Out & About News, events, jobs to do – and the country’s most romantic gardens.

Phoebe Jayes recommends some of the UK’s most romantic gardens and rounds up outdoor jobs to do in early spring – as well as the latest news

We round up five of the country’s most romantic gardens, perfect for a Valentine’s stroll with a loved one and beautiful at any time of year

This rambling 18th-century garden in Wiltshire (below) was described as ‘a living work of art’ when it opened. The focus is on water: trees and classical buildings surround a sinuous lake. Tel: +44 (0)1747 841152; nationaltrust.org.uk

Each of the 15 gardens at Crook Hall in Durham has its own style. See blowsy roses in the Walled Garden, enjoy sculpture in the Shakespeare Garden and visit the Silver and White Garden, which honours a 25th wedding anniversary. Tel: +44 (0)191 3848028; crookhallgardens.co.uk

Created by Ludwig Messel in the 19th century, this Sussex garden is set around a romantic stone house and ruins. Its 13 acres feature sculpture, topiary and exotic plants. Tel: +44 (0)1444 405250; nationaltrust.org.uk

These Italianate gardens were designed by Harold Peto in the 19th century and sit in the idyllic Frome Valley in Bath. Steps twist around statues, columns and urns on a terraced hillside with splendid views. Tel: +44 (0)1225 863146; ifordmanor.co.uk

Designed by ‘Capability’ Brown in the 1760s, these Wiltshire pleasure grounds (above) include a terrace with trickling fountains, a Doric temple, woodland gardens and views over a mile-long lake. Tel: +44 (0)1249 812102; bowood.org

● Order seed potatoes ready for chitting and planting later in spring.

● Finish winter pruning wisteria, shortening shoots to two buds to encourage more fl owering spurs.

● Deciduous trees and shrubs can be moved now, while they are still dormant, provided the ground isn’t frozen or waterlogged.

● Lift, divide and replant snowdrops once their fl owers have faded to increase existing clumps.

● March is the ideal month to improve soil by mulching. Spread a generous layer of organic mulch such as compost on the soil surface – about a barrowload every two square metres.

● Take root cuttings of oriental poppies (below), verbascum, phlox and acanthus.

Allotments have always been in high demand, but, since the pandemic, waiting lists in the UK have grown even longer, research by MyJobQuote reveals. Londoners who sign up for allotments face the longest wait of up to 17.5 years on average (one gardener in Camden waited for 18 years and three months), followed by gardeners in East Lothian, who can wait for up to 15 years. Nottingham City Council has the highest number of applicants with 6,845 names on their waiting list. Google searches for allotments are 4.5 times higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Some 1,000 plants held in 75 locations across both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have been awarded National Plant Collection status by conservation charity Plant Heritage. The plants have either been bred or collected by, or named after Irish horticulturists or plant explorers and include rarities such as Iris unguicularis ‘Kilbroney Marble’ (pictured), listed by just one supplier. The collection is managed by the Irish Garden Plant Society and has been 40 years in the making. plantheritage.org.uk

The Royal Horticultural Society has announced that Sue Biggs CBE, its director general since 2010, will step down in June 2022. With Sue at the helm, the RHS has grown to record membership numbers and launched many initiatives to improve the Society’s gardens and flower shows, educational programmes and standards of horticulture and science. Most notably, Sue has overseen the opening of its fifth garden, Bridgewater in Salford, and Wisley’s RHS Hilltop – The Home of Gardening Science. Recruitment for a new director general is currently under way.

Gardeners at Chatsworth in Derbyshire have completed the final planting in the garden’s biggest transformation for nearly 200 years. Designers Tom Stuart-Smith, Dan Pearson and James Hitchmough have been working with Steve Porter, Chatsworth’s head of gardens and landscape, and his team for three years to bring Stuart-Smith’s masterplan for the 105-acre garden to fruition. More than 300,000 plants, including hundreds of trees, have been added to a previously underused area known as ‘Arcadia’. A new ‘meadow glade’, seeded with thousands of perennial flowers, was one of the final areas to be completed. Work has continued throughout the pandemic. “The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire have often been in the garden helping out with planting, placing and watering, particularly when we were short-handed,” says Steve. chatsworth.org

The Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show has a new sponsor: The Newt in Somerset. The garden and country estate will be the show’s new headline sponsor for the next four years, starting when the event returns in May 2022. “We are great admirers of the RHS,” said Edward Workman, The Newt’s chief executive officer. “We want to support the RHS and hopefully this sponsorship will strengthen them.” The 2022 show takes place on 24-28 May and tickets are on sale now. Visit rhs.org.uk and thenewtinsomerset.com

Proven Winners has launched its tempting new plant range for 2022. Annuals include Heliotropium ‘Augusta Lavender’, a vigorous new version of cherry pie plant, while new perennials include compact Amsonia ‘String Theory’ with baby-blue flowers (left) and black-leaved, bubblegum-pink-flowered Hibiscus ‘Edge of Night’. Among the new shrubs are lime green Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight Prime’ and additions to the Perfecto Mundo series of reblooming azaleas. provenwinners.com

With so many plants to choose from, selecting the best can seem impossible. Ten years on from its first publication, Adrian Bloom’s classic book, Bloom’s Best Perennials and Grasses, has been reprinted. In it, Adrian simplifies the choice by describing 70 of the most indispensable, triedand-tested perennials and grasses and shares plant combinations and practical advice drawn from his own experience. The book is illustrated with photographs by Adrian and his son Richard, one of the UK’s top garden photographers. £25 from thebressingham gardens.com

London’s Garden Museum has announced plans to revive and restore the former home and garden of artist and gardener Cedric Morris (1889-1982). The Pinchbeck Charitable Trust acquired Benton End in 2018 and has now transferred ownership of the house, a private home since Morris’s death, to the Garden Museum. Morris and his partner, Arthur Lett-Haines, bought the house in Hadleigh, Suffolk, in 1940 and established the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing there, while Morris grew and bred irises in what was one of the first modern gardens known for its naturalistic design. The revived Benton End will aim to support and inspire artists and gardeners of all ages, staying true to Lett-Haines and Morris’s ethos. Work will begin on renewing the garden in 2022, with an exhibition gallery and learning spaces to come later. bentonend.co.uk

One of the noteworthy English de Rothschild estates, Buckinghamshire’s Waddesdon Manor and neighbouring Eythrope have historic gardens created and extended by the wealthy family over the ages, directed by a roll call of famous and talented designers

WORDS MATTHEW BIGGS PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS

The lush parkland surrounding Eythrope is studded with white snowdrops in late winter and early spring.

The showcase gardens developed by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild and his younger sister Alice on adjacent estates in Buckinghamshire are the foundations of the spectacular Waddesdon Manor and Eythrope gardens we know today. “In 1874, Ferdinand bought around 2,700 acres from the Duke of Marlborough to create his own country estate,” explains garden historian Dr Sophie Piebenga. “He employed Hippolyte Destailleur to design the manor house in the style of a 16-17th-century French chateau and Elie Lainé to lay out the garden. They had already worked together on the restoration of Vaux le Vicomte.” Once this first garden was established, Ferdinand bought the estate next door and immediately transferred ownership to his younger sister, ‘Miss Alice’, who employed George Devey to design a house for her by the River Thame at Eythrope. She never moved in. Advised by her doctor not to spend nights there due to bronchial problems, she used it as a daytime pavilion, spent nights at the manor, and wintered at her house in Grasse in the south of France. When Ferdinand’s wife died in 1865, his younger sister became his host and companion.

Alice was a passionate gardener and, with the help of head gardener George Frederick Johnson, brought style and finesse to the gardens. She was very exacting, demanding that everything – from bedding plants to fruit and orchids – be grown in vast numbers, to perfection.

The gardens became renowned for their colourful, large-scale shrub combinations, massed rose beds containing hundreds of plants and strawberries in pots under glass, in their thousands. Extravagant bedding schemes decorated the parterre. It was Alice who pioneered the technique of creating sculptures

Above Long-stemmed Galanthus ‘Limetree’ is a good choice for cutting, says Suzie Hanson. Right Pretty drifts of snowdrops colonise a bank alongside a lake. Below The tiny winter flowers of Cornus mas. Bottom Great sheets of white in the parkland below the boughs of stately, mature trees.

with plants: a style of three-dimensional bedding that was widely adopted by the parks departments of Britain.

Alice was in total control. Her cousin, Lady Constance Battersea (1843-1931) noted: “Alice reigns absolutely, there is nothing constitutional about this monarchy. No wonder the Queen [Victoria] has named her ‘The All Powerful’... She was most precise and punctual in all her habits, visiting daily her gardens, glass-houses and farm… and never resting until perfectly satisfi ed. No detail, however small, escaped her notice.”

Sophie agrees: “Her standards of perfection were demonstrated when Lady Warwick arrived late one night as a torrential storm was fl attening the bedding plants in the parterre. By

WADDESDON IMAGE LIBRARY IMAGES

Above Alice de Rothschild. Right Dorothy de Rothschild.

the time she awoke the following morning, they had already been replaced by an army of gardeners.”

While overwintering in Grasse, Alice wrote to Johnson several times a week, outlining exactly what he should be doing. Her attention to detail was evident everywhere. “There are records in the archives of vast volumes of the soil in the kitchen garden at Waddesdon being replaced with some from the nearby village of Brill, because she felt that the existing soil made the fruit too acidic,” Sophie notes. “Jam made from the best fruit was marked no. 1; second-class jam was given to friends.”

When Alice died in 1922, her great nephew James and his wife Dorothy inherited both estates. On bequeathing the Manor to the National Trust, Dorothy moved to Eythrope, reviving the Victorian kitchen garden there and breathing new life into the garden at Waddesdon with her friend, the garden designer Lanning Roper.

Lord Rothschild and Lady Rothschild (Jacob and Serena) followed in 1988. They engaged another garden designer, Mary Keen, employed Sue Dickinson as head gardener and handed them a brief to turn Eythrope into a ‘Rothschild-quality’ garden once again. Lady Serena, Mary Keen and Sue Dickinson loved snowdrops, so one of the projects was the development of a collection within the woodland garden.

“The first ones were planted in 1991, and these are now added to annually with purchases from specialist nurseries. Bulbs have also been gifted by notable galanthophiles like Richard Nutt, Bill Baker and Mrs Merton of The Old Rectory Burghfield, who bred and selected their own forms,” explains Eythrope’s current head gardener Suzie Hanson.

In 2010, Galanthus elwesii ‘Mrs Macnamara’, an early-flowering snowdrop that began life as a clump of six bulbs, a gift from Mary Keen, was one of the first groups to be lifted and divided. “Some were replanted in the same area, others were moved to new locations where they have multiplied and are now established in large numbers; the collection is always expanding,” says Suzie. Most are in rough grass by the river, where desirable ‘Magnet’, ‘Limetree’ and ‘Ophelia’ have naturalised under mature trees. Robust varieties like ‘Magnet’ have been planted in the parkland beyond and the kitchen garden orchard is now embellished with Galanthus nivalis and double-flowered G. nivalis f. pleniflorus.

“We select snowdrops for their interesting shapes rather than fine detailing and order annually in

This image A snowdrop island, complete with an urn, makes for an intriguing feature. Below Elegant flowers of Lonicera elisae, a rare species of winterflowering honeysuckle. Bottom Snowdrops cluster around a grotto.

As the snowdrops fade the trees will burst into leaf, reflected in the river’s calm waters.

mid-January, buying Above Noted for its scent a maximum of three and size, G. ‘Atkinsii’. of each kind. They are Right Shrubs, hellebores and snowdrops mingle planted in a nursery in borders by the house. bed inside the kitchen Below Robust ‘Magnet’ garden to increase the is a good choice for numbers, then planted growing through grass. out in the woodland garden,” Suzie explains.

In 2020 there were 13 new introductions, bought as single bulbs, among them: tall, elegant ‘Honeysuckle Cottage’; ‘Pagoda’, whose curved petals reflect the name; ‘Sentinel’, which is vigorous with large flowers; and the oddly named ‘Wasp’, whose moving flowers, with wing-like, elongated petals, suggest an insect hovering over the clump.

But it is not just about developing a collection of such connoisseur cultivars. In spring 2019, 83,000 Galanthus nivalis and G. nivalis ‘Flore Pleno’ were planted in a grove of lime trees on the main route around Waddesdon Pleasure Grounds as a tribute to the late Lady Serena; 1,000 for each year of her life. It took 25 staff nine days to plant 83 crates of bulbs ‘in the green’, massed in groups of 50, to create a naturalistic style.

Mary Keen’s daughter, Alice Oswald, wrote several poems while working as a gardener at Eythrope. Several of them are written on individual slates, mounted on the walls of the passage leading to the Kitchen Garden. Given the flower’s historic association with lady gardeners at Waddesdon, it’s no surprise that one poem is entitled ‘Snowdrop’. n

Waddesdon Manor, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire HP18 0JH. Up-to-date visitor information for both Waddesdon and Eythrope can be found at waddesdon.org.uk and booking is essential.

Suzie Hanson’s top tips for growing snowdrops

Snowdrops are happy anywhere in shade and will tolerate most soils, apart from the heaviest clay or the sourest acid conditions.

These are hungry plants and will appreciate the application of an annual dressing of bonemeal and leafmould in autumn.

Lift and transplant snowdrops ‘in the green’ after flowering and before they die back, planting at three times the depth of the bulb.

New clumps should contain somewhere in the region of five bulbs. Do not let the soil dry out until the foliage has started to die back. Protect the leaves from slugs.

When naturalising snowdrops in grass, take out a core with a bulb planter, replace the bottom half of the core in the hole, put the clump on top and crumble the soil around it. Alternatively, cut a T shape with an edging iron, fold back the turf, then plant at the junction of the T with the foliage above ground.

‘Magnet’ and ‘Mrs MacNamara’ are perfect for naturalising, ‘Atkinsii’ is good for fragrance and ‘Limetree’ makes an excellent cut flower.

A view of the house, garden and pond at Fullers Mill takes in spring bulbs such as snake’s head fritillaries and daffodils.

Bernard Tickner’s former garden at Fullers Mill in Suffolk is now cared for by horticultural charity Perennial and maintained in harmony with its creator’s vision

WORDS BARBARA SEGALL PHOTOGRAPHS RICHARD BLOOM

Below left Annie Dellbridge has been head gardener at Fullers Mill for over a decade. Below middle Pink buds open into paler flowers on deciduous Viburnum carlesii ‘Charis’. Below right Covered in delicate spring blossom, Magnolia x loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’. T he bumpy track that leads to Fullers Mill doesn’t prepare you for the awakening spring mix of connoisseur’s plants that spills from the brimming borders, nor for the mists and shapes that rise from lake and stream.

Over the course of 50 years, plantsman and head brewer of the Greene King brewery, Bernard Tickner (1924-2017), transformed a wild and untamed sevenacre site deep in the forest at West Stow, Suffolk, into a magical, secluded haven for plants and wildlife. The garden he created has overflowed into the spaces alongside the twin watercourses of the River Lark and the Culford Stream that meander gently by.

Nestled snugly at the end of a track in King’s Forest, the original small garden, set around a former fuller’s cottage, is full of plants, both unusual and commonplace. Bernard renovated the cottage extensively in the 1960s and slowly but surely filled the garden with choice trees, shrubs, bulbs and perennials. First and foremost, he chose species plants rather than what he considered to be blowsy, flouncy hybrids. But inevitably he let things evolve, allowing some leeway, depending on a plant’s attributes. Since he was red-green colour-blind, plants had to offer him more subtle pleasure beyond vibrant flower colour. For Bernard, an interesting plant was interesting for many reasons.

Leaf texture, tree bark, seedheads and shapes were aspects that attracted him to particular plants, and with those in mind he created a woodland and waterside garden that changes daily and seasonally. The views shimmer and dissolve as seasons change, mimicking the misty and watery reflections found in the waters of the Culford Stream, the River Lark and the Mill Pond, which add character to the planting.

As he worked his way outwards from the house, Bernard improved the land, digging out curved beds for planting, and putting in sinuous paths. He was insistent that there should be minimal hard landscaping, with no statues and no straight lines. He felt that curved barked, gravelled or grass paths that followed the shapes of the beds enhanced rather than detracted from the natural world.

He acquired more land as his enthusiasm for plants grew. He had strong ideas and was clear that he wanted the garden to evolve, rather than being created as a designed space. He didn’t start with a plan, but it must have been hard work over a long period of time, transforming the site from woodland scrub into a garden filled with such choice plants.

As is the case at any garden, Fullers Mill comes to life in early spring, and for head gardener Annie Dellbridge this is an extra-special time of year. “Walking around is always interesting as there are exciting plants at every turn, but in spring it is like greeting old friends you had almost forgotten were there,” she explains. “Some announce themselves with unfurling foliage, others with sensational perfume that hangs in the early-morning air.”

Annie has been at Fullers Mill for the past decade, and with her team of gardeners and volunteers she is able to interpret Bernard’s thoughts about the garden and how he hoped it might develop over time. In 2004, Bernard and his wife Bess donated the garden to The Fullers Mill Trust to manage and ensure its future. In January 2013 the Trust gifted the garden to Perennial, the charity for people in horticulture. At that stage Perennial had just one garden in its portfolio: York Gate, in Leeds. Fullers Mill and York Gate have now been joined by The Laskett, the garden created by Sir Roy Strong in Herefordshire.

Above The lake was de-silted when Perennial took over the garden, and a new, safer bridge installed; candelabra primulas, darmera and skunk cabbage will soon fringe its banks.

Delicate seasonal blooms turn heads from March as this Suffolk garden quietly awakens

The Italian bluebell has starry flowers held on conical flowerheads. Order the bulbs in time for planting in autumn.

A leathery-leaved evergreen shrub with scented flowers in March and April.

Gorgeous purple-tinged foliage contrasts beautifully with zingy lime-green flowers in late spring.

Ideal for naturalising in areas of sun or dappled shade for drifts of white.

Drumstick primulas can be relied on for bright colour in spring. Grow in moist, well-drained soil in sun or light shade.

Slender stalks bear nodding, pale green, chequered, bell-shaped flowers.

Excellent groundcover for the dry soil beneath large trees, flowering in spring.

Plant this attractive bulb in light, freedraining soil in autumn for sprays of silver-grey blooms in spring.

Pale pink flowers become star-shaped as they open on medium-sized, 4m trees.

Left Near the house, the Alpine Terrace is home to daintier specimens. Middle left Pulmonaria ‘Diana Clare’ is one of the best for silver leaves. Middle right Fronds of the shuttlecock fern, Matteuccia struthiopteris unfurl through blueflowered Scilla bithynica. Bottom Euphorbia characias seeds about in the woodland areas.

Horticultural excellence is the aim at all three gardens, which help to fund Perennial’s vital work helping people in horticulture in times of need. Each garden is maintained by a garden team and volunteers, its management evolving in conversation with individual Garden Committees, consisting of professional and practical horticulturists, working to the remit of Perennial’s trustees.

Since Bernard’s death in 2017, the Fullers Mill Garden Committee has been involved, along with Annie and her team, in refurbishing and developing many areas of the garden, working to the agreed conservation management plan while keeping in mind Bernard’s views about his garden.

One of the most imposing and statuesque plantings is at the furthest reach of the area known as the Top Garden, between the entrance drive and the River Lark. It’s formed from a stand of 12 birch trees, Betula pendula subsp. pendula ‘Silver Grace’, originally discovered by Bernard close to the lake. Planted around the birch, the silver foliage of Elaeagnus ‘Quicksilver’ begins to add colour in spring, before Tulipa sprengeri shows up en masse in May. Near the birch grove, rising out of the shingle, are massed groups of self-sown Euphorbia characias and mounds of Ferula communis, whose stately flower stems stand tall in summer.

In the Low Garden, across the river and to the west of the Mill Pond, spring carpets of Crocus tommasinianus are followed by Anemone blanda, and later the shuttlecock fern begins to unfurl its iconic shepherds’ crook fronds. The Mill Pond itself was rescued early on in Bernard’s tenure, after it had more or less sunk into the Culford Stream. One of the first garden interventions by Perennial was

to arrange for it to be de-silted and to build a new, safer bridge and walkway at its south side. In spring, candelabra primula, darmera and skunk cabbage are among the early waterside performers.

Also south of the Lark are two areas known quirkily as The Inner and Outer Quandaries, where massed snowdrops are followed by the delicate, soft pink flowers of Euonymus oxyphyllus and the foliage of emerging herbaceous perennials. Two stands of bamboo, one green and the other yellow, dominate the stream bank. Running alongside the Culford Stream, The Strip separates the garden from the Lake. There are future plans to open a walk around the lakes to visitors, but for the moment the view across the lake to the island and weeping willow is tantalisingly out of reach.

The daily life of the garden goes on whether open for visitors or not and Annie and her garden team are fortunate to have additional help from a bevy of 30 garden volunteers. “We also have several

Above left Statuesque trunks of ‘Silver Grace’ birch in the Top Garden. Top middle Libertia peregrinans adds strong foliage shape and colour. Top right Rare species tulip Tulipa kurdica flowers in April. Above right A brick path through the Low Garden. horticultural apprentices training here and I so enjoy passing on knowledge to the next generation of gardeners,” Annie enthuses. “I have a sense of pride that Fullers Mill and Perennial are producing wellrounded, good horticulturists for the future.”

Special snowdrop open days usually take place throughout February, which give visitors a glimpse of the re-awakening spring scene. “And then,” says Annie, “By the time the garden fully re-opens in April, the garden will be in full swing.” n

Fullers Mill, West Stow, Suffolk IP28 6HD. Snowdrop open days are due to take place every Wednesday in February, 11am to 3pm. Booking is essential. The garden opens from April to October on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and for the National Garden Scheme on selected dates. Check the website before visiting for updates on opening. Tel: +44 (0)1284 334 396; fullersmillgarden.org.uk

Tall, stately trees filter the winter sunlight through their bare boughs, illuminating the rose garden.

Benington Lordship dates back to the 8th century and honours its timeless Hertfordshire landscape. Yet under the fourth generation of the Bott family, this tranquil garden with historic snowdrop plantings is slowly refreshing its outlook

The grounds of Benington Lordship are attached to St Peter’s church, which dates from the 8th century.

Above Yew, Euphorbia characias and box balls bring sharp green accents to the winter landscape at historic Benington Lordship. Right Snowdrops have grown here for centuries. This dimpled variety is Galanthus ‘Diggory’. C andlemas bells, fair maids, Mary’s taper, Eve’s tear, white cup, white queen and snow dropper: the many regional names for snowdrops in English folklore point to their value in our gardens and churchyards when the year is on the cusp of spring and little else is bold enough to bloom. Like the Roman god Janus, the snowdrops at Benington Lordship, a seven-acre garden near Stevenage, Hertfordshire, are at once about looking back and looking forward. They mark the turn of winter to spring, but here they also signify the long history of the property and how a new generation has taken on the mantle of its custodianship.

“The snowdrops look beautiful in February, especially in the wilder areas where there are lovely paths to walk along,” says Susanna Bott, who, with her husband Richard, is the fourth generation of the Bott family to live here. She suspects some of

Above A Victorian addition, the neoNorman gatehouse is a striking architectural element here. Below The Queen Anne house overlooks the rose garden and dates from the 18th century.

the snowdrops in the garden have migrated from neighbouring St Peter’s church, believed to date from the 8th century. The church offers a clue to the great age of this settlement. Benington Lordship appears in the Domesday Book where it is recorded under the name Belintone. Later, following the Norman Conquest, the estate belonged to Peter de Valognes who built a defensive moated castle in the 1130s. Demolished in 1212, all that remains of the castle from this time are the earthworks of the moat and the keep, and it is here that swathes of naturalised snowdrops, mostly Galanthus nivalis and G. nivalis ‘Flore Pleno’, emerge at the end of winter. Over the following 700 years, waves of ownership brought diverse changes to this landscape. In 1700, an Elizabethan farmhouse gave way to a dower house built in Queen Anne style, which forms the basis of the Botts’ home today. In the 1830s, a neo-Norman gatehouse, folly summerhouse and curtain wall were built from the ruins of the old castle. In 1905, Arthur Bott, an engineer who enjoyed the challenge of a new project, bought the property, which by then also included stables. Intent on making a home that would reflect their status, Arthur and his wife Lillian extended house and garden using land from the surrounding park and added a walled garden in the style of the day. The couple took pride in the garden, turning the site into a classic Edwardian showpiece. Lillian was an “Snowdrops are enthusiastic watercolourist happy here, so they’ve and her paintings are now an essential – and beautiful naturalised, but they’ve also crept around” – record of her detailed, floriferous garden. “I think Lillian planted a lot of snowdrops in the Snowdrop Walk on top of the moat,” says Susanna. “They’re happy here, so they’ve naturalised, but they’ve also crept around, which is what snowdrops do. There are places that were empty when my husband was a child that are now a very populated bank.” When Richard and Susanna took on the property, a century after Richard’s great-grandparents bought it, snowdrops, both naturalised and named, were a key part of the garden, which has been opening to the public since 1926. “Richard Webb, the gardener who was with us at the time, was very keen on snowdrops. He had started a collection by swapping with other galanthophiles and it was, I suppose, something that evolved over time. At the peak, we had over 200 different varieties,” Susanna recalls. “There are probably still 200 varieties, but we now only have about 50 labelled ones.” Varieties include ‘Mighty Atom’, ‘Diggory’, ‘Blewbury Tart’ and ‘Primrose Warburg’ but, as Susanna points out, snowdrops migrate – and they are eaten by mice.

Borders abutting the Walled Garden contain select snowdrop varieties that come to the fore in winter.

Above Susanna wanted to allow the garden setting to speak for itself. Left Galanthus ‘Magnet’ is one of the dominant snowdrop varieties here, with large flowers held on long pedicels. Below Clipped yew ‘bobbles’ give structure to the garden rooms close to the house.

“We were very lucky that Richard was so keen on the snowdrops, but when he left, we decided to take a different tack. It’s an extremely specialised area, so I’m consolidating the very distinctive ones and being a bit more selective about what we showcase. The galanthophiles will see what they want to see.” Although they had help from Richard’s mother when they first moved in, the pair didn’t have time to manage the garden as intensively as it had been at earlier points, so they have had to think carefully about the kind of garden they would like, while making sure it will continue to pay its way. Over time, Susanna grasped the proverbial nettle, removing thuggish plants and turfing over older borders to allow the landscape to speak for itself. Julie Wise, whose own garden at Rustling End in Hertfordshire is well-known, has been instrumental in helping Susanna establish a more streamlined design that can be managed easily. “The site is so beautiful that you don’t want too much labourintensive activity going on,” says Susanna. “The calmness of the view and the simplicity of the planting give you something quite restful. Well, that’s the theory. It’s always slightly less restful for those of us who live here and keep thinking: ‘Oh! Look at that which needs doing.’” The first major task was “The calmness of the to refresh the rose garden, on which work began in view and the simplicity 2016. Julie and Susanna of the planting give you improved its proportions to better suit the imposing something quite restful” scale of the house. They introduced height with weeping pears (Pyrus salicifolia ‘Pendula’) and structure with Yorkstone paving, box hedging and what Susanna calls “yew bobbles”. Then they removed woody lavender and replaced the elderly, somewhat sickly, mauve and apricot roses with beds of Rosa ‘Kent’. This white, lightly scented groundcover rose is repeatflowering up to the first frosts. “You don’t have to deadhead it all the time; you just chop it back when you feel like it,” says Susanna. Perennial species tulips also grow here now, including Tulipa ‘Little Star’ and T. humilis ‘Persian Pearl’, along with Iris reticulata ‘George’. “I did plant other tulips, but it was a bother having to redo them and deal with the dead foliage. It was a bit of a nightmare, so we’ve gone back to the original plan with species tulips. Hopefully this will be much better,” she explains. Herbaceous borders, too, have come under scrutiny. “They’re massive and we’ve really started to be a bit more brutal with them,” says Susanna. They’ve cut back or dug up dominant plants, flowed through Miscanthus sinensis ‘Ferner Osten’, planted more perennial tulips such as ‘White Triumphator’ and added Allium ‘Globemaster’. The sense was that

Susanna Bott’s good ideas for streamlining a garden

Choose good plants There is such a wonderful palette of lovely things to choose from. Have something that you like and that looks good when it’s coming up, when it’s flowering and when it’s going down. If it doesn’t work well, it goes. If it doesn’t behave well, it goes. Invest in mulch This is money well spent in my opinion. It improves the soil, keeps in water and reduces weeds.

Be disciplined In terms of border design, I think less is more and the effect is more lovely if you limit your palette. It disciplines you if you say to yourself: ‘I can only have two new plants, they’ve got to perform, they mustn’t be thugs and can’t demand too much attention.’

Work with nature I take the view that we’re very much working with nature, not against it, so in the wilder areas of the garden, what will be will be.

Far left With its rich golden ovary and stem, G. ‘Primrose Warburg’ is a standout variety. Left In winter, snowdrops bloom in some of the long borders that Susanna and Julie have been streamlining. Below Shadows fall on the old moat, dating from the 12th century, where snowdrops have slowly naturalised.

it was better to refresh the borders and to include more structure than to pull everything out and start again. “I hope that if we carry on like this for a few years, it will come together over time.”

The Bott’s main project with Julie has been in the Edwardian walled garden, which is still in development. Like many walled gardens that no longer need to produce the quantities of food and cut flowers once required of them, this was underused. Hornbeam hedges and two meadow beds sown with a wildflower mix created by Julie now feature. “Julie is a naturalist and absolutely understands what works in a place, so we’ve done a careful mix. We’ve also planted thousands of bulbs in there, with a lot of crocus and camassia,” says Susanna. The pair have planted Narcissus pseudonarcissus, the quietly understated, lemon-yellow native species.

On a shady side of the walled garden, there is a new arrangement that Susanna hopes will be a winter bed in which to showcase the named varieties of snowdrop, along with hellebores, Iris reticulata and some cyclamen. “We’ve managed to consolidate a lot,” she says, “and in a year it’s going to be great. It’s very simple, but it’s got year-round interest and the whole point is that it’s very low maintenance.”

Elsewhere, Susanna has put in other earlyflowering plants such as aconites and more cyclamen, which catch the sunlight and add cheer on a sunny February day. “But the snowdrops are so pretty. What’s lovely is that as soon as they’re over, spring is really here. Things are waiting in the wings and I just love that.” n

Benington Lordship Gardens, Benington, Stevenage SG2 7BS. Tel: +44 (0)1438 869668; beningtonlordship.co.uk. Julie Wise, Wise Planting and Design. Tel: +44 (0)1438 821509; rustlingend.com

A frosty morning highlights the graceful curves of the borders Stuart Donachie created from scratch in his Herefordshire garden.

Galanthophile and passionate plant collector Stuart Donachie has an obsessive love of the new, constantly updating the planting at The Lyndalls, tucked away in the Herefordshire countryside, where there’s always something different to see or a new project on the go

Chat to Stuart Donachie for a few minutes, and you’ll soon discover his passion for plants – and especially for collecting them. “I love the thrill of the chase!” he says, when asked about his drive to gather together and grow certain plants. “I love trying out new things, new plantings, and the wonderful thing about the garden is that it’s primarily herbaceous, so you can just dig it up and change it.” But then, he freely admits, “I tend to lose interest. I’m gratified by the new, so when I get to about 20 or 30 different varieties of something, I’ll think ‘time to move on’!”

It’s been 20 years since Stuart and his partner Chris Carter moved to The Lyndalls, a timberframed house set in an idyllic valley in rural Herefordshire, spurred on by the need for a bigger garden after Stuart – and his plants – outgrew the space at their former home in the Cotswolds. Parts of the building date back to the 16th century and, on an early spring morning, with the sun shining down the valley from the east and a light haze of mist hanging above the ponds, the landscape appears timeless, as if it had always been like this. Not so, however: one of the first things Stuart did on moving in was to bring in “gigantic earth-moving machinery – a monster” to create the beautifully natural garden you see today.

“There was a small pond up at the house, which ran down a little rill into a big hole in the field, and every winter the hole filled up with water to about 10 foot deep, 30 foot across. Then, in summer, it just drained away and became a great big mass of weeds. So we did a lot of work with an earth mover to rework the part where the ponds are, and with the rest I’ve tried to fit in with what was already there,” Stuart explains.

The borders follow the contours of the land, their positions decided by Stuart walking in front of a tractor and plough, which followed behind turning over the soil. “It’s pleasing to the eye and it looks quite natural, I hope. That was the aim: not too formal; very relaxed.”

While the farmland in the area enjoys beautiful red Herefordshire soil, Stuart’s garden seems to sit on its own pocket of claggy clay. “I think there’s a geological fault that runs along our garden,” he notes ruefully, but he acknowledges that the clay at least made an excellent puddled lining for the new, larger ponds. When the new borders were ploughed, vast quantities of manure were incorporated, which, together with mountains of bark mulch, has created a nice layer of good soil to plant into. “Ploughing the borders was terrible really because it uncovered a huge space very quickly, so every weed in the land moved in. It meant a lot of work to begin with and the only way to handle it was to cover it every year with vast quantities of bark,” says Stuart. “But continually shovelling on bark in the early days has made a big difference.” Now, on an early spring morning with a light touch of frost, the wider scene is one of settled beauty, while closer up, treasures are there to be discovered. In the crevices between stone flags just outside the house, magenta cyclamen flowers hover above metallic pewter leaves, daphnes and edgeworthia fill the air with their sweet scent, and intricately patterned hellebores, early daffodils such as ‘February Gold’ and reticulata irises stud grass and borders with their subtle blooms. Clipped yew provides a steadfast counterpoint to the herbaceous planting. “It’s nice to have the odd thing creating shadow and relief in winter,” says Stuart. Mixed throughout is one genus that Stuart has never tired of: his collection of different snowdrops didn’t stop at 20 or 30 but has grown to around 700. It started slowly, “a tall one, a short one, a yellow one, a green one, ones with thick leaves and thin leaves”, but gradually developed into a full-blown case of galanthophilia. “The variety Below The spicily is so enormous and you realise there scented flowers of are many, many differences between Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Frederic’, one of many them,” Stuart says. “And the most winter and early-spring exciting thing is that you’ve got stars at The Lyndalls. something right through winter. I’ll have snowdrops flowering from September and in December right through to March and April – beautiful drifts just when you want them, at a time when nothing else is doing anything. They are a godsend in winter.” Most of Stuart’s snowdrops are planted in the ground, but in aquatic baskets, which stop the bulbs being disturbed by moles and also makes locating, lifting and dividing the clumps, which he does in the summer when their leaves have disappeared, an easier task. It also helps him

Euphorbia characias, clipped yew and other topiary ensure the timber cottage is surrounded by greenery all year.

Hellebores and snowdrops pepper the borders with flowers and bring cheer to a chilly time of year.

keep tabs on the original plants, since snowdrops tend to mingle and hybridise. “You can get all kinds of exciting, wonderful things,” Stuart exclaims. Seedlings he’s spotted from Galanthus elwesii ‘Big Boy’ for example, with big green splodges, or a hybrid that’s popped up between ‘Amy Doncaster’ and ‘Trymposter’, which has blended the striped green lines of the former with the green patches of the latter.

Given his urge to collect, it’s apt that Stuart volunteers for Plant Heritage, the charity that aims to conserve cultivated plant varieties through its network of National Plant Collections. Having served on the charity’s council and as a trustee for many years, he’s now treasurer and newsletter editor for the Herefordshire branch. “I was gardening and collecting before I had any involvement with Plant Heritage, but I always admired what they did and they are such a good reference base when you are collecting,” he says. “It’s a very worthwhile charity that deserves support.”

What next in the garden, for this self-described ‘mad collector’ and ‘project junkie’? “There’s

Top Stuart landscaped the ponds to take scenic advantage of the valley’s propensity to become waterlogged in winter. Above Galanthus ‘South Hayes’, one of Stuart’s 700-strong collection. Right Silver birch cast long winter shadows.

Stuart’s choice cultivars have impact that belies their often diminutive size

A highly decorative cyclamen with almost entirely metallic-silver leaves.

Japanese hepaticas are often the most intricate, but usually need to be grown under cover rather than in the garden.

A deciduous shrub bearing clusters of lightly fragrant yellow flowers in winter.

Seek out this winter aconite for flowers a little later than those of the species.

This cultivar is similar to more familiar ‘Katharine Hodgkin’, but is an even paler and more delicate shade of blue.

On the outside, the tips of this crocus’s pale mauve petals are tinted darker lilac.

Fine green lines adorn this snowdrop’s outer segments and, unlike other green varieties, it’s a little less finicky to grow.

These hellebores are renowned for their detailed markings and clear colours.

This tiny daffodil reaches just 20cm high, its flowers combining a creamy white perianth with a sunny yellow corolla.

Above Colourful, self- always something going seeded cyclamen. on,” Stuart admits. One Top right With its apple green bells, Helleborus of his latest projects is foetidus sparkles at this creating paths alongside time of year. the stream, with new Above right Stuart snowdrop beds in Donachie labels snowdrops in his vast collection. terraced pockets on the banks. The idea is to raise the snowdrops from the ground so their flowers can be backlit by spring sunshine, and their scent better appreciated. He’s also acquired a new three-acre piece of land, for which he’s choosing trees. “An arboretum would be a grand word for some trees in the corner of a field,” he jokes, but the crab apples, berrying sorbus, colourful acers and autumn-flowering cherries he’s planning sound like a wonderful combination. “I always concentrate on having something interesting for spring and something for autumn,” he says. “You can’t help your garden looking good in June or July because so many things flower then, so the principle I work on through the whole garden is: concentrate on spring and autumn and then everything else will fall into place.” n

Stuart’s advice for new snowdrop collectors

Improve your soil with sand and grit, and ensure the snowdrops have some form of shade in the summer. It doesn’t need to be a tree, it can just be a geranium, so long as it keeps the soil cool. Use upturned wire hanging baskets to keep clumps safe as they emerge in spring, both from your feet as you work in the borders, and from pheasants. I’d rather trip up over them than destroy my snowdrops! I quarantine all my new snowdrops in the vegetable garden for a couple of years. They can be prone to fungal disease and you don’t want that getting into the garden. It also gives them a chance to bulk up, and for you to check they are the right thing. Good varieties to start a collection include ‘Lady Beatrix Stanley’, which is really pretty and a good doer. ‘Augustus’ has petals with an almost seersucker effect, while ‘S. Arnott’ is a large, impressive snowdrop with a honey fragrance. ‘Colossus’ has a predictably huge flower.

A celebration of fascinating, beautiful and much-loved spring plants, and the speciality nurseries, growers and gardens who make them their focus

IMAGES RAY COX; CLIVE NICHOLS; SHUTTERSTOCK 48 Alpines

The gardens and rockeries of Branklyn near Perth are fi lled with rare alpines collected over the centuries.

The restored Benmore Fernery in Argyll is home to a collection of over 70 species of fern.

Batsford in the Cotswolds turns pink in spring when its fl owering cherries come into bloom.

We pick three excellent azaleas to grow, to add a brilliant shot of eye-popping colour in your garden.

Avon Bulbs grow a superb range of these dainty spring blooms, from collectible rarities to garden varieties.

Bred by 19th-century enthusiasts, these heritage species of da odil are now at risk.

Stocked with the findings of early 20th-century plant hunters, Branklyn, near Perth, offers alpine treasures and woodland wonders to delight the enthusiast

WORDS JULIA WATSON PHOTOGRAPHS RAY COX

A winding path lined with spring bulbs, including daffodils, erythroniums and bright blue scillas.

Tucked away on a hillside outside Perth is what an expert once described as “the finest two acres of private garden in the country”. A tranquil place of meandering woodland paths and sunny stretches of rock garden, lawn and pond, Branklyn holds more than 3,500 species from across the world, many of them brought back by intrepid plant hunters in the early years of the 20th century.

Now run by the National Trust for Scotland, Branklyn was the creation of Dorothy and John Renton, who bought a modest plot carved out of an old orchard and built their Arts & Crafts house here in 1922. John was a chartered land agent and helped lay out the garden, but Dorothy was the real gardener, eventually being awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society for her work on plant introductions.

“The catalyst for all this was the collectors,” says Jim Jermyn, Branklyn’s property manager. After World War I, plant hunters like Reginald Farrer in Burma, George Forrest in China, and Frank Ludlow

and George Sherriff in Bhutan and Tibet, gathered hundreds of exciting new rhododendrons and acers, primulas, lilies and beautiful Himalayan poppies especially suited to conditions in Scotland.

The Rentons were part of a network of knowledgeable gardeners who would share seeds and plants, and they were in receipt of a batch of 112 seed packets from Ludlow and Sherriff’s 1936 Bhutan expedition. “Mrs Renton was really the first person to master the culture of Himalayan poppies here at Branklyn,” says Jim Jermyn. Today, the garden is the holder of a National Collection of Meconopsis, with five different species and more than 50 cultivars.

Rhododendrons and other choice shrubs came to Branklyn via Euan Cox at nearby Glendoick. He had travelled with Reginald Farrer and planted some of their finds at his home, eventually starting a nursery there with his son Peter. It still thrives today, managed by grandson Kenneth. The Rentons put in many species rhododendrons and some of the fabulous hybrid varieties that the Coxes and others were beginning to breed. Today, Branklyn holds a National Collection of the hardy, dwarf-growing Rhododendron taliense.

The Rentons were caught up in the enthusiasm of the era for creating rock gardens to display the many newly discovered alpine plants from the Americas and Himalayas. Sandstone from the quarry on nearby Kinnoull Hill was heaved into place, with gravel dredged from the River Tay below. Acid lovers like Phlox subulata and tiny rhododendrons grow happily in this carefully constructed habitat and, after the war, Dorothy Renton created a special limestone rock garden for lime-loving species such as Paraquilegia anemonoides and that rare relative of the daphne, Stellera chamaejasme.

“It’s illegal to obtain weathered Westmorland limestone now,” notes Jim Jermyn, “but at the time she was able to obtain this material from a wellknown nurseryman in Silverdale in Lancashire, Reginald Kaye, and he sent this stuff up, which must have cost a fortune. It is beautifully laid out.”

Jim Jermyn ran his own alpine nursery in Berwickshire for many years, followed by 17 years in charge of the Gardening Scotland show at Ingliston, outside Edinburgh. He has been property manager at Branklyn for three years and runs the garden with the help of one full-time gardener and some 30 volunteers. Much of his time, perforce, is given to organising all these willing helpers, sharing his gardening expertise and information about the treasury of plants the garden contains. “It’s like a mini botanic garden,” he says, and it is clear that he finds the educational side of his work a real pleasure. Jim made his own contribution to the limestone rock garden not long ago when he heard

Left Meconopsis ‘Great Glen’ with hostas and Rhododendron cinnabarinum subsp. xanthocodon behind.

top Looking towards Perth over magnolias and rhododendrons; the sandstone rock garden is full of treasures, such as Phlox subulata; an arch made from prunings frames the view.

Red-leaved Acer palmatum ‘Atropurpureum’ is underplanted with Primula elatior.

that a new primula, Primula subpyrenaica, had been discovered high in the Pyrenees. With permission from the Barcelona Botanic Garden, and with the help of his daughter and Catalan son-in-law, he gathered samples of it, learning how to abseil in order to reach the cliffs where it grew. Planted in crevices in the limestone rock garden, this tiny new treasure is doing well at Branklyn, and Jim has been able to share specimens with the botanic gardens in Edinburgh, Munich, Tromsø and Gothenburg.

Beyond the rock gardens, lawns and herbaceous borders near the house, woodland paths wind along the contours of the west-facing hillside garden, with steeper paths and steps joining the various levels. Not everything is as natural as it looks; Branklyn’s soil is light loam, but the Rentons pioneered the use of peat-wall gardening to create banks and terraced beds where plants such as primula, cassiope, meconopsis, gaultheria and trillium could grow in a moist, well-drained, acid Above Rhododendron ‘Chiffchaff’ at the foot environment. Dorothy of a path to the house. Renton was inspired to Right Unusual yellow create these ‘peateries’ Meconopsis integrifolia during World War II, subsp. integrifolia. Far right Subtle and when coal was scarce symmetrical herb paris, and blocks of peat were Paris quadrifolia. delivered for fuel.

Jim Jermyn admires Dorothy’s eye for planting. “She knew exactly how this garden would look as it matured, so that the plants wouldn’t all be on top of each other and have to be moved on,” he says. “And there are signature combinations such as a golden maple, Acer shirasawanum ‘Aureum’, set against bright pink Rhododendron ‘Cynthia’, which are stunning.” Much of Dorothy’s planting was selected to offer more than one season of interest.

Dorothy Renton died in 1966, and John the following year. He bequeathed Branklyn to the National Trust for Scotland, and the NTS officially took on responsibility for the property in 1968. Inevitably, as with any garden, there have been changes, but the intention is to preserve the Rentons’ legacy as closely as possible. Soon after Jim arrived at Branklyn, he was visited by David Knott, the curator of the living collections at Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Gardens, who had trained at Branklyn 40 years earlier, and sat him down to talk about the garden as he had known it. One of David’s revelations concerned the view along the garden from the terrace, which had closed up since his day. “He said: ‘When I was here, there was a grass path meandering between those acers. Dorothy Renton planted it so she could see right through the garden.’ We reinstated the path, and it was transformational. It’s such a popular walk.”

With its treasures great and small, Branklyn is a garden that rewards close inspection as well as offering woodland strolls and long views. Dorothy

Above left Compact Rhododendron ‘Blue Tit’ has striking lavender-blue flowers. Top right Burgundy Trillium kurabayashii. Above right Sparkling white Trillium grandiflorum.

Jim Jermyn on maintaining this specialist garden

You can prune most rhododendrons. The way to tell is to look carefully at the stem to check that there is internodal activity – a place where leaves will regrow – and then cut just above it. Organisations such as the Scottish Rhododendron Society are useful for advice. scottishrhododendronsociety.org.uk These days, the National Trust for Scotland has a policy of not using peat, but because the Rentons used peat blocks to make beds and banking, and because one or two of the specialist collections such as the cassiopes still require it, Branklyn has special dispensation to use it if necessary. We have, however, found moss-covered logs and pegs to be an attractive alternative way of holding up banking, and we use the Dalefoot range of bracken and sheep’s wool compost for things like pots. For hellebores, we go to the awardwinning Ashwood Nurseries at Kingswinford in the West Midlands. Their Helleborus x hybridus Ashwood Garden Hybrids are widely acclaimed. ashwoodnurseries.com

To top up the rock garden soil, which is almost 80% pea gravel, we use a mix of one third garden soil to one third leafmould or sieved compost and one third washed river sand. For the limestone area we use the same mix, but we add a dusting of dolomite limestone to raise the pH. Spring is the time for cutting back and pruning, for lifting, dividing and transplanting herbaceous perennials, and for top-dressing with compost among all our plants. With rhododendrons, an early surge of growth can be walloped by a late frost. For this reason we hold off feeding them until the end of April, when we top-dress with acid compost and a granular fertiliser.

Renton, generous Above The confetti-like with her time and petals of Magnolia x expertise, was always loebneri ‘Merrill’ are strewn along the path.happy to welcome Right Broad, marbled people to the garden, foliage of shade-loving and she said that her Trillium luteum. favourite visitor was: “The enthusiast who goes round the garden at five minutes a step; he crouches down over plants and touches them lovingly. He even takes off his hat to some especially good specimens.” She would be delighted that this is still the case today. n

Branklyn Garden, 116 Dundee Road, Perth PH2 7BB. Open daily 10am to 5pm, 1 April to 31 October. Tel: +44 (0)1738 625535; nts.org.uk

The creation of an avid Victorian collector, sensitively restored Benmore Fernery enjoys a spectacular mountainside location on the Argyll coast and is home to over 70 species of fern, curated by Peter Baxter

WORDS LOUISE CURLEY PHOTOGRAPHS RAY COX

The restored Victorian fernery at Benmore Botanic Garden houses and conserves ferns from around the world.

The burgeoning middle classes, scientific advances and plant discoveries of the 19th century resulted in an unprecedented interest in the natural world. ‘Fern fever’, or pteridomania as it became known, gripped the country, with these beautiful but often understated plants becoming the inspiration for Victorian design, ranging from textiles, pottery and glass to stone and metalwork. They also became a must-have for plant collectors, and the advent of the railways combined with a plethora of articles and books about ferns spurred thousands of amateur botanists to head off on fern forays into remote countryside, where they’d risk life and limb scaling rocky outcrops and descending steep, slippery gorges in search of additions to their collections. The craze led to accidents and even fatalities, while over-collecting caused some ferns to become extinct in the wild.

A further development that fuelled the interest in growing ferns was the Wardian case, a sealed, glazed container designed by Dr Nathaniel Ward in 1833.

Above Climb paths up to Benmore’s ‘Tasmanian Ridge’ for a bird’s-eye view of the fernery and its beautiful glass roof. Left Doodia media, the common rasp-fern, has red-tinged new fronds. Below Australian fern Microsorum pustulatum.

Elegant New Zealand tree fern Dicksonia squarrosa dominates the planting in the upper levels of the fernery.

Top left Blechnum nipponicum is good in shady woodland spots. Top right Epiphytic fern Pyrrosia lingua. Middle right Small tree fern Dicksonia fibrosa needs frost protection. Bottom right Garden fern Blechnum chilense. Bottom left A gulley just outside the fernery.

Ward was a fern lover Right Just over a decade but struggled to grow ago the fernery was them in the polluted restored, using steel where there had been air of East London timber for longevity. until one day when, Below right The leathery by chance, he spotted fronds of Blechnum a tiny fern growing in palmiforme. Below left Benmore’s a glass bottle where curator, Peter Baxter. he was watching the development of a moth chrysalis. He concluded that the conditions inside the bottle were conducive to fern growing. His invention became famous because it meant that plants being transported across the world, at that time on gruelling long journeys by sea, had a much greater chance of survival in an environment where they didn’t dry out and the humidity was constant. Wardian cases with ferns inside also became popular in drawing rooms across the country, but wealthier Victorians could indulge their obsession on a significantly larger scale with a fernery – a greenhouse dedicated to these plants.

Benmore Fernery, now part of Benmore Botanic Garden in Argyll on the west coast of Scotland, was built for James Duncan, a sugar trader and refiner, in the 1870s. Unfortunately the building fell into decline in the early part of the 20th century and, as the roof disintegrated, many of the ferns exposed to the Scottish climate perished. In 2008, however, a project to restore the structure began, and the following year this rare and historically significant building opened to the public for the first time.

“It’s a unique structure because it’s set on three levels, each providing different growing conditions,” explains Peter Baxter, curator of Benmore Botanic Garden. “The lower level, where you first enter the fernery, never gets any direct sunlight, so the planting there thrives in deep shade. You then go up to the middle level where the light is filtered by the tree ferns and there’s a range of understorey plants. There’s also a small pond in this section, which was a typical feature in ferneries to provide moisture to keep the humidity stable. The pond was renovated during the restoration and here we’ve planted delicate, filmy ferns. Then you move up to the upper level where the plants can take direct sun.”

Despite a lack of plans or photographs of the fernery from its Victorian heyday, the architects were able to use the remaining fragments of timber and steel to piece together what the roof would have looked like. “Historic Scotland wanted us to make sure the new roof was seen as a modern addition rather than a replica so that gave us the opportunity to design something with the same profile and the same size panes of glass but using low-maintenance, long-lasting steel rather than timber, and we were also able to include a ventilation system,” says Peter.

The fernery has an elevated location, overlooking the mountains of Argyll and nestled into the side of

a rocky ravine. It has a church-like presence with its impressive stone gable end soaring high above a natural gulley where a path snakes up to the entrance through massed plantings of Osmunda regalis, the royal fern, alongside other native British ferns, some more exotic specimens, and perennials and shrubs chosen to complement the ferns. From paths that climb up to the Tasmanian Ridge, there’s a view over the magnificent vaulted glass roof, and here stands of the hardy tree fern, Dicksonia antarctica, will create a dramatic sight once mature. Inside the fernery, specimens such as Pyrrosia lingua emerge from planting pockets in between moss and algae-covered rocks and crevices in walls, and creep across the ground. Larger ferns, such as Woodwardia unigemmata form cascading mounds, while majestic Dicksonia squarrosa, a tree fern from New Zealand, towers above the rest, the delicate tracery of its fronds silhouetted against the sky. In Duncan’s day the fernery would have been heated. “Although this would have allowed him to grow tender ferns, it must have been quite an operation to haul coke up to the building “The fernery to heat the boiler,” Peter remarks. Rather than permanently heating the fernery, the has a church- gardening team now use a propane heater during the winter months, but only to keep like presence, the temperature from dropping below -2°C. its impressive “We chose ferns that could cope with a bit of frost and we wanted a diverse range from stone gable end soaring Japan, China, the Himalayas, both North and South America and New Zealand. Most of the plants came from the Royal Botanic high above a Garden Edinburgh, where we have a very gifted fern grower. Once the planting was natural gulley” complete we had over 70 different species in the collection,” says Peter. “Whether you’re a fern lover or not, the idea was to create Top left The royal fern something that would wow the visitor.” Osmunda regalis is To keep the collection in tip-top condition the known for its bronze, spore-bearing fronds. gardening team use chicken manure as a fertiliser Top right Young fronds and mulch with composted bark. “We try not to of hardy Woodwardia walk on the root zones of the plants because we unigemmata are an don’t want to compact the soil,” Peter explains. attractive rusty-red. Left The lush green path “The ferns require an open, airy growing medium, leading to the fernery. so if we need to get in among them we’ll position stones in the beds and step on these instead.” This magnificent building was originally built at a time when little thought was given to how plants were acquired and the impact of this on the environment. However, its restoration means it has now become a safe haven for ferns, where they can be conserved for future generations. n

Benmore Fernery, Benmore Botanic Garden, 4 Uig, Benmore, Dunoon, Argyll PA23 8QU. The fernery opens daily, from April to October, 11am to 4pm. Tel: +44 (0)1369 706261; rbge.org.uk

Japanese cherry, Prunus ‘Matsumaeusugasanesomei’ has lilac-tinged blossom that’s outstanding in spring.

The exquisite spring show put on by Japanese flowering cherries is fleeting, but these lovely trees work well in the garden all year round, as Matthew Hall of Batsford Arboretum explains

The Japanese spring-time ritual of ‘flower viewing’ or hanami is well known these days, with travel companies running special holidays for tourists to visit Japan and take part in festivals dedicated to cherry blossom. Incredibly, the first references to hanami can be found in Japanese scriptures dating from as long ago as 720AD. In 8th-century England, meanwhile, the old Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were at war, the Picts kept trying to invade Northumbria, while Vikings pillaged the east coast. The Japanese tradition of spending spring admiring exquisite cherry blossom sounds so peaceful in comparison.

It wasn’t until hundreds of years later that the British people got to share in the delight of flowering cherries. Japan opened itself up to Western outsiders in the mid-19th century and Victorian plant hunters began to discover the wealth of cherries the islands had to offer. Cultivating cherries has a long tradition in Japan, and as well as the country’s native species there were hybrids too – the results of skilful cross-pollination and grafting. The Japanese had even coined two ancient terms, still used today, to differentiate wild cherries from cultivated ones: Yama-zakura or ‘mountain cherries’ for the wild plants, and Sato-zakura or ‘village cherries’ for the garden selections. While a visit to Japan may not be possible this spring, Gloucestershire’s Batsford Arboretum will be open to visitors. And it’s here that you’ll find the Plant Heritage National Collection of Prunus Sato-Sakura Group – or Japanese flowering cherries – for a little cherry worship closer to home. Batsford’s head gardener, Matthew Hall, is looking forward to sharing the arboretum’s spectacular spring display with visitors once again. “It is such a magical time of year,” he enthuses. Batsford’s East Asian inspiration can be traced back to 1886, when the estate was inherited by Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, later 1st Lord Redesdale. He spent much of the 1860s and 1870s in diplomatic service in China and Japan and became a recognised authority on the two countries’ cultures. As well as compiling an anthology of Japanese short stories called Tales of Old Japan, and advising Gilbert and Sullivan on the finer points of East Asian culture for The Mikado, he modelled Batsford on the Japanese and Chinese landscapes he’d so admired. A wild garden of naturalistic planting evolved, featuring bamboos, special sculpture and a Japanese Rest House.

After Algernon’s death in 1916, Batsford was inherited by his son David Mitford (father of the infamous Mitford sisters), but the costs involved in the estate’s upkeep were too high, and the family was forced to sell up after World War I. Gilbert Alan Hamilton Wills, the 1st Lord Dulverton was Batsford’s next owner, but in the years following World War II the garden become neglected. It was only when the 2nd Lord Dulverton inherited the

Above ‘Hokusai’ is a 6m tall Matsumae cherry with large, semi-double scented flowers from March through May.

This image Batsford’s East Asian influence is clear; the mythical Foo Dog, rests its paws on an enamelled globe. Below right ‘Takasago’ has abundant blossom. Below left ‘Hisakura’ is a favourite of Matthew’s.

estate in 1956 that Batsford was put back on track. Lord Dulverton was passionate about trees and set about restoring the garden to its former glory, adding to its collection and creating the bones of the arboretum that exists today. “The wild garden had become overgrown and Lord Dulverton started paring it back, layer by layer. Then his love of trees took over and he was planting here, there and everywhere,” says Matthew. “He was so enthused, that he became well-known to many of the big collectors, and his links with Kew Gardens meant he was able to get hold of more and more material, including Japanese cherries.”

In the early 1980s, the 2nd Lord Dulverton donated the arboretum to a charitable trust, The Batsford Foundation. He wanted to secure the arboretum’s future and protect and enhance both his own developments and Lord Redesdale’s original East Asian plantings and landscaping. For Matthew, who has been working at Batsford for just over 20 years, that’s meant, among other things, adding to the cherry collection. “We wanted to build on the existing collection and increase our spring emphasis,” he explains, “and obviously with a National Collection you are making sure that you’re keeping hold of unusual cultivars and propagating them. Keeping them safe, effectively.”

Matthew now shares and swaps cherries with other collections, and ensures there are replacements ready for older specimens – most live for only around 50 to 55 years, so a programme of grafting replaces any losses. “Where we have large, older trees that aren’t paying their way and are looking a bit tired, we’re thinning out a few and opening up vistas. And then we look into what cherries are obtainable further afield to find unusual cultivars that will bring even more beauty into the arboretum, but also make it a vitally important collection.”

That said, it’s one of the better-known cherries that Matthew recommends first. “I think you have to start with ‘Tai-haku’,” he says. “On a perfect spring day when the sun is shining and the sky is clear, there isn’t a better tree.” Also known as the great white cherry, ‘Tai-haku’ is breathtaking in March and April, when it is awash with masses of single white flowers. It’s also the cherry that Collingwood ‘Cherry’ Ingram re-introduced to Japan from a garden in Kent, after Top ‘Tai-haku’ is one of it had died out in its the best-known cherries, homeland. laden with white flowers. Batsford’s collection Middle A close-up view of the delightful single also includes several blooms of ‘Hisakura’ Matsumae cherries, alongside the tree’s raised near Matsumae emerging bronze foliage. Town, Hokkaido, which Bottom Double blossom of Prunus ‘Horinji’. always attract visitors’ Far left ‘Ezonishiki’ is attention. “‘Matsumaea Matsumae cherry. usugasanesomei’ has

Matthew Hall’s tips on planting and caring for healthy Japanese flowering cherries

Plant cherries any time from September through to late October, or from February to the end of March, provided the weather is not too dry.

Use mycorrhizal fungi at planting time to give the trees a healthy start. After planting I always apply a good organic mulch, such as well-rotted wood chips. Keep the area around their trunks clear of grass and weeds, and stake as necessary.

Keep pruning to a minimum to avoid problems with fungal diseases, such as canker and silver leaf. Never prune in winter when it’s cold and damp. Only prune after flowering, between May and July, if there is any formative pruning to be done. Thin out any small branches but don’t make large cuts because the pruning wounds will need time to heal.

If you have a small garden, don’t choose a big tree: plant to the space you’ve got. Try some of the Prunus incisa cherries, such as ‘Fujimae’, which are much smaller, or Prunus ‘Little Pink Perfection’ at 3m.

a lilac-purple flower Above left ‘Ichiyo’ is a and is incredible,” medium-sized tree with says Matthew. “And airy, pale pink-white double flowers. ‘Matsumae-hana- Above right Smothered kagoto’, which is early in blossom, ‘Matsumaeflowering and a pale wakamushiga’. pink-white, is one of the most photographed trees in the arboretum – it really is stunning.” Double-flowered ‘Matsumaewakamushiga’, he says is “absolutely beautiful”.

‘Ukon’, meanwhile is easier both to pronounce and to grow, and its greenish-white flowers make it a superb choice for gardeners seeking a cherry with a difference. ‘Ichiyo’, with its pale pink blossom, is easily obtainable and unfussy. “It grows well on our soil,” Matthew confirms. And if you’ve got space for a tree that’ll reach 6m, he suggests ‘Hisakura’: “It’s a fantastic tree, with an arching habit, bronze foliage and a really dark pink blossom. It’s one of the standout cherries of the arboretum.”

Really though, any cherry in full, glorious flower is captivating, and after the dark months of winter there are few better ways to reacquaint ourselves with the abundant beauty of the natural world than by admiring an extensive collection of these uplifting trees – or planting our own. n

Batsford Arboretum, Batsford, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire GL56 9AT. Tel: +44 (0)1386 701441. Find opening times and tickets at batsarb.co.uk

Evergreen or deciduous, acid-loving azaleas are one of spring’s brightest shrubs, producing a refreshing mass of eye-catching blooms in colours that zing

Azaleas are botanically part of the rhododendron genus, but many gardeners stick to the well-known common name for these shrubs. Compared to other rhododendrons, azaleas tend to be smaller and they can also be deciduous or evergreen. It’s mostly the deciduous varieties that produce scented flowers, and this species is one of the best for fragrance with clear yellow spring flowers that are small, plentiful and aromatic. Like all rhododendrons, azaleas are ericaceous so need acidic soil of pH7 or lower. In alkaline conditions, their leaves turn yellow and they won’t thrive. R. luteum grows in sun or dappled shade and reaches 1.5-1.8m, so it’s a good choice for the back of a border or a woodland garden. The leaves colour nicely in autumn, too.

The Perfecto Mundo azaleas from Proven Winners are a superb choice if you want a shrub that not only contributes colourful spring flowers but also goes on to bloom again in midsummer and autumn. As well as flowering in spring on its old wood, this azalea reblooms later on its new growth. And because it’s an evergreen variety, it will continue to look good even when it isn’t in flower thanks to its glossy green leaves. Reaching a compact 60-90cm height and spread at most, with a neat, rounded habit, this variety is perfect for the middle of a border, where it will soon be smothered with masses of pastel pink blooms. You could also try it in a container filled with ericaceous compost.

In truth, it’s more of a magentapurple than blue, but that hasn’t stopped this azalea becoming one of our most popular garden cultivars since its introduction during the 1960s by a Belgian breeder. An evergreen azalea, it reaches a modest 60-80cm tall with a lovely upright habit, making it a good option for smaller gardens and for incorporating into a mixed border. Its spring flowers, in that lovely deep colour, are large and showy and won’t fail to catch the eye. As ever with azaleas, give it acidic soil to keep it healthy and happy. While ‘Blue Danube’ is technically an ‘evergreen’, it is common for it to drop its leaves during the cold winter months. Try teaming it with matching or contrasting tulips planted beneath.

Galanthus nivalis ‘Green Tear’ Galanthus nivalis (Sandersii Group) ‘Lowick’

Jacky Hobbs visits Avon Bulbs where choice collectors’ snowdrops rub shoulders with great garden varieties that are perfect for naturalising

PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS

Galanthus elwesii var. monostictus ‘Warwickshire Gemini’ Galanthus ‘Welshway’

In the woodland glades of Avon Bulbs’ nursery in Somerset, free-range snowdrops run amok in their shady pleasure ground, unwittingly spawning new generations of future gems as they promiscuously hybridise with one another. In the nursery itself, a vast array of meticulously labelled cultivars in pots line a procession of coldframes. They’re destined for national and international snowdrop fairs where they’ll tempt visiting galanthophiles.

A February visit here reveals a spectacular collection of some 250 coveted galanthus species and cultivars. Chris Ireland-Jones, owner of Avon Bulbs, bought the Bath-based nursery over 30 years ago, relocating it to an eight-acre former farm in South Petherton, Somerset. But, at first, the site didn’t really suit snowdrops at all. “Initially the clay soil was on the heavy side – not ideal for growing bulbs,” Chris recalls. “But over the years we have incorporated tons of organic matter, waste compost and leaf litter, which has left it much improved.” Strategic deciduous hedging now protects the coldframes, supplying the shade these specimen bulbs need in summer, while Chris has planted oak and beech across an open field, to create a new woodland. “Once the saplings were big enough, we planted surplus stock snowdrops in a dedicated glade and other woodland bulbs – cyclamen, winter aconites, crocuses and narcissi – at their feet, with paths meandering through.” Now the wood is filled with such an abundance of thriving and prolific winter bulbs that you need to tread carefully between the ever-increasing seas of flowers. The conditions here are perfect for naturalisation, and exemplary large snowdrop clumps are treated as nursery stock; thriving in their natural habitat, these impressively healthy-sized plants are perfect for propagating. Together with Avon Bulbs’ galanthus expert, Alan Street, Chris first identifies, marks and labels prodigious flowering clumps so that reliably named plants can be divided or otherwise propagated once dormant. Many of the rarer bulbs, are lifted and carefully ‘chipped’ – each tiny bulb surgically divided into eight or more segments – before being potted under the cover of a coldframe. Alan is very nearly a snowdrop ‘immortal’, a title reserved for those who have a snowdrop registered in their name – strictly speaking, Galanthus nivalis ‘Alan’s Treat’ just denies him this accolade on a technicality!

The nursery’s extensive offering includes common G. nivalis and G. elwesii types, those good garden snowdrops perfect for naturalising, with plentiful middle-order snowdrops and then those rare collectible specimens, some unique to the nursery.

Although there are only around 20 different species of galanthus, human intervention has resulted in more than 2,500 named cultivars. These have evolved over time and galanthophiles continue to hunt down all sorts of increasingly unusual variations, in particular: those with green markings on the inner perianth; virescent snowdrops

Above Virescent snowdrops, with outer green markings, are highly sought after – like this as yet unnamed green-tipped plicate.

with outer green markings; unusual forms such as pagoda-shaped flowers; poculiform snowdrops, like ‘E.A. Bowles’ and ‘Seraph’, where the snowdrops have six uniform outer segments; yellow colouring; and, most recently, all-white specimens.

Snowdrops’ inner markings are often reflected in the cultivar name, like G. elwesii ‘Grumpy,’ which wears down-in-the-mouth markings, while the inners of large-flowered G. elwesii ‘Deer Slot’ depict a cloven hoof. Breeders, collectors, ‘owners’ and garden names are also commonly represented. Classics include G. elwesii ‘Marjorie Brown’, which Alan says is late-flowering, vigorous and highly garden-worthy, highlighting “the blue cast of its wide glaucous foliage.” ‘S. Arnott’, meanwhile, was probably bred by Samuel Arnott in the early 1900s.

Top row from left From Avon’s woodland glade, Eranthis hyemalis ‘Schwefelglanz’; Crocus tommasinianus; Galanthus ‘South Hayes’.

Galanthus ‘S. Arnott’; owner Chris IrelandJones with head nurseryman Alan Street. “It’s tall, thick-petalled, very white, handsomely proportioned and memorable for its honeyed scent,” notes Alan. ‘Hill Poë’, is named for Irishman James Hill Poë who found it in his garden. This late-flowering double has a tightly packed inner rosette and narrow outer segments. And G. elwesii var. monostictus ‘Warwickshire Gemini’, which was discovered in said county, “is an absolute giant, which, once established, will throw two flowerheads,” according to Alan.

Other coveted cultivars include those with green markings on the outer rather than the inner petals. These so-called ‘virescent’ snowdrops include the Dutch-discovered ‘Green Tear’ with green brushstrokes along the full length of its outer petals. The rare and later-flowering ‘Green Arrow’ has

sharper, green-tipped outer petals. Somewhere in between lies ‘Cowhouse Green’, named after the fi eld nearby in which it was found in the late 1980s.

The 21st century saw the arrival of extraordinary pagoda-shaped snowdrops (also known as inverse poculiform hybrids), with green markings on their outer, but upturned, petals. They include G. plicatus ‘Trym’ and its o spring, which include striking ‘South Hayes’, ‘Trymming’ and ‘Trumps’.

Above left Slenderpetalled, elongated Galanthus ‘Wasp’. Middle Classic, yellowcapped Galanthus ‘Wendy’s Gold’. Above right Galanthus ‘The Wizard’.

Alan Street’s galanthus planting tips will ensure good establishment and pretty spring displays

Plant all snowdrops 10-15cm deep in a cool, moist position with some sunshine in spring, but with drier summer shade.

When bulk planting for mass e ect or naturalising, buy and plant snowdrops in the green whenever possible, from February. Our bulbs are delivered in biodegradable bags and sent out fi rst class for planting on the day of delivery. Plant immediately on receipt, at 10cm intervals, water in and protect from severe weather using leaves, bracken or horticultural fl eece.

Grow special snowdrops in extralong pots. Or put individual special plants into labelled aquatic pots fi lled with a soil-based potting medium and a little sharp sand. Plunge them into the border to make them easily retrievable in summer for repotting. Lift and divide every three to four years in late spring as leaves turn yellow and replant in a new spot refreshed with granular fertiliser. Apply a leafmould mulch in autumn.

Dormant snowdrops or dry bulbs are available from August onwards for immediate planting into open ground or in mesh pots as above. Label and water very sparingly until autumn. Plunge individual specimen pots into a border to protect roots from temperature extremes. If growing under glass, ensure good ventilation and move pots to a shady space outdoors, after fl owering. “It’s easily the best and brightest green-tipped snowdrop around. It fl owers early and increases freely,” enthuses Alan, who discovered his own inverse poculiform in Avon’s woodland copse and christened it ‘The Wizard’.

“Yellow-capped snowdrops with corresponding yellow markings are another one for the collector,” suggests Alan, adding that “their colouring has a tendency to vary”. He fi nds they colour up better in full sun. G. plicatus ‘Wendy’s Gold’, is the classic benchmark, named after the warden’s wife at Wandlebury Ring where it was discovered. Newer fi ndings are even more scarce. G. nivalis (Sandersii Group) ‘Lowick’, from the Cambo estate in Scotland, is similar to classic G. nivalis, but its inner heart is gold not green, while elegant ‘Ecusson d’Or’ was one of the fi rst to bear yellow on its outer petals. G. nivalis ‘Blonde Inge’ preceded the allyellows, unusually combining yellow inner markings with a contrasting green cap. In Avon Bulbs’ prolifi c woodland copse, keen-eyed Alan has discovered a similarly arranged, yellow seedling that was named ‘Midas’, and initially listed at £120. This is a rare, fabled colour-change snowdrop. “Its initially green inner and outer markings turn a glowing golden yellow a few days after opening,” he explains.

Alan and Chris guide customers through myriad snowdrop choices on their website, recommending “‘foundation’ snowdrops for beginners” and “very good snowdrops that are distinctive, vigorous and less costly”, before unveiling more mouth-watering, limited availability ‘Collector’s Snowdrops’, which come at a price. At snowdrop fairs and shows across the country their specimens surpass all others. ■

Avon Bulbs is not open to the public but visit their website at avonbulbs.co.uk to view the catalogue and listings of the events they will be attending. Tel: +44 (0)1460 242177 or +44 (0)1460 249060.