Lakeland break

A week ago I managed a bit of a break taking a garden tour to the lakes. Living in the soft south its easy to forget the magic of the mountain landscape that awaits just a couple of hundred miles north. The first Hillier holiday of any year is always a treat and this one was no exception. A fair aount of sunshine, a good hotel overlooking Windermere, spring flowers, good company and a variety of gardens made for a very enjoyable few days. Our Lakeland guide George Feather and his wonderul wife Dorothy made us welcome as ever and we met many other passionate Lakeland gardeners along the way. The horticulture of the whole area is underpinned by the Lakeland Horticultural Society and its dedicated members. Their work at the community garden Holehird is fantastic and totally humbling. This remarkable plant collection held together and presented superby is entirely the work of volunteers - a real lesson in working together and co-operation.

On the way to Windermere we were privileged to visit Gresgarth Hall - The home and garden of designer Lady Arabella Lennox-Boyd. This is a fantastic garden and despite the hard winter it did not disappoint. Spring flowers including fritillarias, erythroniums, primulas and dicentras carpeted the ground around the lake. The hellebores were still magnificent and the magnolias were virtually untouched by frost. Arabella was gardening, and her passion and eye for detail in this garden are obvious. Its always reassuring to find a designer who practices what she preaches. I have to say we left Gresgarth on day one feeling that we had seen the highlight of the tour, and on a lovely sunny late afernoon.
The following day was fine and bright and Holehird welcomed us as warmly as ever. A vist here is never long enough and we all letf talking about our return visit - always a good sign. Then a pub lunch and off to Liz Clark's fellside garden at Hartsop.

This was a long way from Gresgarth - a remote fellside village - austerely beautiful in watery spring sunshine, but it must have been a long hard winter. Entering the small front garden under the branches of a magnolia we were met by Liz -a little bright-eyed lady in green fleece. She spoke quietly and clearly describing every plant that made up her garden picture with such colour that even those only peeping from the soil bloomed before our eyes. We explored the steep hillside garden behind the house, looked for invadng badgers, saw every tree she had raised from seed, and peeped into her late husband's plot on the other side of the lane - now in her care. This might not have ben the showiest garden I had ever visited, and it certainly wasn't the biggest budget. She doesn't drive, so even getting a new plant or a bag of fertiliser is a major expedition. However she was one of the most inspirational, positive and forward loking people I have ever met and her garden is one I can't wait to get back to. What she achieves in the environment in which she gardens put those of us with the gardening world at our fingetips to shame.
I came away feeling that maybe I had come to take it all for granted - a plant dies and I get another one. Chelsea comes and Chelsea goes. Maybe sometimes I forget to enjoy it and appreciate it? Something flowers in my garden and I don't even see it because I am not there at the time. That doesn't happen to Liz - her relaionship with her garden is different - She and her garden are dependent on each other - they get pleasure frm each others company and it shows.
Spending time with a group of gardeners, lecturing to the Lakeland Horticultural Society, and visiting a few gardens was just what I needed before Chelsea - To some it may sound like a Busman's holiday - guess I am just a dedicated Busman!

Through the egg timer..........

As April draws to a close I feel as if I'm about to slip through the narrow bit in the middle of an egg timer. The day comes when you turn over a page in the diary and May appears on the next page - horror of horrors! All those things that could be put off until later can't anymore.
Chelsea meeting this morning discussing statues, bark chips, furniture, fabrics and all those bits and pieces that go to make up the rest of the exhibit apart from the planting. First tickets - the car park passes arrived too.
Spoke to Ricky this morning he seems happy with how things are going with the plants - now that the weather has cooled down. A few warm days after a long cold spell mean lots of work watering and keeping an eye on the show plants. Soft new foliage is particularly vulnerable and if damaged now will not recover in time for the show.
Outside the sun has been shining on the best display of magnolias for years. Early morning frosts have damaged the flowers on close inspection, but the display from a distance is breathtaking!

After a long soggy winter gardeners are starting to complain about the lack of rain - wonder if we'll have water restrictions by the time we get to Chelsea? Anyway, although its been pretty redundant to date the coldstore could come into its own any minute. The cold weather has certainly had a vernalising effect on spring flowering shrubs. As temperatures rise a little those buds quickly unfurl. Rhododendron Horizon Monarch in my garden is showing colour and the wisteria at Ampfield House is unfurling before your very eyes!

Uniform has arrived

Excitement this morning as 3 big parcels arrive from Craghoppers with the uniform for the Chelsea Exhibit in it, an adventure ensues as we unpack, Gill and I fighting over the colours.

Aahhhhhh Sunshine!

The sun's out at last, the temperatures are rising, the leaves unfurl. A couple of warm days and the garden landscape is transformed as green shoots appear, the magnolias bloom and the grass starts to grow. Just been to the nursery for a quick look at the show plants with Rick. The roses look great, the acers are now a cloud of tiny red, gold and emerald leaves, and the cornus buds are swelling. Ten huge Acacia dealbata are blooming, their fragrant fluffy yellow flowers perfect under the protection of glass. These weren't intended for the show - they're for another profile project - but they are so perfect for Moroccan Magic that I might try and borrow them for the show. Morocco looks as if its boundaries might need to be moved - with citrus, Cupressus sempervirens, olives, oleanders and masses of roses Morocco could be big.
Statues and urns have arrived too - they will certainly make an impact. Also pebbles, stone and aggregates from Borderstone are in the loading bay. As soon as these materials start to appear it is a firm reminder that there are only four weeks 'til we start on site.
Had a chat with Tim Redwood this week about the Venetian Palace - he seems confident and I know he'll come up with the goods. We tend to work the same way - there's no way it will be rehearsed in advance - we both believe that the one off originality and spontanaiety of build up produces the best results - that's our excuse anyway!
Photoshoot this morning - Garden Centre pics and a bit of modelling with the Craghoppers uniform - I love it - so Indiana Jones meets Crocodile Dundee - and why not? After all its suppposed to be about Adventures!
Chelsea meeting next week with the construction team - lots of details to sort. What about furniture, book sales tables, drapes for the palace? How will the paving work when it gets to the top of the slope? - Brian from organicstone was asking. The paving team are the ones to answer that.
Also sheduled for next week a meeting with Scotts - to discuss details of the Secret Garden Diary Room, the filming, web presence, car parks, hotels, tickets and all the other bits andpieces that no one sees but make it happen.

Spring cabbage..................

Well, March is almost over and Spring is sort of here - at least the Daffodils are out. Still no reliable sunshine and snow forecast for this week! No wonder my broad beans still haven't germinated. Spring is definitely here in all those newspaper and magazine columns, where the Editor's journal has sent out the reminder that it's time to run a gardening article. They're still all on the Grow Your Own bandwagon, with mindblowing words of wisdom such as the earth shattering news that vegetable seeds are out selling flower seeds by 3 to 1, or was it 4 to 1? Anyway, it justified a run of paper article in the Daily T which included quotations from well-known gardening authorities like a spokesman from B&Q.

As always there has to be a down side in the Great British tradition - There is concern apparently that we are ignoring flowers and only growing veg. and the Sunday lunch table will be decorated with a bunch of onions instead of a fragrant posy.Get real - who has time for lunch let alone time to worry about flowers on the table!
As you can tell I'm getting into my cynical pre-Chelsea mood - ready for an onslaught of journalists demanding to know what's new in the way of plants and showing little interest in the other 3,498 others on the exhibit. we do have a couple of new ones: Digitalis 'Serendipity' and the really wonderful Philadelphus maculatus 'Sweet Clare'. The latter is a real winner but will be a bit of a challenge to get in flower for the show. Ricky has just dropped into the office and reports that the roses look good - best ever! As always they will need some light to get them at their best but at least they respond quickly!
Have just ordered tickets for the show - last orders were called to all concerned a week or so ago. From now on all sorts of characters appear from the woodwork requesting passes, imagining that they can be conjured up on a whim - it just does not work like that!
Gill and I have chosen the uniform - safari shirts this year - very Adventures in Gardening!- Sort of Indiana Jones meets the Happy Wanderer - Get the picture.
Think all of the design details bar one are now in place - Just the Venetian Palace to sort. Mehrdad at Quist has come up with a fab. glass and copper sculpture for my Ventian Adventure - gorgeous glass globes that resemble exotic fruits. I see it rising out of the dark feather like foliage of Sambucus 'Black Lace' and the rich orange blooms of Rosa 'Pat Austin'perhaps with a puff of sapphire Ceanothus 'Concha'. - Nice to dream about that one - all my ceanothus are black as your hat after last winter - Oh for some sunshine!

From Russia with Love............

Only a week ago I was in Moscow lecturing at The Moscow Home and Garden Show 2010 - what a great experience. I met Sergey at Chelsea last year and he invited me to be the overseas guest at this year's show - you never know where Chelsea is going to take you. The thought of going to Russia and lecturing through an interpreter was a little daunting, but after a few words of encouragement from David Domoney who did it last year I couldn't wait to get there! The Moscow weather might be cold - still a good depth of snow on the ground - but the welcome could not have been warmer. The show is young - only three years old. It is held in The Crocus exhibition centre - very modern - a bit like the NEC but more up to date. The Home and Garden show consists of four areas - Aqua Spa, Wooden House, Fireplace and Garden. It is a little like a hybrid between a trade show and a public event and of course being indoors in the winter it has a very different feeling from your typical English flower show - more like one of the North American shows. The event provides a showcase for garden designers and there are around 20+ small show gardens. There is little plant material available, so houseplants and artificial flowers are allowed to create the effect.



It would be easy to be dismissive about the gardens compared with those at a British show like Chelsea, but I couldn't help but think back to shows of 20+ years ago at Earl's Court and the rather more basic things we did in those days. Many of the Russian ideas were conceptual and highly original and the enthusiasm and passion was excouraging and humbling.
My lecturing experience endorsed my feelings about the whole event. Enthusiastic young designers in a young market and industry in a country which has been able to have little interest in the garden market until now. The passion for knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject was overwhelming - as was the realisation of how lucky we are not least of all because of our climate and the wealth of plant material available to us.



I shall never again moan that the winter has killed my phormiums and damaged my cistus. If the only evergreens you have to work with are a few conifers and deciduous shrubs are limited to a dozen common subjects, and you can still long to create beautiful gardens, then what should we be capable of?
Some who read this, if anyone does, may cringe when I say that I found the whole experience quite emotional. For the lectures I had a truly wonderful interpreter - Anastasya from St Petersberg who was a garden designer and horticulturist and she enabled me to get my message easily across to the 120 or so delegates. However even outside the lectures the language was not a barrier - even though I now speak only 5 words of Russian and many I spent time with spoke little English. However as often happens in the wonderful world of gardening there is a bond between the souls, an understanding that we all appreciate each others interests and share each others passion to create something to please others. It's quite difficult to express in words - perhaps that is why the language is somehow unimportant.
And what about Chelsea - well its been on hold and now its back to business. As soon as we get to the middle of March there seem to be horribly few pages in the diary between me and the event - so here goes.............

What a difference a day made

A glorious sunny day yesterday and for once I got it right - I was out amongst the plants taklking to customers. Our Cash and Carry Open day at Sunningdale - a chance to talk to landscapers and designers about plants. I was extolling the virtues of Philadelphus maculatus 'Sweet Clare' - hopefully to be shown and launched at Chelsea. I have had this wonderful plant in my garden (referred to previously by us as Philadelphus mexicanus - not sure where that came from!) for a few years now. It makes an arching rounded shrub up to 1.2 metres in height with fine stems and tiny silvery-green leaves. The blooms are carrried all along the branches in June (so will have to coax it forward for Chelsea). They hang face down like dainty white doves giving a delightful effect. The fragrance is heavy and delicious and stronger than any other mock orange I know. Needless to say after I had raved on about this plant I sold lots, and went away knowing that I have introduced a new plant that these gardeners will be passionate about - and one that will never disappoint.


Talking planting combinations and a bit about plans for Chelsea got me excited about the exhibit - must admit other things have taken my mind off it over the past couple of weeks. The only approach now is to stay calm and gradually chip away at the details - where the various features that I have not yet organised are coming from, how to tackle the practicalities of levels and construction. Today I had a session with Stu talking about electrics, lighting and the square pond. He came up with a great solution of how to construct the blue pond and suddenly it all seemed so simple. Mehrdad is now on the case with a creation inspired by Murano Glass. Tom the sculptor is on the case with my slate monoliths to sit alongside his sculpture. Next I need to get on and order the building.
As for the plants - I know Ricky will have everything well under control now he has an idea of what we are looking for in the various areas.