Popular Description Of Gardening

Architectural plants work well in this context, so for a Slow plant, a spiky cordy line would be a good choice. If budget permits you could buy a large mature plant for instant effect, but if not, a small plant will look still good and after three or four years will catch up. Yuccas are also a good choice here, though their very sharp pointed leaves mean they should be sited with some care. Silver-leaved plants also work well in this context, and for large background shrubs, try Elaeagnus 'Quicksilver', with elegant leaves that keep their bright silver color right through until the autumn.

The Soft Touches Plants

Planting in formal containers needs to be simpler on the whole. Architectural plants — those with very large boldly shaped leaves — are ideally suited to formality because they reinforce the simple geometry of the containers themselves. Spiky evergreen cordylines, phormiums or large-leafed hostas are all very good choices.

Topiary — small-leaved evergreen shrubs such as box, euonymus or holly clipped into geometric shapes  is also an excellent choice. All you need in a container is, say, a single box ball or lollipop, spiral or pyramid to make an immediate impact in the garden.

How To Maintain A Designer Garden

Walls look wonderful lit from below with wall washers, either highlighting the texture of brick or stone or creating texture on a plain rendered wall. Around an eating area, for example, up lighters on the walls would create a soft background glow, and all the additional light you would need for practicality could come from candles on the table.

You also need to consider the impact that shadow has. An architectural plant lit from below will cast fantastic magnified shadows on a nearby wall. In my awn garden, the shadows cast by the jagged blue leaves of Melianthus major look like palm trees on a terracotta wall and turn south-west London at night into southern California.

How To Make A Designer Garden

Features for added impact

Features are what give gardens character, turning a reasonably attractive garden into one that is special. They are particularly important to the impatient gardener because they make an immediate difference and, by drawing attention to one part of the garden, stop you focussing on the areas you haven't yet got around to dealing with.

But there is a delicate balance between instant gratification and the longer term. You don't want to invest time and money in a feature only to find later that it is in the wrong place or compromises your garden design. So even though you haven't got time to tackle the whole garden at once, do think about how it might all work. eventually.

You will certainly need a patio close to the house, and the entrance to the garden from the house is also fixed, so you would be safe creating a feature there. Equally, you will only have one corner of the garden that catches the last rays of the sun, so you are likely to want a seating area there. Alternatively, when you start, stick to features that are not fixed, such as furniture, a sculpture or some plants in containers.

Features used as focal points will direct the eye to where you want it to go but make sure only one focal point is in view at a time, otherwise the impact will be lost. That is not to say you cant have more than one focal point. By careful placement, you can even use a series of focal points to lead your visitors right round the garden. In very small gardens, especially those that are broader than they are long, site features with care and avoid anything too eye-catching on the far boundary because it will make the space appear even smaller than it is. Instead, create interest in the foreground.

Garden buildings — whether ornate summerhouses or garden sheds — are one type of permanent garden feature. Summerhouses may sound rather grand, but it is possible to find them at a size and price suitable for most gardens, and they not only add weight to the overall design of the garden, but also provide a sheltered place to sit, even on days that are bright but cold. If you want your summerhouse to blend in, paint it the same color or perhaps a shade darker or lighter than the surrounding greenery or boundaries. If you want to make it a focal point, use a contrasting shade. Sheds are functional, but that does not mean they have to be ugly. Rather than hide them behind a screen, paint them an attractive color to make a statement — beach-hut blue-and-white stripes in a gravel garden, for example, or rich Harrods green with gold fittings.

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The Pleasures Of Gardening

You also need to consider the scale of your chosen materials. One school of thought says that it is best to use the largest possible size of slabs in a small area because that results in fewer joints. The effect of this will be that the space will look less 'busy' and so it will feel larger. The other view is that where space is limited, very large units will look out of proportion, which will make the area look even smaller, while more compact units, especially if laid in a simple unfussy pattern, can make the space feel larger.

Certainly, more compact units are easier to lay, since you will need to do less cutting to make them fit. If you are planning to do the work yourself, then it is well worth basing the layout on the dimensions of your chosen materials wherever possible to avoid having to cut any at all. One point to bear in mind is that if the design you have chosen involves curves or circles, you will find small units much easier to work with than larger ones.

Sparkling glass, light-as-air effect

Glass marbles or florists' nuggets are an attractive way of using glass in the garden. To replace our two paving slabs, we used a design of flame-colored and yellow 'spaghetti' marbles (clear marbles with strings of color in the centre), surrounded by small yellow and white crystal marbles.

Work out roughly how many marbles you will need from their diameter. Use a cement-based tile adhesive suitable for exterior use, and you'll have plenty of time to lay the marbles before the adhesive begins to set. Be sure to use white adhesive rather than gray.

The easiest patterns consist of marbles laid in rows, but if you want a more complex pattern, it's best to make a simple template. Cut a piece of polystyrene the same size as the space left by the slab. Draw your pattern on the polystyrene, cut along the edges of the design with a craft knife and remove the section you plan to fill first. Lay the template with the appropriate section removed over the space to be filled.

Mix up the adhesive, fill the space about two-thirds deep, then press the marbles into it. From time to time, lay a plank of wood over your work and press down gently until the ends of the plank are flat on the neighboring slabs to ensure the mosaic is flush. When you have finished a section, leave the adhesive to set for ten minutes or so, then gently ease the template off. You may need to run a sharp knife around the edges to make sure it lifts off cleanly. Leave the adhesive to set completely overnight.

Next day mix up more adhesive and fill in the remaining spaces. Once it has set completely, scrub the marbles with an old toothbrush or nail brush to remove any stray adhesive.

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The Noisette Roses and Climbing Teas

When visiting Heirloom Roses in the year 2000 I came upon a beautiful orange- colored Shrub rose called Louise Clements, named for one of the owners of the nursery. An outstanding rose, it is very fragrant and fully double, opening flat and cushion-like. Free flowering, and with bronze-green, slightly glossy foliage, it makes a good hedge and is superb when grouped among brightly colored herbaceous plants.

In the early 1990s a terrorist bomb exploded in Bishopsgate in the City of London, destroying buildings all around, among them the church of St Ethelburga, one of the oldest and smallest in the capital. Happily, the church was rebuilt and, in 2003, I was asked to name a rose to commemorate its re-opening as "a place of reconciliation and peace". I chose to give the name to a fully double, cup-shaped, soft pink rose bred by Amanda. A vigorous shrub, to about 1.2m (4ft) high, with dark green, healthy foliage, it flowers continuously and is very highly scented; indeed, St Ethelburga is worth growing in any garden for its perfume alone.

As a present to my mother on her 85th birthday, I named a rose of my own breeding for her, 'Evelyn May'. It is an upright shrub, with large, dark green leaves on very thorny stems, and bears double, bright salmon-orange flowers, with a lovely perfume, all summer through.

Finally, I have chosen a Shrub rose from 2004, a beautiful, creamy white called Countess of Wessex. It has large, superbly fragrant flowers, opening from pointed buds to become almost fully double, which are borne in clusters on a sturdy-, upright shrub that grows to about 1.2m (4ft) tall. It is constantly in bloom throughout the summer and is very healthy. Its foliage is light green and durable. It i5 another re bred be Amanda, and I believe it will go far.

'George Vancouver' is a short-growing Shrub rose worthy of a place in any garden. Its large, semi-double flowers are very bright red in color, ageing to softer red, and are borne in large clusters on strong stems. The foliage is dark green.

'Martin Frobisher' was the first ever Explorer rose, introduced in 1968. It is closely related to the Rugosas but does not show much affinity with that group. Upright in growth, it has dark brownish stems with few thorns. Its fully double, medium-sized flowers are almost blush-pink, with a good scent. This is a first-class rose, but a little short of foliage to be truly a classic.

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Growing Modern Shrub Roses

Another first-class yellow HT is Edna. originally called Peaudouce. It was raised by Dickson and is one of the classics among Modern roses. Its fragrant, fully double flowers are initially lemon-yellow, paling to ivory when fully- open. These are borne on an exuberant plant with healthy, glossy, dark green foliage. If allowed to develop, it will make a superb shrub.

'Grandpa Dickson', known as 'Irish Gold" in the USA, is another Dickson rose. Excellent for bedding, it produces large, exhibition-type blooms of soft yellow. These appear generously among glossy, mid-green foliage. Like Elina, if allowed its head, it will make a well- balanced, upright shrub.

Moving now to the creamy white one of my own, called 'Pinta' (also featured in the Introduction, see p.10). This is a unique blend of pure white and cream and, although each bloom is not large, its petals are scrolled in bud and the flower opens semi-double, with the distinct scent of sweet briar. It is about 60cm (2ft) tall, with dark green foliage.

To me, white roses are very beguiling and I find myself drawn to them whenever I see them in a garden. One, in particular, of which I have become rather fond is Polar Star from Tantau, which was "Rose of the Year" in Britain in 1985. Its scented flowers are shapely, of exhibition form, and as near pure white as is possible, with just a hint of cream at the base of each petal. Its foliage is dark green and healthy. About 90cm (3ft) tall, it will become a little scrawny if allowed to grow too big without any pruning.

Pascali, introduced by Louis Lens of Belgium, is another outstanding creamy white rose. The shapely, high-center flowers are borne on very strong stems amid dark green foliage. Again about 90cm (3ft) tall, it is good in groups or for bedding.

I now move to the bright orange shades. The first has superb HT-style blooms but, at 1.2m (4ft), it is almost tall enough to be termed a Shrub rose (Grandiflora in the USA). Its name is Alexander, from Harkness. Bright vermilion is probably the best description of its flowers, which are slightly fragrant and borne singly or in small clusters on very long stems. The foliage is abundant and mid- to dark green.

'Just Joey' was introduced by Cants in the same year as Alexander, but its orange color is quite different, being coppery yellow to golden amber. The shapely, fragrant flowers are carried on a rather angular plant that grows to about 60cm (2ft) high. It is fairly thorny and its foliage is dark olive-green in color.

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Introduction To Old Roses

The Hybrid Masks

Such are the changing fashions in gardening that the Hybrid Masks were held in little regard when first introduced, but nowadays are a very important group of shrub roses. Although they have some musk rose genes in their make-up, they really owe more in pedigree to R. multiflora than to R. moschata. Almost all were raised between 1913 and the start of the Second World War, with the majority bred by an English clergyman, the Rev. Joseph Pemberton. Clearly, Pemberton was ahead of his time: the fashionable roses then were the rather formal Hybrid Teas and Hybrid Perpetuals, and at first no one knew quite how or where to grow these new, more relaxed shrubs. It is a tribute to Pemberton's work that these roses are now automatic choices where continuous-flowering shrub roses are required. Some of Pemberton's roses were introduced after his death by his gardener, WA. Bentall, who also went on to introduce some very good varieties of his own.

In his work, Pemberton used only free-flowering roses, especially those with cluster flowers, crossing them with the more traditional roses of the day, and creating shrubs with larger, more fully double flowers than had been seen up to that time. As the foundation, Pemberton used 'Trier', a seedling from a rambling rose called 'Aglaia' which, in turn, had been bred from a cross between R. multiflora and a Noisette variety called `Reve d'Or'. One of his first seedlings was `Danae', raised in 1913. After this he introduced roses regularly, year on year, well into the 1920s.

Some believe that the relatively youthful Hybrid Masks belong among the Modern roses, rather than with the Old roses, which are normally defined as those that predate the arrival of the first Hybrid Tea, in 1867. In my view, however, the demarcation between Old and Modern needs to move forward from time to time, just as it does with cars, for example. This is the principle I have adopted, shifting the cut-off date between the two to 1940. With this delineation the Old roses now embrace important groups such as the Hybrid Masks as well as the classic early Hybrid Teas. Future generations of rose devotees can move the defining date on, as appropriate.

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