My friend Adrian once arrived at my door with pots of bluebells, a gift of bulbs dug from his garden. “I’m afraid there might be a few ‘strays’ in there too; I couldn’t separate them,” he said, handing me three rammed pots of Hyacinthoides non-scripta, the native English variety, with sky-blue bells hanging elegantly to one side of the stem.
Adrian was the person who rescued me when I arrived in London in my early twenties, something of a lost soul. I stayed in his spare room until I could find a place of my own, and he remained one of my dearest friends. I became rather fond of his old-fashioned garden with its rose arbour, pots of agapanthus and tubs of houseleeks. In spring, the bluebells ran amok at the bottom of his garden and reminded me of my childhood home with its hazel coppice and bluebell wood.
In the 25 years since they were planted, his generous gift of blue flowers has slowly vanished, but the ‘strays’ that arrived among the bulbs have thrived to the point of frustration. Tucked away in his pots, I would later discover, were seedlings of bright-yellow Welsh poppies, Papaver cambricum, whose delicate, paper-thin petals are charming in the right place – but my garden is not that place. Their fragile canary-yellow flowers come up in profusion each spring, looking oddly out of place among the green-and-white woodland-style planting. They spread like wildfire.
Esta historia es de la edición September 2024 de Gardens Illustrated.
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Esta historia es de la edición September 2024 de Gardens Illustrated.
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Field of Dreams - The naturalistic gem Hans Gieszen has created in former meadowlands near Utrecht in the Netherlands is the culmination of a lifelong passion
Ever since his mother gave him seeds as a small boy, gardening has been a passion for Hans Gieszen. He is completely self-taught, relying on garden visits and books for instruction, with one book in particular, Dream Plants for the Natural Garden by Henk Gerritsen and Piet Oudolf, influencing his style. “It was fascinating,” says Hans, remembering his first encounter with the book. “All those photos – pictures with mists and these tall and low plants and grasses. I realised I couldn’t do it in my small garden, but I kept dreaming and reading about it.”
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This superb tour of the world's botanical gardens highlights their vital role in saving the planet's flora, says Claire Masset
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Does your garden have masculine or feminine style, and does it even matter? Head gardener Benjamin Pope unpicks gardening's gender stereotypes
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When tasked with creating a garden for her friends, designer Neive Tierney found the project came with challenges - not least the need to include a wheelchair ramp and squeeze in a saltwater swimming pool
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The celebrated nursery and garden at Marchants Hardy Plants in East Sussex is now being managed by a new team, who continue to inspire visitors with innovative planting
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ANDY JASPER
The new CEO of the Eden Project on his excitement about a new chapter, the legacy he's left at the National Trust and his joy at heading home to Cornwall
Bedding in
In just under nine years, the owners of Arvensis Nursery in Wiltshire have created a mature garden that displays their high-quality perennials
Late summer dreams
From cool pastels and foliage to hot colours, designer Jo Thompson creates three stylish container combinations for autumn