In the garden: Shelf life

PAINTED by John Nash in 1945, Window Plants shows an old woman, with a cat on her lap, dozing next to her potted plants. I’ve always loved that image and always wanted to have a windowsill wide enough for as many flowers in terracotta pots as I could muster, rather than the indestructible house plants that thrive in airports and hotels.

- Mary Keen

Until recently, we lived in Georgian houses with sash windows and never the tiniest ledge in front of them. Moving to an older house, with deep window reveals, meant we could make shelves for books below 2ft-deep oak sills. South-facing windows can be testing for gardening, but, because the sills are so broad, in winter, flowers can be close to the glass and, on the hottest days, they can retreat towards the room.

The Nash painting has scarlet geraniums, a Christmas cactus, an aloe, an amaryllis and what looks just like a Campanula isophylla. Geraniums are a traditional choice for a sunny place, but they will need open windows on the hottest days. My favourite zonals are the bedding types of pelargonium and tend to be bright scarlets and salmon reds, so I love The Boar, Betty Catchpole and a good unnamed red that came from Rodmarton; Venus is a beautiful pink with a dark eye.