Latest news with #BethChatto
Telegraph
05-07-2025
- Lifestyle
- Telegraph
Why we no longer want south-facing gardens
A south-facing garden providing guaranteed all-day sun has long been a sought-after feature of a home, with the potential to add thousands onto the value of a property. Hotter and drier summers, however, are starting to dent that desirability. A survey by property specialist Regency Living found that, particularly among the over-50s, the relative cool of a north-facing garden is actually the preferred choice. With age comes great wisdom. After all, what's the point of having a garden if it's too hot to enjoy it? Landscape designer Miria Harris agrees that north-facing gardens have a lot to recommend them. 'Many are big enough that you can get the benefit of the south-facing aspect from the east and west,' she points out. 'Then you can then decide when you want to go and sit in the sunnier side of the garden, instead of feeling oppressed by it.' But while most gardeners feel confident choosing plants that require full sun, a shadier garden, by contrast, requires a little more thought and consideration. Right plant, right place You may love lavender, but without full sun, it doesn't stand a chance. Deciding what to plant in partial or full shade makes Beth Chatto's ethos 'right plant, right place' essential. In 1987, Chatto created her Woodland Garden in Essex, planting spring bulbs such as snowdrops, hellebores and daffodils beneath the shade cast by a copse of oak trees. Today, head gardener Åsa Gregers-Warg's advice is to embrace shade, rather than look at it as a problem. 'See it as an opportunity to make a wonderful tapestry of foliage: a symphony of green, interspersed with a splash of white, cream or gold, where a multitude of textures, shapes and forms will provide ongoing interest through the seasons,' she says. 'Even in the smallest of spaces it's possible to create simple yet striking combinations by combining bold foliage such as hosta or brunnera with more delicate, fine-textured ferns, grasses and perennials.' Urban shade Due to neighbouring walls, trees and tower blocks, urban gardens generally have a degree of shade, no matter what their aspect. Susanna Grant is a planting designer who specialises in plants for shady spaces. She runs Linda, a dappled courtyard space in Hackney, east London, that sells shade-loving plants. ' So many people just assume those shady bits aren't plantable, so they put the shed, bikes or storage there, particularly in side returns,' she says. 'But these can be the most beautiful, verdant areas of the garden. They tend to need less watering and maintenance as the plants are often more slow-growing.' She has turned the side return of her own home into a woodland copse: 'I have about 10 spindly trees (including hazel, spindle, crab apple and hawthorn), all bought as bare-root hedging plants for a few quid, as well as ferns, climbers, raspberries and flowering perennials, all growing in planters. I look out at it from the kitchen and the bathroom and it gives me a lot of joy.' Solutions for full shade For a courtyard garden or an enclosed lower-ground-floor space that never gets any direct sunlight, then you may have to refine your planting palette further. For the light-challenged gardens Harris has designed, she has found that the following formula works. Plant a climber Her first tip is to embrace climbers that will find their way to the sun. Parthenocissus henryana (Chinese Virginia creeper) or Trachelospermum jasminoides work well: 'It may not flower down in the very shady bits but it will start to clamber up,' she says. Her favourite climber for a shady corner is a plant called Holboellia coriacea (sausage vine): 'I've had lots of success at growing that up walls in very shady gardens.' A mistake she sees often is the use of ivy to green up a shady area: while it works on a fence and is great for wildlife, plant it near brickwork and it can wreak havoc. Make ferns pop Ferns excel in full-shade locations, particularly damp ones, adding a textural element to gardens and finding nooks and crannies to explode out of. Harris likes to combine three or four types of fern with astrantia growing through. 'You have these delicate flowery moments through the evergreen ferns; that can be a really good way of bringing a bit of interest into a shady corner,' she says. Think spring bulbs A shady garden won't win prizes for its exotic flowers, but there's no reason you can't bring interest into a shady garden early in the season with some shade-happy spring bulbs. ' Camassia leichtlinii can grow well in shade, as can Leucojum aestivum 'Gravetye Giant', which looks like a giant snowdrop,' says Harris. Reach for the sky If you want to introduce some height for the eye then consider a potted tree. Acer trees (Japanese maples) can grow in shade, although their foliage colour might be less intense in deeper shade. If you are looking for a less obviously Asian aesthetic, Harris recommends cornus (dogwood), particularly the Japanese dogwood, Cornus kousa. Don't discount roses Roses are not the first flowers one thinks about when it comes to filling a shady spot, 'but some roses are really good for north-facing gardens and partial shade', says Harris. 'We often have this old-fashioned idea of rose beds looking polite and neat, but Sarah Raven underplants some of her trees with roses. You can take some risks.' A classic rose for a north-facing wall is 'Madame Alfred Carrière'. 'It has an incredible scent, flowers well and is great for wildlife,' says Harris. If you're looking for something different: 'David Austin will tell you if the rose can cope with partial shade and what aspect it can cope with.'
New Statesman
18-06-2025
- General
- New Statesman
My neglected garden is as pleasing as it's ever been
It's not news that gardening takes time, but the persistent unfurling of a newly planted garden, season after season, spring after spring, still remains my favourite everyday magic trick. Three summers have passed since I tore up the garden, three weeks post-partum, and started again. There were practical reasons for this: the baby was sleeping in what used to be my office and I needed somewhere (a Posh Shed) to work; after two summers of rogue and rookie gardening, I wanted to streamline my beds into something coherent and I wanted somewhere to sit. Thus, what had previously been my sunniest flowerbed was given over to a Posh Bench (technically known as 'an arbour', but we're in Brixton, not Belgravia), which is such a pleasant spot to sit that I had to lever myself off it to write this – in the Posh Shed. The Posh Shed is now filled with cobwebs; the arbour cushions carry the stains of al fresco toddler teas. But the garden? The garden is gorgeous. This autumn the perennials that have spent the past three years chunking up will need some fine-tuning, some lifting and dividing, some editing and pruning, to maintain the balance. I may yet have to reseed and replace those that were lost to the wettest and warmest winter on record. But for now, sitting on the Posh Bench, it is lovely. Soft grass heads and nodding roses and tangling clematis stems entwine, and all in a year when I've never done less gardening. It feels as if it has conjured itself. The bit I'm most gratified by is the grandly titled 'gravel garden' (bit of gravel beneath the Posh Bench and the Posh Shed, which exists because we were too hard up to do hard landscaping). The soil here is Lambeth loam posing as clay. When we moved in nearly five years ago, during that first, sweaty lockdown summer, I remember rubbing the hard little pellets between my fingers and wondering whether they contained any nutrients at all. The gravel was deployed to create a path up to the shed and as something to put a table and chairs on, but it also allows for growing in a drought-tolerant way. Beth Chatto's former car park-cum-dry garden in Essex is a prime example of how well this can work on a big scale. A few autumns ago I had the privilege of visiting the landscape designer and consultant Jo McKerr's garden near Bath. It was planted almost entirely into substrate on a former brownfield site, and showed me how much better plants grow if you take away such luxuries as topsoil and staking. The Royal Horticultural Society gold-medal holder Jo Thompson, meanwhile, generously shared garden designs through her Substack The Gardening Mind during lockdown. If she could make something beautiful in a small clay-based plot, I thought, then perhaps I could too. This year, the coral reef poppies (Papaver orientale) I sowed four autumns ago have offered up more than 30 blooms from two plants. The generous gardener roses, which David Austin tells me need feeding twice a year, have smothered the arbour and have lured in hoverflies and ladybirds to deal with the aphids. (Meanwhile the Desdemona rose planted in a mulched pot is tragic.) Most pleasing of all, the Meconopsis cambrica, lovingly transplanted from my childhood home, have started to self-seed – in the gravel, yes, but also elsewhere – along with hollyhocks and buttercups. All these flowers that I didn't plant, turning up to surprise me. It's been a complicated spring, all told, in a year that is vanishing. And I've not yet managed to do what I vowed to at the end of last year: find a bit of time to garden every week. But I have found the time to sit and be. To let go of fussing and worrying and fighting with the snails, and instead marvel at what appears regardless. I don't know how long this will last, but it's very welcome. Sometimes that's all we need to turn a day around: a few minutes of relishing what the garden is giving us. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe [See also: Talking to strangers enriches our lives in countless ways] Related
The Guardian
25-04-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Ain't no sunshine? How to embrace your shady, north-facing garden
I'm at the point in my 30s when everyone seems to be moving house – or at least trying to. I'm among them; sometimes I dream in floor plans. But one thing that persists among all the conversations about postcodes, rail connections and side returns is the subject of north-facing gardens: a horticultural bogeyman even among those who profess not to know about gardening. It's funny that north-facing gardens have such a bad rep. There's a sense that to live with one is to cloak yourself gothically in shade and misery, which isn't true. And as we approach May, there's rarely a better time to scrutinise your garden for how and where the light and shadows fall. Mine is north-facing – and shallow, in the sense that it is twice as wide as it is long. Like many gardens in London, it is also flanked by tall Victorian houses, and I built a garden studio against the back wall, which blocked a chunk of what precious evening sun we used to get. In short, facing north is the least of its worries – which is likely the case for most urban gardens and balconies: you are nearly always going to be overlooked, and therefore in shade, from something. For those lucky enough not be in the shadow of another building, the big issue seems to be the part of the garden right next to the back of the house – where people tend to sit and eat outside (you may think you'll schlep to the far end of the garden for a sunkissed dinner, but you won't – it's too annoying to run back for ketchup or forks or a jug of water). East-facing gardens benefit from sunny breakfasts and lunchtimes, west-facing ones lunchtimes and evenings, and south-facing ones all day. But, as you'll know from trying to get an alfresco table during a busy lunch serving, nobody really wants to eat in the full glare of the sun. North-facing gardens just provide sunshine for breakfasts, which to me seems like a charming way to start the day. Finally, the planting. Having gardened on a woodland balcony and in this garden, with all its aforementioned shade, I'm a ride-or-die shade planting gal. Leafy, textural, woodland-inspired planting is my jam. I can appreciate a dry, sun-drenched garden (for inspiration, check out Beth Chatto's former car park), but I'd take a fern over a lavender any day. Deploy the right plants (ones that prefer shade, or certainly don't need six hours or more of full sunlight a day) and you can be awash in a lush, low-maintenance oasis. You can make more sun-demanding plants work for you, too, if you capture the right pockets of light in your plot; I grow roses and cut-flower annuals here every year. So there's no need to give up on a garden just because of the needle on your compass.
Telegraph
21-04-2025
- General
- Telegraph
10 of the best scented plants to grow this spring
Fragrance is the gardening version of aromatherapy, because it's pure pleasure: it soothes the mind and conjures up past memories in a nanosecond. The scent wafting through the air is designed to lure in pollinators, and it's worth noting that nectar flows more freely in warmer, sheltered situations away from strong winds. Positioning is everything: gateways and paths are perfect for the pollinators, and for your nose. However, fragrance isn't restricted to summer. Some of our most scented plants bloom in winter or in early spring, their subtle and rather inconspicuous flowers throwing out scent in the afternoons in the hope of attracting an early queen bumblebee or two. Here are 10 to try. Daphne Most evergreen daphnes are divinely scented, and the easiest one to grow is definitely the spring-flowering Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata'. This commonly available daphne is hardier than most and it's always smothered in clusters of pale pink waxy-looking flowers that open from darker buds. The sage green leaves are lightly margined in creamy white, but the variegation is so subtle that it doesn't offend. In time this will reach a metre in height and slightly more in width. There are several variegated D. odora cultivars, all weaker growers and poorer flowerers I'm afraid. I have found the strongest to be Marianni ('Rogbret'), one with vivid yellow margins to the foliage. Mine is shy to flower though. Daphnes prefer a warm site that's reasonably well drained, and they also enjoy a gentle slope, or a position near a wall. Where to buy: Hortus Loci Shop Sarcococca This scented winter-flowering evergreen (Sarcococca confusa) is known as Christmas box, because the flowers open in winter. It is a hardy evergreen that is easily grown in fertile soil and, being an Asian plant used to a six-week rainy season, it likes summer rainfall. Heights vary between a metre or two, depending on the level of moisture in the ground. S. confusa combines rich-green foliage with ivory-white flowers, a classy combination, and black berries follow on. It's named confusa, because the planthunter couldn't recall where he actually found it. There are pinker flowered forms that include S. hookeriana var. digyna and these are even more scented, though their foliage takes on a metallic sheen in summer, rather like hungry box foliage. Sarcococcas can be grown in a container or border, and the scent will carry right across the garden, even when the weather's cool. Where to buy: Beth Chatto's Oriental lilies The most scented lilies have paler flowers in shades of white, pink and soft yellow, and most are listed under Oriental lilies. As a general rules, the paler the lily the stronger the scent, and the pure white 'Casa Blanca' is a benchmark variety that can reach 1.5 metres. They're best grown in containers, because Oriental lilies prefer acid or ericaceous conditions when grown in the ground. They actively dislike lime. Plant in spring, cover the bulbs with 4–6 inches of compost, and stand your sturdy wide-based pots on pot feet to improve drainage. Place your containers away from paths and seats, in full or partial shade, because the brown lily pollen stains clothing. Check the undersides of the leaves for red eggs, the first stage of the bright red lily beetle. 'Muscadet' is a much shorter white, overlaid in soft-pink, with showy red stamens. There are double forms listed as roselilies. Where to buy: Harts Nursery Korean lilac When gardeners think of lilacs, they tend to conjure up those April-flowering tree lilacs, beloved by our Edwardian ancestors. However, there are shorter, shrubbier lilacs, with headily scented and daintier flowers, that perform in early summer. These slot into smaller plots and can also be grown in large containers. The slow-growing and extremely hardy Syringa meyeri 'Palibin', also known as dwarf Korean lilac, is smothered in pink flowers and has flowered in semi-shade for me. Syringa pubescens subsp. patula 'Miss Kim' is more compact, with violet-pink flowers. It was selected from seeds collected in 1947, by an American veteran soldier named Elwyn M. Meader (1910–1996). He named it Miss Kim because it's the most common family name in Korea. Where to buy: Thompson & Morgan Lonicera or honeysuckle There are said to be 158 species of honeysuckle found in the Northern hemisphere, but when it comes to scent our native woodbine, Lonicera periclymenum, is the one to plant. Scent levels rise as the light fades, so this is a plant to place near your evening retreat. It conjures literary connections. The poet John Milton talked about 'a bank with ivy-canopied and interwove with flaunting honeysuckle', and one of the finest forms, the pale-yellow 'Graham Thomas', was collected from a Warwickshire hedgerow just a few miles from Shakespeare's Stratford-upon-Avon in 1960. The most commonly found forms are 'Serotina', a redder-flowered later Dutch form, and 'Belgica', an earlier yellow and rhubarb-pink variety. 'Sweet Sue' was found on a Swedish beach by Roy Lancaster and named (very aptly) for his lovely wife. Where to buy: Crocus Philadelphus or mock orange The citrus scented philadelphus captures the freshness of early summer, but they are a variable bunch. 'Virginal' is so tall, it might as well be ascending to heaven, although flower arrangers love the pristine double white flowers. 'Manteau d'Ermine', on the other hand, struggles to make two feet in my garden, and the semi-double flowers have a look of dirty laundry about them. Star plants include the damson-blushed white flowers of 'Belle Étoile', a very fragrant shrub that reaches two metres at most. 'Sybille' is compact, with squarish four-petalled white flowers that bear an orange scent. The yellow-leafed form, P. coronarius 'Aureus', needs dappled shade. Summer prune them by cutting back one quarter of the older stems to encourage new growth, because they flower on the previous year's growth. Where to buy: Jacksons Nurseries Roses Roses' fragrance varies enormously, but one of the most fragrant roses is the 1881 Bourbon rose 'Madame Isaac Pereire'. Other scented beauties include 'Buff Beauty', one of Rev Joseph Pemberton's hybrid musks. He bred for fragrance as did David Austin Sr. 'The Generous Gardener', a large rose with a supply of pink flowers, and 'Gertrude Jekyll' are both highly scented Austin roses, and the breeding continues with David Austin Jr. Where to buy: Viburnum Deciduous viburnums are highly fragrant affairs and they include V. x bodnantense 'Dawn': a tall shrub, suited to the edge of the garden, which packs a strong hyacinth scent in November when the first warm-pink flowers appear. The more strongly scented 'Deben' flowers earlier and the pink flowers fade to warm white, so it's almost bridal. Once spring comes, others join in and there are some wonderful forms of V. x burkwoodii. They include 'Park Farm Hybrid', grown for its larger pink flowers. The April-flowering V. carlesii 'Diana' and 'Aurora' both have rounder heads of pink flowers, emerging from red-pink buds, supported by bronzed young foliage. Where to buy: Burncoose Trachelospermum jasminoides – star jasmine This evergreen no-prune white-flowered Asian climber has an intoxicating scent in summer, resembling an exotic orange blossom in full flow. The downside is it's a gamble, because it's only hardy to -5C (23F) when young. Mature specimens, which can rise to 30ft in the western side of Britain where Atlantic air prevails, seem hardier. Many of us will have to use a conservatory, or cool greenhouse, to encourage this beauty – but the scent is second to none. The hardier Jasmine officinale 'Devon Cream'(syn. 'Clotted Cream'), named for the colour of its flowers, is also fragrant, although it will need a warm site too. You will need a trellis or wires for both. Where to buy: Thorncroft Clematis Dianthus 'Mrs Sinkins' My desert island scent on a June evening, following a shower of sweet summer rain, is the clove-scented ragged white 'Mrs Sinkins'. The true form has a split green calyx that allows the feathery-edged petals to spill out down one side. Admittedly, it may only flower once, but the scent outdoes the others to my nose. It was raised in the much-maligned Slough in 1868 by Mr Sinkins, the workhouse superintendent. He resisted great pressure from the town's worthies to name it Queen Victoria, but they still added it to their coat of arms. Most repeat-flowering pinks lack fragrance but 'Gran's Favourite', which has white-flowers laced in raspberry-pink, is an exception, and will give you flowers for weeks on end. Where to buy: Calamazag Nursery and Allwoods
Telegraph
14-03-2025
- General
- Telegraph
The best independent garden centres to visit this spring
Our gardening habits are shifting, and so too is the way we are shopping for our outdoor spaces. The recent news of widespread closures of garden centres owned by national chains including Homebase and Dobbies is perhaps not surprising to gardeners with a planet-friendly philosophy, who generally don't want to see endless shelves of harmful, wildlife-depleting chemicals or incongruous lifestyle collections when shopping for plants. Instead, we want plants and accessories that echo how tastes have evolved – and those tend to be available from independent businesses, some family-run, others recent start-ups, and often helmed by those with a passion for plants. The garden centre is still a destination for many of us, especially over the next couple of months, as we get our gardens ready for the new season, but we will be spending time in stylish nurseries where the shop and café is as much of a draw as the stellar plant list. Beth Chatto Plants & Gardens, Essex Beth Chatto's trail-blazing gardens at Elmstead in Essex are adjoined by a bustling café, shop and plant nursery. As with its excellent online service, the quality of plants and advice here is second to none; plants are arranged following Chatto's well-worn philosophy of 'right plant, right place', with areas organised by their conditions. Surrounding the nursery are her famed gardens, where you can see that philosophy come to life in themed borders. Plants are propagated on-site from seeds, cuttings and divisions. Great Dixter House & Gardens, East Sussex As with Beth Chatto, you will find top-quality plants, propagated on site, that closely reflect the surrounding gardens at this superb nursery. Plants are grown in a loam-based compost blended in house so that plants get the best chance when transferred to borders. Founded by Christopher Lloyd in 1954, the nursery is also a charming place to while away an afternoon with shops (selling tools, seeds and hand-crafted accessories including chestnut hurdles, also made on site) close to the garden's café, where you can get delicious salads and sandwiches. Burford Garden Company, Oxfordshire Alongside the well-stocked selection of plants, shrubs and trees, there's a sprawling mecca of areas to browse in this Cotswolds stalwart: a fabulous and huge bookshop, acres of home and garden shopping and an unrivalled space for indoor plants and pots (with a huge selection of Bergs Potter designs) and beautifully styled, ready-made indoor planters and orchids. Alongside it all there is a busy (and award-winning) café and food halls. Originally opened in 1976, this family garden centre is as inspiring as it is joyful. Long Barn, Hampshire A beautiful and stylish garden centre, Long Barn is spread across two barns and adjoining lavender fields with more than 100 varieties, including the National Collection of Lavandula x intermedia. There's a bright and airy café and a fabulous lifestyle shop that sells pots and planters, ornaments, Niwaki tools and gifts, alongside larger items including outdoor furniture and parasols. It also offers fresh flower deliveries using local seasonal flowers from Hampshire-based growers Hortus Poeticus. O'Kells, Cheshire This independent garden centre has two sites, one in Tarporley and a recently-added, smaller neighbourhood site in Hoole to cater for a younger, more urban audience. This is browsing heaven, with stylish collections of accessories and homewares alongside an extensive selection of plants (O'Kells was a wholesale grower before it ventured into retail), including topiary. Both sites also have popular cafés. Daleside, Yorkshire This family-owned garden centre has been growing and selling a wide variety of plants including perennials, climbers, shrubs, trees, conifers and rhododendrons since the 1950s, and the nursery now spans 20 acres. There's a garden shop with pots, houseplants and accessories, and the on-site restaurant, Paradise, serves seasonal dishes from a previously Michelin-starred team. Petersham Nurseries, Richmond Arguably the original destination nursery, Petersham has a famed restaurant, a more informal tea room that segues into greenhouses, and expansive shopping areas packed with the most stylish selection of horticultural accessories alongside homewares and antiques. It set the bar for the garden lifestyle shop, and its signature details – bare hoggin floors, shabby-chic greenhouses, antique garden furniture and naturalistic details (including tree-stump tables) – are widely copied across the country, and beyond. David Austin, Shropshire This ever-popular nursery may be best known for its riotous rose gardens, but alongside those there is also one of the biggest collections of potted roses here, as well as perennials and climbers. There are rose experts on hand and seasonal workshops on rose pruning and care. There's also a restaurant serving lunch and afternoon tea, as well as a shop. Architectural Plants, West Sussex This specialist nursery in West Sussex is set within 32 acres overlooking the South Downs – a big backdrop to its dramatic sculptural and exotic plant selections that span topiary, palms, bananas and many rare trees, much of which is grown on site. You will find all the kit for sale too, including tools, tripod ladders, pots, irrigation and other accessories. There's also a well-established design and planting service. Holden Clough, Lancashire This almost century-old nursery in the beautiful Ribble Valley has dramatically expanded over the past decade under horticulturalist and grower John Foley, whose family first took over in 1978. Plants are propagated and raised outside in growing fields on site, so they should cope with the toughest conditions. The nursery stocks fruit trees, shrubs, perennials and topiary alongside perennials, bulbs and annual bedding, which is all laid out in the original Frame Yard with its 1920s growing frames. Via their Wonder Garden project, the team will tailor-make garden borders and ship all the plants. There are extensive areas of interior accessories, indoor plants, tools and seeds, along with a busy café and workshops. Place for Plants, Suffolk Rupert and Sara Eley took over this fourth-generation garden in pretty East Bergholt in 1995, and opened a nursery the following year. Set across 20 inspiring acres, there are large collections of camellias, rhododendrons, magnolias, flowering dogwood and rambling roses, and an arboretum (there are often open days and garden tours here too). The extensive nursery is sited in the two-acre walled garden, which also houses a café with seating indoors and out. Hillier, Hampshire Visitors to the Chelsea Flower Show will be familiar with Hillier's fabulous displays: it is the most successful exhibitor, with 74 consecutive gold medals. The company, which was founded in 1864, is also a royal warrant holder for ornamental trees and shrubs. The fifth-generation family business now has 22 centres, but the original site is in Winchester, close to the growing fields; it is the largest grower of semi-mature trees in the country. The nursery's plant offering reflects that, with huge variety, including the many favourites that have been introduced by the company's breeding programme over the years. Old Court Nurseries, Herefordshire Almost all the plant stock is propagated on site and potted using peat-free compost at this family-run nursery in the stunning Malvern Hills. There's no café here, but there's a one-and-a-half-acre garden with woodland and herbaceous borders that is also home to the National Collection of Michaelmas daisies, with more than 400 varieties blooming through September and October, which makes this a destination for plant lovers. Cambo Walled Garden, Fife The 2.5-acre walled garden is reason enough to visit the glorious Cambo estate on the stunning east coast of Fife. There's almost year-round interest here, from the National Collection of snowdrops through the transporting prairie planting that lights up the borders in late summer and autumn, and the stellar planting also inspires the imaginative selection of plants for sale. The excellent on-site café serves seasonal vegetarian and vegan food. Wildegoose Nursery, Shropshire The perfectly positioned tea room (serving cakes and light lunches on Burleigh pottery) at this charming plant nursery in the Shropshire Hills gives far-reaching views from the vibrant planting across the inspiring borders and to the bucolic surrounding countryside. Set in a restored Georgian walled garden complete with renovated curvilinear glasshouses, the nursery began life specialising in hardy perennial violas but has since diversified into perennials and grasses of the new perennial movement, which is where the planted borders here take their inspiration. Almost all of the plants are propagated on site from seeds, cutting and divisions without the use of any herbicides or pesticides, and using peat-free compost. Duchy of Cornwall Nursery, Cornwall This destination garden centre was originally a slate quarry and started out supplying forest trees in the 1960s, becoming a plant nursery the following decade under the leadership of plantsman Eric Baker. The plant list is extensive but also reflects the particular conditions of Cornwall, which has a mild maritime climate that is perfect for growing all sorts of rare and tropical plants that came to the country with the plant hunters of the 19th and 20th centuries. Plants are no longer propagated on site but brought in from many local growers. There is a stylish shop and a large selection of pots here – a nod to the King's own obsession with terracotta vessels. A big draw is the café and the newer Orangery restaurant, where lunch and afternoon tea are served.
