The English Garden March 2021

Troy Scott Smith A gardener for over 30 years, Troy was head gardener at both Bodnant and Sissinghurst. He now combines his work at Iford Manor with writing, lecturing and designing. His new column starts on p12. Matthew Biggs Matthew is a gardener, writer and broadcaster and a regular on BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time. He has a passionate interest in plant history and bulbous plants. He visits Waddesdon and Eythrope on p30. Anna Omiotek-Tott London-based photographer Anna specialises in gardens, plants and florals. She loves finding amazing gardens to capture, like the frosty scenes at Benington Lordship on page 46. IMAGES NEIL HEPWORTH; ALUN CALLENDER…

The new year hasn’t got off to the most promising start, with unrelentingly gloomy news at every turn. It is easy to lose heart, in another lockdown and faced with this barrage, so I am trying to concentrate instead solely on things that cheer me up, and right now that is bulbs. The simplest things are often the most cheering: snowdrops and crocuses are peeping through the soil in my garden; in the house, a huge striped hippeastrum looks spectacular in full bloom; and I have a bowl of pink hyacinths just starting to flower as well as paperwhites on the way (they were both supposed to be for Christmas, but I was a little late planting them). This issue is full of the happy sight of masses of bulbs,…

Stefan Buczacki The horticulturist, botanist, author, broadcaster and expert witness describes his sources of inspiration and particular passion for fungi Inspiration for my books comes from three places: my head, where ideas occur to me for no obvious reason; my own garden, where I discover something new every day; and the British countryside – I’ve travelled all over the world, but I always love returning to it. I hated doing rehearsals before camera while I was a regular broadcaster and had a reputation for doing things in one take. It’s the same with writing: I like to keep ideas fresh. I’ve now written over 60 books. Ground Rules for Gardeners was an original idea as an attempt to analyse gardens in ecological terms. A fairly eminent reviewer described it as ‘seminal’. The Marmalade Pot…

Lip na Cloiche Isle of Mull Gardens are deeply personal places. This tiny little sloping garden in the Hebrides is completely idiosyncratic. Owner Lucy Mackenzie collects seashore debris to display among her amazing plant collection here. Tel: 01688 500257; lipnacloiche.co.uk Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew London A botanical treasure house. You can see more representations of the botany of the world at Kew than anywhere else on the planet. As a plant collection, it is absolutely without peer. Tel: 020 8332 5655; kew.org…

‘A short history of the glasshouse’ 20 March, online In this pre-recorded talk over Zoom, garden historian and illustrator Susan Campbell will provide a brief history of the glasshouse, from the cultivation of citrus fruits in 16th-century orangeries, to growing pineapples in pineries and grapes in vineries, and finishing with glasshouses of the modern day. Susan is the chair and co-founder of the Walled Kitchen Gardens Network and has written several books. Tickets: £4 members; £6 nonmembers. To book tickets or find out about other virtual lectures, visit surreygardenstrust.org.uk Fundraising lecture on RHS Bridgewater 29 March, online Award-winning designer Tom Stuart-Smith will discuss the development of the first new RHS garden in nearly 20 years, looking at how Bridgewater was built and planted through a difficult time. In collaboration with the RHS and other specialists,…

Spring SOWINGS Straddling the spring equinox, March can be an unpredictable month – “In like a lion, out like a lamb”, as the old saying goes – but with the change of season comes lengthening days, a warming of the soil and a surge in plant growth with the promise of a feast of flowers to come. You may have already sown in August or September last year the seed of annuals that you want to flower later this year. These late-summer sowings will provide you with earlier-flowering, larger plants, but now, from mid-February to mid-May is the perfect time for annual seed propagation. Annuals complete their life cycle in a single season, flowering, setting seed and dying over a few months. They can be divided into two groups: hardy and half-hardy. Hardy annuals…