RHS Wisley

After a very long day yesterday, we got away from Ludlow as soon as we could (eleven), and made the long journey down to Surrey over lunch. We'd resolved to visit RHS Wisley, as we were in the area without Katie and Dan (staying elsewhere, though we're all using their house for two nights).

It's an impressive garden, though, actually, I think Harlow Carr compares well, and has the advantage of being a more locally representative climate.

The orchard, particularly, we enjoyed: there are hundreds of decades-old apples, which give a beautiful impression of what, eventually, we hope our orchard will come to be like.

York Gate

In between work on the kitchen, we decided we deserved a break, and took a few hours off to visit York Gate. We went about this time last year, and got good ideas: we hoped for the same again. It's given us a few ideas for plants that will help fill what we find is a slightly 'subdued' period in the garden, where there's less flowering than we'd like.

Photos to come...

RHS Tatton Park 2014

This morning, at about 0815, we set off for Tatton Park, as we have the last couple of years, to the RHS flower show. It takes about an hour, and having parked and walked to the showground, we were in the queue at about 0940, giving us a quarter hour to start looking at the show catalogue (and map) before being let in at just before 10. I've been impressed, this year and last, at how quickly they scan the bar-coded tickets and get you in.

There were some really good show gardens, this year. We particularly liked a heritage/allotment fruit and veg stall from a group of local allotmenteers, and were struck by a scarlet mountain spinach (orache) that we've never seen in the flesh before. It's a possible potager plant next year.Grasses were much in evidence, as well as chocolate cosmos, sanguisorba, crocosmia, and brunnera. That suited us nicely, as we've many grasses that could be used in combination. We have one sanguisorba, 'Tanna', and a brunnera, 'Jack Frost', both bought at Tatton last year, and came looking for more brunnera. We have a few crocosmia, but one caught our eye today that is apparently a fairly new introduction; Twilight Fairy 'Gold'. It has lovely bronzed foliage, but sadly wasn't for sale from the show garden (the Young Designer of the Year garden by Sam Ovens).

We saw a couple of water features we liked, which might inform later plans.

(© Ian 2014)

(© Ian 2014)

This garden had a rebar construction for its runner beans: apparently I'm not the only one using rebar to construct supports! It also had a rather good green wall, one of which Liz still wants to find a space for.

These garden seats were very good, and next door we saw some very weather resistant swing seats by the well-named Yorkshire Swingseat Company.

(© Ian 2014)

(© Ian 2014)

One feature that we enjoyed was a collection of eight vignette gardens that encapsulated larger gardens' feel in small plots. They're all from Cheshire, and included Arley Hall, which is actually just down the road from Tatton Park, and we thought looked worth a real visit, based on their 'taster' garden.

(© Ian 2014)

The floral marquee was, as ever, phenomenally stocked by nurseries, and although we only bought two plants, the other displays were excellent, and gave us contact details for a number of specialist nurseries. One, near Cambridge, might be a good source of alpines, if we do decide to put a green roof on the mini-sheds. There were a couple of hosta specialists, too, for when we dig the bog garden.

(© Ian 2014)

The two plants we bought were both from the Hampshire Carnivorous Plants: one was a Sarracenia hybrid (a North American Pitcher Plant), which suited us because it actively requires a good cold winter spell, probably in the unheated greenhouse. The other is a dangling/hanging sort of plant, a Monkey Cup called 'Linda' (a hybrid, Nepenthes cv 'Linda') despite being a dioecious male. It now hangs, slightly threateningly, in the sitting room.

For us, though, the Young Designer Gardens were the best. We felt that the television coverage (Thursday and Friday evening) actually let these down, and all three, but particularly Alex Schofield's, were much better in the flesh. In fact, everything else we purchased came from these three gardens.

(© Ian 2014)

Acquisitions were:

• From Alex Schofield's garden:
• Brunnera; I need to check the cultivar
• Astrantia 'Gill Richardson'
• Sanguisorba (S. officionalis)'Tanna'
• Sedum (S. spectabile) 'Matrona'
• From Clare Broadbent's garden:
• Echinacea 'Secret Love'
• Eupatorium, I think E. purpureum
• From Sam Ovens' garden:
• Scabious 'Pink Mist'

(© Ian 2014)

Orchard Enlargement

We've already spent two days hard at work, clearing blackthorn from the back of the orchard and burning it, but the progress we made was largely invisible from the house, as we were working from the back (top) of the bank of blackthorn, effectively hollowing it out. Yesterday, though, we finished the job, and the whole cleared area became visible in one day. It's a space probably ten metres deep, and fifteen wide, and means that the established apple tree in the back left, and the chestnut we planted on that side in February, are both now 'in' the orchard, rather than feeling separate. The James Grieve apple, and the other established apple that were on the back edge of the orchard now have space behind them or the left of them (respectively). We haven't yet gone as far right as the other chestnut: this will create less additional space, but we'll try to do so in the autumn.

The big advantage is that this has cleared the space that one day will hold the plum arch, which will be the feature exit from the back of the orchard into the clearings and woodland above. We've marked our intended position for it with a pair of fence posts, which—now they're visible—will let us assess whether it's in the right place. Pleasingly, it's directly above the hole in the dry stone wall that I'm rebuilding (slowly), which in turn is directly opposite the old door in the dining room (long (decades) since replaced with a window).

We were also able to pop out this morning to plant the second mulberry, King James/Chelsea, which has been in a pot since autumn, waiting to go in the ground. The weather also held just long enough to plant three more hellebores in the copse bed, three primulas in the games lawn's septic tank bed, a sedum 'Thundercloud' in the long border, and a handful of thymes and sedums in the wall in the front garden.

Oh; a note to myself: we saw a rather attractive hydrangea, 'Zorro', which might one day have a place.

Snowdrops

For my birthday, Liz gave me a 'voucher' for an order of snowdrops, leaving it to me to decide on exactly what I wanted. Accordingly, a week or two ago, I ordered a thousand single snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis), and five hundred doubles (G. n. 'Flora Plena'), which arrived on Tuesday. They're from a nursery in Wisbech, outside Cambridge: their season is, of course, a bit advanced on ours, so although our snowdrops are still in flower, theirs have gone over. The flowers are turning into seedheads, but the leaves will remain for a few weeks more, building storage carbohydrate levels in the bulb, ready for next year. The lifting, sorting, and shipping will, inevitably, stress the plants rather badly, but it's arguably the best way to buy them. The packs of bulbs you find in the garden centre in the autumn don't tend to have received the best storage, having been lifted and graded, packed into plastic bags, and then distributed to shops, where they might then spend some time in the too-warm interior of the garden centre. By the time they're bought, and finally returned to the soil, they're all too often dry and dead, or at least badly stressed, and can take years to establish.

The snowdrops we planted like this, in a pot in our old garden, took several years before they flowered at all—in fact, I think it was only after their second year that we were even sure they were growing at all. Fortunately, they now grace our front garden, under the acer there.

Snowdrops in the front garden (© Ian 2014)

If you're a galanthophile, and are obtaining a rarer, sought-after form, then buying them in pots in the autumn is probably the absolute best. However, only the fancy varieties are really available like this—the ones that sell at several pounds per bulb. We need spring bulbs by the hundred, if not the thousand: we've probably planted getting on for three thousand in this garden—daffodils, scilla, puschkinia, crocuses, fritillaries, in the main—and I reckon we need at least twice as many again. Then there's the hillside, which will need its own several-thousand-bulb planting.

There's no way we can spend several pounds per bulb, and I don't think you need to, to enjoy the sight of a drift of snowdrops. Additionally, many of the collectors' forms are doubles, which aren't as good for insects, although they are pretty. So plenty of common singles, and a good chunk of the basic double, is the way we've gone.

They're classic woodland plants, completing their flowering and growth in a quick cycle as soon as possible in late winter, and before deciduous trees and shrubs come into leaf, reducing light levels. Although I'd be just as happy scattering them throughout the garden, we've started, therefore, by planting about 350 of the doubles in the copse bed of the garden, were they'll rub shoulders with crocuses, witch-hazel, and dogwoods. Some more (the rest of the doubles) have gone along either side of the willow tunnel over the septic tank. We then planted about 150 singles in the quince bed, along with ten G. plicatus 'Warham', which were a free gift (quite generously, as they appear to retail at £4 per bulb...), before taking the rest of the tray up to the birch clearing on the hillside. We planted a load of Midwinter Fire dogwoods up there early in December, and the snowdrops have gone around and amongst these and the eponymous stand of silver birches. At the moment, these all look a lot like little tufts of grass, but each is really a dozen or so deep-planted bulbs. Although, no doubt, we'll lose some of them, hopefully within a year, or two, there'll be plenty of flowers.

Planting the snowdrops took us up to lunch time, having got an early start and made the most of the cooler misty morning (hot sunny weather wouldn't be good for the bare-rooted bulbs). About the same time, a delivery of mulch (composted 'forestry products' (bark, I reckon) and manure (horse, by my reckoning), from the ever-reliable Tommy Topsoil) arrived, and was tipped onto the driveway. This afternoon we moved about a quarter/a third of this to fill up the vegetable beds. More will go around the fruit trees on the hillside at the weekend, and the rest will go on flower beds. The fruit beds might get compost, instead, and we plan to repeat the approach of last year, putting down compost, then cardboard, then chippings. The weeding in these beds was then negligible all year, which was much better—and I don't think it's a coincidence that we 

had no sign of sawfly (technically birch sawfly, in previous years), as the larvae pupate underground, and I think the mulch might stop them emerging, reducing populations.

Lastly, while Liz got started on the year's weeding (pond end of the long border), I mowed the lawn for the first time. Since reducing the mowing to around the quince/sweetpea bed, the slope at the foot of the drive, round the pond, and the games lawn, it's a much more manageable job, taking about an hour this time. No doubt it'll look a bit yellowed (and I'll have missed a few strips), but it already looks neater.

Almost Ready

After most of another weekend of work, we're almost ready for our bare-root hedging plants to arrive (whenever that is). It's the time of year when, in reality, there's not much time to be outside. By the time we're up, have eaten, and got ourselves sorted, it's normally half-ten, and the light starts to fail by four. That makes a scant five hours available to work, out of which we lose at least some time for lunch.

These things can't be helped.

I used Sigrid to make a first pass at clearing the middle of what I'm going to term 'the boundary clearing' (on the left of the hillside, and which merges, at present, with the neighbouring territory), before we manually cut back the gorse, and pulled up gorse trunks. Over the years (decades, probably), the gorse bushes have straggled out, and many have six foot trunks, lying on the floor (buried by leafmould), with the bush some distance from its rootstock. Fortunately, once you've cut the spiny top, the branch usually pulls up readily enough. We cleared the clearing's left side, making a huge heap of gorse and brambles, yesterday. Today, we tidied up a little, and have marked where we intend to plant some of our hedging plants, in order to create a continuous barrier at that side. At the moment, you can see straight into Ivy Cottage's windows from the clearing, which suits no-one. Once the beech, hazels, plums, and apples are there, and growing, the clearing will feel more sheltered, secluded, and secure.

We're aiming for something that doesn't feel like a hedge, but a more natural boundary. I won't trim the plants into a squared-off shape, and they're not in a straight line. Once they're established, I'd quite like to grow some roses, and some ivy, through them, for flowers, winter foliage, and wildlife (ivy's a fantastic late-season food for pollinators).

Until then, there are just little cairns of stones, marking each of forty-six spots, running down to the corner where the fence ends. It takes in a number of small trees that are established (hawthorns and blackthorns), and skirts a holly tree. At the moment, you can enter the clearing from the orchard at that end, but eventually, once we've cleared more blackthorn, the entrance will be further along, about a third of the way along the back boundary, where you'll go through an arch of plums, and either left to this clearing, or right into the other.

Once we'd placed these, we used the last hour of light to go back to that other clearing (the birch clearing), and keep cutting back the gorse there. We're done, now, with manual cutting, and I need to go back with Sigrid to clear the brambles and bracken. The structure of the clearing is now clear, and we'll be planting a short run of the same hedge mix at the back of it, to delineate the clearing, and give it some boundary. There'll be a 'gate' above the birches, up the hillside through the heather, or a passage leading left into a cluster of trees, and then on into the boundary clearing.

Greenhouse

I've wanted one for about 14 years, and finally, we have one. Our little 8x6' greenhouse arrived today, as a stack of toughened glass panes, and several bundles and boxes of parts. We'll put it up at the weekend, hopefully, on the back patio.

In other news, I've started a bucket of greengage wine, with some frozen fruit we weren't getting round to using (Liz wasn't enamoured of the jam we made originally). Needs 250g pearl barley, unusually, as well as 1.5kg of stoned fruit.

Last night, we finished the spiced berry cordial, by adding 2kg of sugar, three teaspoons of each of nutmeg, allspice, and ginger, two big cinnamon sticks, and thirty cloves. That was simmered for five minutes, then bottled.

We've also picked all the apples from the front left established apple tree (which we pruned into quite a pleasing, goblet shape in the winter), which were starting to fall rather readily. There's probably been 5kg of windfalls, and 20kg of picked fruit, which bodes well. I'm hoping to build a scratter over the weekend, to help pulp/crush apples for pressing.

Blackberries

After several sessions, I've now finished painting the window frames for the year: I've done a little over half of them, and will do the rest in the spring.

In other DIY, I've replaced the fill mechanism in the downstairs toilet cistern, which seems trivial, but will be much better: it's taken increasingly long to fill since moving in, starting at about 20 minutes, and reaching a couple of hours, before packing in entirely a week ago.

We've sown a number of seeds, including some aquilegia ('Royal Purple' and 'Magpie', as well as some free-pollinated seeds from grandma's garden), and potted up a number of house plants.

It's blackberry season: we picked a couple of ice-cream tubs full -- all from the hillside. It's been really good to step out of the house and collect so much fruit: far better than having to schlep to the quarry, or a stretch of the lane, and lovely to have it growing in our own land. It's looking like nice fruit, as well, and there'll be more to collect in a few days, I think.

Some of the weekend's been spent putting together a plan of works for the next twelve months, to include, hopefully, wall insulation, a small greenhouse for the back patio (the 'big' greenhouse on the hillside will be another few years), the work on the colour-wheel garden, and a pergola/fence structure to enclose the drive. The greenhouse, if we go ahead, will be imminent; the pergola in the next few months; the wall insulation won't be until the spring/summer.

Swelling Apples

A four day weekend allows you to get a lot more done.

On Friday, some of our time was occupied by a wall insulation surveyor, which may or may not come to anything, and taking the car to be serviced. We managed, though, to get some planting out done, around that: the plants from Tatton Park, and others, are now in the ground, which they'll appreciate

Saturday, we dodged showers to mow the lawn, weed, and pot up a number of perennials that have arrived (all little plugs: delphiniums, echinacea, penstemon, and salvia)—this also meant potting on some of the 96 lavenders which arrived in June, and which have filled their 30mm modules. We then spent the evening with Cath & Jason, which was relaxing.

On Sunday, we went on a trip to Harlow Carr. Part of the impetus was the £5 voucher for the cafe which they kindly sent us. I bought a vanilla slice (iced mille-feuille and crème pâtissière) and a raspberry tart (shortcrust, with white chocolate crème pâtissière and raspberries on top, with a piped white chocolate garnish), which came to £5. Coincidentally. They were truly delicious.

Helenium in late summer borders (© Ian 2013)

The main borders are looking glorious, full of late summer colour, grasses, and the slightly lower light of August.

Main borders, Harlow Carr (&copy Ian 2013)

I've admired this bench before, and still like it. We're thinking about how to incorporate something similar into the edge of the games lawn.

Bench in Scented Garden (© Ian 2013)

We also rather liked these sinuous bean supports, and admired some 'Lupini' beans nearby.

Bean supports in Kitchen Garden, Harlow Carr (© Ian 2013)

On the way out, through the garden centre, we couldn't help but notice that the top fruit was on 50% off sale—much as it was last year, when I bought a walnut. No walnuts, this time, but a half-price quince (which I manfully ignored, as it was Leskovac, or Serbian Gold, which we already have)—and a mulberry, 'Jerusalem', which I couldn't leave, not for £22.50.

It'll go on the hillside, of course, probably to replace a prominent and only briefly attractive hawthorn. Around it, the older apple trees are all nicely loaded with fruit, which is gradually ripening. Weeks until the apple harvest, I think.

We got home, and made a batch of Danish pastry dough. Today, we've spent the whole day tidying the garage and workshop, which are now really pleasingly organized. In between, we turned the pastry into pain aux raisin, which are lovely, ready for visitors over the next month or so. Altogether, a pleasing, tasty, and plant-filled weekend.

RHS Tatton Park

I've been looking forward to this for some time: this week's seen the 2013 RHS flower show at Tatton Park, and—like last year—we bought tickets for the final day.

Near our entrance, and the first thing we stopped at, was 'The Home Guard-ener', a World War II allotment garden, which uses the Ministry of Food guidelines for crops and spacings, and varieties available at the time. At the end, beyond the Anderson shelter (planted with marrows growing over it), was a really colourful flower bed, which we thought made the whole garden rather ornamental, despite 90% of it being vegetables only in different shades of green. Pleasingly, one of the potatoes was 'Home Guard', introduced in 1945.

'The Home Guard-ener' (photo © Ian 2013)

There were a number of 'Galaxy' themed gardens, which were interesting, and had some pleasing planting, but—perhaps inevitably—didn't really contain anything we'd probably replicate. However, I did rather like the chocolate-scented cosmos (C. atrosanguineus), which cropped up in several gardens.

Chocolate Cosmos in 'NSO: Watch This Space' (photo © Ian 2013)

'The Edible Medley' had a pleasing stone rill running through it, which has us wondering whether a rill draining from the colour wheel to the water garden is something we should consider.

'The Edible Medley' (photo © Ian 2013)

I had to take a photo of two woven willow cats, playing with a willow mouse.

'The Animals Went In Two By Two' (photo © Ian 2013)

'The Water Garden' (photo © Ian 2013)

Of the municipal beds, our favourite was the one from Birmingham City Council.

'The Canals of Birmingham' (photo © Ian 2013)

The grass border at the front of Echomap's garden caught our eye.

'Sound Idea' (photo © Ian 2013)

I fear Liz may now want a water wheel as a water feature.

'The Industrious Force of Nature' (photo © Ian 2013)

Whereas I'd rather like a garden observatory.

'The Star-Gazer's Retreat' (photo © Ian 2013)

For that future day when we might keep chickens, I rather like Kate Humble's Flyte So Fancy chicken coop.

Planted-up chicken coop (photo © Ian 2013)

RHS National Young Designer of the Year went to Tony Woods, who designed 'Escape to the City'. Last year's winner (Tristen Knight, with 'Brownfield Beauty') was also one we liked: we obviously share our opinions with the judges. We bought a couple of plants from this during the sell-off, including the brunnera just visible in the bottom left of this photo.

'Escape to the City' (photo © Ian 2013)

The garden leaflet for this one was the best I've seen: it had mug-shots of most (all?) of the plants, which made it really easy to identify something that caught your eye.

'Escape to the City' (photo © Ian 2013)

Cercis canadensis in 'The Bee Garden' (photo © Ian 2013) 

Predictably, we bought a load of plants, and had a struggle back to the car with half a dozen pots in each hand.

Car-load of purchases (© Ian 2013)

To enumerate them: a dark leafed ligularia; a 'Chocolate' eupatorium (E. rugosum); a variegated lysimachia (L. punctata 'Alexander', I think); Sanguisorba 'Tanna'; three 'Ravenwing' cow parsleys; a 'Queen Victoria' lobelia; a replacement 'Miss Willmott's Ghost' eryngium (and tray of seedlings!); three heucheras; a Japanese ginger; an edible tulbaghia 'Silver Lace'; a variegated agapanthus ('Tinkerbell', perhaps?); three 'Bishop of Llandaff' dahlias; a tradescantia; and the Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost' mentioned above. We also bought some heritage seeds, from Pennard Plants, including cucomelon, and a purple climbing French bean, 'Blue Coco'.

I think there are two more plants, too, which I can't remember.

The purchases (© Ian 2013)

Notes for the wishlist:

• Achillea 'Apple Blossom' has an unusual (for achillea) almost purplish colour.
• Scented geranium 'Lady Plymouth' is rather attractive.
• Tomato 'Totem' is remarkably compact: from Pennard Plants, I think.
• 'Red Malabar' spinach is a pretty climbing form.
• Potentilla thurberi 'Monarch's Velvet' (a herbaceous potentilla?) has a good colour flower.
• Hordeum jubatum (foxtail barley) has attractive flowerheads.
• Coreopsis 'Jive' is nice.

Plum and Cherry Pruning

Most of the fruit trees were pruned near the end of February. That was while the trees were still dormant (just as well, given the snowy Easter we had), but we left the plums and cherries alone. These (Prunus genus) are particularly susceptible to Silverleaf infection (a fungal disease, Chondrostereum purpureum), which typically gets into the plant through wounds. Routine pruning of these trees should be left, therefore, until they're in leaf. As this was a formative pruning of a young sapling, we've waited only until the trees are starting to break bud.

I worked round the relevant trees this evening: Victoria Plum, Oullin's Golden Gage, Merryweather Damson,  ornamental plums 'Spring Glow' and Pissardii, 'Royalty' crab-apple and cherry 'Royal Burgandy', as well as 'Summer Sun' cherry in the garden. There's another Victoria in the garden, but I need to decide how to treat that, as it had its leader cut out at about 50cm when we bought it (a garden ago): ideally we'd have a 1-1.4m clear stem on it, but that might be tricky.

They've all had all feathers on the bottom third cut right back, those in the middle third halved, and the top third left. A couple of the fruit trees have a leader that's about at the right height, so we can train main laterals this year.

I also had a play with a plan for the herb garden today.

Possible Herb Garden Plan (© Ian 2013)

It could still change, of course. We're currently thinking of having three interwoven boundaries: one of box, one of euonymus, and one of lavender. The 55 sections then have different things in them. Some of them (the 'step-ins') will be rather more sparsely planted, to allow us to walk through them to get access across the garden. The ornamentals are likely to be plants like gladioli; the obelisks are probably going to wind up being  edible legumes, but attractive varieties. What the herbs are is still subject of discussion: the advantage of this sort of design is that each square can have different soil (enriched, impoverished, gritty, damp) to suit the planting, so Mediterranean herbs (sharp drainage, poor soil) can grow next to roses (deep rich soil).

And as for the roses: we'll probably get four varieties, possibly using the Sister Elizabeth and Eglantine roses we have as one group, with three others: I'd like at least one white rose, and one deep red.

Time to turn some more turf!

Oriental hellebores

Ordered a few weeks ago, five new oriental hellebores (Helleborus orientalis) arrived today, and have been potted up. It's howling a gale outside (winds up to 35mph, in the shelter of the vegetable garden), so we didn't loiter. Well, we loitered long enough to sow two more pots of beetroot ('Cylindra') while in the porch.

The Christmas rose hellebores (H. niger), including those we recently bought in Ludlow, are looking good at the moment, although the small ones we bought two years ago are still growing. They're slow, though, and therefore expensive, which is why increasing our own from seed and divisions is so attractive.

I saw something for the wishlist while reading a magazine over breakfast: Dierama, or Angel's Fishing Rod.

Dierama pulcherrimum (image by Ghislain118 (AD), hosted on Wikimedia Commons)

More Plants on the Wish-List

A few plants we saw at Harlow Carr, and warrant noting down.

• Achillea 'Lachsschönheit' (Galaxy Series), which I discover has an AGM.
• Achillea 'Martina', also AGM'd. Obviously, I have impeccable taste.
• Eupatorium cannabinum, or hemp agrimony.
• A few alpine-type plants, which would be good for a rockery or green roof:
• Geranium sanguineum var. striatum and G. himalayense, which are low and spreading geraniums.
• Hakonechloa macra, the green form, as well as the 'Alboaurea' which has--wait for it--an AGM. The plain form has more striking red stems than the gold.
• Bergenia 'Abendglut', advantages of being evergreen, tolerant of site and soil, and colourful.
• Iris setosa in dwarf form.
• Rhodanthemum hosmariense, the Moroccan daisy, with divided silver foliage, classic daisy flowers, and and AGM to boot.

RHS Harlow Carr

Today we had a day out to RHS Harlow Carr, with my parents. We're trying to make the most of our RHS membership, so we'll probably go a few times: probably next in January, to see the winter garden. Short trips like that are a luxury of free admission, I feel, so we'll try to get our money's worth!

As normal, lots of ideas and plants. I always like gunnera (G. manicata or, Mutant Rhubarb), although it's entirely impractical in a 'normal' sized garden. A more modest-sized rhubarb might feature in our bog-garden, though.

Gunnera manicata (© Ian 2012)

We're looking out for heucheras and heucherellas to tie the colour-wheel beds together, and this one caught our eyes. We also spotted a heuchera 'Cherry Cola', which might have promise.

Unlabelled heuchera (© Ian 2012) 

Harlow Carr has the classic long herbaceous perennial borders you might expect, and these are in full splendour, in late summer sun. There are nice touches bringing the beds together, too, like box cones at all the corners, which help unify the very different planting schemes.

Borders at RHS Harlow Carr (© Ian 2012) 

We spotted a rather nice backdrop to a seat, which was similar to something we saw at the Tatton Park show (second photo down)

Another promising seat idea (© Ian 2012)

I've been trying to work out how to demarcate the pathways through the 'copse' (bottom left corner of the garden), which is going to have chippings mulch over it all, with paths left clear of plants (with the assistance of weed suppressant membrane). This, from Harlow Carr's herb garden, seems like a good idea that will blend in nicely, and could (with some work) be self-made.

Willow 'wattle' edging for paths (© Ian 2012) 

Lastly, another seat, that was beautifully incorporated into a bed. A possibility for the bench next to the pond, I think:

Bench in a bed (© Ian 2012)

While browsing through the plant shop, we also found a half-price walnut tree, which has been on my wish-list for a while. It's a cultivated form, Broadview, which should crop in a few years. Ideally, we'd have two, to improve pollination, so I shall keep looking for a second.

There's an excellent RHS publication on walnuts, too: Walnuts Without the Wait.

Colour Wheel

As mentioned, while we were at RHS Tatton Park, we rather like the show garden 'A Taste of Ness', which was designed with a long bed encircling decking and pond. The long bed worked from whites, into yellows and on through the spectrum, ending in blues at the other end.

'A Taste of Ness' at RHS Tatton Park (© Ian 2012)

The decking, pond and beanbags weren't particularly what caught our eyes, but the colour scheme. We'd been wondering how to arrange the colours of the garden, and decided this would work with the wheel beds we'd planned:

The seating corner, with putative beds marked out (© Ian 2012)

I had a spare few minutes, and have come up with the following. The idea is that each bed will be white at the arbour end, and then move through pastel colours with deepening colour, before being intense colours at the opposite ends to the arbour.

Colour wheel plan for the seating area (© Ian 2012).

Running through, we'll use a few key plants to tie things together. The grasses from Tatton Park will feature: deschampsias, molinia, panicum and stipa. They can go in almost all the beds (mostly the yellow, orange, and red sections): we've got seeds for a glaucous, blue grass (Leymus arenarius), and we've two variegated grasses for the green bed (the reed grass from Tatton, and the one we pinched from Molly. Heucheras will go everywhere but the blue beds, I reckon; the eryngium obviously belongs near the top of the blue bed. We've bought a number of sweet peas, which will give us wigwams of colour in many of the spots. Once that backbone is there, we'll go to work filling the gaps, safe in the knowledge that any colour has a pre-defined spot!

Potting On

The numerous plants we bought at Tatton Park, combined with a number of other plants that have outgrown their pots, and lots of seedlings, conspired to require a potting up session.

The clematis, hydrangea, deschampias, and eryngium are all fine in their pots, but the heucherellas needed bigger pots, and most of the other grasses needed either bigger pots or topping up. I realise I forgot the fifteenth new plant in my Tatton round-up: we also bought a variegated reed grass, Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Overdam'.

The box I obtained from Witley Court needed bigger pots (very root-bound!), and looks much more sensible in 2l pots. A tray of angel hair stipa (S. tenuissima) that we sowed earlier in the year has done really well: nominally 40 seeds, but we've potted on over fifty little plants, which is great. (Far left in the photo.)

Newly potted-up plants (© Ian 2012)

Lastly, we potted up a few dozen lavender seedlings and cuttings (far right).

Domino appears to think he was important in this process, as he's guarding the plants in the photo. I'm not sure I'd agree, though.

RHS Tatton Park

We went to the last day of RHS Tatton Park today: our first trip to an RHS show. 'Twas marvellous. The gardens were excellent, and there were loads of really good plants on the stalls, and we came away with lots of ideas. And lots of plants. The weather was much better than it could have been: warm, sunny, dry. Bit too sunny, really, and we're a little pink and dehydrated, but I won't complain.

Photos galore:

One for the wishlist, this: we liked it as a screen to grow things up, behind a bench.

An inspiringly colourful herb garden; one of the plant stalls in the floral marquee.

'Brownfield Beauty', the winner of the Young Designer of the Year award (Tristen Knight), and source of some of our plants...

'A Taste of Ness', which gave us some ideas for planting scheme in the seating corner. It's designed around a  colour wheel: the bed runs from the front right corner (white) into yellows and oranges in the back right; reds along the back to purples in the back left; and then blues down the left and part-way along the front.

More from A Taste of Ness:

 

'Enchantment': a lovely, calm, green-and-white planting scheme.

Also from 'Enchantment', a good alternative for growing a clematis.

'The Mornflake Garden', which also provided some of our plants! It won Best in Show for the show gardens.

A box ball, within an informal bed: see, it can be done!

A nice example of the sort of stream we want ('Making a Splash').

And the sort of planting in front of a hedge that we plan for next to the pond.

All photos © Ian 2012.

We bought two clematis (C. florida 'Alba Plena') which has lovely white flowers that open to double, and then have attractive seed-heads; a hydrangea with distinctive star-shaped white flowers (H. arborescens 'Hayes' Starburst'), which really caught our eye; and, from the Hardy Plants Society, a white eryngium (E. giganteum 'Miss Wilmott's Ghost').

As it was the final day, the show gardens were dismantled at 4, when we were able to pick up two grasses from the Mornflake Garden (Deschampia cespitosa 'Bronzeschleier' and 'Goldschleier') in big pots, and eight plants from the Brownfield Beauty garden: two 'Sweet Tea' heucherellas, two Molinia caerulea grasses (ssp. arundinacea 'Skyracer'), a Panicum virgatum 'Heavy Metal' grass, one each of achillea 'Terracotta' and 'Paprika, and a Stipa arundinacea.

All in all, a fantastic day, which has given us some great ideas and some lovely plants. I expect we'll go again next year!