This week, our Garden Editor Clare took a look around Architectural Plants, tucked away in the Sussex countryside near Pulborough. Known for its specialist forms and grand specimens, the nursery has built a reputation for the bold and unexpected - qualities that will be on full display next week as they take centre stage in Chelsea Flower Show’s Grand Pavilion with a jungle-like display of extraordinary plants. As the buzz around Chelsea (@the_rhs ) builds, our anticipation is certainly growing for what’s to come.
Video by @gessicahage
The clever people at @niwaki.hq launched their new Camo clothing range on Thursday and marked it by putting the print on a fleet of London taxis. Genius!
@niwakijake snapped here with Tamsin Saunders @homeandfound and picture 6 shows talented illustrator @natsko_seki who designed the print.
Very exciting to receive a copy of the new German edition of Pastoral Gardens from @plantvs.verlag . It looks very handsome indeed with Peter Janke’s stunning garden near Düsseldorf on the cover. The English edition is still available via @montgomerypress .
#pastoral #pastorale #sustainablegarden @sustainabledesign
Often used to describe someone shy or quietly in the background, wallflowers are anything but in the garden. In our Garden Editor Clare Foster’s own garden, they take centre stage each spring - a burst of scent and colour that feels full of life. Easy to grow from seed, and even simpler to propagate from cuttings, they’re one of the most generous plants in the garden (if you know how to keep them going). Stick around to find out how to take cuttings and increase your stock for seasons to come.
Video by @gessicahage
Like so many others in the garden world I was devastated to hear of Nigel Dunnett’s death yesterday. Passionate about bringing biodiversity and sustainable planting into the urban environment, he is shown here in a portrait by @jooneywoodward taken for @houseandgardenuk at the Barbican where he designed the gardens. As well as interviewing him for the magazine’s Climate Crusader series, I asked Nigel to contribute to my book Pastoral Gardens, which he did with much enthusiasm. The resulting essay Transformational Urban Greening was brilliantly written, thoughtful and completely heartfelt, expressing his passionate belief that with a joined up approach we can make a huge difference to the world through gardening and in particular by creating a network of green urban spaces.
‘To me, a garden is not just a physical place or thing, it is a whole philosophy - a way of thinking,’ he wrote. ‘The garden is a place where people and nature come together, and that doesn’t have to be restricted to somewhere with clear and definite boundaries - the idea of the garden needs to jump over the garden fence - or the wall or the hedge - and infuse our whole way of being.’ He continued: ‘I work with naturalistic planting because I think it has the potential to reach the parts that other types of planting and gardens just can’t reach. It reaches deep inside of us to release powerful and positive emotions that are linked to our fundamental need to connect with nature. In cities, where the everyday experience is very disconnected from the natural environment, we have to work even harder to make that connection.’
Wise words indeed. RIP Nigel and may your legacy and ideas continue to inspire and influence a whole new generation.
@nigel.dunnett
#sustainableplanting #biodiversity #greytogreen #sustainablegardening #urbangreen
Plantsman Jonny Bruce @j.bruce.garden photographed at his new Cotswold nursery, The Field Nursery, with Daniel Carlson and Frida and Nohni 🐶🐶 for the May issue of @houseandgardenuk
Read @clarefostergardens interview with Jonny about his wonderful new project where he is championing traditional growing and propagation methods.
Thank you @j.bruce.garden for an amazing day with you and your lovely team! ✨
#jonnybruce #thefieldnursery #sustainableplants #sustainability
Just now, 6.30am in the garden, with an unexpected frost that no doubt has zapped the courgettes I moved outside yesterday. These huge diurnal changes in temperature are so difficult to manage.
“Too much tulips” our guide in Kyrgyzstan said on our first morning of tulip hunting, which roughly translated as lots. I had feared that my trip with @clarefostergardens and @eva_nemeth might not be fruitful, that the combination of cows grazing and children picking and climate changing would have resulted in days of disappointment. I need not have worried. While all of the above factors are very real, and work needs to continue to protect these species tulips still growing in the wild, our appetites were more than satisfied. The hunting continues and there will be further dispatches from Kazakhstan.
