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The Garden, RHS Media, Churchgate, New Road, Peterborough PE1 1TT
l e t t e r f rom t h e e d i to r
Crowdsourcing a cover
Editor of The Garden, Chris Young
It was in this vein that we asked our audience
via RHS social media sites (Facebook and
Twitter) to choose an image for this month’s
cover. We had a brilliant response to the three
shortlisted (pictured, below left) – the clear
winner was Lonicera x purpusii. Comments
included: ‘this is winter, but with spring just
around the corner – a frosty promise’, ‘soothing’
and ‘stunning, worthy of the front cover’.
It was great to see what people were saying
about our cover, and the types of images they
like. Research undertaken last September also
affirmed that members enjoy beautiful plant
portraits and composed plant combinations.
Thank you to all who voted and, as ever,
please continue to send in your thoughts and
comments about The Garden (see p16).
✤ www.facebook.com/rhshome
✤ www.twitter.com/The_RHS
RHS / Tim Sandall
Choosing the cover of this magazine is an
exciting but sometimes daunting experience.
For the editorial team, gathered around our
designer’s screen, we look for images that
are linked to subjects in the magazine and
– probably more importantly but most
challengingly – inspiring in subject matter
and photographic beauty. Above all else, we
want members to be interested enough by
the image that they rip the plastic bag off
and delve straight into the magazine.
Images also have to reflect, of course, the
varied subjects covered in The Garden through
the year. In the past we have had hand-drawn
artwork; winter gardens; flower close-ups;
combinations of plants growing together;
historical views of shows; and results from our
RHS Plant Trials, among many other subjects.
But which type of cover do you prefer?
Do not be swayed by the wild notion that the old selections have the best scent and
modern introductions have none... Scents for summer by Graham Rice (pp63–66)
f rom m y ga r de n
ENJOYING aN EXOTIC fern of praise
RHS / Jane Sebire
Author: Helen Dillon, gardener with a sheltered garden in Dublin, Republic of Ireland
helen dillon
I’ve always been happy to try out any plant you care to suggest
– except for a house plant. A Monstera eking out an existence in a
dark corner gives me no pleasure. The only plant I adore indoors is
the fern Phlebodium aureum (golden polypody) because it relishes
life in an ordinary sitting room, withstanding a dry atmosphere, central
heating and thoughtless people leaving the window open. Curiously,
it appears to resent comfortable greenhouse life. My plant came from Irish gardener Betty Farquhar.
Her drawing room, the walls of which were bedecked with mauve wild silk, boasted two huge pots of
Phlebodium, with their satiny, metallic, pale blue fronds – the contrast with the faded walls was divine.
In case you’re thinking I’m being elitist about this fern, I’ve seen it for sale in Ikea.
Water carefully, once weekly. To propagate, get a small, peat-filled pot; drench with boiling water; as
soon as cool shake over the nigh-invisible golden spores. Cover with a polythene bag and wait for months.
Something I discovered recently might come in useful: spring bulbs look their best emerging from
short grass rather than muddy flowerbeds. Self-sown annual grass Briza maxima (greater quaking grass)
forms a lovely background for bulbs, followed in summer by little dangly earring flowers. Some, like me,
say ‘How pretty’, while others grumble ‘I’d never have that weed in my garden…’.
Phlebodium aureum
February 2015 | The Garden
13
Comment
trends in Gardening
Chasing Fashions
Norfolk-based gardener Alan Gray is a new columnist for The Garden
RHS / Neil Hepworth
Gardening fashions come
and go, and it is interesting to
note the influences – some
of which are good, others less
so. The current fashionable
topic among the gardening
cognoscenti appears to be
aimed at garden shrubs, as if
we have forgotten their very
existence. What will they be
trying to tell us next? Perhaps
it will be those dreaded
words: ground cover.
Most gardeners, I believe,
think that shrubs are truly
the backbone of the garden
but I wonder if we make the
most of them. How many of
us are guilty of knowing we
have a shrub in our garden
that is a mistake, or in the
wrong place? We probably
pass the offending plant on
a regular basis, gazing at it
reproachfully in the process.
Why do we not remove this error and have done with it?
I suspect that laziness plays a part. Alternatively, could it be
sentimentality (especially so if the offending shrub was not
planted by us), another excuse? My feeling is to take the bull
by the horns and do the deed: if you mourn the passing of
your victim, the grief will pass within a couple of weeks.
Then you can enjoy the pleasure of anticipation while selecting
a suitable replacement. However, bringing shrubs to the
gardener’s attention is good, for it encourages debate and
greater care in the choosing of superior selections.
Jumping on the prairie wagon
So it was with the fashion for prairie gardening. When first
mooted, many gardeners thought that this would be the new and
easy form of gardening, with its naturalistic planting in large
groups. What rot. First learn your lesson. There is no such thing
as a free lunch; all forms of gardening need work, even prairies.
The downside of prairies is that there
is little to look at before the middle of
the year, although they do carry on
rather longer than the traditional
garden. Many of their ingredients die
with dignity and, if kissed by a hoar
frost in winter, ‘bloom’ again.
Many good plants have been
brought to our attention from this
fashionable form of
gardening. Echinaceas are
a case in point. There has
been a breeding programme,
mainly in the USA, and
today these are available
in a multitude of colours,
although not all of them
are hardy in this country
– I suspect that they find
our moist, mild winters
disagreeable, preferring
colder, drier conditions.
Asters have become
popular garden plants once
again thanks to the intro­
duction of many species and
cultivars that do not suffer
from the disfiguring malady
that is powdery mildew.
Many of the asters with
novae-angliae in their
name are reliably mildew
free, as are most forms
of Aster ageratoides,
A. amellus, A. ericoides, A. lateriflorus and A. x frikartii, cultivars
of the latter often flowering for almost three months.
Grasses in vogue
However, it is the popularity of grasses as garden plants that prairie
gardening has really championed. Until recently few gardeners
used grasses apart from the ubiquitous pampas, and many were
unaware of the choices available to them. It was quickly realised
that grasses have much to offer home gardeners and thus they
have gained acceptance. Who could not fall in love with
Pennisetum alopecuroides with its soft, dove-grey plumes freely
produced from a low cushion of graceful foliage in autumn?
Miscanthus is another popular grass, and deservedly so,
although today there are almost too many cultivars to choose
from. Yet with their upright habit they make bold statements and
excellent punctuation marks in the garden. Most of them provide
the garden with a fiery finale, too, so careful siting is important. If
possible, they should
be bathed in afternoon sunlight for
maximum impact.
Garden fashions are fascinating;
the skill is in selecting the plants that
work for us in our own situation and
using them with aplomb. Whether
your garden is large or small, looking
and learning is the key.
‘There is no such thing as
a free lunch; all forms
of gardening need work,
even prairies.’
February 2015 | The Garden
15
B e yo n d T h e b o u n da ry
kirstie young
in praise of
street trees
Lia Leendertz looks outwards
from her Bristol garden
Poor old Platanus x hispanica (London plane)
puts up with a lot. On my local high street,
they are pollarded annually, up high, so that
they have developed great knobbly, witchy ‘knuckles’ from
which stick fingers spring. In Brussels I have seen them fiercely
trained into natty little umbrella shapes. They almost always
dwell in the most polluted spots, and some near me have even
had reflective stripes nailed into them because they keep
getting mashed into by double-decker buses.
London planes shrug all of this off. Most were planted in the
days of deep city smogs, because their beautiful olive and grey
‘jigsaw’ bark slates away, shedding toxins as it goes, and then
their leaves do the same pollution-sloughing job each autumn.
They absorb, they drop, they live on amid the rumble, vigorous
and serene. There is a great and encouraging move towards
increasing the numbers of trees in our streets, although
gradually London plane itself is being replaced by more
compact, less bus-bothering species. Street trees now have
additional roles, acting as urban coolers, reflecting heat,
shading pavements, and helping ameliorate the effects of
climate change, on top of their pollution-absorbing qualities.
Visit the website of Trees for Cities (www.treesforcities.org)
to encourage the next generation of street trees, so that, like
planes, they can shrug off the next set of urban problems.
letters
Please send your
comments to:
The Garden,
RHS Media,
Churchgate,
New Road,
Peterborough
PE1 1TT or email
thegarden@rhs.
org.uk (please
include your
postal address).
Letters may be
edited for
publication.
Daniela Blomeley
Manchester-based Daniela Blomeley,
on gardening in a small space
I have always dreamt about owning a huge
garden with a greenhouse at the far end,
Gertrude Jekyll-inspired herbaceous borders,
a few fruit trees and maybe even a pond. Then reality hit as I
moved to south Manchester, and ended up with a small L-shaped
bed full of car-park shrubs, and a mossy patch of grass.
As any good gardener would, I conjured a plan: everything
except a Euonymus fortunei ‘Emerald ’n’ Gold’ (because it was
a good size) was pulled out. I widened the bed by 30cm (1ft)
and began to fill my space with interesting plants, without
paying hefty sums. This is when city living has its advantages.
My first purchase was a neglected Buddleja davidii ‘Black
Knight’ for 10p, joined by a pink-flowered clematis (now
growing through the Buddleja) for 50p. Recently I drove past a
supermarket and saw 1.5m (5ft) tall Mahonia x media ‘Winter
Sun’ being pulled out by landscapers – two are now happily
flowering in my garden. But the star is an unwanted Acer
palmatum (Palmatum Group) ‘Sango-kaku’ (coral-bark maple).
One person’s trash is indeed someone else’s treasure.
As my low-budget antics grew, the space in my border
rapidly decreased – so the only thing to do was create another
L-shaped bed opposite the existing one. That I widened six
months later. Who needs mossy grass anyway?
16
The Garden | February 2015
RH
S/
Ti
m
Sa
n
l
da
Inspired by the
Hot Garden
Runner bean experiment
do you
agree?
Urba n gardener
sourcing plants for
thrifty gardening
Comment
l
In 2013, on the understanding that runner
beans are perennial in their natural habitat,
I decided to try overwintering some plants,
treating them in the same way that my
father had always treated fuchsias and
chrysanthemums – wrapped in moist paper
and placed under the potting bench.
In spring 2014 I potted up the nine saved
plants, but while my recently sown seeds
sprang to life, the contents of the pots
slumbered on. However, when the plants
did grow they rapidly made up for lost time.
The six strongest plants were transferred
to my allotment, where they started to
produce beans by late May. During the season
these six plants produced 10.2kg (22½lbs)
of beans, ceasing to flower in late August.
The six plants are wrapped in newspaper
again to see how they will perform in year
three – they have been joined by a few of
the 2014 seedlings to see how far we can
stretch the cropping in 2015.
Diane Tuff, Kent
Not-so tender plants
It interested me to read in the
recent article about the over­
wintering of less-hardy plants
(The Garden, November 2014,
pp68–72), that Australian
fuchsias (Correa) are con­
sidered to be tender, with an
RHS hardiness rating of H2
(1–5�c / 34–41�f). I have grown these
plants for more than 10 years. While their
hardiness varies, in my experience C. alba,
C. backhouseana and C. ‘Marian’s Marvel’
I first saw the Hot Garden at RHS Garden
Rosemoor, Devon in summer 2013 and it
was so inspiring I thought it would be fun
to give it a try in my garden.
I created a planting plan, using lists
supplied by the RHS, to try and re‑create
(albeit on a smaller scale) the same
colour and feel. We then sourced more
than 550 plants from nurseries across
the country including many from our
excellent local nursery.
I finished planting the borders in March
2014 and did not expect the garden to be
so colourful in its first year (pictured in
August, left) – it was a delight and also
attracted a large number of bees and
butterflies. I now look forward to seeing
the garden develop further.
Brian Steer, Devon
are tougher than their H2 rating suggests
– at least as hardy as other Australian plants
that have an H3 rating (−5 to 1�c / 23 to 34�f),
including Callistemon citrinus ‘Splendens’
and Acacia pravissima.
It would be a real shame if people were
deterred from growing these delightful plants
because of too-pessimistic an assessment
of their tolerance of wintry weather.
Judy Clark, Editor of the Australasian Plant
Society newsletter, East Sussex
Verging on the wild
The article on semi-natural habitats (The
Garden, December 2014, pp65–68) was
interesting, but failed to warn that many
plants such as bluebells, germander
speedwell and cow parsley may be difficult
Old pallets put to use
I found some old pallets in our small wooded
area. Having seen various ‘bug houses’ in
The Garden and other magazines, my husband
decided to make one for a corner of our garden.
Our local garden centre was giving away old
pallets for firewood – I gave them a photo
of our ‘bug hotel’ to display, and
hope this will encourage more
gardeners to make better use
A garden for
of these old materials.
pollinating
insects
Barbara Murray-Holt, Lancashire
p60
to control if they find their way into borders
or other areas of gardens.
I agree that in spring the combination of
bluebells, red campion and stitchwort can
look stunning along a countryside hedge,
but many hedge and woodland wild plants
tend to be spring-flowering, so that for the
bulk of the year they are just green
hedgerows – great for wildlife but not
in a garden with limited space.
It is better to grow native woodland plants
alongside garden plants – primroses, wood
violets and foxgloves give way to garden
plants later in the year. Wild plants can be
grown successfully as long as you know the
plants’ habits and their potential to become
weeds. I grow false brome (Brachypodium
sylvaticum), a grass which I find invaluable
in the dry shade of my woodland garden. It
seeds readily but has a weak rhizome so is
easily controlled. Rather than buying native
woodland seed mixes at random, some
research on individual species is advisable.
Paul Fletcher, Essex
Guerilla gardening
Jane Powers’ views on guerrilla gardening
(Comment, December 2014, p19) chime
with my own. Can one be a passionate
horticulturist and a conservationist of
native plant species at the same time? Yes.
I love to see shrub-adorned roundabouts
that alleviate the monotony of the tarmac
From rhs.org.uk
✤ Plan your visit to this year’s RHS Flower
Shows. Buy tickets and keep up to date, at:
www.rhs.org.uk/shows
✤ For information on planting your own
garden meadow, search ‘wildflower’
at: www.rhs.org.uk/advice
and built environment but, like Jane, I find
myself infuriated by inappropriate planting
of garden plants in our dwindling
countryside. In spring, my eye is offended
by the daffodils that ‘grace’ our local verges.
Gaudily coloured primroses are bedded
out as though the verge were simply an
extension of the front garden. Like the
native bluebell Jane speaks of, our native
pale yellow primrose (Primula vulgaris) is
not averse to hybridising with its highly
coloured cousins, resulting in nearby wild
populations giving way to hybrids bearing
drab pink flowers, testament to the work
of busy pollinating insects.​
I think our gardens have been hugely
enriched by the introduction of non-native
plants and I would never wish to see this
change, but it is our own native plant species
that are being squeezed. Verges should be
left as havens for native British plants.
Margaret Rufus, Essex
February 2015 | The Garden
17
Comment
C h o o s i n g v e g e ta b l e s
What not to grow?
Garden writer and vegetable grower Sally Nex is one of the new columnists for The Garden
RHS / Neil Hepworth
I am all of a dither again. It’s time to decide once
and for all what I’m going to grow this year, and
as usual the wish list is so long I could do with
twice the garden, and double the hours in a day.
The trouble is I love to garden adventurously.
Yes, there are old friends I always find garden
room for: pea ‘Alderman’, climbing French bean
‘Cobra’, potato ‘Duke of York’ and kale ‘Dwarf
Green Curled’. But ruts are tedious and it would
be criminal to grow the same things every year
when there’s so much I have yet to try.
Some experiments have been wildly successful.
My rocoto chilli (Capsicum pubescens), a 2013 arrival, turns out to
survive Somerset winters with ease; by last autumn it was fully 1.8m
(6ft) high, heavy with fruit. We may never need another chilli, but
could do with a second storey on the greenhouse.
Yacon tubers, corkscrew-stemmed perennial walking onions
(Allium cepa Proliferum Group), purple mangetout ‘Shiraz’ and
sweet, bristly wineberries (Rubus phoenicolasius) are all welcome
new arrivals. Others have fallen by the wayside.
I struggle to like the green-pepper-flavoured
fruits of achocha and, despite putting up a feisty
fight, wasabi couldn’t fend off the slugs.
This year I have two more perennial
vegetables: a treasured cutting of Daubenton’s
kale (Brassica oleracea var. ramosa), and bulbs
of Babington’s leek (Allium ampeloprasum
var. babingtonii). Harvest top growth in winter,
and the base sprouts more garlicky baby ‘leeks’.
I’m determined to start a salsify patch – I like
the sound of asparagus-flavoured flower shoots
and otherworldly, dusty purple blooms (also edible) with the quirky
habit of closing by midday, like a morning glory.
Then there is the generous and encyclopedically knowledgeable
gardener I met by chance this winter, who promised me the pick of
his mouthwatering collection of heritage tomato seeds. Mind you,
they will oust a fledgling trial of blight-resistant tomatoes I had
planned. Well, you can’t do everything, I suppose.
plant breeding
Sold on petunias
Michael Perry is a horticulturist who blogs and lectures on new plants and fresh gardening ideas
Not all petunia breeding is happening overseas;
David Kerley in the UK is focusing on making the
most of the sweet, clove-infused scent with his
Petunia Tumbelina Series, giving home gardeners
a perfume so good you could bottle it. A second
layer of petals also gives extra visual
appeal to the pompon blooms.
Until recently, the range of annual
Graham Rice
summer climbers was limited, with
on scented
Thunbergia alata and Ipomoea
seasonals
tricolor gracing walls and pergolas.
But now there are petunias fit for the job:
Petunia x atkinsiana Tidal Wave Series. These are so
ry
vigorous they will grow upwards as climbers.
Of course, petunias are often used in hanging
baskets – Petunia Surfinia Series are the best known,
with streaming stems of bright flowers. Surfinias
are bred by Suntory Japan, and are becoming a
well-known brand, available worldwide, changing
the way plants are sold in retail stores. So petunias
are set to be favourites again, even beyond our own
shores – perhaps it is time to take a second look.
ha
el
pe
r
p63
mic
ed zollo
If you thought petunias were just purple, straggly
things, it is time to think again. While your head
was turned, this humble plant has become a
clever choice of summer annual, available in
a wide range of unexpected forms, with dazzling
new flower colour combinations, double blooms
and even ‘climbing’ selections.
Why did petunias fall from favour? Well, it
may have been the limited colour range reaching
garden centres, lacklustre growth, poor weathertolerance, or the rise of daintier, more floriferous
Calibrachoa. However, plant breeders are now
selecting for more rigid petals or even slightly star-shaped
blooms (where rain falls between petals, preventing flower
collapse). The glorious, tightly double-flowered selections
with more substance also seem to repel rainstorms well.
Westhoff, a developer of seasonal plants in Germany, recently
let its plant breeder ‘off the leash’– he was allowed to let his
imagination run wild. The results were the Petunia Crazytunia
Series which have rewritten the bedding-plant rule book, with
colour combinations once only dreamt of, including plenty of
striking selections featuring flowers patterned in black.
February 2015 | The Garden
19