Earliest garden memory Making miniature gardens out of rocks, logs and various uprooted weeds in a sandbox.
First plant love The earliest plants I remember growing were busy Lizzies and sycamore seedlings on the windowsills back home in Ireland. But the first plants I was really excited about growing were gloriosa lilies. I grew them inside on bamboo canes and loved how exotic the flowers looked.
Who has inspired your career the most and why? Jimi Blake. I first started working at Jimi's garden, Hunting Brook, when I was 19. I enjoyed his approach to plants and how he uses them as well as his fun perspective on gardening.
Favourite landscape or garden that has influenced you My general enthralment with the rural Irish landscape lives on, especially in Tipperary where I grew up, with the mixture of rolling hills and mountainous backdrops.
Denne historien er fra December 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
Denne historien er fra December 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
Bright blooms
Flowering shrubs bring much needed colour and scent to the garden in late winter and early spring. Expert Tony Kirkham selects the best
SWEET DREAMS
A new book on one of the UK's favourite flowers is filled with beautiful photography, but is more than a coffee-table tome, says cut-flower grower Georgie Newbery
VERDANT VALLEY
For his own Mediterranean garden, designer Maurizio Usai has gone against the trend for drought-tolerant planting and created a lush, green natural oasis
Food for thought
More people than ever want to grow their own, for a variety of reasons, says Dr Richard Claxton, and this one thing can improve our health and help the planet
CREATING CONTEMPORARY PLANTING BEDS
Designer Charlotte Harris reflects on the shift towards organically shaped 'island' planting beds, and reveals inside tips on how to get the right effect
ARE PLANTS PEOPLE TOO?
Some recent research suggests plants may be able to learn, sense and communicate. So, asks Darryl Moore, should we now rethink how we treat them?
HEUCHERA AND TIARELLA
With their striking foliage in a range of bold colours, heucheras, and the associated heucherellas and tiarellas, are low-maintenance plants that offer year-round colour
The future for Sissinghurst
The climate crisis is affecting us all. Head gardener Troy Scott Smith outlines the challenges he faces and explains how he is now working differently
JINNY BLOM'S - favourite plants
Award-winning landscape designer Jinny Blom set up her studio in 2000 and has since designed many beautiful, thoughtful gardens, both large and small, around the world.
BEECH GARDENS at the Barbican, ten years on
As a new phase of planting begins, Professor Nigel Dunnett looks at how the iconic public gardens he created at The Barbican Estate in London have evolved over the past decade
