The tenth Designer Bed installation is 'Holiday At Home: The Exotic Garden!' by Katie's Garden's Catherine McMillan, author of Gardening for the Uncommitted: What You Really Need To Know When You Don't Really Want To Know.
“Bright and bold with dramatic flowers and foliage, this garden sets itself apart from the crowd but is easier to achieve than you might think. |
Cottage gardens are usually at their best in late spring and early summer. This design - which was installed in July - celebrates the stronger colours that come to the fore from midsummer to autumn.
Many of the plants used are commonplace in cottage gardens, such as Agapanthus, Dahlias, Crocosmias, Fuchsias, Lobelias and Sunflowers, so the design is a real demonstration of how much effect plant combinations can have. There are next-to-no whites or pastel shades. Although colours repeat through the design they are clashing not complementing.
The aim is for a lucious look and plants with big leaves help to achieve this. In this garden this includes the Fatsia japonica (aka false castor oil plant), Melianthus major (honey bush) Hostas and Canna Lilies. Ferns would be another option to consider. The foliage plays as important a role as the flowers, with dark plums, gold and variegation working as foils. Strappy vertical growth - from Phormium, Crocosmias, Hemerocallis and the giant reed Arundo - is dotted through to keep things looking spiky and punchy.
The design uses a number of annuals to add extra splashes of colour but the bulk of the planting is hardy. In simplest terms a "hardy" plant can survive frost whereas a "tender" plant can't, but there are bands within this, known as the hardiness rating.
The plants used in the design are listed below with their hardiness rating in brackets.
H3 can survive to -5c, H4 to -10c, H5 to -15, H6 to -20, and H7 even colder than that.
In Suffolk it is rare for temperatures to go below -10c, so anything rated H4 can be grown with reasonable confidence that it will not need molly-coddling in wintertime, and H3 plants should only need occasional fleecing, if at all.
Free-draining soils mean rootballs are less likely to freeze and rot, as can happen in moisture-retentive soils, and protection from chilling winds can help too. Walled gardens are the ideal but hedges and fences can be effective as can 'the urban heat island' effect of gardening in a built-up area, such as in a town or housing estate.
In a mild winter even many of the 'annuals' featured could well make it through to the next year.
All can help you have your own patch of paradise without having to pack everything into a greenhouse every winter!
Many of the plants used are commonplace in cottage gardens, such as Agapanthus, Dahlias, Crocosmias, Fuchsias, Lobelias and Sunflowers, so the design is a real demonstration of how much effect plant combinations can have. There are next-to-no whites or pastel shades. Although colours repeat through the design they are clashing not complementing.
The aim is for a lucious look and plants with big leaves help to achieve this. In this garden this includes the Fatsia japonica (aka false castor oil plant), Melianthus major (honey bush) Hostas and Canna Lilies. Ferns would be another option to consider. The foliage plays as important a role as the flowers, with dark plums, gold and variegation working as foils. Strappy vertical growth - from Phormium, Crocosmias, Hemerocallis and the giant reed Arundo - is dotted through to keep things looking spiky and punchy.
The design uses a number of annuals to add extra splashes of colour but the bulk of the planting is hardy. In simplest terms a "hardy" plant can survive frost whereas a "tender" plant can't, but there are bands within this, known as the hardiness rating.
The plants used in the design are listed below with their hardiness rating in brackets.
H3 can survive to -5c, H4 to -10c, H5 to -15, H6 to -20, and H7 even colder than that.
In Suffolk it is rare for temperatures to go below -10c, so anything rated H4 can be grown with reasonable confidence that it will not need molly-coddling in wintertime, and H3 plants should only need occasional fleecing, if at all.
Free-draining soils mean rootballs are less likely to freeze and rot, as can happen in moisture-retentive soils, and protection from chilling winds can help too. Walled gardens are the ideal but hedges and fences can be effective as can 'the urban heat island' effect of gardening in a built-up area, such as in a town or housing estate.
In a mild winter even many of the 'annuals' featured could well make it through to the next year.
All can help you have your own patch of paradise without having to pack everything into a greenhouse every winter!
PERENNIALS
Agapanthus Summer Love Blue (African Lily) (H4) Albuca shawii (H3) Alstroemeria Summer Paradise River Valley (Peruvian Lily) (H3) Alstroemeria Indian Summer (H4) Arundo donax var versicolor (H4) Canna Cannova Mango & Rose (H3) Crocosmia Lucifer (Montretia) (H5) Dahlia Bishop of Llandaff (H3) Eucomis comosa Sparkling Burgundy (Pineapple Lily) (H4) Euphorbia mellifera (Honey Spurge) (H3) Hemerocallis Catherine Woodbery (Daylily) (H6) Hibiscus Mahogany Splendour (H3) Hosta fortunei var albopicta (White-Painted Plantain Lily) (H7) Hosta Sum and Substance (Plantain Lily) (H7) Lobelia x speciosa Starship Rose (H4) Osteospermum Tresco Purple (Cape Daisy) (H3) Phygelius x rectus African Queen (Cape Fuchsia) (H5) Physalis peruviana (Cape Gooseberry) (H2) Rudbeckia triloba Prairie Glow (Brown-Eyed Susan) (H6) Salvia Kisses & Wishes, Love & Wishes (H3) Zauschneria californica Glasnevin (California Fuchsia) (H4) |
SHRUBS
Albizia julibrissin Ombrella (silk tree) (H4) Buddleia globosa (Orange Ball Tree) (H5) Diervilla rivularis Honeybee (Mountain Bush Honeysuckle) (H5) Fatsia japonica (H5) Fuchsia Riccartonii (H6) Leycestria formosa Golden Lanterns (Himalayan Honeysuckle) (H4) Melianthus major (Honey Bush) (H3) Phormium tenax variegatum (New Zealand Flax) (H5) ANNUALS Cuphea Sweet Talk Lavender Splash Dahlia Dalina Maxi Apricot Diascia Aurora Dark Pink Gazania Daybreak Mix Gazania Sun Stopper Lemon Helianthus annus Sunbelievable Brown Eyed Girl Lantana Bloomify Orange/Red/Rose Pentas Lucky Star Dark Red Zinnia F1 Zesty Mix |
Click to download the on-site handout featuring planting list

designer_bed_holiday_at_home_handout.pdf | |
File Size: | 528 kb |
File Type: |
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