In the Garden

Continuing our occasional look at the plants most widely available in the new RHS Plant finder…. Fiery colours used to be ignored or even despised in favour of soft pastel shades, but not any more. And one of the most widely grown new plants in this years RHS Plantfinder is a very sparky looking perennial, Geum ‘Fire Storm’.

Like the old favourites ‘Mrs J. Bradshaw’ and ‘Lady Stratheden’, this is a tough and easy-to-grow plant which, while preferring a rich soil that never becomes too dry, should also do well in drier, less fertile conditions – as long as it has plenty of sun.

You could say that ‘Fire Storm’ is in between those old timers in terms of colour. The flowers are semi-double, opening a rich fiery orange with scarlet overtones then maturing to a brighter, slightly yellower orange shade. And they open over many months. With dark foliage – purple-leaved berberis behind, perhaps, and dark-leaved heucheras in front – the display will be dramatic.

Also, this is a much neater, more self-supporting plant reaching about 20in/50cm in full flower with the foliage making a fresh looking mound about 12-14in/30-35cm high. So it’s also 10in/35cm less tall and so less floppy than ‘Fireball’. And the flowers even last well in water.

Geum ‘Fire Storm’ is available from these RHS Plantfinder nurseries.

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Wildlife is good and necessary for a healthy ecosystem, we know that, but there are some species that are less welcome than others. Top of my list of Unwelcome Visitors this week is the horsefly (Haematopota pluvialis, which means ‘blood-drinker of the rains’), also known as the cleg or clegg fly.

Picture from Wikimedia Commons

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Start of week three and we are finally coming at of the ground here at Ness Botanic Gardens.  Due to the design being based on spirals and every line a curve, it has taken us a while get everything set out, post lined up and levels set.  Today the deck has started to take shape and the soil levels have been raised ready for the planting to start.  It’s all very exciting, and the curvaceous nature of the design sparking off lots of interest with the visitors.

Things will change quickly this week, and I am hoping to start the planting very soon.  Also our turf features are slowly emerging from the ground, with the internal supports going in today.

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Geraniums, or pelargoniums as we should call them, come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Creating varieties that are more bushy and more prolific, or which trail more effectively, and in new colours and colour combinations, seems to have been a high priority in recent years. But this variety climbs.

Well, ‘Skyscraper’ (left, click to enlarge) doesn’t climb like a clematis or a honeysuckle; it needs tying in. But it’s vigorous and determined to grow upright. The soft foliage with its rounded lobes has a faint dark zone, and the clusters of salmon orange flowers keep coming over a very long season.

Liz Sims of Vernon Geranium Nursery told me more about it: “The plant will require tying in to a support… preferably a support all around the outside of the pot or a triangle of stakes up the centre. Increased pinching will result in more laterals and a greater number of flowers but it will take longer to achieve a 6ft/2m plant if the tip is pinched out.

“I've noticed it has extra long flower stems - hence it's great height! - and have also noticed it flowers a great deal better than other climbing geraniums. The picture (click to enlarge) shows it at the end of one season’s growth.
 
“It remains extremely vigorous in temperatures above 53F/12C. Without the top growing tips being removed it will continue to grow and spread. However, trimming to keep to a neater shape will reduce the height if the top tips are removed.”

‘Skyscraper’ was discovered by Ellene and Derek Simmonds from Lincolnshire. It was a chance seedling which survived the first winter in their garden as a very small plant under a canopy of other geraniums. It’s thought to have blood of both zonal pelargonium and the ivy-leaved geranium .

Pelargonium ‘Skyscraper’ is available from Vernon Geranium Nursery.

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Between showers, the weeds have been having a wail of a time. With our attention distracted by wildflower sowing and tours in recent weeks, the time had come to declare war on our weedy plots. This meant bringing in the reserves...

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We are four days into the build at Ness Gardens, and things are going very well. Last Sunday I looked out the window and thought that the rain would never stop. Monday morning proved difficult with our plot being submerged in water. Even the ducks had settled in the puddles formed by the tracks of our digger! After sorting our levels and marking out the design we were ready to get working. The digger dug out the pond and started to form the pathways, along with lots of earth movement which is typical of the early stages of a build. Today, our pond is really taking shape as the block work goes up, and the unusual shape is starting to cause a stir with the visitors. Our deck has been marked out, and the posts set. Although it is still early days, it looks quite different to the grassed area that we found on Monday morning! We are hoping that tomorrow will bring more shape , as we finish our deck posts and start the path edging. You can visit Ness and see our progress, and if you go on Bank Holiday Monday there will be a plant sale for the people who can't resist a plant bargain!

Needing no introduction, Professor David Bellamy was given the honour of opening Wisley's brand new Field Research Facility yesterday. Seen here with Dr Roger Williams, Head of Science, David was the perfect person to highlight the role of natural history in research.

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Last July a juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) started visiting the garden and we watched as it ate peanuts from the hanging feeder and clambered about the Magnolia tree. The tree is only a few paces from the kitchen window, so we had a good opportunity to get a close look at this fine bird. As its adult plumage came in we saw that it was a female, the back of the head being black rather than with the red markings of the male Great Spotted Woodpecker.

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New variegated daphnes have been appearing regularly over the last few years. Two years ago we had Daphne odora Rebecca (‘Hewreb’) and now another is one of the new plants most widely listed by nurseries in the 2012-2013 RHS Plantfinder.

Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’ has been the standard for many decades but Robin White, the authority on daphnes says in his book “the narrow band of variegation is not significant in the garden.” It’s more creamy than yellow and really very narrow.

New this year is Daphne odora Marianni ('Rogbret') which features a broader band of colour around the edge of each leaf and in a more vivid yellow shade. It also features clusters of highly scented flowers in February and March, each flower reddish purple on the outside and pale pink within.

Marianni, like Rebecca, is much more colourful in its variegation than ‘Aureomarginata’. But unlike both ‘Aureomarginata’ and Rebecca, Marianni keeps most of its foliage right through the winter while the other two can look rather sparse in the colder months. Marianni is also more spreading in growth than Rebecca and its flowers are a slightly redder shade.

Found as a sport on a plant of ‘Aureomarginata’ in France in 2004, this looks to be an exceptional garden shrub, its bright variegated foliage providing colour all the year and its colourful early flowers bringing a powerful fragrance.

Daphne odora Marianni ('Rogbret') is available from these RHS Plantfinder nurseries.

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Our garden is continually evolving. There is always something new to look forward to, whether it is a brand new planting, exciting redevelopment, or simply the way the plants change with the seasons.

On Thursday 3 May 2012 we will be officially opening our latest addition.  May we present the Herons Bonsai Walk. 

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Yellow-leaved Choisya Sundance (‘Lich’) is one of the most popular shrubs in the country. At its best, it’s superb but it does have its problems. Now Hillier have raised and introduced a new and improved golden leaved choisya called ‘Aztec Gold’.

‘Aztec Gold’ (left, click to enlarge) is an attractive evergreen shrub with a rounded habit and reaches about 4ftx4ft/1.2x1.2m. Its leaves are split into slender, pointed segments which are rich burnished gold towards the tips and a slightly greenish yellow shade towards the base.

In spring and early summer, clusters of attractive, almond-scented white flowers appear and then after a break another flush opens in autumn.

‘Aztec Gold’ was developed by Alan Postill (right, click to enlarge) and is derived from ‘Aztec Pearl’ which provides the leaf shape together with versatility and resilience in the garden, and Sundance which brings the foliage colour. Alan worked at Hillier Nurseries as a propagator for fifty years and was also responsible for selecting and naming the prolific and impressively fragrant Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’.

Andy McIndoe of Hillier Nurseries explained why he thinks this is such a good plant: “‘Aztec Gold’ is a golden foliage evergreen with a subtlety that will endear it to even those gardeners that “don’t do yellow”. In sun, the leaves at the ends of the shoots are rich golden yellow, while those in the heart of the plant maintain a greener hue. In shade, the overall colour leans towards lime; more subtle but still cheerily pleasing. The variation in the foliage colour between the young and old leaves gives the plant depth and a three dimensional quality often lacking in plain yellow evergreens.”

Happy in any reasonably fertile soil that is well drained, the brightest colour develops in full sun.

Choisya ‘Aztec Gold’ will be launched at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, but is already available from Hillier Online.

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As part of the on-going development of the copse in the Bicentenary Arboretum my colleagues and I rescued a rustic style See-Saw from its long term resting place in the yard, knocked the cobwebs and began to install it ready for the summer.

Phil Peard skillfully maneuvred a three ton excavator between the trees to dig out a suitable trench ready for the ton of concrete required to ensure that the See-Saw remained steady in the ground. John Bridge tirelessly mixed load after load and transported them to the site to the accompaniment of “just one more load John”

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We are currently finalising the last few details before starting on site at Ness Gardens next week. All materials have been checked and everything is more or less ready. The debate today has been about our tall turf waves. I really think that some designs, have a love or hate relationship with the visitors, and I hope that this new garden within the grounds of the Ness Botanic Gardens, Wirral, will be loved by the visitors.

The garden has been named ‘Making Waves’ because this is most definitely what we intend to do.  The garden is modern and quirky, and will have a big impact on the site, as it will be seen from many different positions on the site. The design is based on a circular, spiral path that guides visitors around the plot, allowing them to view the plants at different angles throughout the journey. Colour plays a huge role in the design, and solid blocks of colour will sweep around the spiral path.  The turf waves I mentioned earlier will emerge from the floor all over the plot, giving softened boundaries within the design, and blocking off the view at different stages along the route.

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Four new roses created by David Austin make their first appearance in the 2012 RHS Plantfinder, but Wollerton Old Hall (‘Ausblanket’) just pips the other three in being available from more nurseries.

It first saw the light of day at last summer’s Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and in what has become a great tradition of English Roses from David Austin, Wollerton Old Hall combines the elegant flowers and heady perfume of so many old roses, with the long flowering season that so many old roses lack.

There are sparks of red in the unopened buds, but as each flower develops into a fully rounded bloom the butter yellow colour emerges then softens to cream as the flower matures while developing slightly peachy tones. All the way, the flowers retain their attractive rounded shape.

This is one of the mostly strongly scented of all the English Roses. The myrrh fragrance is exceptionally powerful and is also relatively uncommon. Seeing it at Hampton Court last summer the BBC’s Rachel de Thame said: “I loved the pale creamy yellow flowers, which have an attractive spherical shape and intense myrrh-like perfume”.

More upright in growth than many English Roses, reaching about 5ft/1.5m high and 3ft/90cm across, and mostly thorn-free, Wollerton Old Hall makes an ideal specimen in a mixed border. It was named for the garden at the 16th century house of the same name, one of the finest recently made gardens in the country.

You can buy Rosa Wollerton Old Hall (‘Ausblanket’) from these RHS Plantfinder nurseries.

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It’s that time of the year when us garden designers are really busy!  Although I enjoy designing gardens of all shapes, sizes and styles every now and again something special comes along.  I am very proud to be involved in this current project, and can’t wait to start on site, and keep you all updated with our progress! 

I am currently working on a project at Ness Botanic Gardens, Wirral, where we are bringing modern design into Ness.  This year sees the 50^th Birthday of ‘The Friend of Ness’, and to celebrate we are building a ‘new’ garden.  Construction of the botanic garden began in 1897, with Arthur Bulley changing the face of British gardens.  The garden is made up of many different areas showcasing numerous plant types within the various spaces on the 65 acre plot.  We hope to create something fresh and new, giving Ness an up to date and modern space for visitors to explore, sit and enjoy.  Most of all I hope that the planting combinations will be something that people can take away with them, as I feel that is the most important part of any outdoor space.

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For some years, clematis wizard Raymond Evison has been developing a series of varieties that are much more suitable for small town gardens than most clematis. It’s not true that all clematis will take over your garden, but some will and many gardeners tend to think that in a small space it’s just too much of a gamble.

But the varieties in the Boulevard Series never get out of hand and the latest in the series, Alaina (‘Evipo 056'), is one of the most widely offered new plants in the 2012/2013 RHS Plantfinder.

Reaching no more than 5ft/1.5m in height and only about 2ft/60cm across, this is an ideal variety for a container, or a bed along the side of a patio.

Flowering comes in two seasons; first in June and early July, then in August and September and each flower opens a rich and vivid pink, with a dark stripe along the centre of each of the six petals. Then, as the flowers mature, they become paler creating a happy harmony of pink shades. Sometimes the petals may be a little twisted creating an appealing sense of movement. They’re best planted in at least some shade to help prevent the colour fading too much.

Of course, there’s pruning to think about. Couldn’t be easier. Just cut the plants back hard to about 12in/30cm every spring.

Clematis Alaina (‘Evipo 056') is available from seven RHS Plantfinder nurseries.

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