Tag: herbaceous plants

Christine’s New Garden

We have known Christine for a long while now and often visited her large garden up in the Welsh Hills beyond LLanrhaeadr. A stunning garden with beautiful meadows to one side, a large pond being developed and an original looking veg garden. Closer to the house were several beautifully planted borders and corton steel troughs.

Circumstances changed for Christine and late husband John meaning a change of location and a smaller house and garden became the order of the day. They lived temporarily in an apartment in Shrewsbury before settling for a townhouse on the outskirts of the town. John didn’t live to see the new house, cancer preventing him from doing so.

So Christine moved into the new house on her own and turned it into a home and turned her new small patch of land into a beautifully designed and planted garden. This garden was at a much lower altitude and a fraction of the size of the hillside garden.

Christine invited our Shropshire Hardy Plant Society mini-group to view her new horticultural creation. The four photos below were taken on the kerbside and indicated what a treat we had in store.

We had to walk through the house to get to the garden which we could see was already coming on well. Winding gravel paths meandered between borders, allowing us good views of the planting.

There were carefully positioned pieces of sculpture throughout the garden and one area had a small pond under construction planned to be good for wildlife. Many of Christine’s plants will also be explored by wildlife of all sorts.

Interesting sculptural pieces pop up just where they are needed giving a chance to stop and get a really good look at each piece.

As with any garden whatever the size, it is the plants that matter the most.

We all know that Christine’s favourite colour is orange. She is rarely seen without orange somewhere within her outfits, so it was no surprise to see this glowing orange Kniphofia in the garden.

Every garden needs plenty of places to sit and relax or enjoy shared refreshments. Christine had invited us for refreshments as well as discovering her garden. This calm welcoming table surrounded by plants awaited us.

We knew that Christine had not been creating her beautiful garden for very long and she claimed that there wouldn’t be much to see but at least we could have some coffee and cake. In fact we found so much to enjoy in her garden and the refreshments were good too!

Tags a-young-garden, colours, flowers, garden, gardening, herbaceous plants, nature, travel

autumn colours flowering bulbs garden photography gardening gardens hardy perennials

Crocosmias – the brightest stars of the mid-summer garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 9, 2020
4 Comments on Crocosmias – the brightest stars of the mid-summer garden

When wandering around our garden in mid-August we were surprised by how many crocosmias were flowering even though the earlier varieties such as C. ‘Lucifer’ had already faded and were producing their rather beautifully structured and coloured seed heads which will last for months and provide good cutting material. The gallery below features those crocosmias that we enjoy in our garden through August, September and into October for their flowers and then onwards through winter for their stuctural seedheads.

So I decided to wander around the garden with my camera and take photos of each different one, for you to enjoy as a gallery. As usual click on the first picture and then navigate using the arrows.

Tags Crocosmia Lucifer, crocosmias, flowering bulbs, hardy perennials, herbaceous plants, hot colours, late summer colour, late summer in the garden

birds countryside garden design garden paths garden photography garden ponds gardening gardens hardy perennials National Garden Scheme NGS ornamental trees and shrubs pathways Powis Powys Wales water in the garden Yellow Book Gardens

Into Wales for a Post Lockdown Garden Visit

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date September 30, 2020

We never expected to find a beautiful garden at the end of a long narrow farm track with grass down its centre, but we did! We were going to visit an NGS garden in the neighbouring county of Powys. The garden in question was ‘Moel-y-Gwelltyn-Ucha, a steeply terraced cottage garden situated at 900 feet above sea level, a truly challenging spot to create a garden.

When we finally arrived at the property we parked close to the five bar gate to the garden and were warmly greeted by the owners/gardeners. Walking alongside the cottage walls the planting against them gave us an idea of what was to come so we couldn’t wait to get started.

This was a garden with a superior borrowed landscape, gently rolling farmland and the sounds of birdsong, lost lambs and old tractors.

The garden itself also had a peaceful atmosphere which made us feel very relaxed. Gravel paths followed the contours of the slope and the terraces and by following each one and exploring around every corner the garden revealed more and more of its secrets.

A large wildlife pond took up a position centre stage. We came across it several times during our exploration and it sat beautifully within the overall design of the garden.

Surprises always add so much to a garden’s character.

Some interesting plants stopped us in our tracks as we moved around the garden, all beautifully healthy and in many cases very well matched to partners.

I shall continue with a few views of the garden from each level.

Two final photos of superb plant combinations.

Tags garden pond, garden terraces, gardens of Powys, herbaceous borders, herbaceous plants, NGS, NGS gardens, Powis, water in the garden, Yellow Book, Yellow Book Gardens

colours garden design garden photography gardening gardens hardy perennials ornamental trees and shrubs Shropshire

My Garden Journal 2020 – August

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date September 19, 2020
1 Comment on My Garden Journal 2020 – August

Back for another delve into my garden journal, this time to see what I had entered during the month of August. Enjoy sharing it with me!

I began by looking at a few of our colourful borders, “August, the traditional summer holiday month, but to us it is more a time to sit back and enjoy our garden”

Below are the four photos featured on this page.

On the opposite page white blooms are featured, “Until a few years ago I did not enjoy white plants in the garden but recently I have developed a liking for them.” The photos show “White blooms with coloured centres.”

Turning over the page are a selection of photos of some of our Hypericum inodorum shrubs, “This month several of our trees and shrubs have finished flowering and their berries are colouring up.”

Two plants feature on the opposite page to the hypericum, a lily and a fritillery, where I shared a photo and an i-Pad sketch.

The next collection of plants to be featured are daylilies or hemerocallis, of which we have over thirty different cultivars. I wrote, “Our collection of Hemerocallis adds so much to our garden, where we have planted them in virtually every border. Each individual flower lasts but one day but more keep coming to replace them. You can eat them too!”

On the page opposite I shared a watercolour painting of the beautiful Lysimachia ‘Firecracker’.

Over the page to the next double page spread we discover photos of agapanthus on the left hand page and a little rodent visitor to our garden on the right. About agapanthus I wrote, “My flowering plant of the month of August is agapanthus. We grow a collection in our gravel garden called the ‘Beth Chatto Border.”

About the rodent I wrote, “Common Shrew live throughout our patch, surviving for just one year they live heir life at speed. We see them as they rush from one border to another, not wishing to be spotted by one of our many birds of prey who frequent our garden, Kestrel, Sparrow Hawk, Owls and Merlin. We welcome shrews as they enjoy slugs and snails as snacks.”

I really enjoyed the challenge of sketching a Common Shrew using watercolour paints and fibre pens.

My journal for August finishes with more pictures of colourful plant combinations and communities we have created in our garden. “Our patch is a very colourful place in mid-summer with each border home to a variety of flowering herbaceous perennials.”

We will see my garden journal again in September.

Tags agapanthus, autumn colours, Avocet garden, day lilies, hardy perennials, hemerocallis, herbaceous borders, herbaceous plants, mixed borders, the garden at Avocet, the garden in September

garden photography gardening hardy perennials spring spring gardening succulents

Gardening in lockdown – Jude’s micro-nursery plants sort out

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 28, 2020
4 Comments on Gardening in lockdown – Jude’s micro-nursery plants sort out

We sell lots of plants mostly perennials and shrubs when we open our garden and when we give talks to clubs and societies. I take the shrub cuttings and Jude deals with seed sowing and looking after plant divisions and self seeded perennials.

The greenhouse is almost exclusively used to sow and then grow on Jude’s perennial seeds.

As they reach a suitable size they are potted on and then hardened off in trays outside. This also allows us to water them from below.

Cuttings taken from succulents are also kept in the greenhouse until they are large enough to pot on and move outside. Perennials end up on the shelves in Jude’s little nursery which has a label saying “Jude’s Micro-nursery”.

At about the same time dahlias are potted on when they show good new growth after their winter rest. Begonias are hardened off too.

Tags hardy perennials, herbaceous plants, potting on, seedlings, succulents

garden design garden fun garden furniture garden photography garden seating gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials light quality ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture sculpture shrubs water in the garden

Return to Waterperry – part 2

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date April 15, 2020
4 Comments on Return to Waterperry – part 2

As promised I am back sharing with you our summer time visit to the gardens at Waterperry.

Through this wooden gate we discovered a formal garden divided into four sections all featuring interesting and unusual alpines. The golden crocus lookalikes are Sternbergia lutea. Since seeing this beautiful patch we ordered a dozen for our own garden.

The orange flowers looking somewhat like Pentstemon pinifolia ‘Wisley Fire’ was in fact Zauschneria californica ‘Dublin’. Again, although we already grow P. ‘Wisley Fire’ we have bought the Zauschneria too and planted it in scree,

Occasionally when exploring gardens we come across seats that really surprise and impress and here at Waterperry we did just that. The first, the ‘Head Gardener’ seat seems to suit me! I want one! Jude obviously equally enjoyed the other.

As well as garden seats we discovered a spherical stone water feature which had the thinnest film of water seeping over its edge and down the sides. Completely different but again rather interesting was this thatched dovecote.

These metal and glass screens looked equally good close-up as they did from a distance. The light altered their colours as we moved around them.

I will finish this report on our return visit to Waterperry Gardens with photos of this beautiful figure sculpture sitting on top of the wall and a stunning piece of cloud pruning.

Tags alpine gardening, alpines, fun in the garden, garden humoir, garden sculpture, garden seating, garden seats, gardens of Oxfordshire, herbaceous borders, herbaceous plants, outdoor sculpture, Oxfordshire, Waterperry, Waterperry Gardens

colours garden photography gardening gardens grasses hardy perennials light light quality ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs Shrewsbury Shropshire shrubs trees village gardens Winter Gardening winter gardens

My Garden Journal 2019 – December

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 20, 2020
3 Comments on My Garden Journal 2019 – December

My Garden Journal 2019 comes to an end this month, so here are the entries for December.

On the first page I wrote, “December sees most of the berries stripped from our shrubs and trees by dozens of thrushes including migrants who like our winter weather. A few berries remain to enhance he odd flowers, the grasses, seed-heads and evergreen shrubs.”

Over onto the next page I feature some of the more unusual and very subtle coloured foliage in our December patch.

I wrote, “Unusual coloured foliage of our evergreen shrubs come to the fore even on the dullest of days. Bronzes, browns, blushes, purples, blues, greys and greens with flecks of yellow.”

Over onto the third page for December and I talk of how much there is to see in our garden if you look down at your feet! “In our garden in winter it pays to look down. Silver glows and glistens at our feet. Silver leaf markings take on so many shapes and patterns.”

So just one final page for my December entries for 2019! Maybe my next year’s garden journal will be completely different?

For the last page of my 2019 Garden Journal I wrote, “I love sunny winter days when the low sun catches the colour and texture of twig and bark.” Then I featured a collection of ten photos of the light doing just that to a few of our trees and shrubs.

Tags bark colour, berried shrubs, coloured bark, coloured foliage, coloured stems, December, deciduous trees, foliage, foliage combinations, grasses, herbaceous plants, ornamental grasses, seed heads, shrubs in winter, silver foliage, the garden in winter, variegated foliage, winter berries

colours flowering bulbs garden design garden designers garden photography gardening gardens half-hardy perennials hardy perennials meadows National Garden Scheme NGS Yorkshire

The Sheffield Gardens – Part 2 – James Hitchmough’s patch

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 19, 2019

So during our weekend up in Sheffield after visiting the garden of Nigel Dunnett, we moved on to explore the garden of his colleague, Professor James Hitchmough. This garden was half way up a steep narrow road near the city centre with terraced houses on both sides.

An NGS sign pointed us through a gateway, where a path took us through the side garden where a wooden gate opened up to reveal the back garden, where glimpses of yellow, orange and red invited us to explore further.

These colourful glimpses hinted at the array of South African bulbs such as watsonias and gladioli, which formed part of a garden that was one low growing meadow below a few gnarled old apple trees. This was no surprise as James Hitchmough is the pioneer of seed sown meadows mixed with such bulbs, but his public gardens such as the one at Wisley tend to be so much larger than his own little patch.

It is a gentle garden with foliage playing an important role and many blues, pinks and whites adding some subtlety.

This was a small but so interesting and atmospheric too.

Tags flowering bulbs, garden designers gardens, herbaceous plants, James Hitchmough, Sheffield, Sheffield School of Planting, South African flowering bulbs

autumn autumn colours colours garden design garden furniture garden paths garden photography gardening gardens gardens open to the public grasses hardy perennials light light quality National Garden Scheme NGS nurseries ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs pathways shrubs South Shropshire walled gardens Yellow Book Gardens

Seasonal visits to two very different gardens – Autumn at Wildegoose

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date October 26, 2019

This is the last visit to the smaller of our two gardens that we have been visiting throughout 2019, so please enjoy my report on Wildegoose Nursery and Garden which we visited on its last open day of the year. We spoke to Jack one of the owners who looked very glad that the season was ending and the nursery closing for another year. He and Laura and the twins were off on holiday the day after our visit.

The colours of the autumn flowers was so intensely beautiful and the light on the day of our visit enriched them further. The bright pink Persicaria amplexicaulis in a new cultivar to me, ‘Amethyst’.

There were signs of autumn to remind us of the season! Pumpkins and gourds, trees and shrubs showing unusual shades of pink-red.

In places the dying seedheads of perennials contrast beautifully with the autumn leaves on the shrubs.

I shall finish off this report of our visit with a gallery of my photos. As usual just click on the first photo and then navigate using the arrows.

For my next post in this series we will return to Bodnant, the bigger of our two gardens this year.

Tags autumn colours, autumn gardens, autumn leaves, hardy perennials, herbaceous plants, new perennial gardening, ornamental grasses, walled, Wildgoose Nursery, Wildgoose Nursery and Garden

climbing plants garden arches garden buildings garden design garden furniture garden paths garden photography gardening gardens hardy perennials ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs

A Tale of Two Gardens – Part 2 – Esme’s Garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date September 1, 2019
1 Comment on A Tale of Two Gardens – Part 2 – Esme’s Garden

After enjoying a couple of hours and fine refreshments at Nancy’s home town garden we drove a short way to her other garden which is dedicated to her mother-in-law, Esme.

Through a gap between two rows of terraced cottages we discovered a narrow grass pathway between hedges on one side and gardens on the other. An open gate within the hedge invited us to enter the magical world of Esme’s Garden.

We thought Nancy’s home garden was something special but what awaited us at Esme’s was simply amazing, a large beautifully designed space packed with interest. Again the planting was beautifully and thoughtfully put together and the use of foliage exceptional. A network of paths, arches and path junctions directed us around borders packed with trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials.

There were Gothic touches throughout the garden and Nancy herself had created a great folly at the bottom of the garden, which impressed us all.

There is so much to enjoy at Esme’s Garden that I think the best way to share the garden with you is to create a gallery of my photos. As usual click on the first pic then navigate using the arrows.

So now I have shared both of Nancy’s gardens with you and I now presume like me you think she is one amazing gardener. Just thinking about creating and maintaining two gardens makes me breathless!