Isabella Plantation

It’s very easy to visit Richmond Park regularly and completely miss the Isabella Plantation. The deer are kept out of this part of the park, allowing for a wide variety of trees and a more garden-like feel.

Principally a woodland garden, it is in spring that the many flowering shrubs and trees come to the fore. There are witch-hazels, camellias and magnolias in early spring. In April and May it is the turn of azaleas and rhododendrons. Get ready for a technicolour tour.

The garden is home to the National Plant Collection of Wilson 50 Kurume Azaleas, introduced to the west from Japan in the 1920's by the plant collector Ernest Wilson. If you want to identify them all this website has the definitive list.

The Isabella Plantation sits in a natural dip and running and still water throughout is a major feature.

Most of the water features are man-made, water is pumped from Pen Ponds and the streams were dug out in the 20th century. The lower part of the Plantation is naturally boggy and the garden plants here reflect that with asiatic primulas, gunnera and this rather fantastic Darmera peltata.

Isabella Plantation has been subject to some significant investment in recent years. Ponds have been cleared of silt, the remaining invasive Rhododendron ponticum has been cleared out, along with rampant skunk cabbage. And the paths and loos have been upgraded. If you’ve got a blue badge you can park very close by and all the paths are acessible with a wheelchair. Dogs on leads are allowed.

Most people know that I’m not a big fan of rhododendrons, particularly in smaller gardens. Where they’ve got space to do their thing though they look majestic. I like seeing them in dark groves where they can look moody and mysterious, particularly on a gloomy day.

And just occasionally you come across some very delicate flowers, completely different. Unfortunately I cannot find the name of this one.

2023, a year in photos

I googled “what will 2023 be famous for?” There were some forecasts - war, climate catastrophe, financial turbulence and technological change - so far, so predictable. But a fashion trend for blackened teeth thankfully hasn’t come to pass (or did I miss it?).

Wimbledon Common in January

The year started with a famously cold January. It was a near record of eight days in a row of freezing temperatures. Whilst Wimbledon Common looked fab in the heavy frost the weather took its toll in the garden. Many people lost plants, in particular Hebes, Erigeron karvinskianus and Penstemons. They were hard to replace initially as the frost had affected so many gardens as well as suppliers in the UK and Europe.

Cyclamen at Wakehurst Place in February

One answer to this is to plant a winter garden, full of plants that look their best at this time of year. I went to visit Wakehurst Place which has a fairly new winter garden. It didn’t disappoint and partly as a response to this we have developed a couple of winter borders in my local park.

Magnificent magnolia in Bushy Park in March

A persistent easterly wind in March and April meant that spring felt like a long time coming but finally, after a few false starts, I got on a plane for the first time in three years to go to the garden island of Madeira.

Fanal Forest, Madeira, in April

There were gardens aplenty on the island but one of the most fascinating sights was the ancient laurel forest on the north slope. Subject to frequent fog and mist the trees were already mature when the Spanish arrived in the 14th century. It is an eerie place and, as I found, it’s very easy to get lost.

Bluebells in the Surrey Hills in May

May was a busy month. The weather warmed up a little and I found a great new bluebell wood in the Surrey Hills. The sun also came out for the Chelsea Flower Show and there was only one garden everyone was talking about - Sarah Price’s iris garden. It wasn’t overrated, almost worth the ticket price on its own.

Chelsea Flower Show in May

Also in May I finished planting a new garden in Wimbledon. Throughout the year I have continued as a volunteer gardener in my local park. Luckily the summer wasn’t quite as scorching as 2022. The ox-eye daisies in a wildflower part of the park were stunning in June.

Ox-eye daisies in June

All through 2023 I have been learning how to use a 3D design software package. It has been challenging to say the least but considerable progress has been made. I’m not sure I’ll ever reach guru status, but it’s good to get to a stage where clients can see their prospective gardens in 3D and even walk through them. I haven’t had a client yet say they prefer the old hand-drawn way of doing things.

Cedar greenhouse in July

In July I caught up with a friend who I’d helped with the layout of her garden ahead of the installation of a new greenhouse.

Waterperry Gardens in August

In August there was an overload of garden visits to Ham House, Waterperry Gardens and the best garden I’ve seen in a long time, Le Jardin Plume.

Le Jardin Plume, Normandy in August

Whilst in France I also visited the garden festival at Chaumont and the formal gardens at Chenonceau.

Chenonceau in September

Autumn took a long time to arrive, an unexpected heatwave followed by what seemed like endless rain, and then finally, some spectacular colour. Piet Oudolf describes a fifth season, somewhere between summer and autumn. The garden at the Hepworth Wakefield is a great example of how good a garden can look at this inbetween time.

Allium sphareocephalon and Perovskia in October

And my photographic year ends there, somewhat abruptly. The big camera is out of action and the camera on my phone doesn’t really cut it as a replacement. Normal service will be resumed shortly, hopefully in time for some winter photography.

RHS Harlow Carr

A visit to Yorkshire to see friends meant a long-awaited trip to the RHS garden at Harlow Carr.

Harlow Carr

It’s a much more compact garden than Wisley, making it much easier to get around and see almost all of it. The garden was looking pretty good in the very bright and low autumn sunshine (not ideal for photography). It was a bit too early for good autumn colour in the arboretum but there was plenty going on elsewhere.

Aconitum

The long herbaceous borders were still looking colourful. I expect the very warm September had a lot to with extending the season.

Verbena bonariensis, Rudbeckia and Kniphofia

Persicaria

There’s a small stream running through the gardens and just uphill from this is a more traditional mix of shrubs, small trees and perennials, all looking great when back-lit with the low sun.

Hakonechloa macra

Astrantia major

Dawn redwood

Eryngium seedheads

Sidalcea

One of the things that surprised me and my southern view up gardening up north is how successful the salvias were. The gardens seem to showcase a lot of different varieties, from the stauesque Salvia Amistad and S. guaranitica Black and Blue, to the more shrubby Salvias such as Hotlips, Nachtvlinder and others I did not recognise. Who knew thse natives of the Americas, thought to be tender and prone to frost could thrive in this environment?

Salvia guaranitica Black and Blue

Shrubby Salvias

There was also a tropical garden, full of bananas, the regular Musa basjoo and the Ethiopian variety Ensete ventricosum. Admittedly these were accompanied by many coloured foliage plants like Coleus and the autumn colour of Cercis and Dogwoods. My friends are tasked with finding out if the bananas are left in all winter.

Tropical garden

Towards the lowest point of the gardens there is what looks like a white border. In autumn the grasses are the highlight, but I would like to see it when more of the perennials are in flower. The only flower on show in October was this stately Leucanthemum.

Leucanthemum in the white border

Harlow Carr is just outside Harrogate so it is no surpise to find all the catering is provided by Bettys. The queues are long so take a flask or do as I did, and get a friend to wait in line (thanks Rachel…).

Autumn colour

Harlow Carr - the gardens are open every day except Christmas Day

Bettys - they say there’s no need to book for the tea rooms but the long queues suggest otherwise…

The Hepworth Wakefield Garden

I was not overly hopeful of enjoying the Hepworth Wakefield Garden. Often gardens that seem good looking on social media are somewhat disappointing in real life. And the long journey up the M1 had been dreary and wet, compounding my low expectations.

The Hepworth Wakefield Garden

So it was a really pleasant surprise to find that it was all it was cracked up to be and, not only that, the sun came out just as I arrived.

The garden was designed by Tom Stuart Smith and according to thee garden’s website the “design draws inspiration from its unusual setting between 19th-century red-brick mills and a 21st-century art gallery. It echos the striking, angular shapes of the David Chipperfield-designed gallery while harnessing a naturalism that reflects Barbara Hepworth’s deep connection to the landscape.”

Rhus typhina and Aconitum

Construction began in 2019 and is planted with 14,000 perennials, 120 metres of beech hedge, 52 trees and shrubs and 60,000 bulbs.

Rhus typhina and grasses

In autumn the main features of the garden are the brilliantly-leaved Rhus typhina, grasses and various asters, all looking really good backlit by low autumn sun. I can’t say that Rhus is a favourite plant of mine, it has a tendency to sucker and spread, but in autumn the colour is hard to beat.

Rhus typhina

Phlomis russeliana seedheads

Asters and Echinacea seedheads

I sometimes find it hard to persuade clients that it’s worth planting for autumn colour and form. Despite the much-lauded value of grasses and seedheads it’s not until people see gardens like this in autumn that they become convinced.

Pennisetum and Salvia (formerly Perovskia) Little Spire

Back-lit grasses and asters

Euphorbia and Echinacea seedheads

More grasses and asters

One plant I was delighted and surprised to see in a public garden was the bright blue Aconitum. I’m not sure which variety it is but it’s stunning in the half shade under an oak tree. Most Aconitum are poisonous and although some have AGM status they should always be handled with care; ingesting even a small amount can make you seriously unwell and can cause death. Here it is placed well back in the border and does not overhang the lawn or paved areas.

Aconitum, to be handled with care…

There is a small cafe in the garden (closed when I was there) and a cafe inside the gallery. The garden is free to enter, though you do have to pay for parking close by on the other side of the River Calder.

Sculpture by Michael Craig-Martin

Long view

Fading into beautiful light

It was well-worth the long schlep up to Wakefield (on my way to meet up with friends really…) and proved every bit as good as it looks on Instagram - @katymerrington. It is beautifully maintained by cultural gardener Katy Merrington and a team of volunteers.

Ham House

It’s been a few years since my last visit to Ham House. This time, amazingly, I went in the house and had a quick whizz round. Lots of paintings and tapestries, fab windows and staircase and really good views of the surrounding 30 acres. Mature trees mean you can’t see the Thames even though it’s only a stone’s throw away.

Father of the Thames in Coade stone

Ham House was built in 1610 by Thomas Vavasour, an Elizabethan courtier to James I. It was then leased, and later bought, by William Murray, a close friend and supporter of Charles I. The house achieved its greatest period of prominence following his daughter Elizabeth's second marriage—to John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale.

Agastache, Calendula and Lavender

The design of the garden was considered as important as that of the house and has a strong French influence. There are formal avenues of trees radiating out from the house and the garden is divided into a number of smaller, though still very large by modern standards, walled areas.

Statuesque Allium Summer Drummer

The property was donated to the National Trust in 1948 but renovation of the gardens did not begin until 1975. The works have focused mainly on the Wilderness, the kitchen garden, known as the Orangery, grass squares called The Plats and the Cherry Garden. In recent years there has been a concerted effort to increase biodiversity with large areas of the grounds planted with wild flowers.

Herbs planted under an apple tree

In early August the most interesting features are the Cherry Garden and the Kitchen Garden. The latter is the most recent to be renovated and the focus is on producing fruit and vegetables for the cafe and flowers for the house. By no means does this cover the whole of the original Orangery garden.

The garden is laid out in a grid pattern with corners often marked with these topiaried variegated hollies and many of the paths are lined with lavender or teucrium.

The garden was buzzing with wildlife, mainly bumble bees and butterflies (I spotted Red Admiral, Large White and skippers). This pigeon was helping itself to the borage.

Bumblebee in the thyme

Hemerocallis

I don’t know if it was just the time of year or a deliberate design intention but the kitchen garden was overwhelmingly orange and purple - Hemerocallis, Calendula, Dahlias, Lavender, Agastache, Teucrium, Salvias - and it was very effective. The orange-red brick amplified the effect.

More Lavender and Calendula

In contrast, the Cherry Garden is a lesson in restraint, definitely a less is more approach. Although the layout of pleached tree avenues and parterre of box topiary and lavender is very 17th century French in style, all is not as it appears.

Box topiary, just trimmed

Archeological investigations in the 1980s showed no signs of a formal garden on this side of the house. Happily the National Trust has decided to keep this as a formal garden rather than be puritanical about keeping to the 17th Century design.

It is a designated as a quiet space and the limited palette of plants - pleached limes, yew hedges, box topiary and lavender - was very restful and quite modern in feel. The structure and evergreens mean this would still be a still place even in winter.

The slanting sun in late afternoon in the second half of summer gave all the edges a silvery glow, almost, but not completely, caputured in my photos.

I didn’t try the cafe although it looked very nice, situated in the kitchen garden. No doubt the fare is standard NT stuff.

There’s also a second hand bookshop (quite good, but not as extensive as the one at Mordern Hall Park). There seemed to quite a few outdoor activities for children but most seemed to be having fun just running around.

There’s parking at Ham Street Carpark or you might get lucky and park for free on Ham Street. It’s a bit of a schlep from a railway station.

If you’re out for the day you’re just a short walk from The Palm Centre (access via Cut Throat Alley….). and Petersham Nurseries (more restaurant than nursery).

Thanks to Wikipedia for a potted history.

Chelsea 2023 - Sarah Price's Garden

It’s not often a show garden at Chelsea is universally popular. Despite being heavily featured on the tv coverage there were still gasps of delight and audible wows as visitors saw it for the first time.

And I think this is the first time I’ve showcased a single Chelsea garden, that’s how much I liked it.

Iris Benton Susan

The most striking thing about the garden when you see it for the first time is the amazing display of Benton irises. Cedric Morris was an artist and also bred irises ast his Suffolk home, Benton End. “Cedric Morris was famous for his flower paintings and iris still lifes. You can see that he really understood the plants, but he was also an incredible gardener, who influenced Beth Chatto. He introduced 90 different cultivars of bearded iris,” says Sarah.

Iris Benton Olive and Aeonium Zwartkopf

The irises, like the garden at Benton End, languished for many years. A former head gardener at Sissinghurst, Sarah Cook, began the long process of hunting them down and breeding them, a process which is now carried on by others.

Like all the gardens this one has had to prove its environmental credentials and the builders claim it has the lowest carbon footprint of any garden at the show. All the materials are found and/or recycled and much of the garden will be relocated back to Benton End at the end of the show.

Rosa x odora mutabilis

This garden is about much more than the irises however, It is also an evocation of the old garden at Benton End. Other plants such as the trees and grasses are designed to appear semi-wild. The colour palette of pink, blue and yellow is taken from two of Cedric Morris’s paintings (Cotyledon and Eggs, and The Eggs).

A couple of things really appealed to me: the overall colour palette which is muted but has depth too, and changes colour in different light; and the overall feeling of light and space. The only other garden which had this quality was the Transcendence garden by Andrew Wilson and Gareth McWilliam. Although there was lots to look at it didn’t feel busy or cramped, there was no need to fill every square inch of space with plants (or structures, or funiture or other stuff…).

Eschscholzia Californica Ivory Castle

Chelsea was as crowded as ever, if not more so. It’s not helped by the fact that some designers make it difficult to get a good view of their gardens, with everyone scrunched up into a few linear metres. Even Monty Don has said some of the gardens can only be viewed, and understood, from inside the garden. Some designers, in my opinion, are repeat offenders when it comes to not making their gardens fully viewable to the paying visitor. Come on RHS, please sort this out.

Yes, it’s still a good day out and just about worth the money, but it is becoming an endurance event.

Sarah Price’s Nurture Group garden

Wimbledon Common in winter

It’s been a cracking winter in London, if you enjoy landscape photography. The prolonged period of frost in December, followed by the snow, produced some lovely conditions for photography. And another period of frost in January was a bonus. If this sounds like a wierd thing to celebrate, especially as every sub-zero day adds considerably to your energy bill, last winter there were no frosts at all. A whole winter of grey, wet dreariness…

“Good” wintry conditions are obviously frost and snow, ideally coupled with fog or bright, low sun. Its amazing how different the same scene can look in different conditions.

Runner up Wimbledon and Putney Commons Art on the Commons - Winter

The Newt in Somerset

The Newt has been on my bucket list for quite a while, longer in fact than it has been called The Newt.

The hotel

Now an hotel and spa, it has been the home of garden designer Penelope Hobhouse and plant colourists Nori and Sandra Pope who all knew it as Hadspen House. The current owners, Koos Bekker and his wife Karen Roos bought the house, its gardens and the rest of the estate in 2013.

Apple bobbing anyone?

The house and garden have been redesigned by Patrice Taravella on a seemingly money-no-object basis. There is a huge focus on growing apples with the estate making its own fine cider. Produce from the farm and garden feature substantially on the menus.

View of the kitchen garden

The elliptical walled garden is famous and now features many heritage apples grown as espaliers and cordons within an apple-themed maze. The rest of the garden tells the history of gardening including geometric Islamic garden designs with rills, Victorian formal bedding displays, a Baroque garden to more modern grass borders, wild flower meadows and some flower gardens with colour themes as a nod to the previous endeavours of the Popes.

Islamic garden

I’ve a feeling there’s not much of the garden Penelope Hobhouse and the Popes would have known, with the exception of the Walled Garden. However, you wouldn’t know it’s a relatively new garden. No expense has been spared in using the finest quality materials from oak sleepers, wrought iron railings (miles of it), Blue Lias limestone steps (from Hadspen quarry?), an extremely large, mature cloud pruned yew hedge and mature espalier and fan-trained fruit trees.

Gourd tunnel

A couple of examples of this are the gourd tunnel, designed just to show the beauty of different varieties of gourds and pumpkins (some are netted for safety), and my favourite feature, the aerial walkway through ash and beech trees to a rather nice cafe.

Aerial walkway

And yes, even though we’d had an amazing lunch, cake was eaten - rosewater and pistachio if you’re wondering (we did at least share).

The colour gardens are some of the newer features here, with separate rooms of red, white, blue and green plants.

Blue garden

Red garden

Green garden

It was a chilly grey day in late September when we visited but the grass borders were looking amazing.

Grass garden

And the Cottage Garden was still looking good. The whole of this garden is irrigated so there was no evidence of any drought damage. And neither were there any weeds, amazing.

Cottage garden

The Newt is just a few minutes from the A303 and a couple of miles from the destination town of Bruton. It would be quite hard to fit in the Hauser & Wirth garden at Bruton if you’re just visiting for the day (we didn’t manage to see all of the garden at The Newt) and having lunch as well.

A casual visit to the Newt is difficult unless you have a very good friend who is a member and/or are staying overnight at the hotel. I’m told the hotel and spa are rather fabulous and worth every penny.

There are restuarants, cafes, a farm shop, home wares shop, cider press, a museum, a newly recreated Roman Villa, more than enough to keep you entertained for quite a while.

A big thanks to Nicola for a fabulous day out, lunch and driving all the way there and back.

West Green House Gardens

This is a garden I have visited many times and it never disappoints. The undoubted highlight of a spring visit is the mass display of tulips, principally in the walled garden.

The colour and form of the tulips is kalaidoscopic to say the least, but look closely and you’ll see there is definitely method in the seeming madness. Many of the tulips are sold by the Gardens, either as single varieties or in collections.

Despite many of the tulips being listed on the website it’s still quite hard to recognise them all.

Tulipa Violet Beauty

This is probably my favourite combination in the whole garden. It’s reminiscent of the Alice in Wonderland tea garden, although it is at the opposite end of the site.

Raspberry ripple tulips anyone?

Tulipa Rasta Parrot

In the vegetable garden the tulips are used as bedding plants. The painted plant supports add some colourful height.

At the farthest end of the garden a former topiary lawn has been replaced by this mass planting of tulips. The remaining box balls are a solid contrast to the flightiness of the tulips.

Not all of the garden is devoted to tulips in spring. The damper meadow areas are planted with narcissi and snake’s head fritillaries,.

The walled garden also contains a lot of box, outlining the formal beds and adding some height and structure. The box seems to be recovering well from box tree caterpillar.

The tea shop has two outdoor seating areas. This is my favourite, a sheltered spot with an Alice in Wonderland theme of red and white. Very nice tea and cake by the way.

Alice in Wonderland tea garden

Although this is a private garden you can enter for free with a National Trust membership card. You will have to pay £4 for parking unless you can find a spot on the road just outside the gardens.

I can’t recommend these gardens highly enough.

https://www.westgreenhouse.co.uk/

Gardening to the rescue - the Hampton Court Flower Show

It’s hard to believe things have returned to normal. Is that because our new normal is anything but? The 2021 Hampton Court Flower Show is the first of the RHS’s shows to open after nearly 18 months of cancellations and delays. There was no social distancing but you had to have proof of two vaccinations or a recent test to get in and you still had to wear a mask in the marquees and loos. What really made it feel normal though was the torrential rain, for an hour at least. It was July afterall.

The first of the show gardens we came across was Mike Long’s aptly named A Place To Meet Again. The meeting again is more to do with meeting previously used materials like scaffold boards, old taps (surely a bit too shiny to have had an earlier life?) and a water harvesting tank (oh yes I’ve got one of those lying around, I always wondered what I could use it for) than getting together with friends and family again. That said, I really liked this garden, especially the green and white plant palette, the use of the grey paving in different shapes and textures and the water harvesting tanks cut up to make a sculptural feature and a seat.

Environmental issues were to the forefront in this show - how to adapt to climate change, how gardens can improve our environment, physically and mentally, how to get started in gardening and the consequences of not taking any of these issues seriously.

Jamie Butterworth’s Feature Garden for a greener future (more about Feature Gardens later) showed how gardens and planting could evolve to adapt to wetter winters and hotter, drier summers with drought resilient plants on mounds and ditches for water run-off and damp-loving plants. From a distance the seating area looked attractive, surrounded by lush vegetation. However, my frequent gripe about show gardens is that they are designed more with tv in mind than with paying show visitors and that is definitely the case here.

In stark contrast is Felicity O’Rourke’s Extinction garden. A salvaged passenger plane (Felicity used to be an airline pilot) shows the effect of our lifestyle, reliance on a very small number of plants to feed us and exploitation of natural resources could cause a sixth global extinction. This design was the most shocking and graphic of the show gardens and was quite a talking point amongst visitors.

Tracy Foster’s Message in a Bottle garden is all about plastic, waste and how plants can be used to replace many materials. For example, the oil from flax can be used as a plastic liner alternative.

Outdoor living and the closeness to nature of Norwegian life was the focus of Will Williams’ garden. The planting and hard landscaping was beautiful, althought the feature waterwall didn’t really feature as I didn’t notice there was water pouring down it.

Back to the Feature Gardens. There were a number of show gardens that were not up for judging. These included the Cut Flower Garden above (these amazing Cosmos bipinnatus are called Velouette), Jamie Butterworth’s Garden for a Greener Future and Tom Stuart-Smith’s Iconic Heroes garden below. They are not judged because they are sponsored by the RHS.

This begs a couple of questions - why are there so many gardens sponsored by the RHS, and does judging really matter? Two of the four Feature Gardens were designed by big names in the garden industry and in all likelihood would have little difficulty in attracting outside sponsorship (or winning gold medals). Jamie Butterworth’s garden was designed to a specific RHS message I suppose and Tom Stuart-Smith’s was a sort of tribute to his career (although he has done a number of these sponsored RHS gardens in recent years).

Generally I find visitors to the Hampton Court Show are less obsessed with medals than those at Chelsea. Even to novice show visitors it is obvious which gardens are better than others. This Garden of Solitude won a bronze medal. It’s good in parts but as a whole doesn’t really deliver on the idea or the implementation. It doesn’t feel anymore peaceful than other gardens at the show, the planting looks a bit random and as for the blue wall…. So why does the RHS bother with medals at all? Surely most of the poor designs are weeded out at the proposal stage. Does the competition for gold medals result in better show gardens? What do you think?

I wasn’t that keen on Amanda Grimes’ Punk Rockery garden to begin with but I had a long time to look at it waiting for a friend to navigate the queue for the loos. Closer inspection and then looking it up it shows what you can do with an unpromising site of rubble and little money.. There is a plant for every type of soil and aspect and many will thrive on almost complete neglect. If the last 15 months have shown us anything it’s that gardening is a deeply ingrained behaviour that can be extremely rewarding. Plants will try really hard to stay alive and will grow in less than ideal conditions so why not just have a go?

My Best in Show award goes to Will Williams’ Legacy Garden for Cancer Research UK. The planting was beautiful and the message strong, emphasised by the enthusiastic staff on the garden.

One thing that’s not changed is the excruciating price of food and drink (or the lack of places to shelter in the rain). My advice as usual is to splash out on the coffee or Pimms and take your own picnic. My friend Joy’s picnic was so good a few people asked us where we got it.

Roll on Chelsea 2021.

Ramster Gardens

At the end of a very soggy October my friend Helen and I went to Ramster Gardens in Surrey. It wasn’t on a wish list of places to visit but at the end of half term week when it was impossible to book Kew, Wisley or the Winkworth Arboretum, Ramster Gardens was refreshingly devoid of booking systems, timed entries or queues.

To quote the brochure, “the gardens were first laid out in 1890 by the well-known local nurseries, Gauntlett of Chiddingfold, who created them out of oak woodland. They were famous for their interest in Japanese plants and ornaments.”

“In 1922 Ramster was bought by Sir Henry and Lady Norman, the great grandparents of the current owners. Lady Norman greatly added to the gardens and introduced many of the rhododendrons and azaleas … the garden is now home to over 300 different varieties.”

In autumn though it is the trees that come to the fore, particularly the Japanese maples, of which there are several different varieties. The guide to the trees was not available at the time of our visit so we couldn’t identify all of them.

There are a number of Japanese lanterns and other sculptures in the gardens, I liked these metal mushrooms and the cranes in the Pond.

The mature rhododendrons were also very sculptural and spooky-looking, very Harry Potter on the day before Halloween. However, my photos of them were mysteriously out of focus.

The planting around the Lake is suitably boggy and the normally unprepossessing goat willow was looking the best version of itself. The overhanging beech trees were almost at peak colour..

There are some magnificent and less common trees in the gardens - a number of redwoods, Parrottias and Liquidambars, but it was the Acers that stole the show.

The Gardens are much more compact than, say, Winkworth Arboretum, but the ponds, narrow paths, steps, sculpture and undulations and relatively low number of visitors make it a more interesting garden for my money.

Tea and pretty good cake are available at the entrance to the garden. There is some outdoor seating undercover which was useful in the drizzle. We took a picnic and were able to find a seat (the Grouse Hole) undercover in the gardens.

The gardens are open until 8 November so you’ll need to get your skates on if you want to visit this year. It’s pretty muddy so take the right footwear. Dogs are allowed.

Ramster Gardens - https://www.ramsterevents.com/visitor-information

Winkworth Arboretum - https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/winkworth-arboretum

Some amazing photos of the Acers in the gardens - Craig Denford

Painshill Park

On a blustery afternoon at the end of September, when it was no longer summer but not quite autumn, I went to Painshill Park with friend Joy.

It’s hard to describe Painshill Park as a garden with our current understanding of the word. It is an 18th century landscape garden, inspired by the landscape painting of the time and Grand Tours of Europe.

The creator was Charles Hamilton, an MP. He purchased the land in 1737 with the express intention of creating a natural landscape with beautiful vistas and idealised ruins. Now known as the “Picturesque” style, Hamilton was a forerunner to Capability Brown.

The main feature of the Park, the serpentine lake, was created by pumping water from the nearby River Mole. All the built structures like the ruined abbey, grotto, Roman and Gothic temples, Ottoman tent and Hermitage, are fake. The Mausoleum above is based on the Arch of Constantine in Rome. The bridges are real though, thank goodness.

The Crystal Grotto was closed due to Covid 19 so it was hard to see inside. It was fully restored in 2018 with thousands of crystals, some recovered from archeological work at the site.

It’s probably no great surprise that Hamilton had to borrow heavily to fund the creation of the garden. Eventually the debt burden forced him to sell it in 1773.

The Park fell into ruin and was purchased by Elmbridge Council in 1949. Since then the Painshill Park Trust has carried out extensive renovations, including rebuilding some of the old buildings. Now the follies are fun, as they should be, and the landscape is fantastic, as it was designed to be.

The only distraction from an 18th century fantasy is the constant drone of the A3 which runs close by.

There are some magnificent trees in the Park like the Great Cedar below, purported to be the largest Cedar of Lebanon in Europe.

Hamilton planted a vineyard and apparently the white wine was passable but the red was like vinegar. You can buy Painshill Park wine in the shop. Hopefully the vintages are recent.

Somehow we managed to miss the kitchen and walled garden (I blame Joy who was map reading) which was a shame. But maybe it would have seemed a little prosaic after the magnificence of the landscape garden.

I think this is a garden that will look even better a bit later in the autumn. You can take dogs in. Pre-booking is required and although the cafe is open you have to take your refreshments outside. It’s definitely a garden for a warm, still day and a picnic or a brisk walk on a windier day.

In 2014 The Garden Museum purchased an oil painting, estimated to date to around 1780, of Painshill Park. The artist is unknown.

Painshill Park

Monumental trees of Surrey

Sussex Prairies

I first visited Sussex Prairies about ten years ago. It had only been open a couple of years then and on a dreary day late in October it had been hard to imagine how it would develop. However, I did remember the cakes had been rather good.

It’s safe to say things have turned out pretty well. If you are still in denial that summer has ended a couple of hours here would confirm your suspicions. Not only was it clear that most schools were still on holiday but I’m pretty sure the gardens were at their absolute peak.

The gardens are the work of Paul and Pauline McBride who have spent their whole careers developing gardens, mostly overseas. The gardens here are inspired by their experience of working with Piet Oudolf, champion of the “prairie” or “new perennial” style of planting.

The prairie reference relates the the north American origin of many of the plants used. (And hence, I suppose, is the reason for these buffalo wandering through.) The main features of this style of planting are the long season of interest, large groupings of the same plant in loose waves, a lot of ornamental grasses and few shrubs or evergreen structural plants.

And when I see it decribed like that the words don’t do it justice. Most of the flowers and grasses are tall, colourful, and with different forms. Walking through narrow paths in the middle of the planting is a really fantastic experience.

The borders are alive with pollinators and a couple of deep ponds provide habitats for other beneficial garden visitors. From memory I think the plants are left standing through the winter and are then strimmed and/or burned (another prairie feature?). The strimmed plants are chopped up and put back on the borders as mulch. Minimal inputs, minimal outputs.

The design of the borders is based on the spiral of a nautilus shell, not that it’s noticeable from the ground. At one end of the eight acre site the borders are raised up a few metres, giving good views across the gardens.

Although the planting emphasis is large groupings of single species it’s hard to keep nature completely under control. I found myself coming back to this small mix of dark mauve Eurybia x hervyi Twilight and the barley like grass Hordeum jubatum. For the purposes of clarity, Eurybia is the new name for most asters (don’t ask).

I also really liked the McBride’s house, just on the edge of the gardens. I think the living areas are on the first floor, imagine the views..

At the beginning of September it’s great to see which flowers are still going strong so late in the season. Here were have Heleniums and Solidago, and the other main ones are Persicaria, Echinacea, Rudbeckia, Sanguisorba, Gaura, Eupatorium, Hylotelephium (formerly Sedum), and of course most ornamental grasses.

The cake is still good. I had the guest cake - cherry, pistachio and coconut. The coffee is so-so. Bring a packed lunch if you visit though as there’s not too much else on offer.

You don’t need to book an entry time here and the garden’s so big social distancing is not a problem. The gardens are immaculate, unlike a National Trust one I visited recently, and it only cost £9 to get in. VFM.

Sussex Prairies

Piet Oudolf

More photos

Dahlia mania - the Exotic Garden at Wisley

On the wettest August day in a long time I thought it would be a good idea to visit RHS Wisley. How wet could it be I thought …

The Glasshouse Borders were looking windswept and the Long Borders were a little past their best but the Exotic Garden was still looking on top form.

The big leaves, bright colours and lushness of the Exotic Garden reminded me a little bit of Barbados. Even the rain added to the atmosphere. Here, the huge leaves of bananas and Cannas provide the jungly backdrop to the brightly coloured Canna flowers and the slightly more delicate and papery bells of orange Abutilon flowers.

Cannas are hungry plants and need to be well-fed and watered through the growing season. In milder areas you can keep them in the ground through winter. The flowers are pretty showy but it’s the leaves I really like. Often they are striped and multi-coloured.

The most recognisable highlights of the Exotic Garden though are the Dahlias. There were dozens of different varieties dotted around, however, very few of them were named - not very RHS I thought.

Many of you will know that Dahlias are enjoying a resurgence in popularity after years in the doldrums. Originating in Mexico they are relatively easy to grow in the UK if you follow a few simple rules. They make excellent flowers for cutting.

Dahlias prefer rich, free draining soils so if you’re gardening on heavy, unimproved clay you’ll need to lift them after the first frost. When planting new ones make sure it’s after the last frost of spring.

Many Dahlias have very large flowers and/or can reach heights of six feet. In these cases they’ll need staking - do it sooner rather than later.

Dahlias really benefit from regular feeding - you can use diluted tomato food twice a week. And dead-heading prolongs flowering.

The flowers come in lots of different colours and shapes. The National Dahlia Society has 14 different flower shape types (including miscellaneous). Generally, the simpler the shape the better the flower is for pollinators.

Dahlias can be prone to attacks from slugs and snails just as they are getting going and later from aphids and earwigs so keep an eye out for them.

Most people find them a delight to grow and their sheer exhuberance makes them the highlight of late summer and early autumn.

RHS Wisley is open every day and generally you have to book a timed entry. However, as the day I went was so wet many people had cancelled and I was able to get in without booking. I did call first to check though.

The shopping and catering facilities have increased vastly since my last visit (as has the size of the carpark - be prepared to walk upto a couple of hundred yards just to get to the entrance).

By the way, the rain stopped just before it closed, pretty wet then.

RHS Wisley

How to grow Dahlias

National Dahlia Collection

Readers' Gardens August 2020

Amanda and Matt

Amanda and Matt’s large back garden near Wimbledon Common was completely replanted in the autumn of 2017. It has matured really nicely and most of the plants have done well. You can see how it used to look here .

In late summer there are a lot of oranges, from Helenium Waldtraut here, and darker rusts from the old flower spikes of foxgloves and the new flower spikes of the grass Calamagrostis x acutiflora Karl Foerster.

These are contrasted with the cooler blues of the long flowering Geranium Rozanne and fading Stachys officinalis Hummelo. One plant that hasn’t done well here is my favourite echinacea, E. pallida, and we’re now looking for something dusty pink to replace it.

Amanda and Matt’s garden is abuzz with pollinators at this time of year, and two of their favourites are these Veronicastrum and Vebena bonariensis. If you’re looking for something tall and late to fill the back of a sunny border you can’t really go wrong with these two.

Rupert

Across Wimbledon to a trendy apartment with its own garden. The front garden overlooks a shared driveway and Rupert wanted to improve the outlook from the kitchen window as well as the approach to the front door.

We had to do a fair amount of editing of existing plants and not a small amount of weeding. Some of the existing shrubs, like this mature Hibiscus, were definitely worth saving.

The border is south-facing and is hot and sunny all through the summer, perfect for these Echinacea purpurea Magnus.

Most of the flowers like these Echinops and Agastache are attractive to pollinators and the border was buzzing on a hot day in late July.

Like most planting schemes some minor adjustments are required after a couple of years and Rupert is keen to add some dark red to the border, something I’ll be helping him with soon.

South Park Gardens

Ok, so not strictly a reader’s garden, but my local park, South Park Gardens, where I have been volunteering since the start of lockdown. The council provides gardeners to mow the lawns, tend the trees, deal with the litter and plant up the traditional bedding in the centre of the park.

The main decorative borders are tended by a team of volunteers lead by super-volunteer Rachel. Most of our gardening efforts have been focused on weeding, but Rachel has also taken charge of quite a bit of new planting, most of which has required a lot of watering in it’s first year.

In these “extraordinary times” the park has seen a lot more use than usual. It’s always been popular with young families but this year has seen an exponential increase in use by all sorts of people - joggers, cyclists, dog-walkers, slack-liners, birthday parties and other celebrations, and has been the focus of many local residents' get togethers in a relatively safe outdoor environment.

On the one hand this has meant that all our efforts head down in the borders have been truly appreciated. We often get nice comments about how good the park looks and how much people enjoy spending time in it. On the other hand there has been an astronomical increase in the amount of litter in the park, some trees and shrubs have been damaged by people climbing them and the watering points have been turned on and left several times.

Overall though the whole volunteering experience has been much more positive than I expected. I’ve got to know many more neighbours, there’s the perk of the occasional bunch of cut flowers from the gardeners’ compound and the odd free coffee from the kiosk Bliss in the Park (courtesy of the Friends of South Park Gardens who also fund the plant purchases).

I’ll carry on with the volunteering for the time being. Many thanks to all the other volunteers - Rachel, Helen, Jane, Mike, Will, Regina, another Rachel and another Helen, Nushi,and anyone I’ve accidentally forgotten.

To see more of South Park Gardens click here

Readers' Gardens July 2020

Glenis

Glenis and I have been collaborating on her garden since she moved into the new build in south west London in 2008. Amazingly, it is completely walled. This Rosa Iceberg didn’t do very well in the first year and Glenis took some persuading to keep it for another year. But since then it has flowered prolifically and does a great job filling this corner.

Like many of my clients who have lived in hot countries Glenis likes lots of colour and so the subtle palette of blues and yellows that I started with have gradually got hotter and brighter. We don’t know the variety of these orange Alstromerias but with regular dead-heading they flower most of the summer.

Some of the blues remain though and these Campanula porscharskyana Stella carpet one of the borders.

Glenis is a big fan of planters and is assiduous in watering, feeding and dead-heading them. She has a small collection of these pretty wall-hung pots planted with pelargoniums, ideal for keeping busy in lock-down.

Inger and Peter

Inger and Peter have got a lovely large, private garden in Wimbledon. This is its fourth summer and has really filled out. It’s quite shady due to the large trees in the garden, many of which are protected. In summer though there is a lot of sun and this table and chairs are perfectly placed for a morning coffee.

In the second half of the summer these Hydrangea macrophylla Mme Emilie Moulliere are the stars of the garden. They start off a brilliant white and fade to a lovely pink by the end of summer.

Accompanying the hydrangeas are spots of pink and blue. These Geranium Mrs Kendall Clark have thrived in the rain this June.

A dining table, flanked by Olive trees and Erigeron karvinskianus, is handily placed between the kitchen and the orangery. You can see more of this garden here - https://www.arthurroadlandscapes.co.uk/designs#/wimbledon-common-garden/

My garden

A slight lack of planning means that I’ve run out of readers’ gardens and so have to resort to using my own. Like many people I’ve spent a lot more time in my garden than usual which means it does look a bit better than usual. The weather’s helped too.

As a garden designer I find my self being caught between the endless possibilities of what I could do, what I actually have the time and money to do, and finding homes for random plants that have proved surplus to requirements in clients’ gardens.

One end of the garden is my attempt at a white garden. It’s been fairly successful so far with some pale pink and pale yellow in it as well. At the other end is a mix of blue and white and yellow but I can’t decide if the purple blob of Berberis in the middle is a good thing or bad thing.

And just in case you were wondering about the shockingly long grass … it was an experiement to see what would happen if I didn’t mow it. The result? Very long grass (no wildflowers/weeds whatsoever) that my camera shy cat likes playing in.

Thank goodness most public gardens are now open.

Readers Gardens June 2020

The partial lift of lockdown measures hasn’t applied to public gardens. It’s just as well we’ve still got lots of readers’ gardens to visit.

Liz and Stephen

Starting in my neighbourhood with Liz and Stephen’s garden in one of the nicest roads in Wimbledon. You may remember this garden from last year when we replanted quite a bit of it.

One more growing season on and it’s really filled out. Liz has planted some more tulips and these ones, which I think are called Greenland, have lasted a really long time.

With an eye for a bargain Liz found these bright orange Geum borisii to complement the lighter-coloured Geum Totally Tangerine. Different tints of the same colour always work well together.

Some of the borders are edged with Erigeron karvinskianus. This hard working perennial flowers from May until November, it doesn’t need dead-heading and does a really good job of smothering weeds.

And at the end of the garden, starting to drape itself over the summerhouse, is Rosa Graham Thomas, surely one of the prettiest yellow roses.

Susanna and Richard

Across the other side of Wimbledon in the grounds of a charming house is a very different type of garden. When I met Susanna and Richard they were in the middle of a garden revamp, almost all the landscaping of which was done by Richard. This included rebuilding the cedar surround to a large koi carp pond, a bridge and a fab black garden room.

The wild flower meadow, under an amazingly productive quince tree, has been here for some time. In late May it’s just starting to get going.

I love the way the wild flowers are spilling over the paving, the shadows are really clear.

Susanna’s the one with the good taste, selecting a really nice palette of textured greens for the shady part of the garden. I’m looking forward to seeing this one when lockdown’s properly over.

Len and Barbara

To the country now and one of the first gardens I designed. There have been a few changes over the years. A couple of new borders have been added along with a smart summerhouse.

Len’s in charge of the lawn and raising a lot of plants, like these calendula, from seed. Barbara decides where they go.

The garden has matured in a really nice way and I like the intermingling of plants, like these Viburnum, Euphorbia and Lamium.

Barbara’s real pride and joy though are the large box balls, lovingly cared for over many years. Followed closely by an army of Alliums, these are Purple Sensation.

Readers' Gardens May 2020

As we’re still in lockdown the only gardens I can visit are those sent to me by loyal readers of my newsletter. It’s been a cracking month in terms of weather so everyone’s garden looks immaculate, even my own.

Alec and Sarah

Alec and Sarah garden in the grounds of a tall and elegant Victorian town house in a smart part of North London. The garden is only slightly larger than a postage stamp so every inch matters.

I designed this garden in 2016 and it was built and planted in 2017. It had a rough time with some builders shortly after that so I’ve never seen it in all its glory.

Looks like someone living here has got green fingers, it’s turned out pretty well!

Margaret

Margaret has a surprisingly large garden behind a smart villa in Wandsworth. Aside from lockdown Margaret works from home quite often. When we’re planning any changes in this garden the view from her desk is the most important one.

Margaret and I have been working together on this project for seven years. I did start off with a restrained palette but over the years I’ve been gradually beaten into submission with bright colours.

But I have resisted planting any Rhododendrons in the main part of the garden (so far….).

Susannah and Chris

To an exclusive address in the Surrey Hills now and the grounds of a cool and eclectic 18th century/1970s house.

When Susannah and Chris moved here there was a large swimming pool where this lawn is now. You can see how it used to look here.

This garden is proof that gardens only improve with age. Tiny shrubs and orphaned trees mature into good-looking specimens that give a garden back bone.

Sometimes though it’s the smallest details that give a lot of pleasure, like this Lily of the Valley growing beneath some steps.

Andrew and Hilary

And finally, on the other side of the country, we visit Andrew and Hilary’s garden in deepest Suffolk. I’ve never been here but I’d like to see it one day, especially the black swimming pool I’ve heard about.

Clearly there’s been some serious gardening going on here during lockdown - just look at that vegetable garden. That’s quite a eucalyptus tree as well.

Country gardens are so different to town gardens, there’s so much more space, room for quite different areas. I wonder where this path goes?

Back here maybe.

No end to lockdown in sight, what’s the hurry?