Spires and rare shrubs
The Botanic Nursery
When Mary and Terry Baker did their first solo Chelsea exhibit, some 30 years ago, they featured The Botanic Nursery's rare trees and shrubs, plus the foxgloves that have since become their signature plants. They included species foxgloves that hadn't been seen before at Chelsea, having put them under lights to get them to flower. Ironically, they've rarely been able to have those particular ones in flower since. "Foxgloves are nice and easy to grow in the garden," explains Mary, "but once you put them in a pot and try to force them into flower, even by two or three weeks, they become soft and flabby and susceptible to aphids." It's thanks to Terry's constant nurturing of the 500 or so specimens they pot up for Chelsea that the nursery's romantic exhibits have been awarded Gold medals for many years now.
Since 2018, the RHS has allowed small nurseries like theirs to sell plug plants at Chelsea, which works particularly well for Terry and Mary as they now grow stocky plugs from seed specifically for the show, and it's the right time for visitors to put them in their gardens. "We get the opportunity to speak about foxgloves and share our passion for them. People think they know about foxgloves, that they're biennial and so flower every second year.
Denne historien er fra May 2023-utgaven av Gardens Illustrated.
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Denne historien er fra May 2023-utgaven av Gardens Illustrated.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
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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