM 

On 16 February, 

hasten to 

the glorious 

surroundings of 

West Dean in 

Sussex, and learn 

how to bake 

bread (below) 

and biscuits. 

Nothing better 

for battling 

through an east 

wind than some 

home-made 

and sugary 

carbohydrates. 

www.west 

dean.org.uk 


News & events 

In his regular column, James Alexander-Sinclair digs up the latest 

happenings in the gardening world, and shares his favourite events 

I was considering making this whole column anonymous for this month as it is Valentine’s Day. It would be 

a rather convoluted, and not inappropriately romantic, love letter to all the readers of The English Garden 

from a mystery writer. Then I remembered that the page is cluttered by a picture of me grinning 

gnomically from a grassy knoll. So that won’t work. Instead, let me declare my deepest adoration and 

best wishes to all you readers. Please accept a virtual red rose, a soppy poem, a teddy bear with goo-goo 

eyes and a box of Maltesers. 

Flowering academy 

The world is a cheerier place when we have flowers. At this time of 

year, things are a bit sparse in the garden department, so we must 

lean upon the creativity of flower arrangers (or floral artists) to 

bring us good cheer. On occasion, I go and pick a load of flowers 

from the garden and stuff them in a vase. This, though charming, 

is not really floristry. I have tried the real thing (with themes and 

layering of textures) and failed rather spectacularly - especially as 

I did it on primetime television in competition with Joe Swift. 

If you’ve ever fancied taking your skills with the oasis block and 

florists’ wire to a wider audience, then there is a four-day intensive 

course at the Covent Garden Academy of Flowers (above). You’ll get 

a good grounding in what it means to be a professional, including 

costings and customer relations. www.academyofflowers.com 

James Alexander-Sinclair

JAMES ALEXANDER-SINCLAIR/JENNY LEWIS JEKKA MCVICAR/JASON INGRAM 

SOUTHWELL CARE PROJECT/CHRIS KNAPTON 

POD-U-LIKE 

All of us who garden, either professionally or as enthusiastic amateurs, know how good it makes us 

feel. It is cathartic, refreshing, satisfying and, if I might stray briefly into the realm of hippiedom, 

healing for soul and spirit. Not surprising then that many organisations and charities have 

cottoned on to this and are encouraging their clients to grow things. 

One of the best examples is the Southwell Care Project in Nottinghamshire. They currently run 

more than 40 courses in subjects that vary from healthy cookery to money management, and are 

expanding into horticulture. The plan is to set up an English cut-flower business called Flower Pod, 

which will be staffed by people with learning disabilities. It is a fabulous idea and things are 

progressing well (below) with tons of soil shifted, polytunnels erected, planting beds prepared and 

an environmentally friendly straw-bale classroom building well underway. They will be involved in 

growing, harvesting and selling high-quality flowers to local people and businesses. This will not 

only teach staff valuable skills but will enliven the vases of their neighbours. A great idea that 

deserves our support: they still need some funding to complete the infrastructure. For more 

information on the project or to donate, visit www.flowerpodsouthwell.co.uk 

SUPER HOTTIES 

February is a good time to learn about chillies, while there is still time to 

plan before planting. There are courses this month at Sea Spring Seeds 

in Dorset. www.seaspringseeds.co.uk 

Herbal Highness 

Jekka McVicar (right) is the new president of the Herb 

Society. Most people will think she always has been: 

she is, after all, the Maharanee of Marjoram and the 

Sultana of Sorrel. The Herb Society is based in Sulgrave, 

Oxfordshire, and there they have a series of herb 

gardens, including one for children and another 

featuring North American herbs, or ‘erbs as they 

say over there. Annual membership is a snip at £25 

per person (£35 for a couple) and includes talks, 

a magazine and useful discounts at herb nurseries 

across the country. And you might just get to touch 

the hem of Jekka’s garments. www.herbsociety.org.uk 

RAINING IN 

MY HEART 

What is the one 

thing that affects 

all gardeners 

no matter how 

competent? 

The answer of 

course, is the 

weather. It is 

almost always 

too hot, too 

cold, too wet or 

too dry. But it’s 

nice to have due 

warning, and 

the Met Office 

have produced 

a good-looking 

and efficient 

App for all 

smartphones 

(above) that 

gives hourly 

updates and 

five-day 

forecasts. 

Available on 

iPhone and 

Android.

the rake 

CHELSEA BUILD-UP 

I know it is only February, but already plans are well advanced for spring. 

Believe it or not, the gardens for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (below) 

were selected way back in September last year, and since then designers 

and nurserymen have been having regular sleepless nights about how their 

plants are growing. I thought it might be interesting to drip-feed gardens 

to you over the next couple of months, in order to rustle up some extra 

tension and excitement. Returning to Chelsea, after a gap of 13 years, 

is Michael Balston, accompanied this time by Mary-Louise Agius. Their 

garden follows on from the Olympics, as it is sponsored by QDD Athlete’s 

Village UK Ltd, who are the guys turning the athletes’ village into homes. 

The garden is flowing and leafy with a very clever viewing area that 

indents into the garden. Definitely a contender. 

FEBRUARY EVENTS 

FAMILY DAYS OUT 

SNOWDROP EXTRAVAGANZA 

AT CHELSEA PHYSIC GARDEN 

Saturday 2-Sunday 10, London 

Enjoy a feast for the eyes at 

this homage to the snowdrop, 

with trails, guided tours and 

displays. For more details, visit 

www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk 

NATIONAL BRAMLEY 

APPLE WEEK 

Sunday 3-Saturday 9, UK 

See what’s planned in your area. 

www.bramleyapples.co.uk 

POTATO DAY AT MID-SUFFOLK 

SHOWGROUND 

Saturday 9, East Anglia 

9.30am-1.30pm. Admission: 

£1.50. Seed-swap table, tastings, 


tools, books and produce. 

To find out more, go to 

www.eapd.btck.co.uk 

SPRING FLOWER FORTNIGHT 

AT BARNSDALE GARDENS 

Monday 11-Sunday 24, Rutland 

10% discount on all hellebores 

(below) purchased from the 

nursery. 10am-4pm. 

Tel: +44 (0)1572 813200. 

www.barnsdalegardens.co.uk 

Smoochin’ sites 

Despite my lame efforts at the beginning of this column, 

romance is not dead, ladies and gentlemen. Far from it: even 

one of our most esteemed organisations, a pillar of the 

establishment, has been hit by Cupid’s arrow. The National 

Trust is offering romantic getaways at many of their smaller 

properties including a water tower in Trelissick in Cornwall 

(above) for your Rapunzel fantasies; a gate lodge on the 

estate of Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk, within 10 minutes of windy 

beaches and Cromer crab sandwiches; or a thatched cottage 

in the middle of Steyning, Sussex. For all this and more, visit 

www.nationaltrustcottages.co.uk 

SHOWS 

RHS PLANT & DESIGN SHOW AT 

THE HORTICULTURAL HALLS 

Tuesday 19-Wednesday 20, 

London 

To book, tel: 0844 3387506 or 

visit www.rhs.org.uk 

SHORT COURSES 

GLASS WEEK AT WEST DEAN 

Sunday 17-Friday 22, 

West Sussex 

Five courses to choose from 

including colour and light in 

stained glass, glass engraving, 

layering imagery in glass, 

decorative techniques in glass 

bead-making, and glass gilding 

and painting. Prices for courses 

range from £456 to £581. 

To book or for more information, 

tel: 0844 4994408 or visit 

www.westdean.org.uk 

WORKSHOPS 

PREPARING A FLEECE 

& SPINNING 

Saturday 9, Dorset 

Held around Sherborne (locations 

and directions will be sent out 

with confirmation of your 

booking). All necessary 

materials and light refreshments 

will be provided. Bring a packed 

lunch and a pair of rubber gloves. 

£85. To book, tel: +44 (0)7765 

654771 or visit 

www.kimcreswell.co.uk 

SCARECROW SPECTACULAR 

AT PARKE 

Friday 22, Devon 

Some materials will be supplied. 

11am-1pm and 1.30pm-3.30pm. 

For more information, tel: +44 

(0)1626 834748 or visit 

www.nationaltrust.org.uk TRELISSICK/NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES - ANDREW BUTLER CHELSEA CROWD/RHS

CHERRY BLOSSOM MUG & 

ALLIUM BLOOM BLUE MUG 

£6.95 each. Tel: +44 (0)1142 338262. 

www.burgonandball.com 

FEBRUARY 

LOVE IS 

in the air 

Treat your horticultural loved one this month with our 

choice of fabulous heartfelt and heart-themed goodies 

COMPILED BY VICTORIA KINGSBURY 


ORGANIC PLANT FOOD MAKER 

£29.95. Tel: +44 (0)1142 338262. 


BATH TIME 

ROSE HEART SOAP 

£4. Tel: +44 (0)1844 217060. 

www.henandhammock.co.uk 

PINK HEARTS TEAPOT 

£39.95. Tel: 0844 2439266. 

www.emmabridgewater.co.uk 

HEART DOORMAT 

£29.95. Tel: +44 (0)1531 632718. 

www.rogeroates.com

TOP 

PICK 

FAIRTRADE 

FORTNIGHT 

SEED SAVERS 

£6.95. Tel: +44 (0)1142 338262. 


RUST PLANT POT CROWN 

Small £15. Tel: 0845 2591359. 

www.notonthehighstreet.com 

25 FEB-10 MAR Every year, events take place 

in the UK, such as food and drink tastings, fashion 

shows, fairs and fêtes, to promote awareness, sell 

products and campaign on fairtrade issues. To get 

involved, see www.fairtrade.org.uk 

ILSE JACOBSEN INDIGO BOOTS 

£110. Tel: 0845 0920283. 

www.sarahraven.com 

TAKE EVERYWHERE ULTIMATE 

BINOCULARS B 

£29.95. Tel: 0844 4829708. 

www.handpickedcollection.com 

LOVE IN A BAG GIFT 

Wildflower seeds. £10. Tel: 0845 

2591359. www.notonthehighstreet.com 

shopping: february 

METAL HEART BIRD FEEDER 

Width: 22cm x Height: 27cm. £12.50. 

Tel: 0844 8580744. www.coxandcox.co.uk 

POLKA DOT RADIO 

£130. Tel: 0844 2439266. 

www.emmabridgewater.co.uk 

HANDY ITEM 

PERSONALISED OAK BOOT JACK This 

simple design with a twist makes it easy to take 

off your boots and keep your socks dry. £75. Tel: 

0845 2591359. www.notonthehighstreet.com 


FRESH START 

In the next part of our ongoing series, we follow the work of 

the team at Raymond Blanc’s hotel garden in Oxfordshire 

PHOTOGRAPHS JASON INGRAM 

There is no such thing as a 

quiet month at Le Manoir. 

The majority of the beds 

may be empty in the kitchen 

garden, but the polytunnels and 

greenhouses are alive with activity. 

With more than 100 seed trays of 

microleaves being harvested per 

month, activity is high. Popular 

microleaves for this month are 

celery leaf, coriander, parsley, red 

cabbage, fennel and rocket. 

In this established kitchen 

garden, the beds have benefited 

from annual soil improvement, 

making them easy to turn over 

with a rotovator in time for spring 

sowing and planting. 

 

le manoir: february 

With so many 

beds to prepare 

for planting, 

rotovating saves 

many hours. 



The team has more tasks this year, 

as Raymond’s new 7.5-acre orchard 

is now a reality. Planting started in 

April 2011, and the first phase is 

complete. He researched apples local 

to Oxfordshire and identified the 

local ‘Blenheim Orange’ as perfect 

for making apple Charlotte. One of 

his favourite recipes is Maman 

Blanc’s apple tart, so the apples 

‘Worcester’ and ‘Braeburn’ have also 

been included, as they are the perfect 

varieties for this dessert. 

After many years of research, 

Raymond’s dream of growing 

his own apples and pears has 

come true, and his knowledge of 

fruits has vastly grown. Le Manoir 

can now boast one of the best 

collections of British apple and pear 

varieties in the country. 

This garden is not standing still, 

and the challenges continue. 

After many years of research, Raymond’s dream of growing 

his own apples and pears has come true 


RIGHT The herb 

garden beds have 

been stripped to 

make way for 

new planting. 

SEASONAL TASKS: SOIL IMPROVING & RABBIT PROOFING 

With the herb garden being replanted by expert Jekka McVicar, the old plants have been removed and 

the soil is being prepared by adding and forking in farmyard manure. This manure is bought in from the 

Rhug Estate in Wales, one of Raymond’s meat suppliers. 

FAR LEFT A fresh 

start in the herb 

garden - five-yearold 

plants have 

been removed to 

make way for new 

planting. LEFT 

Checking the 

rabbit fencing 

is vital for success 

in the kitchen 

garden. 

Raymond has been working closely 

with herb expert Jekka McVicar in 

order to refresh the existing herb 

garden. Before Jekka can implement 

her new planting, the beds are stripped 

and the soil improved with farmyard 

manure from a reliable source. As 

a general rule, herbs do not require 

a rich soil, but after five years of 

productive herb growing, adding to 

the soil fertility will give the new 

plants a flying start. 

The perimeter of the garden is rabbit 

fenced, and with most plants still 

naked of leaves, it’s the perfect time to 

check the fencing. Although rabbit 

fencing is in place and buried down a 

bit, rabbits are still occasionally seen 

here. Once spotted, the team check 

the fences again as a priority. One 

rabbit can do quite a lot of damage.

RIGHT & BELOW 

Up until recently, 

the team relied 

on just a few very 

mature fruit trees, 

but now Anne 

Marie can offer 

a vast variety of 

different tastes 

thanks to 

Raymond’s 

new orchard. 

HEAD GARDENER’S NOTES 

With more than 800 fruit trees in the 

new orchard, head gardener Anne Marie 

is looking forward to producing homegrown 

fruit for the chefs. 

The new orchard has been planted to the 

east of the kitchen garden, and after years 

of planning and research, the first phase 

of tree planting has been completed this 

winter. Tastings have taken place over 

the past five years with me, Raymond, 

the hotel’s chef pâtissier Benoit Blin and 

the development chefs Adam and Kush, to 

discover the best flavours. It is my job to 

continue recording the progress of each 

variety, and after a few years, we will be 

able to identify the right apples and pears 

for very particular tastes and uses. Most of 

the apples we have planted are on M9 

rootstock and have been planted as 

maidens. This rootstock will produce neat 

bush-shaped dwarf trees, which is the 

most sensible use of space. 

The apple varieties selected include 

‘Winston’ - a sharp eater which is ripe in 

October; ‘Chivers Delight’ - this was 

excellent in tarte Tatin when tested, and 

will store well; and ‘Egremont Russet’, 

which is praised for its juicy fruits and has 

a picking date of late September. 

The biggest job has been marking 

out rows and planning the placement 

of each tree. I will keep you updated 

on progress. Anne Marie Owens

FEBRUARY FOLIAGE, 

FLOWERS & CATKINS 

The garden is alive with colour, and guests enjoy 

a stroll around the garden. At this time of year, the 

snowdrops are a real sight to behold, and the 

biggest group can be found under the mature 

apple trees that you will spot as you enter 

the garden, to the right of the famous 

lavender walk (see page 19). 

A key plant that offers impressive bright green 

foliage colours in many of the borders is Euphorbia 

x martini. This plant reaches more than half a metre 

in height, and the green bracts with a red eye 

will go on adding interest throughout spring and 

into summer. The lime-green foliage looks 

impressive with the groundcover colour 

from the many pulmonarias. 

Pulmonarias are members of the borage family 

and have the typical hairy leaves. The first to 

flower in the year is the red-flowering Pulmonaria 

rubra. Joining them at ground level are mixed 

hellebores. Many of these are seedlings, so each 

year the display can be slightly different. 

Like pulmonarias, they are happy to grow 

in shade and offer evergreen foliage. 

WINTER COLOUR 

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Helleborus 

x hybridus; Euphorbia x martini; the garden 

is home to many different types of snowdrop. 

It is thought this one is Galanthus nivalis 

f. pleniflorus ‘Flore Pleno’; Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’; 

Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Charles Lamont’; 

Helleborus argutifolius; pussy willow (Salix discolor) 

is brought in and used by the floristry team 

in arrangements for the house.

WINTER HYACINTHS 

Every year, 300 prepared hyacinths are 

bought in autumn. They are grown on in 

order to scent the rooms of the hotel 

with the fresh perfume of spring. 

Anne Marie orders her pick of the hyacinth 

bulbs for planting at the start of October. 

For reliablity, she values ‘Carnegie’ for 

white flowers and ‘Delft Blue’ for paleblue 

compact flowers. 

Bulbs are planted individually into 

small plastic plant pots not much bigger 

than the bulbs themselves. Each pot is 

filled two-thirds with compost and onethird 

with garden soil, and then the bulb is 

placed in the pot and the edges filled in. 

Her team plant so that the bulb is above 

soil level. Pots are watered by trickling 

water around the bulb to wet the medium. 

The pots are then placed in crates and 

totally covered with compost or leaf mould, 

and placed in a cool shed or sheltered area 

of the garden. The cooler the conditions, 

the slower the development. They are 

checked once a week, and if the weather 

is very cold, they are moved to a cold 

greenhouse to keep them on track. 

Eight days before moving them to the 

house, the compost is knocked off the top, 

and they are exposed to light and placed 

in a cool greenhouse. A day before going 

in, they’re moved to a warm greenhouse to 

prepare them for central heating. Hyacinths 

can cause skin irritations, so make sure to 

wear gloves when handling them. 

RIGHT & BELOW 

RIGHT Crates 

of hyacinths are 

taken in to the 

house after eight 

days in the 

greenhouse. 

BELOW The 

hyacinths are 

moved from 

plastic pots and 

potted up in 

decorative 

containers. 

BELOW LEFT 

As the house 

is generously 

centrally heated, 

hyacinths will 

need staking 

when they are 

in full flower. 


Hyacinth flowers will last far longer if placed out 

of direct sunlight and kept in a cool room 


Relax with 

Style 

Contact Haddonstone 

for high quality 

garden ornaments and 

architectural cast stone 

in contemporary, classical 

and traditional styles. 

Each design is 

handcrafted in England. 

Inspirational 208 page 

catalogue available or 

visit our acclaimed 

Northamptonshire 

show gardens. 

www.haddonstone.com 

THE FORGE HOUSE • EAST HADDON • NORTHAMPTON NN6 8DB • 01604-770711 • info@haddonstone.co.uk 

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE • COLORADO • NEW JERSEY

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Editor’s 

Choice 

t h e e n g l i s h g a r d e n m a g az i n e 

CHAINSAWS 

Which chainsaw will be 

able to cut through it all to 

become Tamsin’s top pick? 

Let’s be honest and agree that 

using a chainsaw isn’t for 

everyone. For that reason, 

I called in my gardening friend 

Shaun to help with this trial. 

It is far better to ask an experienced 

chainsaw operator than ‘give it a go’. 

That’s not to say these tools are only 

suitable for men, as many of the models we 

tested are fairly lightweight - however, they 

do seem to be the ultimate boys’ toys. 

Having said that, they are far from toys, 

Before any rip cords are pulled, safety gear needs to be a priority... 

Chainsaw trousers, leather gloves, steel-toe boots 

incredibly dangerous if used incorrectly, 

and can cause nasty accidents. 

As with mowers, there are different 

chainsaws to suit different situations. This 

trial covers just petrol and battery-powered 

models, but electric versions are available. 

All arrived boxed with their chains needing 

fitting. Chain oil is required for this, but it 

is a fairly straightforward task to set the 

saws up. The bar length of our selected 

range was between 30-35cm, making these 

saws ideal for entry-level use. Oil is the next 

issue, with two-stroke being the order of 

the day. To make life easier, I strongly 

suggest that you buy your oil and fuel from 

a garden machinery specialist. 

Before any rip cords are pulled, safety 

gear needs to be a priority. Chainsaw 

trousers, leather gloves, steel-toe boots, ear 

defenders, hard hat, goggles and a bright 

jacket are all essential. Don’t risk going 

ahead without any of the above, and always 

read the instructions carefully. 


. 

1 

Balance bar 

The Husqvarna 135, 40.9cc chainsaw has a 35cm bar. Cuts well and weighs 4.4kg 

with a 1.4kw power output. Good labelling on the machine and instructions were 

exceptional. Easy to start, and the engine is designed for lower fuel consumption. 

I wasn’t so keen on the sound of this saw and, although it was well balanced, 

we were conscious of vibration. The snap-lock cylinder cover is ideal for easy 

maintenance. Good value. Husqvarna Forest Jackets cost from £61.99. 

PRICE £249.99 

2 

Easy start 

The Makita two-stroke 32cc chainsaw 

(EA3201) was a really well-balanced 

machine, which was a near winner. We 

found this the easiest of the petrol models 

to start, and it was very low on vibration, 

making it comfortable to use over a fairly 

long period. It is described as an entry-level 

model, but it really appealed to experienced 

users, so well worth considering - especially 

at such a good price. Weighs just 4.3kgs 

and has a very meaty sound. The new 

electronic ignition system that controls 

stable idling was a good feature. The bar 

length is 35cm and all parts are easily 

accessible for maintenance. A good 

all-rounder, but I would have liked a few 

more instruction stickers on the machine 

itself, just as easy reminders. 

PRICE £225 

IMAGES/HOWARD WALKER WITH THANKS TO SHAUN YAPP 

PLEASE NOTE: PRICES MAY VARY FROM DEALER TO DEALER

3 

4 

2 

1 

editor’s choice: chainsaws 

Battery power 

The Bosch AKE 30Li is powered by a 

rechargeable battery and has a 30cm long bar. 

It will appeal to those who don’t want to enter 

the world of fuel or rip cords - simply push 

button to start. Bosch claim it can cut up to 100 

‘fence posts ‘ with a full battery and it only takes 

1.5 hours to fully recharge. The quietest of 

all the models, it is unlikely to upset the 

neighbours; it sounds more like a cake mixer! 

More suited to heavy pruning rather than 

logging, this option is environmentally friendly 

and lower maintenance. You can transport it 

without emptying fuel, so all in all, it is cleaner. 

Comes with an automatic lubrication system for 

the chain and an electric kick-back break. I really 

liked the battery indicator, which clearly shows 

how much battery is left. A neat saw, ideal for 

domestic use. A shame it was heaviest at 5.2kg. 

PRICE £339.95 

 

February 2013 the english garden 25 

3

editor’s choice: chainsaws 

Chainsaw safety 

If you are employing someone to do 

chainsaw work, then I would advise 

you to look for someone with 

training. Private individuals do 

not require a certificate, but the 

Health and Safety Executive would 

recommend it. Courses can range 

from one to five days - for more 

details visit www.lantra.co.uk 

Here are a few other safety tips: 

Make sure you are fit and well 

before handling a chainsaw. 

Check the chain tension before 

you start work: too tight and it will 

wear quickly, too loose and it will 

derail and could cause an accident. 

Use both hands when starting a 

chainsaw, and always start it on the 

ground or on a stable surface. 

After use, remove the chain and 

store in a jar of chain oil. 

Spend time studying how a tree 

might fall, and plan which limb to 

remove first with your chainsaw. 

Never work alone. 

Make sure your chainsaw is 

large enough to tackle the branch 

thickness. Not all chainsaws are 

designed to tackle large tree trunks. 

Always keep your chainsaw below 

chest height, and don’t overeach as 

this would increase the risk of an 

accident if the machine kicks back. 

CONTACTS 

1 Husqvarna 135 

www.husqvarna.com/uk 

2 Makita EA3201 32cc 

Tel: +44 (0)1908 211678. 

www.makitauk.com 

3 Bosch AKE30Li 

www.mowdirect.co.uk 

4 Stihl MS 181 

www.stihl.co.uk 

In many cases, there are several versions of the 

chainsaws we have featured. I recommend you 

visit a dealer in order to feel the balance and 

weight if you are unsure which one will suit you. 


4 

Fuel efficient 

EDITOR’S 

CHOICE 

The Stihl MS 181 C-BE chainsaw has a 35cm bar and weighs 4.6kg. The power output is 1.5kw, and 

it seemed the most powerful of the group. This model ticked the box for comfort and ease-of-use 

and would suit those who are looking for a professional machine for home use. In short, it made 

light work of our tree. The advanced Stihl two-stroke engine reduces emissions by 70% and fuel 

consumption by 20%, which is obviously very appealing, and the long-life air-filter system will 

reduce regular maintenance. Shaun was wearing Stihl chainsaw protective trousers (£140), gloves 

(£31.25) and Aero light helmet set (£30). 

PRICE £300

28 The English Garden february 2013

ABOVE The unusually large flowers of Wisteria floribunda ‘Multijuga’ trail from a medieval bridge spanning the 

river that creates the extraordinary microclimate of the garden at Ninfa. 

The lost 

world 

A forgotten town was tranformed into the most 

romantic garden on earth by three generations of 

feisty female expats, who gave their hearts to Italy 

PHOTOGRAPHS ALEX RAMSAY | WORDS HELENA ATTLEE 

GARDEN 

NOTES 

Dreamy 20-acre garden 

in a ruined medieval 

village near Rome 

gardens: italy 

When the British 

put down roots 

in a foreign 

country, they 

often do it 

literally by making a garden. One of 

the most famous and best-loved 

English gardens abroad is Ninfa 

in Italy, where the ruined buildings 

of a medieval town have been 

tr transformed into a place so 

extraordinarily beautiful and 

deeply romantic that it 

has long been a place of 

pilgrimage for gardeners. 

Ninfa’s garden was created 

by three generations of 

English E and American women 


over a period of about 90 years. All 

of them married into the Caetani, 

the family that had owned the little 

town of Ninfa ever since the 13th 

century. The first to garden there 

was Ada Bootle-Wilbraham, the 

English wife of Duke Onorato 

Caetani, who began to create a 

garden among the ruined medieval 

streets at the end of the 19th 

century. She was succeeded first by 

Marguerite Chapin, the brilliant 

Anglo-American wife of Duke 

Roffredo Caetani, and then by 

Marguerite’s daughter, Lelia, a 

painter and plantswoman who 

added yet another layer to the 

accumulated depth and intensity 

of the planting. 

Ada was renowned in Rome for 

her English eccentricity. There 

weren’t many women in the mid- 

19th century who would take to the 


air in a balloon, or choose to spend 

weeks alone in a shepherd’s hut, but 

Ada did. When she began to take 

her children to Ninfa for picnics, 

the little town had been virtually 

abandoned since the 14th century, 

and it was a wild, overgrown place. 

But she could see its potential, and 

she never went there without a fistful 

of cuttings taken from roses in her 

own garden. She thrust these into the 

ground at the base of the ruined 

walls, and they soon began to grow 

exceptionally well in the rich soil and 

the warm, damp microclimate 

created by the river. Some of Ada’s 

roses, recognisable by their massive 

stems, can still be seen today, 

scrambling to the apex of ruined 

towers and the highest branches of 

the garden’s tallest trees. 

After the death of her husband in 

1917, Ada continued to work with 

ABOVE View 

across the rockery 

originally created 

by Lelia Caetani, 

towards the 

ruined church of 

San Biagio. The 

rockery has 

recently been 

restored and 

replanted by 

Stella Marchetti. 

RIGHT The gate 

into the 16thcentury 

walled 

garden that was 

replanted with 

citrus trees in 

the 1920s. 

her son, Gelasio. They cleared ivy 

from the ruins, planted strategic 

groups of holm oak, cedar and 

plane trees, and marked the little 

town’s main street with the avenue 

of towering cypresses still there 

today. They found shelter for tender 

plants inside the ruined walls of 

houses and churches, some of them 

still decorated with fragments of 

Byzantine frescoes, and sent robust 

climbers scrambling over them. 

Marguerite Chapin gardened at 

Ninfa from 1933 until her death in 

1963. She planted swathes of 

ornamental cherries, so that in April 

the garden seems to float on a raft 

of blossom. She introduced the 

magnolias, rhododendrons and 

cornus that populate the town’s 

empty squares, and planted 

thousands more roses. In the damper 

areas of the garden, she made groves

of silver birch, whose pale trunks 

still shimmer against the dark green 

backdrop of the garden today. 

It was Marguerite’s husband, 

Roffredo Caetani, who brought 

water into every part of the ruined 

town, allowing it to gallop at 

enormous speed through deep 

channels, slowing it to meander 

thoughtfully among the ghostly 

trunks of Marguerite’s birch trees, 

or stopping it in its tracks to create 

the broad, limpid mirror by the 

entrance. His pièce de résistance was 

the miniature aqueduct that still 

feeds one tiny stream across another. 

This busy water eventually makes 

its way to the river, where swags 

of wisteria drip from the bridges, 

and the water is so extraordinarily 

clean that everything beneath it - 

the iridescent green weed pulled 

horizontal by the current, the trout 

that drift sideways downstream, the 

pockets of glittering sand - takes on 

a jewel-like clarity. 

While Marguerite was still alive 

and gardening alongside her 

daughter Lelia, the young son of 

their foreman was knocked down 

by a car. The two women took 

to visiting the little boy as he 

convalesced, and they became fond 

 

RIGHT This 

building may have 

been one of the 

many medieval 

mills that originally 

lined the banks of 

the river. BELOW 

RIGHT In May, 

poplar seeds fall 

through the air 

like illuminated 

snowflakes, and lie 

in shallow drifts 

on the ground. 

BOTTOM In late 

spring, arum lilies 

Zantedeschia 

aethiopica pack 

the banks of 

the stream that 

divides the garden 

from the wildlife 

area beyond. 



of each other. His name was Lauro 

Marchetti, and as he grew stronger 

they took him into the garden with 

them and began to teach him about 

the plants that grew there. When 

Lelia married Hubert Howard, 

another member of Rome’s Anglo- 

Italian community, they began to 

visit Chelsea Flower Show every 

year and travel to gardens all over 

Europe, gathering ideas for Ninfa. 

Lelia was the last surviving 

member of the Caetani family, and 

both she and her husband were 

aware of the need to safeguard 

Ninfa’s future. And so, as Lauro 

grew older, they began to take him 

with them, building on the education 

begun when he was small and 

preparing him to be the garden’s 

curator after their deaths. Hubert 

also worked with Lelia to create a 

conservation area around the garden 

and set up three foundations that 

would preserve Ninfa in the future. 

Ninfa has become so famous, 

both in Italy and abroad, that more 

than 50,000 people visit it each 

year. You might expect this 

enormous influx of visitors to rob 

the place of its magic, but Lauro 

and his wife Stella and their team of 

five gardeners continue Lelia’s work 

in the garden, keeping the family’s 


spirit alive so that Ninfa today is a 

vibrant, living place, a much-loved 

family garden where extraordinary 

things can happen. 

There is a particular, enchanted 

moment in May when poplar trees 

on the garden’s edge release a 

blizzard of soft furry flakes that drift 

aimlessly on the breeze. At dusk, the 

white fluff of seeds is illuminated as 

it falls in weightless drifts on roses 

and the crumbling walls they 

scramble over; on the pale arum lilies 

that pack the banks of streams; and 

on the blue pools of irises growing 

ABOVE Red Rosa 

‘Souvenir de 

Claudius Denoyel’ 

flowers between 

the medieval town 

hall and castle. 

BELOW LEFT The 

lake behind the 

castle. BELOW 

RIGHT Roses love 

the microclimate 

and scramble 

unfettered over 

the ruins. 

Ninfa today is a vibrant, living place, a much-loved family 

garden where extraordinary things can happen 

on the river’s edge. Darkness falls, 

but under the trees the ground is 

bright, a world turned upside down. 

Sit still for long enough, and you 

might emerge into the crepuscular 

garden like a new-born Miss 

Havisham, covered in pale dust. 

Visitors can take an hour-long tour in 

groups with a guide (not always in 

English). Open to the public in 2013 on 

the first Sat and Sun of each month from 

April to Oct; the third Sun in April, May 

and June; and first Sun in Nov. Find out 

more at www.fondazionecaetani.org

NINFA notebook 

RIVER WILD 

The river that divides Ninfa’s 

garden in two is fed by a 

spring-water lake. The icecold, 

crystal-clear water 

creates a tiny microclimate 

so that temperatures in the 

garden never drop to zero 

in winter, or rise above 36°C 

in summer. Even on the 

hottest summer nights, 

there is always a heavy dew. 

TOP TIPS FROM STELLA & LAURO MARCHETTI 

GARDEN CHALLENGES 

HERITAGE: Ninfa is constantly challenged by the threat of pollution and unscrupulous development. 

Lauro works hard to make good relationships with the local community. The garden has links with 

local schools and thousands of children visit each year. As they grow up and take on positions of 

responsibility in the local community, Lauro hopes they will remember Ninfa and what it taught 

them about the conservation of the natural world. 

RINGS OF ROSES 

Roses are encouraged to scramble freely wherever 

they choose, creating the romantic, ‘cultivated 

disorder’ that is considered a peculiarly English 

style of gardening in Italy. There’s so much to see 

at ground level that it’s easy to forget to look up. 

But unless you fling your head back, you won’t 

see the roses making their valiant ascent of the 

garden’s walls and tall trees. 

Ninfa is a large garden. We have found that the optimum way to maintain it is to 

assign part of the site to each of our five gardeners. In this way, each gardener takes 

personal responsibility for a section of the medieval ruins and develops a close 

relationship with the plants that grow over and among them. 

We select plants for their shape and colour, but also for their ability to attract 

birds, butterflies and pollinating 

insects. This system is 

extraordinarily successful and 

visitors often remark on the 

presence of green and red-headed 

woodpeckers, golden orioles 

and many other unusual birds 

in the garden. 

In 1966, Ninfa was the first 

garden in Italy to restrict visiting, 

so that visitors could only enter the 

garden with a guide. This has 

helped us to preserve the magical 

atmosphere of the garden. 

BANNED ON THE BRIDGE 

Visitors are not permitted to cross the bridge to the 

garden on the other side of the river. This experiment 

has proceeded for many years, and Lauro has noticed 

that plants in this protected part of the garden are less 

prone to disease than those in the main garden. 

ALSO IN THE AREA 


If you visit Ninfa, Lauro also recommends: 

GARDEN La Landriana A 30-minute drive from 

Ninfa, it is a 25-acre, 20th-century garden initially 

designed by Russell Page in collaboration with 

Marchesa Lavinia Taverna. Interesting at all times of 

year, particularly in May, when nightingales practice 

their songs during the day, and the Valley of the 

Roses is in full flower. Via Campo di Carne 51, 00040 

Tor San Lorenzo, Ardea, Italia. Tel: +39 (06) 9101 

4140. www.giardinidellalandriana.it 

NURSERY Vivai Torsanlorenzo, Via Campo di 

Carne 51, 00040 Tor San Lorenzo, Ardea, Italia. 

Tel: +39 (06) 9101 9005. www.vivaitorsanlorenzo.it 

RESTAURANT Il Piccolo Ducato, Via Tivera, 

Cisterna di Latina (LT), Italia. Tel: +39 (06) 9601284. 

Closed on Mondays. www.ilpiccoloducato.it 

B&B La Valle dell’Usignolo, Via Vigna Riccelli 2, 

04010 Sermoneta (LT), Italia. Tel: +39 (0)773 318629. 

www.lavalledellusignolo.it 



Island 

paradise 

Get thee to Greece to experience the luxurious surroundings of 

this sympathetically restored and landscaped village hideaway 

PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS | WORDS LOUISA JONES

GARDEN 

NOTES 

Eight-acre 

Mediterranean retreat 

with naturalistic 

planting 

gardens: corfu 

LEFT The central ‘village square’ of the Rou Estate, planted 

in summer with glorious blue agapanthus, which set 

off the honey-coloured buildings and the Italian well. 

ABOVE Phlomis and other drought tolerant, silver-leaved 

Mediterranean plants fill the narrow raised beds along 

the paths of local stone. 

T 

he Rou Estate is an 

ancient hamlet in the 

northeastern corner of 

Corfu, transformed into 

a luxury hideaway for 

private or corporate leisure, meetings 

or celebrations. Each of its 14 beautifully 

restored rest houses has spectacular views 

onto the Ionian sea as well as towards herbcovered 

mountains. Each house has a private 

garden, but all settle harmoniously into a nest of 

small steps, archways and pergolas that makes 

one vast garden, surrounded by some of the 

Mediterranean’s richest natural landscapes. The 

estate also provides multiple sports facilities, spa 

and health services. Harper’s Bazaar listed Rou as 

number five on its list of ‘best Greek retreats’. But 

Rou is exceptional also in its respect for both natural 

balance and local heritage. It offers a highly successful 

blending of drama and serenity. 

The major magician of Rou is Dominic Skinner, an 

English architect who was meticulously trained at 

Norman Foster and Partners in London and worked 

on projects such as the Millennium Bridge. He had 

been coming to Corfu since childhood, and his wife 

Claire, whom he met on the island, is a holistic 

therapist. His garden advisors at Rou are the English 

team of Jennie Gay and Piers Goldson. Jennie, 


a Sheffield graduate in landscape architecture, spent 

several years designing and managing gardens in 

Jerusalem, Jericho and on Cephalonia. She writes a 

regular garden column for the Athens News, and has 

published a book on Greek gardens. Piers has global 

gardening experience, including the Mediterranean 

Collection in the Great Glasshouse at the National 

Botanic Garden of Wales; Longwood Gardens in 

Philadelphia; and the Haiwian Botanic Garden. 

Jennie and Piers did an initial survey to help with 

the restoration of existing vegetation, including 

fine trees such as the turpentine tree (Pistacia 

terebinthus). They sorted the project into three main 

types for planting: the communal spaces, the 

individual gardens of each house, and the larger 

setting of meadows, stone terracing, woodlands and 

shelterbelts. For each, they incorporated the already 

existing and very rich local biodiversity. All flow into 

each other seamlessly. 

Dominic first visualises his spaces, determines the 

‘flavour’ he wants, then asks Jennie and Piers how 


best to achieve it. He might take inspiration from the 

creamy stone or from the silvery underside of olive 

foliage. His preferred colours range from silvers and 

whites to purples, mauves and lavender. 

He loves to play with textures and light. 

Architecture and flora are inextricably entwined at 

Rou, where the latter not only softens the built 

landscape but also enhances the stonework. All three 

designers agreed at the outset to use simple but 

bold combinations of pastel-coloured flowers in 

With nothing fussy or contrived, there is great harmony 

and unity of style throughout the place 

combination with evergreen and ‘evergrey’ foliage. 

‘We were very sparing with the plants,’ Jennie says. 

‘So much is being said by the buildings already, 

especially in communal areas.’ With nothing fussy or 

contrived, there is great harmony and unity of style 

throughout the place and from season to season. 

Discerning use is made of signature plants - waves 

of seasonal flowers in the form of wild herbs, 

perennials and bulbs, such as lavender, rosemary, 

alliums and irises. These are repeated throughout the 

estate to create high visual impact. 

 

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP 

LEFT Amazing vistas out to 

the Ionian sea; the three 

designers decided to use 

silver-leaved plants and 

pastel and white flowers; 

the Rou ethos encourages 

wildlife; every area of the 

estate is landscaped in a 

simple but bold and natural 

way. OPPOSITE The 

stunning wisteria pergola.



The heart of Rou is a dramatic pergola draped with 

wisteria, marking a kind of village square around a 

rustic Italian stone well. The pergola is underplanted 

with giant alliums (Allium stipitatum ‘Mount 

Everest’), and later agapanthus (Agapanthus praecox 

subsp. orientalis) and Plumbago auriculata for 

continuous summer bloom. Other signature plants 

include Lavandula x heterophylla Viv. Gaston Allard 

Group, a lavender variety resistant to cold, heat and 

variable watering regimes; Tulbaghia violacea; star 

jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides); climbing 

Iceberg roses; santolina; and rosemary. 

The individual gardens allow for more complex 

mixes, and often feature the eye-catching Salvia 

leucantha and Erysimum ‘Bowles’s Mauve’, along 

with nepetas, wormwood, curry plant (Helichrysum 

italicum), euphorbias, cistus, phlomis and perovskia. 

The surrounding natural glades already had olive, 

cypress and almond trees, mixed oaks including 

the Valencia oak (Quercus ithaburensis subsp. 

macrolepis), the turpentine tree and Mediterranean 


hackberry (Celtis australis). This mix has been subtly 

enriched with nut, berry and fruit trees including 

strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) and Myrtus 

communis, as well as groundcover plants and bulbs 

such as ivy-leaved sowbread (Cyclamen hederifolium), 

Paeonia officinalis, Helleborus x hybridus, Iris 

unguicularis, Liriope muscari, Anemone blanda, and 

ferns like Polypodium cambricum and Asplenium 

scolopendrium. 

He loves to play with textures and light... Architecture 

and flora are inextricably entwined at Rou 

Rou was brought to maturity in a miraculously 

short time, only three years. It continues to be 

much more than a commercial project, in fact a 

labour of real devotion. ‘I sometimes walk around 

here and pretend I’m not the architect,’ admits 

Dominic. ‘I really love it!’ And everyone who 

visits Rou feels the same. 

You can stay at the Rou Estate through Simpson Travel, 

which rents out individual houses or the whole village 

weekly. To find out more, go to www.rouestate.co.uk and 

www.simpsontravel.com 

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP 

LEFT Bearded irises and the 

grass pennisetum lit up 

by the morning sun; 

‘wild’ planting that melds 

with the surrounding 

countryside; a wild 

Muscari comosum 

flower opening in the 

meadow; herbs such as 

santolina, curry plant, 

myrtle and rosemary 

are used everywhere.

ROU ESTATE notebook 

PANORAMA POOL 

The incredible infinity swimming pool is cunningly 

situated in an abandoned quarry, sculpted by humans 

and by the elements. To reach it, you pass along 

a series of stone terraces under the dappled shade 

of immense and ancient olive and almond groves. 


MEADOW WILD 

Transition towards the rural 

landscape is seamless. 

Managed meadows 

evolving through the 

seasons set off the views 

and maintain harmonies of 

volume, plane, colour and 

texture, while welcoming 

wild flora and fauna. 

If you are on Corfu - you lucky thing - the Rou team also recommends you try: 

GARDEN Gastouri Gardens A private garden south of Corfu town designed by the 

owner Cali Doxiadis, former president of the Mediterranean Garden Society, featuring 

water-wise Mediterranean plantings. This property formerly belonged to English 

garden writer Mirabel Osler. Contact first via email: calidox@otenet.gr 

HOTEL Hotel Bella Mare in Avlaki bay, Corfu, Greece, Zip Code: 49 100. 

Tel: +30 26630 81997. www.belmare.gr 

PLACES TO EAT Agni Restaurant in Agni bay. Book by tel: +30 26630 91142. 

Also good is Nicos Galini Taverna in St Stephanos. Tel: +30 26630 81492 or go to 

www.galinitaverna.gr 


RETAINING WILDNESS: Jennie wanted to 

retain the essence of wild beauty. Planting is 

largely naturalistic, but bold drifts create 

high visual impact where appropriate. 

MULTI-TASKERS: Plants have to be drought 

tolerant, withstand an occasional cold winter, 

perform well in summer, and set off the stone. 

Much of the planting needs some irrigation. 

ROOMS WITH A VIEW 

All house windows and arches along garden paths 

frame dramatic sea or mountain views. The village 

is like a giant theatre set, where indoor and 

outdoor spaces flow into each other and out 

towards the idyllic setting. 

TOP TIPS FROM DOMINIC & THE TEAM AT ROU 


To help plants survive long, dry Mediterranean summers, we insist on good 

drainage, regular clipping and trimming, and deep but infrequent watering. 

We use new cultivars and varieties of wild species that closely mimic the true 

species, but have a better flowering performance, as long as they harmonise with 

the surroundings and local growing conditions. 

Spring and autumn are the finest moments for Mediterranean landscapes 

and gardens. These seasons are marked by explosions of flower and scent. 

Christmas is wonderful here too. 

Our team values wildlife and environmental response, using rainwater storage, solar 

panels, ground source pumping for both heat and cooling, and economical irrigation 

too. We also use local materials and work force, and we don’t prune at nesting time. 

We specialise in night illumination. You can design by directing the light onto 

textures and wall surfaces. You can play with reflections, mix vegetation and buildings, 

bringing out old walls and the beautiful shapes of plants. 


gardens: thailand 

Emigre’s escape 

An American abroad created this tempting tropical 

refuge amid the mad hustle and bustle of Bangkok 

PHOTOGRAPHS CLAIRE TAKACS | WORDS NOEL KINGSBURY 



T 

he garden at the 

e 

Jim Thompson 

House in 

Bangkok is 

a welcome 

refuge from the noise and 

bustle of one of Asia’s most 

dynamic and fast-changing g 

cities. It is the ideal place to go 

the day after arrival, to sooth jetlagged 

nerves and make a gentle cultural 

transition, its traditional-style buildings and 

lushly planted garden a complete contrast 

with the modern city. 

Jim Thompson (1906-1967) was one of 

many Americans who went to Thailand 

during or after the Second World War and 

stayed, finding that this very traditional and 

ordered society had a tolerant, open and 

welcoming side. Coming from a family of 

textile manufacturers, he had practised as 

an architect in the US, and had a love of 

historic and traditional buildings. 

In Thailand, Thompson became a silk 

entrepreneur. He saw that what was once a 

major craft industry was being undermined 

by imports of cheap artificial and factorymade 

textiles. Using his contacts on the 

American East Coast, he began to export 

traditionally made silk and encourage 


GARDEN 

NOTES 

Tranquil half-acre 

jungle in the centre 

of Bangkok 

cottage production, commissioning weavers 

to produce new designs using reliable 

synthetic dyes. He is credited with raising 

thousands of families out of poverty largely 

through women breadwinners, while his 

profits were ploughed into buying Thai 

antiques and artworks, and running a lively 

social life. The house, with its increasingly 

important art collection, became an 

Flowers are relatively few - tropical gardening 

is overwhelmingly about foliage 

ABOVE A variety of palms shade the central courtyard of the Jim Thompson House complex. 

Lower-growing foliage plants benefit from their shade. BELOW Heliconias and tree ferns form 

a layer of intermediate foliage between the tree layer and the ground layer. 

important location in the life of both 

expatriates and well-connected Thais. 

In the 1950s, it was an unusual decision 

for either a foreigner or a member of the 

Thai elite to want to live in a traditional 

house. Thompson however, loved the 

spare, elegant building style of his adopted 

country and recognised how the design of 

the buildings made the most of shade and 

breeze to keep cool. Using materials 

salvaged from six old houses, he completed 

the house in 1959, and then laid out a 

garden on the surrounding land. A letter 

to his sister Elinor sets out his desire for 

a lawn, somewhere to display a growing 

collection of Thai sculpture and ‘jungle’. 

It says much for Thompson’s sensitivity 

to place that the lawn idea was soon 

abandoned and instead the ‘jungle’ 

concept dominated. 

It being the tropics, plants grew rapidly, 

and were soon joined by tree seedlings. By 

the 1990s, it was clear that a major overhaul 

was necessary. This was overseen by Bill 

Warren, another long-term American 

resident of Bangkok, who had been a 

lecturer at Chulalongkorn University for 30 

years, and the author of many books about 

Thai and southeast-Asian art, culture and 

garden-making. ‘I can say that when we 

first replanted it, no effort was made to 

exactly reproduce Jim’s creation,’ he recalls, 

‘since so many new species had appeared on 

the market in the meantime. We were just 

trying to capture the same feeling it had in 

Jim’s day, that is, a sort of urban jungle that 

would surround the Thai houses but still

TAKE IT OR LEAF IT 

The Jim Thompson House garden shows the 

wonderful effects that can be created with 

different colours, textures, forms and shapes of 

foliage, layered from the ground to the canopy 

above. English gardeners can create a similar 

look with plants such as hostas, ferns, 

hardy bananas and bergenias. 

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT 

Dieffenbachia ‘Parachute’; heliconia bracts 

dangling down; shining white ribs on 

an alocasia; dark foliage of a spathiphyllum 

plant; the intriguing marked leaf 

of an arum; Polyscias balfouriana; 

Aspidistra elatior; Dieffenbachia ‘Camille’.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Shade-tolerant plants with broad leaves are vital in tropical gardens; phalaenopsis and dendrobium orchids (see pg 81) are 

used in containers for temporary impact; the city of Bangkok and its high-rise buildings push in on all sides, but the garden remains a calm urban retreat; 

dracaena rises out of traditionally clipped shrubs. The lush dark green foliage contrasts with the red paint used to help preserve the woodwork of the house. 

allow clear views of them and not prevent 

a free flow of air in the upper rooms.’ 

Very different it may be to the details of 

the original conception, but the basic idea 

is the same - which is the precise opposite 

of many attempts at gardening in the 

tropics. All too often tropical gardens 

follow the colonial model of open spaces 

filled by lawn or groundcover plants with 

tree, shrubs and perennials around the 

perimeter. Lawn 

grass is completely 

unnatural, and 

open space is 

naturally filled by 

tree and palm seedlings with great rapidity. 

Thompson’s desire for an aesthetic jungle 

was a far more natural approach, besides 

which the shade is always welcome. 

Layering of vegetation is key to 

naturalistic planting in the tropics. An upper 

layer of palms and trees shades the ground, 

and provides a framework of mostly 

vertically thrusting stems and trunks. There 

is still plenty of light for a rich array of 


low-level ground-layer plants, most of them 

cultivars selected from species which 

naturally grow on the rainforest floor: 

aglaomena, maranta, calathea and such, 

many of which have attractively marked 

leaves, or, if they are the default dark green 

of the tropics, have interesting shapes. 

In between, there are taller shadetolerant 

plants, most of them also chosen 

for having attractive foliage, such as 

The pleasure of this garden is in its rich array of foliage 

colours, textures and shapes, lit by dappled light 

species of dieffenbachia, spathiphyllum 

and dracaena. A few large perennials 

grown for both their broad foliage and 

colourful long-lasting flowers complete 

the picture. At the Jim Thompson House, 

a few varieties of heliconia are used - 

members of the banana family with 

brilliantly colourful bracts. 

Temporary colour is provided by 

orchids: varieties of phalaenopsis and 

Dendrobium phalaenopsis, grown 

clustered in containers so plants can be 

easily replaced when necessary. Otherwise, 

flowers are relatively few - tropical 

gardening is overwhelmingly about foliage. 

The flame of the forest tree (Delonix regia) 

and frangipani (Plumeria acutifolia) 

scatter their flowers on the ground at 

times, but on the whole the visual pleasure 

of this garden is in its rich array of foliage 

colours, textures 

and shapes, lit by 

dappled light and 

contrasting with 

the distinctive red 

of the buildings. The Jim Thompson 

‘orderly jungle’ model of gardening seems 

to have been influential in Thailand - 

rightly so, for it is what is respectful of 

climate and ecology. 

Jim Thompson House, 6 Soi Kasemsan 2, 

Rama 1 Road, Bangkok, Thailand. Open 

everyday, 9am to 5pm. Tel: +66 (0)2 

167368. www.jimthompsonhouse.com

JIM THOMPSON notebook 

FOLLOW THE RED BRICK ROAD 

Red brick paths show off foliage nicely and are also very practical. They shift and 

adjust to any consolidation of the ground below - unlike paving. While they need 

regular cleaning to keep them non-slip and safe, they are inherently less slippery 

than large paving slabs. 


TAMING THE JUNGLE: The biggest issue in many tropical gardens like the Jim 

Thompson House garden is the sheer rate of growth. The plants thrive in the 

warm damp conditions and have to be controlled and cut back often. 

PERFECT PATINA 

Sculpture in the garden plays an 

important role, contrasting effectively 

with the foliage. Even in temperate 

climates, it will need maintenance, 

however - deciding the right level 

of moss and algae to give it a patina 

of age is an important and very 

subjective decision. 

CONTAINER QUANDARY 

Large ornamental containers with 

water plants are a very distinctive Thai 

garden feature. It is difficult to copy 

this in our climate, however, as even 

frost-proof containers will be split 

by ice. Galvanised metal or plastic 

containers should be used - these can 

then be hidden inside ceramic ones. 



NOEL KINGSBURY’S TOP TIPS ON 

VISITING GARDENS ABROAD 

Gardens are rarely promoted well by tourism 

bodies. A few may be major tourist attractions - they 

are always worth a visit, but may often be crowded, 

and poorly and insensitively ‘restored’. Finding other 

gardens requires research and ingenuity. 

Public parks are often very interesting, may 

sometimes be very well planted or have historic 

interest. Some cities have good park management 

bodies - make contact and you may find yourself 

with a list of places to see or even a guided tour. 

Botanic gardens vary. Some are very good, 

others are in an appalling state (especially in India 

or former Soviet Union). Many are inbetween: quiet, 

restful, and in a state of genteel neglect. 

Nurseries and garden centres abroad are 

fascinating and worth visiting in themselves. Talking 

to someone on the staff may lead to them directing 

you to some local private gardens. 

Walking around suburban areas where private 

gardens are visible can be an immensely rewarding 

experience (but respect people’s privacy). 

Gardeners, both professional and amateur, are 

almost always extremely hospitable, once they have 

recognised that you are a fellow enthusiast. It helps 

to overcome language and cultural barriers if you 

have some photos of your own garden. 

In poor rural areas, cottage gardens of flowers, 

herbs and veg can be beautiful. Gardening is usually 

the preserve of women, who may lead cloistered 

lives. Making contact needs to be done through 

sensitive local guides or the women in the party. 

If you are in Bangkok, Noel also recommends: 

HOTEL Hotel Atlanta One of the world’s great 

bohemian hotels. An eccentric timewarp of Art 

Deco architecture, you can imagine meeting 

Somerset Maugham coming around the corner 

(sweating profusely as there is no air conditioning). 

www.theatlantahotelbangkok.com 

TEMPLE Wat Pho Temple Adjacent to the Grand 

Palace. Large temple complex with a series of 

fascinating and mysterious mini rockery gardens, 

clearly of Chinese inspiration. 

PALACE Grand Palace The Thai royal palace, this 

has some very good examples of traditional Thai 

cloud pruning and some other quality planting. 

Spectacular architecture, especially the mosaics 

(of broken imported Chinese ceramics). 


IMAGES/FROM TOP - CLARK LAWRENCE HUNTINGTON VILLANDRY 

TANTALISING trips 

Did our gardens abroad make you want to book a holiday? 

If so, here are some more fabulous foreign fancies to get you thinking about your vacation 

ASIA 

WILD TULIPS IN 

KAZAKHSTAN 

Discover the origins of one of our favourite 

garden flowers on a trip to the blooming 

meadows of Kazakhstan, against the backdrop 

of the snow-capped Celestial Mountains, on 

the old Silk Road. Many companies offer 

tailored tours, but Naturetrek promises 

top botanical guides. 

Tel: +44 (0)1962 733051. 

www.naturetrek.co.uk 

Joruri-ji, Kyoto, Japan. 

JEWEL OF JAPAN 

The very old Paradise Garden and 12thcentury 

Buddhist temple of Joruri-ji is in 

the hills northeast of Nara in Japan, and is 

usually tourist free. Though completely 

man-made, it has a naturalistic feel. 

Peaceful and magical. Buses depart from 

the train station at Nara several times a day. 

Kizugawa, Kyoto Prefecture. 

Tel: +81 (0)774 762390. 

BOTANICAL BHUTAN 

Follow in the footsteps of Britain’s famous 

historical plant hunters and experience the 

botanical treasures of this unique country in 

the Himalayas. Responsible Travel runs 

expeditions to some of the prime 

botanical sites here, a source of many 

of the highly prized plants introduced 

to Western horticulture. 

Tel: +44 (0)1273 600030. 

www.responsibletravel.com 

NORTH AMERICA 

CALIFORNIA DREAMING 

Huntington Botanical Gardens, near Los 

Angeles, were founded by magnate Henry 

Edwards Huntington in 1919. They contain 

more than 15,000 different kinds of plants in 

several areas, including Japanese, rose, jungle 

and palm gardens. The 10-acre desert garden 

includes nearly 4,000 species of desert plants, 

providing interest all year round. 

Tel: +1 626 4052100. 

www.huntington.org 

Huntington Botanical Gardens, USA. 

AFRICA 

MOROCCAN MAGIC 

The Majorelle Garden in Marrakech, Morocco, 

is a 12-acre botanical garden designed by the 

expatriate French artist Jacques Majorelle in 

the 1920s and 30s. Since 1980, the garden has 

been owned by Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre 

Bergé. The deep blue colour of the walls and 

buildings on the site has made it an iconic 

garden known around the world. 

Tel: +212 (0)524 313047. 

www.jardinmajorelle.com 

SOUTH AFRICAN SPLENDOUR 

The ‘most beautiful garden in Africa’, 

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is set 

against the eastern slopes of Cape Town’s 

Table Mountain. Established in 1913 to 

promote, conserve and display the diverse 

flora of southern Africa, it was the first 

botanical garden in the world to be 

devoted to a country’s indigenous flora. 

Tel: +27 (0)217 998783. 

www.sanbi.org/gardens/kirstenbosch 

EUROPE 

FRENCH FANTASY 

The gardens at Villandry have seen many 

styles since the castle was first built, but its 

acquisition by Joachim Carvallo marked a 

return to their roots. Between 1908 and 1918, 

he recreated the original Renaissance gardens 

to reflect the glory of the restored château. A 

confection of intricate formal parterres with a 

modern twist, it has to be seen to be believed. 

Tel: +33 (0)247 500209. 

www.chateauvillandry.fr 

Villandry, France. 


PRIVATE VIEW 


PHOTOGRAPHS CLAIRE TAKACS | WORDS STEPHANIE MAHON 

This spectacular hilltop setting inspired one designer to create an 

extraordinary garden of form and texture with amazing vistas

SUPREME SUNRISE 

The redwood deck is the perfect place to start 

the day, looking across Marin County to San 

Francisco Bay. Designer Brandon chose the 

neon fabric chairs to offer a contrast to the 

natural green surroundings. The tree just below 

this caption is a rare intergeneric hybrid called 

x Chiranthofremontia lenzii. The flowers are 

full of nectar, which oriole birds like to drink. 

When designer 

Brandon Tyson 

first saw the 

scale of this 

three-acre 

garden in Marin County, California, he 

knew he was going to have to create 

a design with big elements and bold 

plants to stand up to it. High up, with 

views in one direction across to San 

Francisco Bay and to Mount Tamalpais 

in the other, it gives ‘a floating feeling,’ 

says Brandon. ‘Northern California has 

the poorest soil and a Mediterranean 

climate with extreme heat in summer, 

extreme cold in winter and immense 

 


private view 

rainfall followed by no water for the rest 

of the year,’ he explains. ‘The ocean is 

just over the ridge from the garden, 

which makes it very exposed and the 

first place to get hit by storms. It was a 

very challenging site, but really exciting.’ 

Brandon set about creating a space 

of several areas that lead into one 

another, each with its own unique 

character, but still able to flow 

and complement one another. 

He chose predominantly striking 

architectural plants, but also used 

softer, more natural plants with flowers 

to provide occasional pops of colour, 

texture and movement. ‘The architecture 

of the plants was the most important 

thing,’ he says. 

When Brandon first began work 

here, almost 30 years ago, there were 

hardly any trees on the property, so 

much of it was out in the baking sun. 

He had large specimens such as big 

palms craned into place to offer 

height, shade and visual impact. 

‘The different sections are possible because of the sheer size of the 

garden... the scale is so big, it’s an important part of the design’ 


WHAT A WHOPPER 

This huge terracotta pot is one of a series of large 

containers in the garden. ‘It looks big in the photo,’ 

says Brandon, ‘but in real life the scale of the 

garden is so large they don’t seem so big.’ He 

planted this one by the pool with Cedrus atlantica 

‘Glauca Pendula’ underplanted with mondo grass. 

SOFT & SPIKY 

This image gives a good overview 

of the types of planting chosen for 

the garden. Brandon designed it 

without flowers in mind and 

instead focused on plants like 

Agave salmiana var. ferox (front 

left), palms, cycads and huge trees 

like Phoenix canariensis (top left). 

ON A ROLL 

This row of odd-sized globes was 

originally meant to be a hedge, 

masking a sharp drop just behind 

it, ‘but I didn’t want a straight 

line,’ says Brandon. ‘I envisaged 

these different sizes of spheres 

almost rolling along the ridge.’ 

He chose clipped balls of 

Buxus sempervirens.

STEADY TAM 

Mount Tam is dominant in the 

vistas on the other side of the 

garden. Owner Elena calls this area 

the ‘south 40’. It has a wilder feel 

with tall native Washingtonia 

robusta (top right) underplanted 

with South African bulbs for 

a mass of colour in spring. 

QUITE THE COLLECTION 

The planting by the pool consists 

of rare and spectacular cycads 

that are more than 70 years old. 

These tough plants are from an 

ancient plant family that were 

around at the same time as the 

dinosaurs. Brandon sourced them 

from a private collection. 

 


DESIGNER PROFILE 

PLANTSCAPE 

A stepping stone path leads through 

this extraordinary area to the rest of the 

garden. Texture, shape and form combine 

to create a mesmerising moonscape 

of plants and stone. 

The spiky living balls are US native 

Yucca rostrata. ’I am fascinated with the 

globe shape,’ Brandon says. ‘I love how the 

spheres work with the tree behind, which 

becomes almost like a giant bonsai.’ 

Some of the egg-shaped stones are 

lingams (‘sign’ in Sanskrit), which are 

traditionally spiritual in Hinduism. The 

others were sold as ‘dinosaur eggs’. 

‘I knew exactly how and where to 

use them,’ explains Brandon. 

The carved stone water jars add yet 

another dimension, reflecting the light, 

shadows, the sky and the surrounding 

vegetation. ‘When Elena is entertaining, 

we float candles or flowers in them and 

it changes the whole look of the garden.’ 

 

‘I love how the spheres work with the tree behind, 

which becomes almost like a giant bonsai’ 

BRANDON TYSON 

Garden designer Brandon Tyson 

was born and raised in the Deep 

South of the USA. Although fine 

art training led to a career in 

fashion and textiles, 30 years 

ago he returned to his first 

passion, creating gardens. 

Garden writers and critics call 

him one of Northern California’s 

most sought-after designers, an 

innovator who produces plantdriven 

or modern architectural 

outdoor spaces that are dynamic, 

beautiful and have a sense of play. 

He does not have just one style 

of design but often lectures on 

Mediterranean gardens and plants. 

In 2005, he bought an historic 

1870s house in Coastal Georgia 

and is now developing his own 

garden there filled with his 

favourites, palm trees. 

 

52 the english garden February 2013


PLANT PROFILES 

private viewview 

MELLOW YELLOW 

A swathe of yellow and orange Bulbine frutescens creates a soft carpet 

under the large trunks of Butia capitata, the jelly palm. Brandon wisely 

chose only a few flowering plants, to give a softer flow in the space. 

‘They shift themselves around and move about the garden,’ he says. 

 

DRIVEWAY TO HEAVEN 

Massive Phoenix canariensis line one side of the drive, underplanted 

with agaves. Along the other side is a pretty planting 

of contrasting colours and textures, with architectural succulents, 

umbellifer-like yellow euphorbia flowers and the soft feathery 

foliage of Ferula tingitana ‘Cedric Morris’. This specimen was grown 

from seeds from Great Dixter in Sussex - Brandon’s friend from 

Western Hills nursery brought them back from a trip to the UK. 

HOSTA ‘FRANCES WILLIAMS’ 

Although the climate in California 

is not typically suitable for hostas, 

Brandon grows them easily in an 

area nicely shaded by acers. 


ECHIUM CANDICANS 

This beautiful blue bloom is one of 

Brandon’s go-to flowering plants 

for introducing a different texture 

and punch of colour to the garden. 

AGAVE PARRYI 

Gorgeous grey-blue succulent 

leaves in many shapes and sizes 

make this genus a star for 

Brandon’s Californian designs. 

ACER THE TEST 

This row of Acer palmatum ‘Sango-kaku’ 

(which has an Award of Garden Merit from 

the RHS) sweeps around the side of the 

house. ‘I love the red colour of the new 

stems,’ says Brandon. ‘I wanted a real 

diversity in foliage, so they are underplanted 

with Pyrrhosia lingua.’ These Taiwanese ferns 

are quite happy in this climate. 

EUPHORBIA PALUSTRIS 

The spring green colour of its 

foliage and the soft yellow hue of 

its blooms make this another one 

of Brandon’s ‘softening’ plants.

ILLUSTRATION/NEIL GOWER FRAME/DREAMSTIME.COM - DJBURRILL 

Georgian 

ABOVE The view over the lake at Painshill Park towards the Gothic Temple. This ‘natural’ landscape in the emerging 

English style was created with not British but American plants sent back from the then colony. 

Plants from abroad 

history: georgian 

The English garden changed utterly in the 18th century as new 

and exciting plants arrived from across the ocean 

PHOTOGRAPHS DEREK ST ROMAINE | WORDS ANDREA WULF 

 



On a cold January 

morning in 1734, 

cloth merchant Peter 

Collinson rushed from his office 

in the City of London to the 

Thames to pick up the most 

exciting piece of merchandise he 

had ever received: two wooden 

cases from Philadelphia, filled with 

hundreds of seeds neatly wrapped 

in paper. These seeds carried the 

beginning of what would become 

known as the ‘English Garden’. 

The man who had dispatched the two 

boxes was the American farmer John 

Bartram, a Pennsylvanian Quaker who 

was passionate about plants and botany. 

Over the next four decades, Bartram 

crisscrossed the North American colonies 

in search of new plants, sending hundreds 

of seed boxes to England, populating 

gardens and parks across the British Isles 

with American trees and shrubs. 

But the English couldn’t get enough. In 

1761, Collinson wrote to Bartram that the 

gardeners wanted new and more species 

because ‘they say they are Tired of old 

ones’. ‘I have sent seeds of almost every 

tree and shrub from Nova Scotia to 

Carolina,’ Bartram replied, ‘do they think 

I can make new ones?’ But yes, he said, he 

would continue facing the dangers of the 

wilderness, risking his life, even ‘if I die 

A martar to Botany Gods’. 

Need for seed 

English gardeners were desperate for 

Bartram’s seeds, because never before had 

there been such a vast choice to bring 

beauty and variety to the garden in all 

seasons. With only four native British 

evergreens, gardeners couldn’t get enough 

of American conifers, but they also adored 

winter-flowering shrubs such as witch 

hazel. Even autumn, which until Bartram 

sent his boxes, had been a fairly muted 

affair, was now a show of spectacular 

colour as the red foliage of white ash 

competed with fiery maple leaves and 


CLOCKWISE FROM TOP The Crystal Grotto at 

Painshill in Surrey is one of many fancies built by 

owner Charles Hamilton to go with his exotic 

plants; the Chinese bridge; Hamilton’s plaque in 

front of the Gothic Temple. Find out more about 

the garden at www.painshill.co.uk 

the aubergine purple of sweet gum. 

The American towering trees, flowering 

shrubs and glossy evergreens gave English 

gardeners what they called ‘living pencils’, 

creating the irregular outlines and varied 

colours that made the first ‘natural’ 

landscapes in England. Instead of the 

straight lines and geometry that had 

underpinned the gardens of the late 17th 

and early 18th century, Bartram’s trees and 

shrubs provided shapes and patterns - 

columns, cones, pyramids and spheres - 

without the need for pruning shears. 

Red cedars and Eastern hemlock became 

vertical brushstrokes, while kalmias and 

rhododendrons spread in rounder shapes. 

Large fluttering leaves of Indian bean trees 

were set against the delicate lace-like 

foliage of false acacia, and the white bark 

of paper birch contrasted with the rustic 

look of shortleaf pine. It was America that 

freed England from the corset of patterns 

and topiary that gardeners had imposed 

on nature until then.

The view from inside the Gothic 

Temple at Painshill, looking 

down towards the amphitheatre. 

The garden, its features and its 

plants are a perfect surviving 

example of an 18th-century 

English landscape park.

LEFT The ruined Abbey 

folly beside the lake. 

BELOW The Turkish Tent.

Opening up 

One of the gardens where this was done to 

perfection was Painshill in Surrey. Created 

in the 1730s by Charles Hamilton (one of 

Bartram’s customers), Painshill was famed 

for the painterly use of American exotics. 

Shaded pathways gave way to perfumed 

shrubberies, while, in autumn, the blazing 

foliage of Bartram’s deciduous trees 

contrasted with the thousands of American 

evergreens that Hamilton had raised from 

seed. These made a mottled tapestry of 

greens, ranging from sombre dark shades 

to almost yellow: a picture so perfect that 

Hamilton enjoyed it twice, seeing it 

reflected in the silver surface of the lake 

that cut through Painshill. 

Everywhere in England, gardeners were 

painting with the American species - even 

Capability Brown, the man who would be 

remembered for creating the archetypical 

English landscape garden. At Petworth in 

Sussex, Brown created ‘a heavy-timbered 

American forest’; and at Tottenham Park in 

Wiltshire, he planted evergreen American 

cedars, white pines and balsam fir, as well 

as spring-flowering tulip trees, and sumachs 

that turned flamboyantly red and orange 

in autumn. Later, Brown would also 

tinge Burton Constable in Yorkshire with 

brilliant autumn colours from American ash 

trees, sugar maples and scarlet oaks. 

American plants became so popular in 

England that Peter Collinson had his 

garden emptied by thieves several times. 

To deter criminals, Collinson and his 

horticultural friends had a Parliamentary 

Act passed in 1766 whereby plant thieves 

could be punished with transportation to 

the penal colonies. The proceedings of the 

Old Bailey show that several thieves were 

sent away ‘for plucking up, digging up, 

breaking, spoiling, and carrying away’ 

flowers, shrubs and trees. 


ABOVE Plants and seeds were transported back from America in boxes, crates, modified barrels and 

baskets - these reproduction versions are on display at Painshill. ABOVE RIGHT The evergreen borders 

include native American conifers and shrubs such as Juniperus communis, cistus, Ilex aquifolium, 

Cupressus sempervirens, Rhamnus alaternus and Laurus nobilis. 

By the time Bartram died in 1777, the 

English garden had been completely 

transformed, and had become so fashionable 

that its plants and designs were exported 

abroad. In France and Germany, Italy and 

Russia, gardeners recreated ‘le jardin 

anglais’, ‘der Englische Garten’, and ‘il 

giardino inglese’ - ironically all consisting of 

Bartram’s American trees. 

Andrea Wulf’s The Brother Gardeners & The Founding 

Gardeners (Windmill Books) are out now. 

Intriguing introductions from America were grown by Charles Hamilton from seed sent back from Philadelphia. Many gave incredible autumn colour or late 

and early season flowers, and the range of evergreens offered interest for winter. CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT A bloom of American shrub Hypericum 

prolificum post-flowering; Cornus florida; scarlet oak Quercus coccinea; Acer saccharum; black oak Quercus velutina; Rhus typhina, the stag’s horn sumach. 



IMAGES/VOLUNTEER/RHS - MIKE MOORE 

EDGING/EVEREDGE 

WHAT’S ON 

EVERYONE’S LIPS? 

For me, garden design was 

not an easy, obvious choice. 

Statistics prove that as a career, 

horticulture is still little explored 

by today’s youth. Worse still, 

according to a survey 

commissioned by the RHS 

in March 2012, young people 

see horticulture as a job for 

dropouts: unskilled and 

unfulfilling. Even more 

worrying is that, although 

we see ourselves as a nation 

of gardeners, when it comes 

to following a career in 

horticulture, employers are 

saying there’s a shortage of 

British job applicants with the 

required skills. This is perhaps 

not surprising when in 

2011, in a speech about the 

Government’s plans to allocate 

community work to the longterm 

unemployed, our Prime 

Minister David Cameron 

grouped gardening as an 

unskilled activity along with 

litter-picking. Not particularly 

supportive for our industry, or 

inspiring for today’s youth. 

Thankfully, the RHS has taken 

the initiative to unite the whole 

industry around the challenge 

of changing the perception of 

a career in horticulture, from 

education to investment. Next 

month, in March, the RHS will 

be presenting the results of this 

steering group report to the 

House of Commons. It will be 

interesting to hear the results, 

and continue to advocate to 

schools, youth groups and our 

children that horticulture is 

a career to be proud of. 

DESIGN EYE 

Ann-Marie Powell suggests a visit to the RHS London Plant and Design 

Show, and calls for a change in the perception of a career in horticulture 

DESIGN 

SOLUTION 

EDGINGS 

Edgings in gardens are, in essence, 

used to separate loose materials 

from each other: borders from 

gravel; or grass from slate chippings; 

or to retain areas of pavers, cobbles, 

bricks or concrete, to prevent 

movement or crumbling at the 

edges. Sounds simple doesn’t it? 

But in practice, it seems that garden 

owners can’t resist the temptation 

to gild the lily with attentionseeking 

edgings, which overwork 

a garden visually, break up a space 

and add unnessasary fuss to a 

garden. If I were to choose one 

garden feature that I would ban 

forever from gardens, it is, without 

question, log-roll edging. 

Unattractive, hard to keep 

straight or upright, almost 

impossible to mow up to, and so 

almost completely without use, it’s 

flabbergasting to see it striding 

proudly countrywide at the edge of 

people’s borders, terraces or drives. 

Even my own parents are guilty of 

giving it valuable floor space, no 

matter how frequently I curl my lip 

at my father’s choice of edging. And 

though popular, Victorian rope-top 

edgings don’t fair much better in 

BRICK PAVERS, TIMBER BOARDS & 4 X 4 

CHUNKY OAK POSTS LAID CLOSE TO THE 

GROUND ARE PERFECT FOR STRAIGHT RUNS 

my list of garden no-nos, adding 

too much visual twiddle to the 

garden for my taste. 

Resist the desire to include the 

fanciful; instead plumping for a 

ABOUT ANN-MARIE 

simple, complementary edging 

(above), laid at the same level as 

the material they contain to allow 

surfaces to flow into one another 

without visual interruption, or 

damage to your lawnmower. Brick 

pavers, timber boards and 4 x 4 

chunky oak posts laid close to the 

ground are perfect for straight runs; 

adding understated definition 

without taking centre stage, while 

curving shapes can be held in place 

with the eminently bendy, nigh on 

invisible Everedge system; available 

in various sizes and finishes. 

www.everedge.co.uk 

Author, RHS Chelsea Flower Show Gold medallist, TV presenter and garden 

designer Ann-Marie Powell has her finger on the design pulse. Her practice, 

set up in 1999, and her involvement in the gardening media, makes her 

a guru of all things design. Tel: +44 (0)1730 825650. 

www.ann-mariepowell.com 

 


ANN-MARIE’S 

MINI BLOG 


Mawson. Garden history came to 

life in front of our eyes. We lived, 

ate and slept the spirit of the age 

through the restoration, and came 

to know the people who had 

created these forgotten gardens: 

their tragedies and their joys, their 

successes and their failures. Never 

before (or since, for that matter) 

have I been so immersed in gardens 

past, and the joy that discovering 

them can bring. So, when a fellow 

co-presenter of the series, friend 

WE LIVED, ATE AND SLEPT THE SPIRIT OF 

THE AGE THROUGH THE RESTORATION… 

Back in 1999, I co-presented a 

gardening television series on 

Channel 4 called Lost Gardens. All 

the presenters formed part of the 

research team, which informed and 

guided the accurate restoration 

of eight gardens. They ranged in 

size and grandeur from a lockkeeper’s 

cottage in Coventry to an 

important Scottish Arts and Crafts 

garden designed by Thomas 

FUNKY FEATURE 

Charlie Whinney’s work 

(right) first hit my radar 

when he constructed the 

powerful arching oak 

sculpture pulsing its way 

through Andy Sturgeon’s 

RHS Chelsea Garden 

in 2007. Now working 

solo, Whinney’s rolling 

summerhouse, benches and 

chairs defy the accepted 

limitations of wood to 

jaw-dropping effect. 

www.charliewhinney.com 

DESIGN DESTINATION 

and garden historian Toby 

Musgrave, asked if I would like to 

trial his online course in garden 

history, I jumped at the chance to 

re-submerge myself; encouraged by 

his reassurance that I could watch 

the lectures and deliver the 

assignments at my own pace. 

I would highly recommend the 

diversion. For information, visit 

www.my-garden-school.com 

Leading nurseries with a scattering of 

show gardens offer heaps of inspiration 

in the depths of winter... 

Visit RHS London Plant and Design Show (right) on 19 

and 20 February at RHS Horticultural Halls in London. 

For details and tickets, visit www.rhs.org.uk 

DESIGN OPTIONS 

REAL GRASS VS ARTIFICIAL GRASS 

REAL GRASS 

Needs watering to 

keep it green. 

Can become wet, boggy 

and muddy in winter. 

Can become dry, parched 

and threadbare in dry, 

hot summers. 

Needs cutting at least once a 

week during growing season. 

Requires you to invest and 

store a lawnmower and other 

lawn-care tools. 

Needs regular maintenance, 

repair and re-sowing in 

areas of high use (i.e. by 

children and pets). 

Scarifying, aerating and 

other maintenance, can 

be hard work. 

Lawn feed and weed 

products are expensive and 

potentially harmful to 

the environment. 

Petrol lawnmowers 

aren’t particularly 

environmentally friendly. 

Mowing keeps you fit. 

Grass is invaluable to wildlife. 

Wonderful smell when cut. 

Quintessentially British. 

Beautiful lawn weeds such as 

buttercups and daisies. 

ARTIFICIAL GRASS 

Once laid, artificial grass is 

maintenance free. 

Modern artificial lawns look 

extremely convincing. 

Available for a range 

of budgets. 

Ideal for areas of heavy 

use (sports pitches, 

pathways and parking) 

Often manufactured from 

recycled materials, which can 

themselves be reprocessed. 

Can be installed in places 

where growing a lawn 

would be impossible 

(e.g. roof gardens). 

Not expensive to install. 

Wonderful in shady areas. 

Artificial grass doesn’t 

support any type of 

flora or fauna. 

Is porous, so better for 

the environment than 

paving, in areas where 

a lawn will not grow. 

Looks good even in the 

midst of a hosepipe ban. 

IMAGES/BLOG - PUNKLE/DREAMSTIME.COM 

LONDON PLANT & DESIGN SHOW/RHS - JULIAN WEIGALL

february 2013 The English Garden 65


February 

seasonal recipes 

feasts 

Food writer, cook and gardener Silvana de Soissons banishes 

the winter blues using ingredients fresh from the garden 

to prepare delicious seasonal meals 

PHOTOGRAPHS JASON INGRAM 

 



Check out chicory 

Chicory is one of the most 

underrated vegetables, 

and I cannot think why. 

With a tinge of bitterness, 

firm leaves and paperwhite 

beauty, it can add 

real texture, bite and 

flavour to a number of 

dishes including ham and 

cheese gratins, soups and 

a variety of salads. 


February is the frayed end of winter, the month where the everoptimist 

foodie gardener starts planning for spring. I make the 

most of the stillness and dormancy of the garden to use up what 

is in the soil, and add larder staples to create mini feasts. 

We all need warming, comforting, family food this month, 

and there is no doubt that the potato and root vegetables are at the heart 

of many meals I prepare. I make carrot and coriander soup, whose spicy, 

creamy tones and bright green aromatic scattering of fresh coriander leaves 

cheer everyone round the table. With our hot crisp slices of parmesan 

sourdough toasts eaten, we then tuck into a crunchy chicory salad with 

raisins that have been plumped up in Marsala sweet wine or sherry. 

The quality of greens from the vegetable garden is high in February, with 

frosts tending to heighten the intensity and sharpness of flavours. Kale, black 

cabbage Cavolo Nero, leeks, cauliflowers and those purple-green cabbages 

with frilly edges all go to make risotto, soup 

or fritters to accompany roast lamb with 

rosemary, game with hedgerow jellies or fish 

with lemon and caper sauce. 

And let’s not leave out Yorkshire forced 

rhubarb. I use it in so many ways: to make 

crumble; with yoghurt and granola; cooked 

with rosewater, grenadine juice and vanilla 

seeds; or in a gooey, soft, caramelised compote, 

which is layered with cold, creamy Mascarpone 

cheese laced with Amaretto di Saronno liqueur. 

Take heart - spring is not far away. 

CHICORY, GOATS CHEESE, 

SULTANA & HAZELNUT SALAD 

WITH LEMON VINAIGRETTE 

Ingredients - serves 4 as a starter 

- 4 heads of white chicory 

- 250g of artisanal goats cheese, 

cut into small pieces 

- 120g sultanas 

- A small glass of Marsala wine 

- 100g shelled hazelnuts, chopped 

into chunks 

For the dressing: 

- 4 big tbsps of olive oil 

- 1 tbsp of walnut oil 

- Juice and grated zest of half an 

unwaxed lemon 

- A generous pinch of sea salt and 

a grating of black pepper 

Method 

Soak the sultanas in the Marsala wine 

for a good 15 mins, stirring them with 

a teaspoon a few times. 

Break the chicory heads into 

individual leaves and place them in 

a roomy salad bowl. Add the goats 

cheese pieces. 

Toast the hazelnut pieces until 

golden brown and aromatic. 

Place the salad dressing ingredients 

in a small bowl. Mix well and taste. Add 

more lemon juice, sea salt or pepper 

according to taste. 

Drain the raisins (keep the Marsala as 

an aperitif), and mix the raisins into the 

salad bowl along with the toasted 

hazelnuts. Add the salad dressing and mix 

all the ingredients until perfectly coated.

CARROT & CORIANDER SEED SOUP WITH PARMESAN TOASTS 

Ingredients - serves 4 as a starter 

- 4 shallots, peeled and finely chopped 

- 4 large carrots, finely chopped 

- 25g butter 

- 2 tbsps of vegetable oil 

- Sea salt and pepper 

- A tsp of coriander seeds, 

freshly ground 

- 1 litre of vegetable stock 

- A handful of coriander leaves and stalks, 

finely chopped 

- A generous dollop of crème fraîche 

- 8 thin slices of sourdough bread 

- 150g grated Parmiggiano Reggiano 

Method 

Heat the butter and the oil in a heavy 

frying pan and add the carrot and shallot 

pieces. Add salt, pepper and the ground 

coriander seeds for seasoning, and keep 

stirring. You may add just a splash of 

stock in order to create some steam, 

which will help soften the vegetables. 

When the vegetables are quite soft, 

add the stock and stir the mixture well. 

Simmer the soup for 20 mins. 

Heat the oven to 180°C (ensuring you 

place the oven rack near the top, so that 

the cheese will melt and crisp on the 

sourdough toasts). 

Once the soup is ready, purée the 

liquid to a creamy consistency using a 

hand-held blender, adding the crème 

fraîche and blending it in. 

Keep the soup warm while you grill 

the cheese. Place the sourdough slices 

on a baking tray, sprinkle the cheese on 

top and then place in the pre-heated 

oven for around five to 8 mins, until the 

cheese has melted and formed a crisp, 

golden-brown crust. 

Serve the soup with plenty of fresh 

coriander sprinkled on top and the 

cheesy sourdough toasts. 

 



TOP TIPS FOR 

GROWING 

RHUBARB 


RHUBARB should not be 

propagated from seed but 

instead grown from a root. 

WATER-RETAINING soils are 

perfect for rhubarb. It likes 

moisture and the cold in winter. 

RHUBARB & AMARETTO 

MASCARPONE FOOL 

Ingredients - serves 4 

- 4 stems of Yorkshire forced rhubarb, 

washed and cut into 2cm pieces 

- 80g of soft brown sugar 

For the cream fool mixture: 

- 250ml Mascarpone cream cheese 

- 100g icing sugar 

- Grated zest and juice of 1 large 

unwaxed lemon 

- 4 tbsps of Amaretto di Saronno liqueur 

- 4 soft Amaretti biscuits, broken into 

little pieces 

Method 

Place the rhubarb pieces into a heavy 

pan with the sugar, mix well and cook for 

approximately 10-15 mins, until the 

rhubarb is soft. Make sure you keep 

stirring every now and then, otherwise 

the sugar may catch and burn at the 

bottom of the pan. 

When the rhubarb is soft, leave the 

pan aside to cool. 

To make the creamy fool, whisk the 

mascarpone with the sugar until soft 

peaks begin to form. Fold in the Amaretto 

di Saronno liqueur bit by bit. 

In tall long-stemmed glasses, serve 

layer upon layer of alternating 

mascarpone cream and cooked rhubarb. 

Sprinkle the soft Amaretti biscuit 

pieces on the top. 

Place in the fridge until you are 

ready to serve. 

RHUBARB variety ‘Stockbridge 

Arrow’ is regarded as the best for 

forcing by the industry.

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Please call or e-mail us for a complete ladder catalogue. 



Nursery 

We have asked the UK’s top 12 nurserymen and women for 

their three favourite bulbs, perennials, shrubs and trees to 

perk up your plot and provide year-round interest 

ILLUSTRATION/ADRIENNE WHEELER

JANUARY - GAP/MARK BOLTON GAP/JO WHITWORTH CHRIS IRELAND-JONES 

FEBRUARY - GAP/MAXINE ADCOCK NEIL LUCAS 

With Chris Ireland-Jones from Avon Bulbs 

Arum italicum 

‘Marmoratum’ 

The perfect foil for 

late winter/early 

spring bulbs, this 

marbled-leaf arum 

(left) comes up in 

autumn after its 

orange fruits 

have finished 

(usually devoured 

by hungry blackbirds). Easy in a shady spot 

or in full sun, it is dormant in summer. The 

leaves are wonderful for small winter 

flower arrangements. 

Cyclamen coum 

A plant to lift the spirits in the coldest darkest 

days of the year when in flower (top right), 

and the pretty leaves last for months. Fully 

With Neil Lucas from Knoll Gardens 

Rosa glauca 

Possibly my all-time favourite shrub is a 

rose - Rosa glauca (below left). This rose and 

I were introduced via my grandmother. In 

summer, it can be a symphony of red stems, 

leaves and fruit, but even in winter, its spiny 

dark red stems and bright resting buds are 

hardy and ideal to plant 

under shrubs, at the 

base of trees or in light 

grass. A few planted in 

my parents’ garden 20 

years ago have seeded 

into thousands, stopping 

passers-by in their tracks. 

Galanthus 

‘Atkinsii’ 

A snowdrop 

of majestic 

proportions and 

vigour, which 

is one of the 

earliest known 

hybrid forms, dating from 1875. It regularly 

flowers in January with 30cm stems and 

long outer petals (above), earlier than the 

‘A regular matinee performance that can be 

enjoyed from autumn through the winter’ 

a promise of things to come. Prefers a 

sunny open position for best colour. Prune 

old stems hard to encourage new growth. 

Miscanthus sinensis ‘Flamingo’ 

Known for its high-summer displays of 

luscious soft-pink pendulous flowers, this 

plants: expert picks 

main flush of snowdrops. Try it among 

shrubs or close to the house. They prefer 

to be dry in summer. 

CONTACT DETAILS: 

Avon Bulbs, Burnt House Farm, Mid 

Lambrook, South Petherton, Somerset 

TA13 5HE. Tel: +44 (0)1460 242177. 

Mail order: specialising in bulbs and 

plants. www.avonbulbs.co.uk 

large grass continues to impress during winter 

when its flowers (below centre), though dried 

and beige, take on an attractive textural 

quality. Remaining intact during the winter 

months, this miscanthus moves and rustles 

with the slightest wind. Choose an open sunny 

position and cut down to the ground in March, 

ready for the new season’s growth. 

Pennisetum ‘Fairy Tails’ 

Like most fountain grasses, ‘Fairy Tails’ is 

great for this month as, though dormant, 

the flowers (below right) remain intact for 

winter so that even a single shaft of early 

morning or afternoon sun can highlight 

their delicate tracery. A regular matinee 

performance that can be enjoyed from 

autumn through the winter. Needs full sun 

and good drainage to do well. Great in pots. 


Knoll Gardens, Hampreston, Dorset 

BH21 7ND. Tel: +44 (0)1202 873931. 

Mail order: specialising in grasses and 

perennials. www.knollgardens.co.uk 

 


With Toby Buckland, Toby Buckland Nurseries 

‘The perfect backdrop for spring bulbs and, in 

my view, one of the best evergreens going’ 

Pulmonaria 

‘Blue Ensign’ 

My favourite lungwort, 

with the darkest blue 

flowers (left) and 

elegant long leaves. 

Flowers from February until April. Thrives in 

dappled shade or at the feet of roses. 

Rosa ‘Proper Job’ 

March is the last chance 

to buy bareroot roses, 

and if it’s scent and 

summer-long flowers 

you’re after, R. ‘Proper 

Job’ is one of the best. 

With Mark Diacono, Otter Farm 

Myrrhis odorata 

Early to emerge in spring, sweet cicely (below) 

produces an abundance of flowers and sets 

seeds that have a delicious aniseed flavour. As 

well as being flavoursome in itself, it has a 

catalysing effect, bringing out the best in other 

herbs used with it. It is also a natural 

sweetener. Use it with sharp fruit, classically 

rhubarb, and 

you’ll need 

less sugar. An 

easy-to-grow 

perennial that 

self-seeds readily. 

Prefers shade or 

semi-shade. 


It’s a waist-high hybrid tea that thinks it’s an 

old-fashioned rose, so combines the best of 

both with upstanding flowers (below left) and 

old-fashioned fragrance. The red young leaves 

look lovely as they unfurl from the briars - 

especially above zingy alchemillas and 

Euphorbia polychroma. Resistant to black spot. 

Euphorbia x pasteurii 

The perfect backdrop for spring bulbs and, in 

my view, one of the best evergreens going. Its 

candelabra-like blooms have an ambrosial 

scent, and the leaves are a rich green with a 

distinct go-faster white strip down the centre 

(top right). Thrives in sun or light shade. Prune 

annually to keep at a tidy 1.2m dome. 

‘Sweet cicely has a catalysing effect, bringing 

out the best in other herbs used with it’ 

Asparagus 

Before you unpack your 

boxes when you move 

to a new home, plant 

asparagus. There is 

nothing quite like your 

own, home-grown, steamed-within-a-fewminutes 

asparagus (above) for flavour. Once 

tasted, you’ll not want to eat anything else. 

April is the month that the spears drive up out 

of the soil, give or take a week, depending on 

where you live. For a few weeks, the best of 

the veg patch is yours. Plant crowns (young 

plants) in a well-drained spot and allow them 

to establish for a couple of years before 

beginning to harvest. 


Toby Buckland Nurseries, The Walled 

Garden, Powderham Castle, Kenton, Devon 

EX6 8JQ. Tel: +44 (0)1626 891133. Mail 

order: specialising in bareroot herbaceous 

plants. www.tobybuckland.com 

Chenopodium bonus-henricus 

Early spring perennial Good King Henry (above) 

was a favourite of the Romans. Eat the shoots 

like asparagus. Sow direct or in modules in late 

winter/early spring and thin to the spacing you 

require - 30cm between plants is good. It isn’t 

fussy about location; is happy in most soils, 

shade or sun; and will happily self-seed. 

CONTACT INFO: 

Mail order only: specialising in unusual 

edibles. www.otterfarm.co.uk 

MARCH - JASON INGRAM TOBY BUCKALND 

APRIL - MARK DIACONO GAP/KEITH BURDETT

MAY - GAP/FIONA RICE GAP/FIONA MCLEOD GAP/CLIVE NICOLS 

JUNE - GAP/AMY VONHEIM GAP/LYNN KEDDIE GAP/MARTIN HUGHES-JONES 

With Beth Chatto, Beth Chatto Gardens 

Stipa gigantea 

Stipa gigantea (left) 

from Spain and the 

mountains of Portugal 

remains for me the 

most spectacular of the 

grasses, especially when caught in early 

morning or late evening sunlight. Stiff, bare 

stems form a huge, open fan 1.7m tall, through 

which to view the scene beyond. Each stem is 

topped with loose panicles of oat-like flowers, 

metallic in texture. Not until wintry blasts 

wreck this eye-catching feature does it need to 

be cut down. An invaluable vertical. Even in a 

tiny garden, these tall elegant grasses need 

to be planted among lower companions 

where they can be seen in the round and lift 

the eye into the distance. Without interesting 

verticals, too many rounds and mounds can 

look like a tray of buns. 

With Derry Watkins, Special Plants 

Paeonia rockii 

Probably the most spectacular plant in 

anyone’s garden when in bloom. Enormous 

15cm ruffled white flowers with nearly black 

flares at the centre (above). I don’t approve of 

plants that only bloom briefly, but I make an 

exception when I fall in love. You can spend 

Euphorbia characias 

subsp. wulfenii 

A large, almost imposing plant up to 2m tall 

that carries huge, rounded heads of bright 

lime-green flowers (below). With bold clumps 

of upright stems clothed in whorls of bluegrey 

leaves, it makes a dramatic focal point all 

year. In late winter, it slowly unrolls its leafy 

stems to form huge 

rounded heads packed 

with shallow, saucershaped 

flowers. While 

spring flowers come 

and go, these long- 

the afternoon contemplating it. A tough hardy 

tree peony - opulent, but not blowsy. 

Viola corsica 

At the opposite end of 

the spectrum, a little 

plant that blooms 

from April through to 

October without any 

attention from me. The 

lovely soft-blue flowers (above left) are the 

largest of any species of viola. As the name 

suggests, it likes a lot of sun. Hardy perennnial, 

and self-seeds. Who could ask for more? 

Salvia greggii ‘Stormy Pink’ 

An accidental seedling on my nursery, 

I thought it would be tender, took a few 

cuttings and left it outside to die. It is still 

there 12 years later and is now almost 1.2m 

x 1.2m of creamy-pink flowers (top right) 

from June right through to October. The 

calyx behind the flower is grey, hence the 

name. A small deciduous shrub. Never 

prune it in autumn; cut hard back when 

you see new growth in spring. 

 


flowering plants illuminate the garden until 

well into June, when the exploding seed pods 

remind us to cut each flowering stem to the 

ground, since the next season’s growth is 

already appearing to replace them. 

Tulipa sprengeri 

The last wild tulip to flower in our gardens. 

Originating in northwest Turkey, it’s believed 

to be extinct now in the wild. Standing about 

30-35cm tall, the narrow, pointed petals (above 

left) flare wide open in the warm sunshine and 

continue to attract me with straw-coloured 

seed pods, which add interest to dried 

arrangements. It sets abundant seed, which if 

scattered here and there in open spaces not 

yet overgrown with cover plants, and the hoe 

left behind in the garden shed, become a 

regular feature of the dry, sunny garden. 


The Beth Chatto Gardens, Elmstead 

Market, Colchester, Essex CO7 7DB. 

Tel: +44 (0)1206 822007. 

Mail order: specialising in perennials. 

www.bethchatto.co.uk 


Special Plants, Greenways Lane, Cold 

Ashton, Chippenham, Wiltshire SN14 8LA. 

Tel: +44 (0)1225 891686. 

Mail order: specialising in hardy 

herbaceous and rockery plants as well as 

many tender perennials for terrace and 

conservatory. www.specialplants.net 


With Sue and Bleddyn Wynn-Jones, 

Crûg Farm Plants 

Schefflera 

taiwaniana 

One of the most elegant 

of all evergreen shrubs, 

naturally forming a 

single-stemmed small 

tree, 3-4m tall, with 

a broad well-branched canopy (above left); 

hence its common name, umbrella tree. Easily 

transformed into a more bushy well-branched 

shrub with only a minimal amount of 

pinching-out when young. The seven to 11 

ovate, oblong, leafleted leaves are held on 

elegantly long purple stalks. The terminal 

inflorescences appear in late summer as long 

branched racemes to 50cm long, maturing to 

purple fruit over winter. An easily grown plant 

and one of our first wild collections from the 

high mountain forests of central Taiwan. 

With Chris Marchant, Orchard 

Dene Nurseries 

Strobilanthes attenuata 

It isn’t easy to find reliable species that peak 

from August onwards and tolerate both sun 

and light shade (below), which is why I like this 

strobilanthes. Native to India and Nepal, the 

name suggests an ability to calm and assuage. 


Dahlia excelsa ‘Penelope Sky’ 

A clump-forming stunning perennial, which 

we found growing on the moist mountains to 

the east of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, in 2004, 

at around 2,500m. Forming clumps of strongly 

upright, almost bamboo-like bloomy stems 

to over 3m tall. In the upper parts, it bears 

bronzy pinnate foliage and large lilac-purple 

flowers (below) from July until frost. For a 

sunny warm spot in moist but well-drained 

fertile soil, it is best protected from severe 

frost, and has proved hardy for us in a field. 

Strobilanthes seems immune to most garden 

pests and diseases. The structure, which can 

reach just over 1m in height, requires neither 

staking nor deadheading, and the plant carries 

its colour through August into September. 

Likes moisture-retentive loam. 

Sedum ‘José 

Aubergine’ 

I’m impressed by the 

trouble-free habits of 

most sedums, and 

applaud the energy 

invested in breeding new and colourful varieties. 

A relatively new contender for the ‘purple 

foliage’ crown, ‘José Aubergine’ (above) has a 

stocky, manageable habit, reaching 50cm high 

with a spread of 45cm. Team with Penstemon 

‘Garnet’ and Salvia verticillata ‘Purple Rain’ in 

a south-facing border to ensure your garden 

doesn’t go flat and featureless in August. Plant 

in well-drained loam, in sun or part shade. 

Geranium christensenianum 

A hardy Chinese species which we 

collected with fellow plant specialist, 

Dan Hinkley, in Southern Sichuan in autumn 

2000. We found it growing on a steep sunny 

stony bank where the shortly trailing habit of 

this Geranium lambertii-like species displayed 

its white dark-violet-veined flowers (below left) 

backed by soft green 

palmate foliage. It is 

easily grown in 

a sunny to part-shady 

spot that is well 

drained with a bit 

of moisture retention 

in the soil. 


Crûg Farm Plants, Caernarfon, Gwynedd 

LL55 1TU. Tel: +44 (0)1248 670232. 

Mail order: specialising in rare introductions 

from Sue and Bleddyn’s plant-hunting 

expeditions. www.crug-farm.co.uk 

Eryngium ebracteatum 

Wiry stems bear multiple button-like flowers in 

warm claret tones (above), while a fine upright 

habit and slender saw-edged leaves confirm a 

tolerance of more arid conditions. Contributes 

a strong architectural statement in scree or 

gravel planting. Position in free-draining 

alkaline to neutral soils. Protect from winter 

wet to preserve the plant for future years. 


Orchard Dene Nurseries is a wholesale 

nursery only. Contact via a professional 

landscape designer or gardener. 

JULY - CRÛG FARM PLANTS 

AUGUST - GAP/CHRISTINA BOLLEN GAP/VISIONS GAP/JONATHAN BUCKLEY

SEPTEMBER - BARCHAM TREES 

OCTOBER - BROADLEIGH BULBS CHRIS IRELAND-JONES 

With Ellen Carvey, Barcham Trees 

Betula ermanii 

Erman’s birch is an 

attractive tree with 

pretty creamy bark, 

a compact crown and 

large heart-shaped 

leaves that turn glorious yellow in September 

(above). It is early into leaf in spring and the 

first to lose its leaves in autumn; offering an 

early glimpse of the autumn offerings to 

come. Like most birches, this tree prefers to 

be grown on a well-drained soil and can be 

planted in copses to exaggerate the effect 

of the autumn foliage and bark. 

Crataegus persimilis 

‘Prunifolia Splendens’ 

The hybrid cockspur hawthorn is an 

interesting, yet hardy tree; perfect for gardens 

and tough planting conditions. In September, 

With Christine Skelmersdale, Broadleigh Bulbs 

Crocus speciosus 

Normally associated with winter, this crocus 

species produces its clear-blue flowers (below) 

during autumn. They are planted 10cm deep 

in August and early September; springing into 

flower almost immediately. Although they are 

rather too vigorous for a border, they are easily 

grown in grass 

under the canopy 

of small trees 

where they will 

spread in time to 

give a pool of 

blue. Although 

each flower is 

rather fragile and 

easily damaged 

this tree is festooned 

with bright-red fruits 

(left), which deepen in 

colour as the month 

progresses, and contrast 

superbly with its glossy, 

deep-green leaves. 

Being a hawthorn, 

this tree will tolerate 

pruning to maintain shape and also produces 

a pretty creamy spring flower to commence 

its display of year-round interest. 

Malus ‘John Downie’ 

This tree is a flowering crab apple, which 

produces large, orange and blush-red fruits 

(top right) in September that can be used to 

produce tasty crab apple jelly. This small tree is 

perfect for smaller gardens as it only reaches 

5-7m at maturity and, like most malus species, 

is a good choice for clay soils, which it tolerates 

wholeheartedly. In spring, malus flower just 

‘No garden should be without this long-lived (60 

years is not exceptional) and fully hardy cyclamen’ 

by rain, it will quickly be followed by more, 

right through until mid-November. The typical 

narrow crocus leaves follow in spring. 

Nerine bowdenii 

A massed flowering 

of these showy bulbs 

against a wall is one 

of the classic and 

unforgettable sights of 

early autumn. They flower 

best in congested clumps (above) where they 

can be left undisturbed for many years. The 

bulbs are planted in spring or can be potgrown 

at any time. Although the bulbs are 

hardy, the flowers are frost-tender. In mild 

districts, they grow well in any dry sunny 


before the hawthorn varieties, with ‘John 

Downie’ producing an intense covering 

of splendid white flowers. 


Barcham Trees, Eye Hill Drove, Ely, Cambs 

CB7 5XF. Tel: +44 (0)1353 720950. 

Specialist tree nursery. 

www.barcham.co.uk 

position, but in colder areas, they are best 

planted at the base of a sunny wall, which 

protects flowers from damage caused by early 

frost. Patience is the overriding requirement. 

Cyclamen hederifolium 

No garden should be without this long-lived 

(60 years is not exceptional) and fully hardy 

cyclamen. They produce pink or white flowers 

(below) in late summer before the leaves and 

then sporadically through autumn. Although 

this native of the Mediterranean prefers a dry 

summer dormancy under trees, it is tolerant in 

the garden. Seeds freely, 

even in thin grass or at 

the base of conifers. 

Plant tubers 3cm deep 

in a humus-rich soil 

in summer. 

 


Broadleigh Gardens, Taunton TA4 1AE. 

Tel: +44 (0)1823 286231. 

Mail order: specialising in dwarf 

and unusual bulbs. 

www.broadleighbulbs.co.uk 


With Sarah Raven, Sarah Raven’s 

Kitchen & Garden 

Tulipa ‘Couleur Cardinal’, 

‘Havran’ & ‘Prinses Irene’ 

It’s the perfect time to plant tulips this month - 

the peacocks of any spring garden, giving 

incredible colour in borders, pots and vases. 

These tulips are in my Venetian Collection and 

produce a classic combination of rich tones. 

To get dense and flowery potfuls, try planting 

your bulbs in layers in a bulb lasagne, layering 

With Claire Austin, Claire Austin Hardy Plants 

Paeonia lactiflora 

‘Myrtle Gentry’ 

You might think that 

plants go to sleep 

during winter, but 

peonies grow new 

roots during December, which makes it a great 

time to plant them. Peony ‘Myrtle Gentry’ is 

a particular favourite. An herbaceous peony, 

it produces big, glamorous, double, softpink 

flowers (above) in June that are heavily 

scented. These are excellent for cutting; lasting 

for up to 10 days in water. Like all peonies, 

it likes a well-drained soil in full sun. 

Iris unguicularis 

The winter-flowering iris with the difficult-topronounce 

name of Iris unguicularis produces 

flowers at a time when you don’t expect 

anything to pop up in the garden. It has 


them one on top of another. The largest and 

latest flowering go in deepest, moving to the 

smallest and earliest in the top layer. 

Chrysanthemum ‘Blenda Purple’, 

‘Bella Orange’, ‘Bruno Bronze’, 

‘Littleton Red’, 

‘Smokey Purple’ 

& ‘Payton 

Blaze Red’ 

Chrysanths are totally 

invaluable for starting 

to flower when 

everything else is going 

over (August to 

November) and they make fantastic cut 

flowers. Choose colours that work well 

together, to achieve maximum impact. 

Outdoor varieties are happiest grown in full 

sun and shelter, in well-drained soil with 

plenty of organic matter. Indoor varieties 

can be grown in the garden in two-litre pots, 

delicately scented lilac-blue flowers (above), 

which can be found seated among grassy, 

deep-green or evergreen foliage from 

November to February. It needs a very welldrained 

soil in full sun or partial shade. 

sunk in the ground and lifted to bring into 

the greenhouse when the weather gets cold, 

to replace tomatoes. 

Allium 

hollandicum 

‘Purple 

Sensation’ 

Despite my heavy clay 

soil (which I lighten with 

grit when planting), spring-flowering alliums 

get better every year in my garden. One of 

my favourites is Allium hollandicum ‘Purple 

Sensation’ (above). It’s a fantastic all-rounder - 

beautiful in the border planted with the likes 

of foxgloves. It’s great for flower-arranging, 

gradually self-seeds, and the seedheads are 

as fab as the flowers themselves. Plant now. 


Sarah Raven’s Kitchen & Garden. Mail 

order: specialising in seeds, bulbs and 

plants. Orders to 1 Woodstock Court, 

Blenheim Road, Marlborough SN8 4AN. 

Tel: 0845 0920283. www.sarahraven.com 

Anemone 

x hybrida 

‘September 

Charm’ 

Japanese 

anemones may 

not be your usual 

winter-flowering 

plant, but after 

blooms have gone, a network of well-branched 

stems is topped with small, ball-like seedheads 

that provide food for birds during the bleakest 

months. A. x hybrida ‘September Charm’ is just 

one example. It produces pale-pink flowers 

(above) from late July to October. Easy to grow 

once established, this vigorous plant likes any 

well-drained soil, in sun or light shade. 


Claire Austin Hardy Plants, White Hopton 

Farm, Wern Lane, Sarn, Newtown SY16 4EN. 

Tel: + 44 (0) 1686 670342. 

Mail order: specialising in iris, peonies 

and perennials. 

www.claireaustin-hardyplants.co.uk 

NOVEMBER - JONATHAN BUCKLEY/WWW.SARAHRAVEN.COM 

DECEMBER - CLAIRE AUSTIN GAP/RACHEL WARNE


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80 The English Garden february 2013 

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Galanthus ‘Green 

Tear’ is brushed 

with fine green 

stripes on its 

outer petals. 

SNOW QUEENS 

You may not be a dedicated galanthophile, but you can still join them in 

appreciation of these stunning and very hardy little beauties 

PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS | WORDS JACKY HOBBS 

plant focus: snowdrops 

 



This small bulbous plant is 

determinedly hardy 

DOUBLE SNOWDROPS 

1 Galanthus ’Ballerina’ has a 

spendid full-skirted tutu of inner 

petals, embroidered with a pair of 

leaping ballerina legs. 

2 G.nivalis f. pleniflorus ‘Walrus’ has 

a rosette of inner petals with long 

narrow green-tipped outer petals. 

3 G. plicatus ‘Diggory’ is a delightful 

puffball of a snowdrop. Its outer 

petals balloon out like a parachute or 

a spinnaker in full sail, shielding inner 

solid ’tooth-shaped’ green stain. 

4 G. plicatus ‘Augustus’ is globular 

shaped, setting it apart from the 

decidedly flatter bottom of ‘Diggory’. 


5 G. nivalis f. pleniflorus ‘Flore 

Pleno’ is a commonly available, 

steadfast, reliable double, so the 

most popular in gardens. 

6 G. elwesii ‘The Bride’ is balloonskirted 

and only wears white. 

She’s temperamental so not one 

for the novice snowdrop grower. 

However, well worth a go if you 

are a collector. 

7 G. elwesii ‘Godfrey Owen’ is the 

only snowdrop with six outer 

petals in pure white; the six inners 

characteristically carry small 

green double dots. 

Snowdrops pierce the 

frozen earth religiously 

each winter, bringing us 

the promise of spring. 

This small bulbous plant 

is determinedly hardy, long-lived and 

resistant to disease. Refusing to be 

spoiled by Britain’s frequently bad 

winter weather, it is both prolific and 

deservedly popular. 

Its appearance is anticipated, but 

not its diversity. There are around 20 

species snowdrops native to Europe, 

Asia Minor and the Near East, which 

thrive in deciduous woodland in 

mountainous situations. Here, they 

are able to withstand the cold in 

winter and are protected from higher 

temperatures in summer. 

The late 19th and early 20th 

centuries witnessed the introduction 

CULTIVATION TIPS 

of many of these species into Britain, 

which has resulted in numerous 

cultivars and clones. 

Snowdrop species Galanthus 

elwesii, G. reginae-olgae, G. plicatus, 

G. gracilis and G. woronowii, among 

others, joined our widespread 

resident snowdrop Galanthus nivalis, 

or common snowdrop, which dates 

back to the 16th century. 

G. nivalis is almost single-handedly 

responsible for the drifts of single 

or double snowdrops (G. nivalis 

f. pleniflorus ‘Flore Pleno’) that have 

naturalised our deciduous woodland 

glades and gardens. 

G. nivalis is characterised by 

a small green inverted ‘u’ or ‘v’ 

marking on the tip of the inner petal. 

It is best in numbers and can be 

relied upon to naturalise, increasing 

For best results buy and plant snowdrops ’in the green’, just after the flower 

has faded but before the leaves die back. 

If purchasing a rarer specimen, buy in flower to guarantee its identity. 

‘Site snowdrops where there is plenty of light early in the season, but is 

protected from baking sun in high summer,’ says Ursula Cholmeley of Easton 

Walled Gardens. ‘The best place for snowdrops is under deciduous trees. Where they 

are naturalised, they seem to appreciate a free-draining soil.’ Add sharp sand 

or grit prior to planting on clay to improve drainage. 

‘It helps if the sun can reach the soil surface when the ground is frosted,’ 

says Simon Biddulph of Rodmarton Manor. ‘Plant somewhere where they will 

not be trodden on in summer.’ 

‘When planting a collection, labelling is vital,‘ Simon also advises. 

1 

LEFT G. ‘Ballerina’ 

has a cluster of 

delicate inner 

petals. RIGHT 

Galanthus f. 

pleniflorus ‘Walrus’ 

is easy to spot 

in a crowd. 

MIDDLE RIGHT 

G. plicatus 

‘Diggory’ is more 

of a puffball. 

FAR RIGHT 

G. plicatus 

‘Augustus’.

y off-setting bulbils or by slowly 

setting seed. The finest example of 

a G. nivalis woodland is at Welford 

Park in Gloucestershire, where drifts 

of dazzling blooms stretch out 

beneath a canopy of brassy beech. 

Today, there are more than 500 

named snowdrop cultivars, many 

of British provenance, that have 

been discovered in the gardens of 

galanthophile snowdrop collectors, 

where this promiscuous plant has 

made merry with other collected 

snowdrop specimens. 

Interestingly and almost uniquely, 

through the passion of collectors the 

snowdrop has promoted itself, 

producing exciting new introductions 

nature’s way, rather than through 

determined breeding programs. This 

affords us with snowdrops for every 

situation, from select individual 

collections to mass plantings of 

naturalised drifts. 

SIZE & SCENT 

Mature snowdrops vary in size, but 

the elwesii varieties seem to produce 

larger flowers on longer stems. 

Ursula Cholmeley of Easton Walled 

Gardens in Grantham favours 

G. elwesii var. elwesii ‘Fred’s Giant’, 

described as: ‘An enormous (for a 

snowdrop) and robust bulb with 

glaucous foliage, which flowers early 

and has beautiful big flowers with 

 

OPPOSITE PAGE 

Galanthus elwesii. 

THIS PAGE, 

RIGHT 

G. ‘S. Arnott’ is 

a first-class 

garden plant. 

BELOW RIGHT 

G. ‘Richard Ayres’ 

is a fairly tallgrowing 

variety. 

BELOW, FAR 

RIGHT G. x 

hybridus ‘Merlin’. 

RELIABLE 

GROWER 

2 3 4 

TIPS FOR BULBS IN SITU 

Expert Ursula Cholmeley advises: 

You can lift resident bulbs 

any time, provided they are 

replanted immediately. The key is 

not to let them dry out. The best 

time to do this is as the foliage 

dies back, up until the roots start 

to grow again in autumn. 

Old clumps of snowdrops 

may become so congested 

that you see bulbs lying 

around on the surface, ‘evicted’ 

from the clump. You need to 

dig the whole lot up, split the 

bulbs and replant. 



WHERE TO SEE & BUY 

Colesbourne Park, Glos GL53 9NP. 

Tel: +44 (0)1242 870262. 

www.colesbournegardens.org.uk 

Easton Manor Walled Gardens, 

Grantham, Lincs NG33 5AP. 

Tel: + 44 (0)1476 530063. 

www.eastonwalledgardens.co.uk 

Lambrook Manor Gardens, 

South Petherton, Somerset TA13 5HH. 

Tel: +44 (0)1460 240328. 

www.eastlambrook.co.uk 

Painswick Rococo Gardens, 

Painswick, Glos GL6 6TH. 

Tel: +44 (0)1452 813204. 

www.rococogarden.co.uk 

Rodmarton Manor, Rodmarton, 

Cirencester GL7 6PF. Tel: +44 (0)1285 

841253. www.rodmarton-manor.co.uk 

Welford Park, Welford, Newbury, 

Berkshire RG20 8HU. Tel: +44 (0)1488 

608691. www.welfordpark.co.uk 

Specialist nurseries 

Avon Bulbs Tel: +44 (0)1460 

242177. www.avonbulbs.co.uk 

Broadleigh Bulbs Tel: +44 (0)1823 

285231. www.broadleighbulbs.co.uk 

The Snowdrop Company 

Specialist/collector snowdrops. Send 

a S.A.E. with three first-class stamps for 

a catalogue to: Barn Cottage, Shilton, 

Oxfordshire OX18 4AB. 

variable inner green markings’. 

G. elwesii showers Colesbourne 

Park with prolific large blooms, with 

an inherent vigorous propensity to 

naturalise. It’s named for Henry John 

Elwes, who discovered this species 

on a trip to Turkey in 1874. Recently 

Carolyn Elwes has developed his 

original snowdrop collection on the 

estate, finding many new varieties. 

Other notable giants include 

G. plicatus ‘Colossus’, a vigorous 

early flowering Colesbourne find 

(G. ‘Colesborne’ is named after the 

now famous snowdrop garden); 

and G. ‘Atkinsii’, with pearl-dropearring-like 

blooms, prolific in the 

Painswick Rococo Gardens. G. ‘S. 

Arnott’ is a classic snowdrop, not 

strictly large, but substantial and 

recognised as a ‘first-class garden 

plant’ by expert John Grimshaw. 


CLOCKWISE 

FROM TOP 

LEFT Galanthus 

‘Greenfinch’; 

G. elwesii ‘Mary 

Biddulph’ was 

discovered at 

Rodmarton 

Manor; the more 

unusual G. plicatus 

‘South Hayes’. 

Snowdrops’ unique markings are their most 

exciting distinguishing factors 

At the other end of the scale are 

green-tipped G. nivalis ‘Elfin’, a mere 

7.5cm tall, and G. nivalis ‘Tiny’, 

both miniature by comparison. 

BOLD MARKINGS 

Snowdrops are botanically 

differentiated by their foliage type, 

which can be categorised simply as 

flat, plicate and convolute, but their 

unique markings are their most 

exciting distinguishing factors. 

Noteworthy are those that exude 

personality and character. 

The inner markings of single 

G. elwesii ‘Grumpy’ portrays 

just such a face, while double 

G. ‘Richard Ayres’ wears the mask 

of a moustachioed gentleman and 

can be found in tall clumps at 

Anglesey Abbey Gardens, where it 

was discovered in 1987. 

A REAL 

COLLECTORS’ 

GEM 

Popular are snowdrops with less 

defined but larger green markings. 

G. x hybridus ‘Merlin’ has unbroken 

solid green inner segments and 

‘dumpy’ rounded or globular outer 

petals held on a long straight stem. 

G. elwesii ‘Mary Biddulph’ has 

a pale lime wash covering most of 

the outer petals, and a bolder 

verdant staining on the inners. This 

eponymous gem was discovered by 

Margaret Biddulph’s grandson 

Simon at Rodmarton Manor, in the 

gardens this lady created there. 

‘Green Tear’ has similar, but more 

refined markings, and G. plicatus 

‘Greenfinch’ and ‘South Hayes’ also 

have notable marked flowers. 

With so much detail and variety 

on offer within this genus, it is no 

wonder that people dedicate their 

lives to growing these gems.


IMAGE/GWI - FLOWERPHOTOS: SUE BISHOP 

THE STRONG 

SURVIVE 

The UK is experiencing and has previously seen the devastation 

wrought by tree diseases - but nature will restore the equilibrium 

WORDS BENEDICT POLLARD 

trees: health 

Woodlands in the UK 

can sadly be devastated 

by disease. 

Afungal tree disease called ‘ash 

dieback’ is hot horticultural 

news, the latest arrival of the 

10 or so major pathogenic 

invaders to have alarmed the 

nation over recent decades. So should 

we be worried about it? Well, my opinion 

is no… but also yes. 

Why no? Is nature out of balance? 

It’s hard for us to say. These sweeping 

epidemics may be a natural part of life, 

a weeding out of susceptible individuals, 

a narrowing down of the gene pool to 

leave the strongest individuals standing as 

parents of future generations. We are all 

familiar with the frequent use in gardening 


trees: health 

Ash trees are under attack 

from ash dieback. 

of the somewhat pejorative term ‘weed’, 

subjectively referring to a plant that is 

in the ‘wrong’ place. Horticulturally 

speaking, ‘disease’ and ‘pest’ can be also 

applied in the same way. 

Why yes? Most plant communities are 

broadly exposed to a diverse range 

of pathogens and pests, yet 

they co-exist in a healthy 

balance. A worrying 

weakness of modern 

agricultural and 

silvicultural planting 

is the reliance 

on monocultures, 

where genetically 

similar plants are 

cropped in large 

swathes. 

Be they spruce, 

poplar, barley or beet, all 

offer limited natural resistance 

to roaming ‘enemies’. Considering this 

vunerability in relation to wild plants of 

more northerly European latitudes, such as 

Britain and Scandinavia, trees often have 

a similar genetic paucity, a kind of natural 

monoculture. Given the experience in 

Denmark, where estimates suggest a 90% 

ash population reduction has already 

happened, we can expect massive ash 

mortality in the UK. The visual impact on 

the landscape is likely to be severe and 

worth considering ahead of time. 

In contrast, healthy, biologically and 

structurally diverse ecosystems tend to 

buffet the presence of pests and disease. 

This is why older, semi-natural habitats 

tend to be more species-rich and less 

susceptible to broad-brush tree demise. 


We are likely to see fewer ash trees in 

the British countryside in the future. 

Did 

you know? 

The Conservation Foundation is carrying 

out the Great British Elm Experiment. 

Cuttings taken from healthy native elms 

have been micropropagated and distributed 

to hundreds of people to grow on. 

Participants must log their tree’s progress 

for up to 15 years. To find out more, 

see www.conservation 

foundation.co.uk 

Phylogenetic diversity is the key to 

healthy woodland. 

One effect of disease is to increase 

habitat diversity and promote genetic 

diversity. Eventually, ash dieback will most 

probably acclimatise and be ecologically 

accommodated, contributing to 

an increase in the overall 

resilience of our native 

woods - in other words, 

no pain, no gain. 

Ash devastation 

should result in the 

survival of a diverse 

and also resistant 

population from 

which will emerge 

future waves of ash 

proliferation, birthing 

a stronger ash realm. 

While the outlook is 

somewhat disconcerting, it is 

only nature doing what nature does 

best: fluctuating, grabbing opportunities, 

making her power known to us. 

Focusing in at the garden level, though, 

what can we do? Firstly, it’s probably 

sensible to keep calm, not to jump to 

conclusions, and to keep observing. Steer 

your garden’s evolution towards healthy 

breadths both of tree species diversity and 

of age range. When selecting new trees, 

choose a mixture of sizes. Be thoughtful in 

specimen spacing, allowing for breezy air 

flow corridors, and consider sacrificing 

existing specimens in overcrowded areas. 

Physical wounds are the primary entry 

point for many infectious diseases. Protect 

trees from herbivores, minimise windblown 

rubbing or chafing by correctly fastening 

Check tree stakes and 

straps regularly. 

stakes and straps, and exercise constant 

vigilance to avoid physical damage through 

sloppy strimming, lackadaisical lawn 

mowing or poor pruning. Timing and 

technique for pruning must be considered 

carefully. Avoid pruning in wet weather, 

when pathogenic dispersal flourishes. 

Habitually clean and disinfect tools. 

Young trees will require nannying for 

a year or three, so instigate a disciplined 

nurturing regime of watering, mulching, 

feeding and weed control to optimise plant 

vigour and vitality. Water in the morning, 

rather than at night, to allow excess water 

to evaporate and minimise creation of damp 

pockets and humid microzones. Equally, 

establish appropriate watering regimes in 

periods of drought stress. 

Raise your levels of awareness by learning 

to identify the different pests and diseases. 

Inspect frequently for signs of stress 

or sickness. Record the presence and 

prevalence of all plant disease in your 

garden to ensure you understand the origin 

of illness and mortality, and be wellinformed 

on steps you can take for 

prevention, treatment and in some cases, 

cure. If you’re unsure, seek advice from 

organisations such as the Woodland Trust, 

the Forestry Commission or the RHS. 

This series is brought to you in association with 

Barcham Tree Specialists. For information about 

the nursery, visit www.buythetreeyousee.com 

or call +44 (0)1353 720950. 

IMAGES/LEFT - FORESTRY COMMISSION OTHERS - BARCHAM TREES


all hostas 

great and small 

Bowdens nursery’s quarter-acre garden 

is home to a National Plant Collection 

of Modern Hybrid Hostas. 


shady solutions 

Gardeners love hostas for their impressive foliage 

and ability to fill a tricky shady spot, so we asked 

the experts for advice on defending them 

from slugs and top varieties to grow 

PHOTOGRAPHS MICHELLE GARRETT | WORDS JACKY HOBBS

Tucked into a bend in the road 

in the Devonshire village of 

Sticklepath nestles the site of 

Bowdens nursery. About as 

far from a ‘sleepy hollow’ as 

you can get, this horticultural hive of 

activity hides behind a massive mask of 

burgeoning hostas. 

Adjoining the foliage-filled polytunnels 

unfurls a quarter-acre billowing hosta 

garden with a National Plant Collection of 

Modern Hybrid Hostas, gathered by Roger 

Bowden. Together, nursery and garden 

boast some 2,500 hosta varieties, nearly 

a quarter of the world’s catalogue. 

Bowden Hostas, as it was originally 

called, is a family run business, founded 

by Roger Bowden, who began collecting 

hostas in the late 1970s. He 

launched his first catalogue 

in 1986, and business 

boomed as he soared from 

local to county to national 

shows, with his first RHS 

Chelsea Gold Medal 

awarded in 1999. Roger, 

now in his seventies, retains 

an ‘advisory role’ in the 

business, which was bought 

by his daughter Ruth and son-in-law 

Tim Penrose (above) in 2004. 

They have recently diversified into other 

‘leafy greens’, acquiring a fine collection 

of ferns and managing a significant 

catalogue of grasses and bamboo, with 

herbs on the ‘coming soon’ list. Hostas 

remain at the heart of the business, which 

is famed for the quality the plants and 

its breadth of scope. 

Lush and exciting hosta exhibits have 

won orders and medals, with seven Gold 

Medals from the past seven RHS Chelsea 

Flower Shows. In 2011, the nursery 

achieved a unique double: winning gold for 

both the hosta display and its inaugural fern 

exhibit. But the team’s greatest accolade is 

a Royal Warrant awarded by HRH The 

Prince of Wales in 2007, appointing them 

to supply hostas to Highgrove, where Prince 

Charles himself is a National Collection 

holder of large and giant-leaved hostas. 

Tim takes the opportunity to personally 

deliver consignments of dormant hosta 

roots to Highgrove, wrapped and packed 

in the panniers of his motorbike. 

BY POPULAR DEMAND 

Hostas are shade-tolerant woodland 

perennials, with masses of fascinating 

decorative foliage. Overlooked, though, are 

their white or lilac bell-like summer blooms. 

Nevertheless, the white flowers of gigantic 

H. ‘Big Daddy’ and the bright lilac bells of 

tiny H. ‘Cracker Crumbs’ serve to enhance 

the fabulous foliage. Some of the flowers 

also have wonderful scent, such as 

H. ‘Fragrant Dream’ and H. ‘Aphrodite’, 

another attribute that is often overlooked. 

‘There are so many variations and 

combinations of foliage,’ explains Tim. 

His catalogue displays 

plants that are visibly 

differentiated by leaf 

colour, texture, size, shape 

and pattern. Colour is the 

primary distinguishing 

factor, with single-colour 

foliage on offer in blue 

(H. ‘Big Daddy’), green 

(H. ‘Green Piecrust’, ‘Beauty 

Substance’, ‘Niagara Falls’) 

Lush and exciting hosta exhibits have won orders and medals 

including seven Gold Medals from RHS Chelsea 

and also gold (H. ‘Marilyn Monroe’). 

Variegated specimens add another 

dimension: H. ‘Golden Tiara’ wears a ring 

of gold on green; H. ‘Patriot’ is green with 

deep white margin; and H. ‘El Niño’ is blue 

with a decorative silver rim. Some leaf 

colours are almost ousted by the secondary 

colour, as with the central golden splash 

with a rim of green on the leaves of 

H. ‘Orange Marmalade’. This is similar 

but to a lesser degree on H. ‘Gypsy Rose’. 

Margins and colours alter with the season, 

site, sun and shade. 

 

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE LEFT Tim Penrose 

has taken over the running of Bowdens with 

his wife Ruth; Hosta ‘Fragrant Dream’ offers 

fragrant flowers; H. ‘Lakeside Cha Cha’ prefers 

light shade; in contrast ‘Lakeside Ripples’ has 

no variegation; H. ‘Beauty Substance’ with its 

generous leaves. 

plants: hostas 


plants: hostas 

Roger Bowden started his collection in the 1970s. 

TOP TIPS TO 

COMBAT SLUGS 

Slugs adore hostas as much as we 

do, but they can be deterred to 

keep your plants looking their best. 

Buy slug-resistant varieties or the 

Bowden ‘Slug Resistant Collection’, 

which features robust specimens 

such as H. ‘Francis Williams’, H. ’June’ 

(one of the best garden hostas 

according to Tim), H. ‘Sea Lotus Leaf’, 

H. ‘Devon Hills’ (one of Bowden’s 

‘home grown’), H. ‘Halcyon’ - another 

great classic - and H. ’Yellow River’. 

Encourage wildlife into the 

garden to do the work for you: 

hedgehogs, thrushes and frogs 

are great slug foragers. 

Hand-pick the offenders from 

foliage - night time is best. 

Protect hostas in pots with 

a copper slug band or simply 

grease with Vaseline or WD40 

to prevent ascent. 

Use a traditional garlic wash 

to fend off slugs and snails. 

If all else fails, resort to slug 

pellets, ensuring you put them out 

early February to quash new colonies 

before they take hold. 

Purchase and read the book 

Slugbusters - a big seller at 

the nursery, and just £2. 


Shade generally strengthens and helps 

retain leaf colour, but may also inhibit 

growth and discourage flowering. Some 

blue and variegated plants are fortified by 

early season sun, and some gold-leafed 

varieties fail to colour up without it, 

like H. ‘Fire Island’. ‘Do not dismiss 

hostas automatically to a shady nook. 

Check out their individual requirements,’ 

suggests Tim. 

The size of both plant and leaf vary 

massively, from the huge tray-like leaves of 

H. ‘Prince of Wales’ and ‘Earth Angel’ to 

the charming lobes of H. ‘Frosted Mouse 

Ears’ and ‘Teeny-weeny Bikini’. 

‘Less dominating, the smaller hostas have 

wide appeal, facilitating plantings in pots, 

window boxes or small patios,’ explains 

Tim, who is enjoying a boom in miniatures. 

Choice is extended into leaf shape: long 

and pointed like H. ‘Praying Hands’; 

puckered like H. ‘Green Piecrust’; rippled 

like H. ‘Lakeside Ripples’; or soft, rounded 

heart-shapes like H. ‘Niagara Falls’. 

There are many natural garden sports 

and mutations, which serve to extend the 

ever-growing hosta catalogue. In Bowdens’ 

garden, a whole new range of blue-hued 

hostas were discovered. These include the 

Devon Series, as well as H. ‘Iced Lemon’, 

a sport of H. ‘Lemon Lime’. Customers 

donated their own finds too, such as 

H. ‘Purbeck Mist’ and H. ‘Vicar’s Mead’. 

With hostas not coming true from seed, 

vegetative propagation is the only option to 

increase the stock of new plants. However, 

modern technology now enhances both 

Hosta ‘Frosted Mouse Ears’. 

breeding and mass propagation. Tissue 

culture speeds up availability and 

distribution of new cultivars. Tim and Ruth 

quickly snap up new exciting introductions, 

selecting 20 candidates from more than 100 

new ones launched annually by American 

breeders, who offer an irresistible selection 

of painted, crimped, twisted and tricolour 

hostas, sometimes all in one plant. Bought 

as tiny plug plants and grown on by Tim 

and Ruth in the nursery, these are ready for 

customers the following year. 

BREEDING BESTSELLERS 

Tim’s personal favourite and bestseller is 

H. ‘War Paint’. ‘It is big with a splash of 

colour right across its broad, cratered leaf, 

which ripples at the edges,’ he says. ‘It 

clumps up within a couple of years and is 

a really good doer.’ 

While breeding continues to accentuate 

the many variations of the hosta, it also 

attempts to improve quality, with better 

colour retention, broader light tolerance 

and maximum slug resistance - a familiar 

battle, but well worth the fight. 

Bowdens, Sticklepath, Okehampton, Devon 

EX20 2NL. The nursery and garden are open 

from Monday to Friday; 10am to 4pm 

Tel: +44 (0)1837 840989. Look out for Tim 

at RHS shows this year, or alternatively 

you can buy direct from the online shop at 

www.bowdenhostas.com


Ron Scamp (right) grows daffodils 

with his son Adrian (left) on 

a 12-acre site in Cornwall.

The daffodil ‘reigns in supreme majesty over all spring 

flowers’, and the popularity it enjoys today ‘is the 

inheritance of centuries’. Thus wrote daffodil expert 

Michael Jefferson-Brown at the beginning of his 1969 

book Daffodils and Narcissi, a work of great 

scholarship that continues to benefit professional and amateur 

gardeners alike. Among others, E. A. Bowles also wrote extensively 

and lovingly about the genus, adding weight and meaning to the 

copious poetic lines that have extolled this universally loved ‘golden 

flower’ in Western literature. 

Ron Scamp’s name came my way several years ago in discussion 

with Sally Kington, the Royal Horticultural Society’s then daffodil 

registrar. My northwest corner of Herefordshire experienced some 

daffodil fame in Edwardian times, a legacy that encouraged Sally 

to come and look around, and give a talk to a group of fellow 

enthusiasts at a moment, a few years ago, when I was considering 

a chronological planting 

of species and cultivars in 

my infant arboretum. 

Ron Scamp, she assured 

me, would be most 

helpful in my venture. Sadly, the idea came to naught, although 

a heap of bulb catalogues and internet printouts in a corner of my 

study testify to my occasional researches into suitable old varieties. 

Ron, whose family grew daffodils for the bulb and cut-flower trade 

professionally in the Tamar Valley, is a Cornishman with his 

own long-held interest in the genus narcissus. His uncle and mentor 

was Dan du Plessis; one of four dynamic Cornish growers 

who, according to Andrew Tompsett - author of Golden Harvest, 

a fascinating and detailed history of daffodil growing 

in Cornwall - had an irrepressible interest in daffodils in the 

second half of the 20th century. 

Ron was a lifelong amateur, only turning his hobby into a 

business in 1991. Now approaching his 70th birthday, he is 

‘winding down’, and his son Adrian will continue the business that 

currently raises stock on a 12-acre site near Falmouth. 

Ron grows daffodils in all 13 divisions - trumpet, double, largecupped 

etc - classified by the Royal Horticultural Society. He has 

a great passion for what he calls ‘yesterday’s daffodils’, the historical 

varieties, currently listing almost 50 of them, including personal 

favourite ‘White Lady’, bred before 1898, which is a small-cupped 

cultivar with white petals and a shallow pale-yellow trumpet. Old 

varieties, some of which may be natural hybrids, still continue to 

be found, and the happy hunting grounds are usually undisturbed 

hedgerows, churchyards and old family estates. Their names may 

be lost, but can sometimes be reinstated with careful research. 

When it comes to breeding new varieties, Ron (recipient of the 

Reginald Cory Cup for plant hybridisation and ‘still dabbling a 

bit with pollen’) aims for plants with strength, vigour and good 

form that are both disease and weather resistant. He largely 

avoids the use of old varieties in his breeding programme, 

believing there isn’t much that could be considered new that 

hasn’t already emerged in previous crosses. A new variety can take 

up to 10 years from seed to commercial introduction. Four to 

five years are needed for the seed to develop a flowering-sized 

bulb, which then needs to 

Of his many daffodil-breeding successes, Ron is 

most proud of double-flowered ‘Madam Speaker’ 

hort’s desire: daffodils 

SPARKLING 

SIRENS 

OF SPRING 

David Wheeler meets a man who has turned a lifelong love 

of daffodils into an award-winning online business 

PHOTOGRAPH JASON INGRAM 

be grown on for several 

years to see permanence 

of habit and colour. 

Chosen newcomers then 

go into production. The yield can as much as double every year. 

Of his many daffodil-breeding successes, Ron is most proud of 

double-flowered ‘Madam Speaker’, named after Betty Boothroyd, 

speaker in the House of Commons from 1992 to 2000. He describes 

it as being ‘as robust as the lady, stands up well to the elements and 

admired by all who see it; and a first-rate flower of show quality’. 

The future? ‘My dream daffodil would have white petals and a 

truly red cup,’ he says. ‘I’m almost there, having one with white 

petals and dark pink cup; but dark pink is not red. I’m also 

interested in green-flowered daffodils or ones with white petals and 

dark green cups or trumpets.’ Time will tell… 

Finally, and looking for a few good names to add to my 

own modest collection, Ron unhesitatingly rattles off ‘Max’, 

‘Cape Cornwall’ and ‘Menehay’ - names to remember when his 

2013 catalogue goes online. 

R. A. Scamp Quality Daffodils sells bulbs by mail order. For more details and 

to order, go to www.qualitydaffodils.com or call +44 (0)1326 317959. 


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THE ENGLISH GARDEN INSURANCE OFFER 

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GROW 

& 

GIVE 

It’s a great time of year to plan 

future garden visits with the 

new NGS Yellow Book, and for 

thinking up new ways to use 

your skills to help charities and 

your local community 

WORDS SUE BRADLEY 

Gardeners across the UK are 

being urged to get the 2013 

growing season off to a 

flying start and help raise 

much-needed funds for 

charity by taking part in Garden Re-Leaf 

Day. More than 500 garden centres are 

expected to run a range of special in-store 

and community activities, on and around 

Friday 8 March, to mark the event. All 

money raised will go to Greenfingers, 

a charity chaired by Matthew Wilson that 

raises funds to build gardens at children’s 

hospices. Last year’s inaugural Garden Re- 

Leaf Day brought in more than £50,000 

from a range of activities, including quizzes, 

school growing initiatives, fancy dress and 

celebrity advice. This money paid for an 

interactive play garden at the Donna Louise 

Children’s Hospice in Stoke-on-Trent (right) 

and four new gardens at Robin House 

Children’s Hospice in West Dunbartonshire. 

‘Whether you’re a gardening novice or an 

expert, young or old, there’ll be something 

for you to enjoy,’ says the event’s founder, 

garden retailer Boyd Douglas-Davies. ‘It’s a 

fantastic opportunity to get fresh gardening 

inspiration, and a chance to help a really 

worthwhile cause.’ For details in your area, 

visit www.gardenreleaf.co.uk 

If you are looking for volunteers or are involved 

in a project, share it by writing to us at The 

English Garden, Archant House, Oriel Road, 

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL50 1BB, or send 

an email to theenglishgarden@archant.co.uk 


Greenfingers’ Matthew Wilson 

helping seven-year-old Billy 

Heslop plant a tree at The 

Donna Louise Children’s 

Hospice with his parents 

and brother Jack.

IMAGES/TATTON - HARLECH WOMENS INTITUTE 

Gardening inspiration 

Avid gardener Marilyn Taylor believes 

her hobby saved her life; for it was 

while she was cutting branches with 

her 4.9m pruner that she first had an 

inkling that all was not right with her 

health. ‘Once I’d finished the job, 

I threw the pruner on top of the 

growing pile of branches I’d cut off,’ 

recalls Marilyn (right). ‘At that moment 

something in the back of my neck hurt 

and didn’t feel quite right.’ It would take nine weeks, and a great deal of persistence 

from Marilyn, however, before doctors discovered her pain was due to a rare spinal 

tumour and performed a life-saving operation. Marilyn, who lives near Nottingham, 

tells the story of how gardening saved her life in a new book, The Cancer Survivors’ 

Club by Chris Geiger; a collection of inspirational stories that it is hoped will give 

everyone touched by the disease a renewed determination to survive. 

Women of Harlech 

Rail passengers pausing at Harlech 

station have the town’s Women’s 

Institute to thank for cheerful displays of 

flowers. The group of volunteers has 

been caring for the area around their 

local platform for the past three years 

after signing up to Arriva Trains Wales’ 

station adoption scheme. In that time, 

they have given Harlech station a 

makeover with plants and a specially 

commissioned mural. Arriva Trains were 

so impressed by the WI members’ efforts 

that it chose them to create a garden at 

the RHS Tatton Park Flower Show 

2011. The silver gilt medal-winning 

display (above) included a small 

train and a replica boat full of flowers, 

similar to the one seen by 

rail passengers at Harlech. 

www.rhs.org.uk 

DID YOU KNOW? 

More than 3,700 gardens in 

England and Wales will be 

opening in aid of charities 

supported by the National 

Gardens Scheme in 2013. 

These include more than 

600 plots that are either new 

to the Yellow Book or 

returning to its pages after a 

break. The 81st edition will 

be on sale this month. 

Warning for 

guerrilla gardeners 

Gardeners eager to improve public land near 

their homes could learn a lesson from the 

experiences of a community-minded doctor, 

who was told to pay an £84 fee and apply for 

a licence after she planted nine shrubs to 

deter drivers from churning up a verge. 

Cambridgeshire County Council insisted that 

the actions were in breach of the Highways 

Act 1980, which allows local authorities to 

control planting on public land. It says it is 

standard practice to demand a licence to 

cultivate highways land, the fee for which 

covers the costs of inspecting the site and 

agreeing a suitable planting scheme. 

Digging in 

Determined volunteers and councillors in 

Finchampstead (below) have prepared the 

ground so that local people can grow their own 

food. Their efforts meant that more than 50 

tenants were able to start growing fruit and 

vegetables last autumn. ‘For years, the land has 

not been used for growing food,’ explains 

Caroline Grant, of the Finchampstead Allotment 

Association. An allotment committee is currently 

raising funds to create a communal garden, 

compost toilet and storage facilities and to 

develop more plots. It has also organised 

a discount seed-ordering service. 

In the Pink 

volunteering 

Sales of a new plant have raised just 

over £1,300 for Breast Cancer Care. 

Osteospermum ‘In the Pink’, launched 

by actress Geraldine Somerville (below, 

centre) at the 2012 RHS Chelsea Flower 

Show last May, was bred by the team at 

Fairweather’s Nursery in Beaulieu. The 

new plant boasts masses of daisy-like 

pink flowers on short upright stems in 

June and July. The company donated 

20p from every plant sold in the first 

half of 2012 to Breast Cancer Care, 

a charity close to the heart of Patrick 

Fairweather (below, right), whose wife, 

Steff (below, left), recently battled with 

the disease and is currently in good 

health. www.fairweathersnursery.co.uk 


Garden Designers Directory is now 

available and FREE to download! 

Garden Designers app is a great way to find qualified designers and landscapers who will 

guide you on your journey and make the experience an exciting adventure. Easy to navigate 

and find the right professional in your local area. Available for iPad, iPhone & iPod users 

from the Apple app store - free of charge to download. 

Available on itunes 

Just search for "Garden Designers Directory" via Apple's Newsstand app

Valentine treats 

Struggling for the perfect romantic gift? Here are some great 

ideas for those who want to celebrate 14 February 

1 

CARRIER COMPANY 

What could be better on Valentine’s Day than crumpets beside the 

fire? This Heart Top Long Handled Fork makes a wonderful and 

unusual present for a loved one. Forged by hand in North Norfolk 

the Toasting Fork is £25; the robust Log Carrier is £29.50 - all 

available online. 

Tel: +44 (0)1328 820699.Website: www.carriercompany.co.uk 

2 

What more stylish proposal could you make than popping the 

question with this? Our rope swings are all made to order. You could 

even have the date of your proposal on the other side. 

Go on, do it in style and ensure a delighted Yes! 

Tel: +44 (0)1297 443084. Email: martin@sittingspiritually.co.uk 

Website: www.sittingspiritually.co.uk 

3 

SITTING SPIRITUALLY 

Handmade in Warwickshire and guaranteed frost proof, a Whichford 

Pottery flowerpot makes a special and enduring gift. Whichford 

Pottery is offering readers free delivery (saving £29.50) when ordering 

this top quality planter decorated with a lovely walking cat motif. Each 

pot measures 21cm high x 35cm wide and costs £49.95 each, or two 

for £85. Free delivery applies to mainland UK only - pairs of pots must 

be delivered to the same address. Offer ends 28 February 2013 - 

please call to make an order (this offer is not available online). 

Tel: +44 (0)1608 684416.Website: www.whichfordpottery.com 

4 

WHICHFORD POTTERY 

Get the vintage shabby chic look with this stunning mirror. Available 

in Giverny green or Mediterranean blue. Perfect for indoors or a 

sheltered spot outdoors. 

Sale price: was £49.99. Now just £39.99. FREE delivery for mainland 

UK (call for other shipping regions). Offer ends 28th February 2013 

while stocks last. 

Tel: +44 (0)1638 552809. Email: sales@sandedge.com 

Website: www.SandEdge.com 

5 

SANDEDGE 

PERILLA 

Treat yourself to a fabulously warm alpaca fur hat. Lightweight, 

flattering, shower proof and very stylish. The fur is sourced from 

alpacas that have died due to natural causes, so you need not be 

concerned that the fur is farmed. Available in black, white, champagne 

and various browns for £135. 

Tel: +44 (0)1886 853615.Website: www.perilla.co.uk 

3 

4 

1 

2 

5 

Advertorial

in our march issue... 

leap into spring 

WITH CHRIS BEARDSHAW AS OUR GUEST EDITOR 

Top pick of magnolias Container ideas RHS Rosemoor 

PLUS Sarah Raven on the secrets of growing your own freesias 

ALSO IN THE NEXT ISSUE 

Editor’s choice of the best mulches 

Five fantastic gardens north and south 

Cooking up a feast with your spring greens 

ON SALE 5 FEBRUARY 

Sold in selected Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and WH Smith 

Get £1 off the MARCH issue of The English Garden - go to 

www.buyamag.co.uk/EnglishGarden and use code TVR34 

FREE * 

Magnolia for every 

reader worth 

£15.99 

£1 off 

the next 

issue! 

IMAGE/CLIVE NICHOLS - RAGLEY HALL, WARWICKSHIRE 

*JUST PAY POSTAGE (TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLY)

Why is it important for people to 

experiment with what they grow? 

The British diet has undergone 

a radical transformation in the past 

half century, going from over-boiled 

stodge to one of the most varied, 

exciting and international on earth. 

Yet when it comes to the newly cool 

concept of ‘growing your own’, we 

have become stuck in a pre-WWII 

time warp, with foodie growers 

thinking the only options are 

spuds, sprouts and swede. 

I think this is a shame, because 

with well over 2,000 edible crops 

thriving in the UK, there is no 

reason why we need to be stuck 

THE 

Reviewer 

BOOKS | BLOGS | BROADSHEETS | RADIO | TV | TWITTER | ONLINE 

5 MINUTES WITH… 

James Wong 

The popular TV presenter tells us about his bestselling 

book to go with his new Suttons Seed range 

growing the allotment equivalent 

of powdered eggs and spam. 

I believe that the contents of 

our veg beds must catch up 

with that of our fridges. 

How did you choose which 120 

unusual edibles to include in 

your trial for your new book? 

As a truly obsessive foodie, one of 

the most exciting aspects of the 

project was trawling the shelves 

of fancy London food halls and 

trendy farmers’ markets to come 

up with a list of unusual gourmet 

foods as potential candidates for 

my 24-month trial. I then stuck 

a star next to anything that hailed 

from a climate similar to the UK’s, 

and started testing them. 

What important lessons did you 

learn in the process? 

Never assume that just because 

something seems exotic, it 

automatically means it is difficult 

or impossible to grow in Britain. 

In fact, potatoes (which hail from 

the Cloud Forest of Peru and were 

cultivated by the Incas) are actually 

one of the most tropical crops that 

can be grown in the UK, whereas 

cocktail kiwis will shrug off chills 

as low as -35°C and grow on 

a north-facing wall. 

What did you enjoy most about 

this experiment and putting the 

book together? 

Eating! It was a huge amount of fun 

to experiment with all sorts of 

flavours - from fresh wasabi to 

bamboo shoots. It even had an 

We have become stuck in a pre-WWII time warp, with 

growers thinking the only options are spuds, sprouts and swede 

unexpected fringe benefit in that 

I now know all my neighbours, 

who are always popping by with 

words of encouragement as 

I tend the front garden. 

If space is an issue, which are your 

must-grow edibles? 

Pretty high up on that list has to be 

the Chilean guava, an impossibly 

exotic pink berry that somehow 

fuses the flavours of wild 

strawberries, tropical guavas and 

candy floss. They are deceptively 

hardy, combining pool-side cocktail 

flavour with pretty, scented flowers 

and shiny evergreen leaves. I also 

have a soft spot for Inca berries. Mrs 

Beeton even had a jam recipe for 

them. Grow them outdoors just 

like an outdoor tomato. Other 

indispensable edibles include 

saffron, fresh green tea, wasabi and 

Tasmanian mountain peppers - all 

easy and perfect patio-sized ideas. 

What’s your next project? 

I am planning a new book on urban 

agriculture - reinventing old-school 

techniques from rearing chickens 

to raising bees for young city 

slickers with pint-sized plots. 

I call it ‘micro-farming’. 

James’ popular book is available 

from www.suttons.co.uk for £20 

(with free seeds worth £10 when 

bought by mail order only). 

TURN THE PAGE for recommended blogs, books and tweets 

 


WEBSITES, BLOGS 

& TWEETS 

WEBSITE 

theenduringgardener.com 

Garden writer Stephanie Donaldson is a 

long-time believer in organic methods, so 

much so that her expertise in this area led 

to her co-authoring the Prince of Wales’ 

most recent book, The Elements of Organic 

Gardening. Stephanie’s own garden is located 

in a sheltered spot on the south coast, and 

she also has an allotment nearby. Her 

website is a wonderful mix of practical 

information and inspirational ideas, from 

gardens to visit to compost recipes and 

from garden design to maintenance. 

Don’t miss her blog too, at 

blog.theenduringgardener.com 

BLOG 

Tales from Awkward Hill 

Victoria Summerley is in charge of 

the Saturday edition of i newspaper, 

and also writes two gardening blogs: 

victoriasbackyard.blogspot.co.uk and 

awkwardhill.blogspot.co.uk 

Both a delight to read over a cup of coffee. 

TWEET 

Ursula Cholmeley at Easton Walled 

Gardens @EWGardens. Owner of 

12 acres of award-winning, 400year-old 

lost gardens in Lincolnshire. See 

www.shopateaston.co.uk for sweet pea seed. 

BOOKSHELF NEWS 

Small wonder 

Following hot on the heels of Sarah Raven’s 

successful encyclopedic tome for wildflower 

enthusiasts, the 

publishers have helpfully 

brought out a reducedsize 

version, which will fit 

onto our bookshelves 

more easily. Wild Flowers 

is now available in both 

the original large format 

(289 x 222mm), £35, and 

at 262 x 194mm, £30. 

Despite the new size, the 

content is the same for 

both, with more than 500 varieties of 

wildflowers included from all parts of the UK. 

AWARD-WINNING 

Cream of the crop 

At the end of last year, the gardening great and 

good came together for their annual prize-giving 

ceremony at the Garden Media Guild Awards. 

If you’re looking for an interesting awardwinning 

read, why not look out for the winners 

from the book categories. Practical Book of the 

Year was won by Kenneth Cox & Caroline Beaton 

for Fruit and Vegetables for Scotland (Birlinn); 

Hardy Heathers from the Northern Hemisphere 

(Kew Publishing) by E. Charles Nelson won 

Reference Book of the Year; and Kim Wilkie 

secured the award for his Inspirational Book of 

the Year, Led by the Land (Frances Lincoln). Dark 

winter evenings are the perfect opportunity to 

SEASONAL READ 

Snowdrops 

by Gunter Waldorf 

Frances Lincoln, £14.99 

Galanthus are a fascinating species 

strongly associated with the first 

signs of spring. For galanthophile 

Gunter Waldorf, who sadly passed 

away in 2012, his passion for the 

species resulted in him recording 

more than 300 varieties in this 

must-have reference for a serious 

or aspiring collector. 

catch up with the winning TV programmes 

on iPlayer. The Gardeners’ World specials about 

The Olympic Park, 10 Downing Street and the 

South Bank Roof Garden scooped the award 

for TV Broadcast of the Year. 

And turn to pg 48 to read the latest feature 

from our very own Garden Editor, Stephanie 

Mahon, who scooped the prestigious award of 

Journalist of the Year.

COMPILED BY/CINEAD MCTERNAN EXTRA CONTENT BY/RACHEL CROW 

WHAT I’M READING... 

CAROL KLEIN 

What’s on your bedside table? 

A rather bashed-up but beautiful copy of William 

Robinson’s classic, The English Flower Garden - an 

encyclopedia of the best flowers, trees and 

shrubs for the garden, published in 1883. It’s 

amazing it’s still so relevant. I bought it for 50p at 

a car-boot sale and love to pick it up every so 

often. I also have a treasured copy of Clare 

Leighton’s Four Hedges, which I was honoured to 

be asked to write the foreword for, as well as 

Gardener’s Nightcap by Muriel Stuart, given to me 

by a very dear friend, Sue Rees. It has been 

republished by Persephone Books, and features 

their trademark endpaper taken from ‘Fritillary’, 

a 1936 block-printed linen designed by Margaret 

Calkin James. I was given a Kindle for my last 

birthday by my youngest daughter, Alice, and I 

am juggling reading The Grapes of Wrath by John 

Steinbeck and Graham Greene’s The Third Man. 

BOOK REVIEW 

Plants for Bees 

by W. D. J. Kirk and F. N. Howes 

(IBRA, £25) 

In recent times, with the surge of interest 

in beekeeping, there has been an increased 

realisation that what we plant is 

imperative to keeping healthy and 

productive bees. In London, however, 

there is a debate raging about whether 

there are too many bees or too little 

forage. It is therefore refreshing to receive 

What’s on your book wishlist? 

- Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s latest 

cookbook, Jerusalem. 

- Gossip from the Forest: The Tangled Roots of Our 

Forests and Fairytales by Sara Maitland. 

- A Year in the Life of Beth Chatto’s Gardens 

by Fergus Garrett. 

Whose blog are you following at 

the moment? 

I think Arabella Sock’s The Sea of Immeasurable 

Gravy is utterly entertaining. Go to 

sea-of-immeasurable-gravy.blogspot.co.uk 

Who’s your favourite columnist? 

Steve Bell’s cartoons in The Guardian 

always make me laugh and manage to 

put everything into perspective, even if 

they are unrelated to gardening! 

a book like Plants for Bees. Written 

initially by Dr F. Norman Howes, a 

professional botanist and member of the 

scientific staff at Kew Gardens, it was first 

published back in 1945. Although there 

was a second edition in the late 1970s, 

after Dr Howes passed away, this is the 

latest amendment, which has been 

modified and expanded by Dr W. D. J. 

Kirk, a senior lecturer at Keele University. 

There are chapters written by other very 

established names in the beekeeping 

world, including David Aston, a Master 

Beekeeper and Chair of the British 

Beekeeping Association. The authors lend 

their knowledge to explain which flowers 

reviews: february 

Don’t miss Carol’s new regular column in the 

Sunday Mirror. You can also see her on BBC2 

with the revised series of Life in a Cottage 

Garden, which started on 11 January 2013. 

Her new book Wild Flowers (above) is available 

from all good bookshops. 

are good for honey bees, bumblebees and 

solitary bees. Previously, I would have 

grouped flowers together and planted 

accordingly. These chapters have changed 

my mindset completely as they discuss the 

There are chapters written by other very 

established names in the beekeeping world 

fundamental differences in the way 

that we should plant our gardens. 

A particularly good aspect of these 

chapters are the top 10 lists, which give 

a great precis of what you need to know. 

This is a fantastic book if you would like 

to consider bees more when planting. 

Reviewed by James Dearsley, author of 

From A To Bee (Summersdale, £8.99) 

www.surreybeekeeper.co.uk 

More books with the bee buzz: if you’re keen to have 

a well-stocked bookshelf of bee-related books then 

don’t miss out on James Dearsley’s From A to Bee 

or Keeping Bees in Towns & Cities by Luke Dixon. 


PROMOTIONAL FEATURE 

Snowdrop gardens to visit in 2013 

Get outside this month and enjoy the country’s collection of snowdrop gardens 

❶ 

CAMBO ESTATE 

Kingsbarns, St. Andrews, Fife, 

KY16 8QD Scotland. 

Tel: 01333 450054 

Email: cambo@camboestate.com 

www.camboestate.com 

The 70 acres of woodland walks on Cambo 

Estate provide a stunning backdrop to the 

carpets of snowdrops, snowflakes and 

aconites, which smother the banks of the burn 

as it flows to the sea. Enjoy the colours in the 

winter garden, discover the differences of 

some of the National Collection of over 330 

snowdrops on a guided walk with a gardener 

each weekday (free with entry), feed the 

piglets, treat yourself from the plant sales or 

just enjoy a snowdrop biscuit in the tea room. 

Mail Order bulbs available. 

OPEN Open daily 10am to 4.30pm. 

Adults £5, children free. 

❷ 

❹ 

CHIPPENHAM PARK 

Near Newmarket, Cambridgeshire CB7 5PT 

Tel: 01638 721416 

www.chippenhamparkgardens.info 

Chippenham Park offers 25 acres of spectacular woodland, lakeside 

and formal gardens. In late January and February much of the 

woodland walks are carpeted in a magnificent and abundant display 

of snowdrops and aconites which have naturalised themselves in 

vast numbers. Large numbers of hellebores, fiery dogwoods and 

exceptional trees help make this a truly inspirational time to visit. 

Recently awarded the top, two-star rating in the Good Gardens 

Guide. Homemade soups, our own pork hot-dogs, tea, coffee and 

other refreshments all day from our licensed tearoom. 

OPEN: All Saturdays and Sundays in February 11am-4pm. 

Entry £5. Open other dates throughout the year listed on 

our website. Private tours by appointment please call. 

WELFORD PARK 

Welford Park, Welford, 

Newbury, Berkshire, RG20 8HU 

Tel: 01488 608691 

www.welfordpark.co.uk 

Welford Park is a privately owned Queen Anne 

home and working farm and has been in the same 

family since 1618. The seven acre beech wood is 

one of the largest carpets of snowdrops in the British Isles. The banks of the River Lambourn and the 

gardens have many more species of galanthus, together with aconites and winter flowering shrubs. 

The Old Laundry tea room serves homemade lunches and cream teas and there is a ‘snowdrop’ shop. 

Dogs on leads. A wonderful day out for all the family. 

OPEN Open during February 11am-4pm Wednesday to Sunday. Closed on Monday and Tuesday. 

❶ 

❸ ❹ 

❷ 

❸ 

RODE HALL AND 

GARDENS 

Rode Hall, Scholar Green, 

Cheshire ST7 3QP 

Tel: 01270 873237 

email: enquiries@rodehall.co.uk 

www.rodehall.co.uk 

Rode Hall Gardens has one of the most 

spectacular displays of snowdrops in the 

North with over fifty different varieties set in a 

Repton landscape. The mile-long Snowdrop 

Walk is a perfect stroll out in the fresh air for 

the whole family, amidst swathes of cascading 

white flowers that truly are a sight to behold. 

OPEN: 2 Feb - 10 Mar, 12pm-4pm (except 

Mondays). Tearooms selling home made light 

lunches & afternoon teas. Shop with seasonal 

gifts & Rode Snowdrops. 

Advance tickets available online at 

www.rodehall.co.uk 

Group bookings welcome by appointment.

❺ 

MYDDELTON 

HOUSE 

GARDENS 

Myddelton House, Bulls Cross, 

Enfield EN2 9HG 

Tel: 08456 770 600 

Email: info@leevalleypark.org.uk 

www.visitleevalley.org.uk 

A visit to Myddelton House Gardens is a must 

at any time of the year, especially in February 

when the gardens will be brought to life with 

its extensive snowdrop collection. Discover the 

eight beautiful acres of grounds boasting an 

impressive range of flora and fauna, carp lake, 

tea room and visitor centre. 

OPEN April to September: 09:30 – 18:00 

October to March: 09:30 – 16:30 

Entry to the gardens is free 

Snowdrop sale 

Saturday 26 January 2013 

10:30 - 12:00 

£3.50 entry fee to the sale 

➑ 

BENINGTON LORDSHIP 

GARDENS 

Stevenage, Hertfordshire SG2 7BS 

Tel: 01438 869668 

www.beningtonlordship.co.uk 

This seven-acre garden sits on an historic, 

fortified site dating back to Norman times and 

is famous for its stunning display of snowdrops 

which have naturalised. With the snowdrop 

collection now extending to 140 varieties, the 

garden is a must-see for any keen galanthophile. 

OPEN Open daily 2 -24 February, 12-4pm & 

tearoom. For further openings in 2013 visit 

website or call. 

❻ 

WATERPERRY GARDENS 

Waterperry Gardens, Waterperry, 

Near Wheatley, 

Oxfordshire OX33 1JZ. 

Tel 01844 339254. Fax 01844 339883. 

Email office@waterperrygardens.co.uk 

www.waterperrygardens.co.uk 

Celebrate the first signs of spring with Snowdrop 

Weekends at Waterperry Gardens. The eight-acre 

ornamental gardens will be carpeted with more 

than 30 different varieties of snowdrop throughout 

the month, with special free guided tours on 

the weekends of February 16th and 23rd. 

(Entrance fee applies). 

Enjoy beautiful gardens, inspirational plants, 

gallery, gift barn and teashop serving home baked 

❼ ❽ 

❻ ❺ 


lunches, cakes and patisserie. Open all year 

round. 

OPENING TIMES 

10am to 5pm Jan - Mar 2013. 10am to 5.30pm 

Apr - Oct 2013. Party bookings welcome by 

arrangement. 

❼ 

COLESBOURNE 

PARK 

Estate Office, Colesbourne, Nr. 

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL53 9NP. 

www.snowdrop.org.uk 

Started by plant collector Henry John Elwes 

FRS with the outstanding Galanthus elwesii, 

the snowdrop collection has been greatly 

enhanced in recent years by great-grandson Sir 

Henry Elwes and his wife Carolyn and is now 

one of the best in the whole country. Visitors 

can walk through the 10 acre garden with its 

woodland and lakeside paths, the Spring 

Garden and the formal garden to see huge 

banks of snowdrops, hellebores and other 

winter plants. The surrounding park, arboretum 

and nearby church are also open. 

Teas and plant sales are available. 

OPEN every Saturday and Sunday in February 

and 2 and 3 March from 1pm. 

Adults £7, children free, dogs welcome. 

Halfway between Cheltenham and Cirencester 

on the A435.


Snowdrop gardens to visit in 2013 

Get outside this month and enjoy the country’s collection of snowdrop gardens 

9 

CHELSEA PHYSIC 

GARDEN 

Swan Walk, London SW3 4JJ 

Tel: 020 7352 5646 

enquiries@chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk 

www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/events 

Celebrate the coming of spring at Snowdrop 

Days at London's oldest botanic garden. 

Galanthomania with drifts of 10,000 newly 

planted snowdrops plus a snowdrop trail, theatre, 

guided tours, talks and workshops. 

Winter-flowering plants including rare snowdrops 

from Monksilver Nursery will be on sale. 

Enjoy a delicious brunch or warming lunch at 

the Garden's Tangerine Dream Café. 

OPEN Sat 2 February to Sun 10 February 

daily, 10am - 4pm £9/£6pp 

(Pre-booked groups £8/£5pp) 

12 

LACOCK ABBEY 

Lacock, near Chippenham 

SN15 2LG 

Telephone: 01249 730459 

Email: lacockabbey@nationaltrust.org.uk 

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lacock 

10 

HODSOCK PRIORY 

Hodsock Priory, 

Blyth, Nr Worksop, 

Nottinghamshire S81 0TY 

Tel: 01909 591 204 

www.hodsockpriory.com 

www.snowdrops.co.uk 

Hodsock Priory is a historic country 

house set in 800 acres of countryside 

on the border of Nottinghamshire and 

South Yorkshire. Visit during the snowdrop 

period (2nd Feb - 3rd Mar) 

and enjoy exploring 12 acres of woodland 

boasting a plethora of snowdrop varieties 

and five acres of formal gardens awash 

with winter blooms. 

Discover luscious carpets of snowdrops and 

Crocus vernus among magnificent trees in 

Lacock Abbey’s woodland garden. Join us for 

a Spring flower walk with head gardener Sue 

Carter, 20 and 25 February 2013, 2.30pm, and 

learn about the history of our garden. Normal admission applies. Limited spaces available for walks. 

OPEN: Open all year. Please see website for opening times. 

12 

11 

10 

9 

11 

FORDE ABBEY & 

GARDENS 

Forde Abbey, Chard, Somerset. 

TA20 4LU England. 

www.fordeabbey-gardens-dorset.co.uk 

Forde Abbey is renowned for its bulbs, especially 

during the February Snowdrop Weekends 

and March Crocus Week, when they carpet the 

gardens. Cyclamen, hellebores and narcissi 

also delight our visitors, at a time of year when 

the structural features of the gardens also 

stand out: the topiary, statuary, and ponds. 

Contact details: 

www.fordeabbey.co.uk 

01460 221290 

Email: info@fordeabbey.co.uk

13 

CHIRK CASTLE 

National Trust, Chirk, Wrexham, 

Wales, LL14 5AF 

Telephone: 01691 777701 

Email: chirk.castle@nationaltrust.org.uk 

Web: www.nationaltrust/Chirk 

Facebook: facebook.com/ChirkCastleNT 

Twitter: @ChirkCastleNT 

Come and visit the snowdrops in the 11 acres 

of garden and Pleasure Ground Wood at this 

wonderful 12th century marcher fortress. We 

have 2 acres of the common snowdrop in the 

woodland and a few different varieties in the 

picturesque garden itself. 

Light lunches in the Tea Room 

OPENING TIMES 

Open 10am -4pm in February 

16 

ABBEYWOOD GARDENS 

Abbeywood Gardens, Chester 

Road, Delamere, Northwich, 

Cheshire, CW8 2HS. 

Tel: 01606 301374 

www.abbeywoodgardenscheshire.co.uk 

abbeywood.gardens@gmail.com 

NESS BOTANIC 

14 GARDENS 

Ness, Neston, South Wirral, CH64 4AY 

Tel: 0845 030 4063 

www.nessgardens.org.uk 

Start the gardening year by walking through the carpets of 

snowdrops at Ness Gardens. Native snowdrops sparkle under 

the Pinewood and true Galanthophiles can search for over 30 

different varieties scattered throughout the Rock Garden. 

Snowdrop guided walks Saturday 15th & Sunday 16th 

February 10.00am - 12.30pm. After your stroll around the 

Gardens enjoy a well-earned break in the Visitor Centre to 

enjoy a warming drink or meal in the Kitchen Garden cafe. 

Promo Code: TEG02/13 

OPEN 1 Nov – 31 Jan 10am – 4.30pm. 

1 Feb – 31 Oct 10am – 5pm. 

15 

16 

14 

13 

For the 1st time come and see the Snowdrops in 

Jane's Garden at Abbeywood. Over 150+ varieties planted along with Crocus and Hellebores. Explore 

our two areas of woodland which are being developed as a Snowdrop Walk, with over 40'000 bulbs 

planted in 2011. Then warm yourselves in our Garden Cafe. 

See website for further opening times. 

15 


SUMMERDALE 

HOUSE 

Summerdale House, CowBrow 

Lupton, Cumbria LA6 1PE 

Tel: 01539567210 

www.summerdalegardenplants.co.uk 

sheals@btinternet.com 

Snowdrop time marks the beginning of the 

season for this jewel of a private garden. 

Carpets of single and double snowdrops with 

ever increasing collection of cultivars. 

The garden and adjoining nursery are a plantsman’s 

delight. 

Enjoy a bowl of hot soup and home baking in 

the house by a log fire. 

OPEN: For NGS Sundays 17th and 24th Feb. 

11-4.30pm. See web for further opening times.

TO ADVERTISE CONTACT SEAN MCKEON TEL: +44 (0) 1242 264786 EMAIL: SEAN.MCKEON@ARCHANT.CO.UK 

Shop with us FOR 

NEW TO THE SHOP 

THIS MONTH 

PLANTS 

Paugers Plants Ltd 

ONLINE SHOP 

A Suffolk based nursery offering 1000's of Garden 

Plants. Service, quality and value assured. 

www.paugers-plants.co.uk 

No more barrow lugging! 

The Smart Cart 

Perfect balance, light, 

large capacity 

Highly manoeuverable, 

4-600 lbs load 

You’ll never need a 

wheelbarrow again 

07850 204714 

www.smartcartsuk.com 

ACCESSORIES 

ACCOMMODATION 

NORTH NORFOLK 

One of two detached cottages within the 

peaceful gardens of Hindringham Hall. 

See April 2012 issue. Sleeping 2 and 4 

guests. 4 miles from sea. 

Tel: 01328 878226 

www.hindringhamhall.org 

CLARE HOUSE HOTEL 

Park Road, Grange over Sands LA11 7HQ 

Tel: +44 (0)1539 533 026. www.clarehousehotel.co.uk 

In this quieter coastal locale of South Cumbria, a haven of peace and 

tranquillity awaits you at this award winning family run hotel. 

We are now closed for winter 

refurbishments, Re-opening March 25th 

Inspectors’ Choice Hotel 

Providers of English Handcrafted 

Planters and Outdoor Furniture in 

Oak, Iroko & Accoya 

All products manufactured using sustainable wood. 

Please visit www.oxfordplanters.co.uk to view our products. 

Alternatively email - info@oxfordplanters.co.uk 

or call 01295 720303 for more information 

RAISED BEDS 

MORE INFORMATION VISIT US AT 


FENCES AND GATES 

New products now available; 

Estate Fencing & Gates, Kissing Gates, Bowtop 

Fencing, Tree Seats, Garden Seats, Rose Arches, 

Garden Globes, Pleaching Arches, Tree Guards, 

Candelabra’s. 

Tel: 01733 270 580 

www.paddockfencing.com 

French Farm, French Drove, Thorney, Peterborough, PE6 0PQ 

ARTS AND CRAFTS 

A PASTIME THAT LASTS A LIFETIME 

Over 150 beautiful tapestry kit designs, 

wools and accessories available to order. 

To request a brochure please 

email: ebd@elizabethbradley.com 

Tel: 01865 339 050 

www.elizabethbradley.com 

GARDEN DESIGN

HEDGING AND TOPIARY 

HEDGING AND TOPIARY 

NURSERIES 

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT US AT 


NURSERIES 

PRICES 

HELD 

FROM 

2010 

Shop with us 

Happy Birthday 

Special Anniversary 

PET SERVICES 

PUBLISHERS 

SEEDS 

since 1975 

Request your copy of the 2013 edition of our unique catalogue “Grow Something New from Seed” along with 

“The VegBook”. Enjoy a cheerful read and select from around 4,000 items for every horticultural interest. Our 

colourful “VegBook” has tasty old, new and unusual vegetables and herbs. Our many new items for the new 

season have come from around the corner and around the world. All our items are also available online at… 

www.chilternseeds.co.uk or Tel: 01491 824675 

info@chilternseeds.co.uk. Chiltern Seeds, Crowmarsh Battle Barns, 114 Preston Crowmarsh, Wallingford, OX10 6SL 

WEB SERVICES 

Terwins Seeds 

Buy online@ 

www.terwinseeds.co.uk 

Ordinary & Organic Vegetable & 

Herb Seeds,Onion &, Shallot Sets, 

Seed Potatoes & much more. 

Free 2013 Catalogue 

Tel 01284 828 255 

e-mail info@terwinseeds.co.uk 

Unit 5A, Peppers Hall, Old Hall Lane, 

Cockfield, Suffolk, IP30 0LH. 

ROSES 

For Every 

SPECIAL 

OCCASION 

Tel: 01939 210380 

OVER 1000 Varieties 

to Choose From 

www.countrygardenroses.co.uk 

TO ADVERTISE CONTACT SEAN MCKEON TEL: +44 (0) 1242 264786 EMAIL: SEAN.MCKEON@ARCHANT.CO.UK

in conversation with... 

On the world stage 

International writer and plantsman Noel Kingsbury explains why British gardeners should look 

overseas for inspiration and as a way of finding innovative ideas for their own gardens 

Q Which overseas garden has inspired you 

the most and why? 

A Hermannshof, in Weinheim, Germany. There 

are so many fantastic plant combinations, 

organised on a habitat basis, but on a relatively 

small scale, so it’s not overwhelming. It’s run as 

a public park - an oasis of very good gardening 

surrounded by the historic town centre, and 

beyond that the hills and castles of the Rhine 

Valley. It has intimacy and broad vistas, and 

a combination of a strong central theme and 

abundant detail that makes a great garden. 

Q What was your last foreign trip? 

A I’m in Uruguay right now, lecturing to packed 

venues with a garden deisgner colleague 

Amalia Robredo, who I have been mentoring 

for several years. The Argentine/Uruguay garden 

crowd are a tightly knit community, very 

friendly, and thirsty for ideas and knowledge. 

There’s a great feeling here of new things 

being tried and a distinctive ‘local garden look’ 

developing. I feel moved that people have 

been coming from all over Argentina, which is 

such a vast and varied country, and even from 

Chile and Paraguay. 

Q Would you be tempted to garden abroad? 

If so where? 

A I have often thought I would like to garden in 

the tropics, where it is just so totally different; 

flowers and fruit all year round! Southern India 

I love, although gardening is undeveloped there 

compared to southeast Asia. Maybe I’ll try it 

when I am old and creaky, and want to escape 

the grey and damp of Britain. 

Q Why should UK gardeners visit foreign 

gardens for inspiration? 

A Because there are so many good things to 

be seen: new plants, new ideas, new ways of 

putting things together; and also because British 

gardeners get stuck in a rut all too easily, and 

spend too much time copying either each 

other or a few fashionable gardens. I suppose 

everyone else is in a bit of a rut too, but it’s good 

to see other people’s ruts. 


Q Which country do you believe is leading 

the way with garden design trends and 

planting styles? 

A Germany and France definitely lead on 

planting trends: summer bedding for both, and 

the former for perennials. Swedish and French 

garden shows come up with some off-the-wall, 

but quite often usable, ideas; their shows 

are much freer and more imaginative than 

their British equivalents. 

Q You were very active in introducing Piet 

Oudolf to UK gardeners. Are there any 

other designers/plantsman who we should 

look out for? 

A One person would be Cassian Schmidt, 

a German who is director of the Hermannshof 

garden; although he is more concerned with 

building plant communities than design as 

such. Daniela Coray, who won Young Garden 

Designer of the Year at Tatton Park last year, is 

an American, but she seems to have settled 

in Cornwall. There is also a knot of good 

plant-focused garden-making in Scotland: Skye 

Hopetoun at Hopetoun House (although she 

is still years away from opening the garden); 

Elliott Forsyth at Cambo; and nurseryman and 

designer Colin McBeath. 

Q Does the UK lead the way in any aspect of 

horticulture? Can we safely claim to be a 

world-leader in any sector of decorative 

horticulture? 

A No, but we are so good at ‘plantsmanship’ - 

that love of plants for their own sake, the trying 

and collecting of new plants - which can then 

feed into more general use. We have some 

fantastic small nurseries and more gardens 

open to the public than anyone else. The 

National Gardens Scheme, in particular, does 

a fantastic job in making gardens of all kinds 

open and accessible to everyone. 

Planting Design with Perennials is an online 

gardening course developed by Noel Kingsbury. 

The next four-week course starts 2 February; 

price £145; see www.my-garden-school.com 

TOP Plantsman and writer Noel Kingsbury 

often leads botanical and garden tours in foreign 

climes. BOTTOM A wooden boardwalk leads to 

the pavilion in Noel Kingsbury’s garden through 

borders including tufts of Stipa tenuissima, 

dark burgundy Knautia macedonica and 

deep purple-blue Salvia forsskaolii. 

IMAGES/KIERAN BRADSHAW 

BOTTOM - ANDREA JONES/GARDEN 

EXPOSURES PHOTO LIBRARY

gardens

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