Kirengeshoma Palmata

I have just come across this plant at one of the nurseries I visit when buying plants for a client and promptly purchased a few for shady borders I am planting.

I am blogging about this as it's a great plant for a shady border. It will flower late Summer - early Autumn, with funnel shaped butter coloured flowers on purplish stems and maple like foliage. Height and spread is 90 x 60cm. 

 

Lavandula angustifolia "Hidcote" (aka English lavender)

Looking fantastic and in flower already (July is normally flowering time). This, in my opinion is one of the finest lavenders, I really dislike the French lavenders, all lavenders get leggy after a few years but the French type look especially messy earlier.  

Don't get attached to your lavenders, treat them as a 4-5 year plant, as soon as they look messy replace with fresh new ones. Also, never plant in shade, these are sun loving, drought tolerant plants and prefer it that way. 

 

Start dead heading your roses

Roses are in full flower now and you need to keep up with the dead heading with repeat flowering roses. If you let a rose bud set seed after flowering then the plant produces a chemical to say 'hey, my job's done here, no need for any more flowers'

Garden Design - Yorkstone paving

Yorkstone paving just got a whole lot better. Often in garden design especially when designing contemporary / modern gardens you need a clean, sleek modern looking patio surface. There have been a few varieties of sandstone available for a while which go through a process called shotblasting (basically giving you a smooth paver but still providing some grip and these are then cut to exact width,length and depth giving a very contemporary stone.

Now, at last, you can buy Yorkstone prepared in this way. OK, Yorkstone is expensive but it is the real creme de la creme in paving, extremely hard wearing, beautiful tones and if your designing a garden in London then were surrounded by Yorkstone so will not look out of place unlike many Indian imported sandstones.

Get in touch if you would like a list of suppliers for sawn and blasted Yorkstone. 

Planting in shady gardens

As a garden designer and plants man I am always asked about planting in shady areas, this seems to be a real problem for most and understandably so. Putting together a successful shady planting plan is probably the biggest challenge for an amateur gardener. Often where people go wrong is the need for colour - forget it, well for most of the year. Most colour you get from a shady border will be in Spring and you'll probably have another area in your garden to dedicate to summer flowering perennials, instead think along the lines of leaf colour, texture and size to put together the necessary interest needed through the year, green is a colour too so use it but make sure if your planting groups of plants together they differ in leaf size or colour, or even better, both. Ferns, hostas, astilbes for example, 3 plants that like the shade all with a completely different leaf texture, colour and size (and two of them flower too) . If the area in question is fairly large don't be afraid be plant in big groups, the effect is much greater, will make the space look less messy and will really stand out in its own right. 

One thing to note about shady borders, I always find that people do not think they need watering as much as they are not in the sun. Opposite, especially in the first year. Most shaded areas are so because of trees and if you imagine how much water a tree will be taking from the soil around and then look at the canopy to see where rain will naturally fall around the plants (or passed them) then in the first year of planting you really want to be watering them perhaps more than a sunny border (especially in summer). Even if a plant is labelled "dry shade" first year, water well. 

Watering - now's the time

I've been doing some planting the last few days and am surprised how dry the soil is and with more hot weather to come I advise now is a good time to get out there and start watering. The best time of day is the morning as any surplus water is then evaporated and will not cause unsightly problems like mildew on your plants foliage.  

Chelsea Garden Show - to be or not to be

For me, not to be. This will be the third year I have not been and for good reason, for which I will try to share some light. I do not see the Chelsea Garden Show as a particular good advertisement for garden design, in fact as a working designer and not just one that is addicted to designing gardens for shows I find it's detrimental to our profession ( yes there are designers that just design for shows). 

Where in all the show gardens is there any context to the surroundings?  None. Surely the RHS should,  at the designer presentation stage say "here is a mock up of a house, boundary etc, it's your job to present a plan to us that fits in with that brief", When they decide that they like this or that then would it not be best have a design/flower show with mock up back of houses and gardens attached that actually might represent something in real life? I think my nephew ( I think he's 2 now)  could probably design a blank 100 x 30m space available to him, one with boundary walls which are not really walls, just MDF, which we can cut nice little water features into but don't worry, the pipes and all the ugly stuff is in the neighbours garden (shhh this is the trickery of a garden show).

Why are Tulips and Sedums flowering now? and this garden it looks so lovely, I want it, I want it!!!! 

Well you can't have it for the very fact that this is not some new plant breed that has been bred to revolutionize gardening and plantmanship,  its , well, the conceited chaps at the RHS and designers, plants men / women that think it's OK to force plants on / hold them back ( in fridges / freezers / hot poly tunnels) just to bloom for the show, I refer back, what's the point? If it doesn't happen naturally then it's not going to happen in your garden ! I don't and designers, working ones, one's that actually design functional gardens do not really understand the show. I guess it's like the Paris / Milan fashion show, crazy things, crazy ideas that eventually filter down into something usable. 

Money. 

One of the big show gardens at Chelsea can cost anything up to £500,000 to build. Yes. £500k for a week of us viewing a garden that incorrect, planted ridiculously with Spring and Autumn flowering plants flowering at the same time ( because the designer likes the colours) and I have it on good authority a few end up getting pulled up, brick for brick and going to Dubai. I think my case rests. 

You may think I am anti-garden show, far from it, I think many good ideas come from showcases, I just wish the RHS would put it into a bit more context instead of saying " here's a blank bit of space, build at your leisure" if that was the case you'd never need an architect again, there would be 1000's of extension plans just ready to buy from an internet company, off the shelf. 

Hampton Court Flower Show.

Worth every penny in my opinion, not so much of a bun fight, lovely gardens, slightly more realistic than Chelsea. Lots of stalls selling new garden items and actually a nicer day out ( don't go if it's been or is raining unless you have a good pair of wellies, it's a mud bath).