The English Garden April 2022

Bunny Guinness Bunny is an award-winning landscape and garden designer who regularly appears on Gardeners’ Question Time on BBC Radio 4. In her new column on page 15, she shares timely reminders and excellent advice. Val Bourne Hands-on gardener Val is a committed plantaholic who manages her windswept Cotswold garden organically. She is also an ambassador for the Hardy Plant Society. She visits Stockton Bury on p32. Kathy Brown Kathy is an author, garden designer and lecturer who opens her four-acre garden in north Bedfordshire (kathybrownsgarden. com) regularly and for the NGS. She shares her creative kokedama technique on page 93.…

I’m sure I’m not the only one impatient for spring to arrive, those feelings exacerbated by a burst of lovely sunny weather as we finished working on this issue. I really must resist getting carried away – it’s most likely a ‘fool’s spring’, but I can definitely see the difference it’s made to the plants outside. This year, in a new garden, spring’s subtle daily advances seem all the more exciting because of the surprises the garden is throwing up, including lots of bulbs I didn’t know were there, perhaps encouraged to push upwards thanks to my efforts at clearing brambles and thickets of white snowberry – a shrub I’d frankly be quite happy to never see again. One particularly welcome discovery is some sizeable clumps of cyclamen: my order…

IN FLOWER NOW Clematis ‘Frances Rivis’ Move aside, unruly montanas, and make room for a spring-flowering clematis of a more refined nature. Clematis ‘Frances Rivis’, named after the Suffolk gardener who raised it in 1900, reliably produces its nodding violet-blue flowers from April to May. And while those slightly twisted petals may look delicate, the flowers will appear whatever the weather – a trait that no doubt helped this lovely variety win its RHS Award of Garden Merit. Happy in most soils as long as they’re free-draining, and not requiring regular pruning, this climber is a simple spring delight.…

Celestina Robertson The passionate grower, educator and author on how sustainability is the driving force that inspires her Norfolk-based cut-flower farm, Forever Green Flower Company Cut flowers should celebrate the natural world, rather than be produced to its detriment. Seasonality is key and it’s the first step to sustainability, which is the focus of my flower farm and the courses I offer. My mum grew up on the 12th floor of a tower block with no connection to nature. At school I was encouraged in an academic direction, yet I ended up running away from my history of art degree to join a group of organic growers with a local vegetable delivery box scheme. Their ethos of providing seasonal food for local people stuck with me and has been a huge influence on…

The Nuttery, Sissinghurst Castle Garden Kent We made a trip to Sissinghurst one May. On walking into the Nuttery, I saw hazel trees casting dappled light over the ferns unfurling beneath them. It took my breath away. Tel: 01580 710700; nationaltrust.org.uk The Walled Garden, Holkham Hall Norfolk This six-acre walled garden with a vineyard, cutting garden and herbaceous borders is currently being restored. It’s fascinating to see it being brought back to life and I love the architectural Victorian glasshouses. Tel: 01328 713111; holkham.co.uk…

Dunvegan Castle accepted into RHS partner gardens Scotland Dunvegan Castle & Gardens on the Isle of Skye has been accepted into the Royal Horticultural Society’s Partner Gardens, allowing RHS members free access to the gardens during the open season. The formal and semi-formal gardens are spread across five acres and feature a memorial gazebo, a Victorian-style glasshouse, a garden museum and a children’s woodland play area. The gardens have undergone extensive re-landscaping and planting since 1978, and are now under the direction of Hugh MacLeod and his dedicated gardening team. dunvegancastle.com Visit Kew for £1 London & West Sussex A new £1 entry fee has been introduced for those in receipt of Universal or Pension Credit to visit Kew Gardens and its sister site, Wakehurst in West Sussex. The new pricing aims to make both…