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Comment 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