� e Garden, RHS Media, Churchgate, New Road, Peterborough PE1 1TT

Comment

Gardeners often talk about their

garden’s microclimate – whether it is a ‘sun trap’ or a ‘frost pocket’. Yet in reality most gardens contain a range of conditions, each specifi c to the location and each with a slightly diff erent set of light levels, soil conditions and rainfall amounts.

But perhaps the one area of the UK where weather and climate have the greatest infl uence – be that horticultural or human – is by the coast.

In this issue we delve into three gardens (from p53), all with diff erent horticultural responses to their varied conditions and locations – from the rugged north Devon coast to expansive sands of East Sussex. In addition, four coastal gardeners give their

take on why their horticultural endeavour is so rewarding, whether it is beachcombing on the Isle of Mull or working in the benign environs of the Isle of Wight. Stepping back a few paces from the seafront, Phil Clayton continues our ‘Great Garden Visits’ series at Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, also shaped and infl uenced by its maritime location.

� ere are two clear similarities with all of these coastal gardens, whether small or large, northern or southern. � e fi rst is that owners have had to create shelter to aid plant establishment. Without windbreaks to reduce exposure, especially to fi erce winter gales, planting cannot begin. Indeed in one garden, owners altered the shape and size of raised beds to reduce wind damage. Once shelter is in place, and after

understanding how plants best survive in these conditions, gardening can start with a mighty zeal.

� e other link between these gardens? � e sky. As an inland gardener, with limited views over my garden wall, the breadth of the sky at the coast is a great joy. Be it storm clouds thundering in, or a panorama of blue on a summer’s day, the link between land and sky is a constant. It also reminds us that any of our horticultural successes are at the mercy of the weather – no matter how well you manipulate your microclimate.

✤ Neonicotinoids update: to see how the two-year withdrawal (News, June, p10) of these chemicals may a� ect some gardeners, see RHS Advice, p26.

My great gardening hero is Christopher Lloyd. His remark ‘Look after late summer and the rest of the year will look after itself’ will forever be stuck in my head – I’ve always wanted a good show for overblown August.

I could run out of adjectives trying to describe the brilliance of my late-summer display: Dahlia including luscious ‘Admiral Rawlings’ and ‘Dovegrove’, a red single; my beloved Salvia confertiflora; late agapanthus in variety, planted in the beds or plonked in borders in their pots; Canna including whopping ‘Musifolia’ and ‘Erebus’; plus the tallest, last to flower, graceful dieramas (Angel’s fishing rods or wandflowers). Doesn’t this all sound horribly smug?

Until disaster struck. Thinking one of my peonies looked faint, I decided to dig it up and see. Up it came, along with a heaving mass of white, segmented caterpillars, about 4cm (1½in)

long, with light brown heads. The roots were completely hollowed out, hanging like empty skin.

When I sent a caterpillar o� to the RHS Advisory team for identification, the answer was ‘the larvae of the swift moth’. Now, my only happy peony is a Paeonia mlokosewitschii which is beside a metal trellis – my reckoning is that the swift moth is aeronautically challenged and cannot cope with both egg-laying and flying near such a barrier.

There is one good thing about their horrid larvae. Whereas robins adore vine weevil grubs, when o� ered these succulent, fat caterpillars they’re simply over the moon. And, the parting comment of my RHS answer? ‘Only found in very weedy gardens’. We’re a bit less smug around here these days.

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...they discovered that raised beds make e� ective windbreaks, providing they are elliptical in shape, with the highest side facing into the wind.Nicola Stocken: Working with the wind

» Pages 62-64

F ROM T H I S I S S U E

My late-summer show scupperedAuthor: Helen Dillon, gardener and writer living in the Republic of Ireland

Maritime microclimates Editor of � e Garden, Chris Young

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� e Garden, RHS Media, Churchgate, New Road, Peterborough PE1 1TT

August 2013 | The Garden 1716 The Garden | August 2013

Comment

Kimonos from banana peel?

Author: James Wong, botanist and garden designer

An essential ingredient to any subtropical border recipe, with its giant paddle-shaped leaves and impossibly exotic appearance, hardy Musa basjoo (Japanese banana) has shot from rare find to garden-centre staple in just a few decades.

But if its surprising resistance to cold (root hardy to around -10°C/14°F) has excited British gardeners, in its native eastern Asia this banana has been valued as a commercial crop since at least the 13th century. Perhaps rather unexpectedly, this is not for its fruit (which are tiny and packed with hard, ball bearing-like seeds), but the silky fibres within its leaves and stems.

Central to the culture of Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, these fibres have been used to create everything from the first sushi rolling mats to hand-made papers and high-quality textiles found in the finest kimonos. The softest fibres from the innermost part of new shoots are stripped and boiled in lye (strong alkali) before being hand spun. Plants are cut back to encourage soft growth.

Yet despite the confusing common name, this plant is not actually a Japanese native at all, but hails instead from southwest China and the Himalaya where its use as a source of textile fibre was first discovered. There, whole stems are cut down and sliced into strips to produce coarse fibres up to 3m (10ft) long, which are then rendered to an almost-gossamer softness by a laborious process of beating, bleaching and drying. The resulting material is used to weave hand-knotted carpets, tablecloths and sewing thread.

Banana fibre is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also incredibly hard wearing, salt resistant and buoyant. The least-fine grades are used for everything from industrial cordage to sacking, and are even showing some promise as an energy-saving replacement for glass fibres in car manufacturing.

Musa basjoo

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G E N I U S O F P L A N T S

RHS Flower Show Tatton Park resultsFind out from the RHS website which of the gardens and nursery displays won awards at the RHS Flower Show Tatton Park, 25–28 July.Visit: www.rhs.org.uk/tattonpark

Show podcastHear the Tatton Park show podcast, with tips for late-summer colour, unusual plants that are easy to grow, and allotment advice for grow-your-own enthusiasts.Listen to RHS podcasts via: www.rhs.org.uk/podcast

Highlights from the RHS website W W W. R H S .O RG.U K

Local savingsGarden centres can be expensive (Letters, May, p22). I would urge your readers to seek out small, local nurseries for their plants. We generally charge about half the price demanded by large garden centres. � ere have been huge increases in the wholesale price of potting compost, pots and other materials (I’m not even going to start on the weather) and we have had to pass some of this on to the customer, but we still maintain reasonable prices.

Not only will your local nursery provide better value, but also an investment of time and passion that comes only from cultivating plants on-site and nurturing them to sale. Gardeners benefi t from local knowledge and diversity. By supporting independent outlets, you can help prevent the same slow decline that blights many of our local high streets. Sorcha Hitchcox,Constantine Garden Nursery, Cornwall

LettersCONTACT USWrite to: The Garden, RHS Media, Churchgate, New Rd, Peterborough PE1 1TT or email: thegarden@rhs.org.uk (please include your postal address). Letters on all gardening topics are welcome, but may be edited for publication.

✤ Don’t forget about your local horticultural societies. If, like us, they are a voluntary organi-sation you can buy plants at a fraction of the prices charged by garden centres because of lower overheads.

As well as promoting com mu-nity spirit you can gain local knowledge about the best conditions for growing the plants. Heather Richardson, Rainham Horticultural Society, Essex

Power of fl owersAs a health professional working for a mental health trust, I have seen how the

power of nature can help patients. I visited an elderly lady at her home. She pulled back the curtains in one room to reveal hanging baskets and containers ablaze with colour. Her son planted them, and she said the sight of them lifts her mood better than any medicine.

Some of our service users love growing fruit and vegetables on an allotment. It has improved their diet and increased their activity levels. So gardening is not only to be encouraged in schools, but also in hospitals.Jennifer Campbell, Birmingham

Double bloomI thought you might be interested in the strange conjoined fl ower on my Doronicum plant (above). � e double fl owerhead is on a single, double-width fl attened stem and resembles an exotic butterfl y or bird of paradise.Ray Wilkinson, Kent✤ James Armitage, RHS Principal Scientist, Horticultural Taxonomy replies: ‘� is is an example of fasciation, and is fairly common in the daisy family. An internet images search for “Asteraceae fasciation” will bring up a variety of similarly weird mutations.

‘Fasciation may have a genetic cause, or be caused by a virus or the bacterium Rhodococcus fascians, but can also be prompted by frost or mechanical damage. Usually fasciation is seen one year and is gone the next, but in some plants, such as Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Fascination’ and Cryptomeria japonica ‘Cristata’, it recurs repeatedly.’

Correction� e plant illustrated on p88 of � e Garden, April, was incorrectly identifi ed as Pimpinella major ‘Rosea’. Its true identity is Chaerophyllum hirsutum ‘Roseum’.

‘As soon as I saw its clustered, fl ame-scarlet daisy fl owers I was reminded of my fi rst meeting with this tender shrub’ Roy Lancaster: Tynings Climbers

» Pages 48–51

Sounding off from your gardensHelen Dillon’s ‘From my garden’ comments (June, p17) had several of you reaching for keypads or pen and paper. Here are a few responses…

✤ Suppose I were to write a short piece for your magazine along the lines of ‘women are OK at the pretty–pretty stu� in the garden but are useless when it comes to the real work and wouldn’t even know how to start the lawn mower.’

You would rightly reject it as o� ensive rubbish.So why does Helen Dillon think her stereotypical and degrading view of men is appropriate for the modern world – and more importantly, why did you publish it? It is not amusing.Richard Cowling, Cambridgeshire

✤ This article had a most pessimistic and belittling tone. Yet in the same issue Mary Keen points up

the need to attract young people into gardening – Helen Dillon’s snubs are not helpful in this cause.David Edgar, Cambridge

✤ Helen suggests a correlation between men of a certain age losing interest in young women in short skirts and a corresponding preoccupation with their lawns. I am now ‘of a certain age’ (76) and yet my lawn is in a terrible state!Ian Stimpson, Kent

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Fasciation, here in Doronicum, is common in the daisy family.

Growing your own should be encouraged for its many health benefits.

Comment

Kimonos from banana peel?

G E N I U S O F P L A N T S

Following the plotMy friend and I went to the Malvern Spring Gardening Show and looked at the School Gardens. � ey were all of a high standard, each one inspired by a book. � e children manning the gardens were committed, enthusiastic, and happy to answer our questions.

� is is something we should all encourage. If the RHS can do more along these lines, and also work to encourage the involvement of secondary school pupils, it will benefi t us all. Nancy Greenway, North Yorkshire✤ Sarah Cathcart, Head of Education and Learning, replies: ‘We completely agree with this sentiment. � e RHS has been running its Campaign for School Gardening for fi ve years and we are delighted that more than 17,000 schools have signed up and are gardening. � e RHS is focusing on increasing engagement with secondary schools, to support the Horticulture Matters initiative. � e Society will continue to work hard to give all children the chance to garden.’

Garden makersMy wife and I have been involved in horticulture for more than 30 years and have been developing a new 1ha (2.5 acre) garden, but not in a rush and without a design.

Anne Wareham (Comment, May, p27) describes what we have achieved perfectly when she says ‘being able to contemplate the place, its moods, its light, its temperament and problems over a long period of time’. We can now say we are ‘garden makers’.Debra and Marin Cronk, Kent

St Egwin’s CE Middle School, Evesham, was awarded Highly Commended in

the School Gardens competition at Malvern Spring Gardening Show.

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August 2013 | The Garden 19

It seemed a lovely idea: a Sunday stroll through London’s Victoria Embankment Gardens to enjoy the summer bedding. But although it was late June, most of the beds were

unplanted and bare soil made the otherwise leafy park look ugly. If the beds had been grassed over, permanently, would it be a loss?

Seasonal plantings are not everyone’s idea of wise, sustainable gardening. Raising tender plants uses energy and, with twice-yearly stripping out, fl ower beds are hardly wildlife friendly. Many bedding cultivars are sterile, of little value to pollinators and most are over-fed, often with artifi cial fertilisers.

But bedding plays an important role in public planting and need not be costly to the environment. Using hardy plants reduces energy consumption and, with wise selection, insects can benefi t, too. Wallfl owers, tulips, crocuses and violas all provide

sustenance to spring bees. And for summer, single-fl owered dahlias, penstemons, zinnias, and most hardy annuals are magnets for butterfl ies, bees and hoverfl ies.

Long traditionBedding was not a British invention – the French were planting it from the 1600s – but our hunger for new plants and the Victorians’ love of fl oral displays put a British seal on the style. During the British Empire that style was replicated across the world – and still persists in many places in the Commonwealth.

As an art form, seasonal planting is part of our heritage and too valuable to be lost. Beds are designed to be glimpsed in passing, or to show colour from afar, rather than be closely admired on a daily basis.

� at is why pomp and pizzazz are essential parts of their character, and why they are needed around important buildings. � e red pelargoniums decreed by Queen

Victoria are as important to Buckingham Palace as the Guardsmen’s uniforms. And a rectangle of orange Tagetes, edged with blue lobelia with a Ricinus plonked into the middle looks fi ne in a park, even if you pass it daily. But the same scheme would soon bore you to tears outside your kitchen window.

Yet bedding has another, possibly greater value. Community projects, particularly RHS Britain in Bloom, are most eff ective where everyone buys into the scheme. Strong local

government input is essential, through parks and public green spaces; without that, community projects can falter. Public bedding schemes, whether planted by councils or by Britain in Bloom volunteers, are the most obvious manifestations of the scheme’s activities.

Regardless of what you think, colourful seasonal planting wins people over and can persuade individuals, in their own small way, to become involved. � us, bedding or fl oral decoration becomes the driver for the more diverse activities that are so important for greening communities.

So however refi ned your tastes, and whatever you feel about massed fl oral ‘bling’, its eff ects can be benefi cial. In public places, a sea of bilious heucheras, carpets of striped petunias or regiments of tulips may distress you – but if they do, perhaps it is wrong to curse the bedding. Instead, we should question the choices and combinations of plants and suggest more imagination and creativity is needed.

When fi lming for RHS Garden Wisley’s centenary 10 years ago, the camera lingered amidst a summer bedding scheme of scarlet Dahlia ‘Bishop of Llandaff ’ planted with Verbena bonariensis, creating a purple glow above them. Not only was the colour combination wonderful in strong summer sun, but the fl owers were crowded with insects, including hundreds of painted lady butterfl ies. Both plants are outstanding, whether massed or deployed in less formal schemes. � ey need little energy to raise and thrive with minimal aftercare, making them near-perfect for seasonal planting.

Victoria Embankment Gardens 30 years ago were well known for their innovative, exciting and diversely planted bedding schemes. Perhaps it is time Westminster City Council rediscovered its form and went back to showing the world – including London tourists – that bedding can be as gorgeous, and as relevant now, as it was in Joseph Paxton’s day.

In praise of seasonal plantingGarden writer and � e Garden columnist Nigel Colborn on public bedding schemes

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Above: Watercolour of Fuchsia ‘Moneypenny’ by Caroline Maria Applebee, 1843. Lindley Library.

Comment

‘As an art form, seasonal planting is part of our heritage and too valuable to be lost.’

Above: Watercolour of Fuchsia

Comment

August 2013 | The Garden 21

DO YOU AGREE?Please send your comments to: The Garden, RHS Media, Churchgate, New Road, Peterborough PE1 1TT or email thegarden@rhs.org.uk (please include your postal address). Letters may be edited for publication.

I have never known my irises fl ower better or longer than they have done this year, which is a puzzle after all our recent soaking summers. But that’s gardening: just when you think you know an incontrovertible horticultural truth – that irises demand months of

sun on their rhizomes – you discover that many don’t.I have a small collection of the kind of irises that are

known as Miniature Tall Bearded, which they use in America for fl ower arrangements. Mine are mainly un-named and collected from old gardens. Iris specialist Claire Austin came to see them a few years ago and agreed that overbred bearded irises have become such aristocrats in their rich colours and elaborate ruffl es that they are hard to fi t into many planting schemes. She has been working on breeding more unimproved, old-fashioned fl owers because she thinks they are such strong survivors.

Hybridizing of irises has gone too far. Big, brash and bright, they come in every colour of the rainbow in two, three or four shades per bloom. Imagine peach, lilac, purple and orange in one fl ower. Most are striped, mottled, frilled and scented, with stubby golden beards. � ere is something so foppish and exotic about modern bearded irises, you dare not put them with something as common, say, as aquilegias. Also, they are picky as princes about their living arrangements. � ey need props for their swollen heads and like to keep their own company. With our irregular weather, it may be best to stick to those that cope with conditions without staking.

Any iris you fi nd in a garden that has been long neglected will be tough. Claire thinks large clumps are better at surviving bad weather than newly planted rhizomes and says rain in spring when they form fl ower buds can help. Soft violet-blue-fl owered Iris pallida subsp. pallida is the one most gardeners can identify. I would not want to be without it, but the pale brown and lemon-yellow ones that came from local gardens here are my other indispensables. I call them Daneway and Misarden after the places they were found. I hope Claire Austin Hardy Plants will soon fi nd a way to off er these and other strong irises to gardeners.

Occasionally someone asks you a question that really fi res the imagination. � is happened to me recently when I was asked if I could design a garden with a medieval theme. As a medieval historian by training it was an idea I took up with some relish, keen to dispel any notions that the Middle Ages, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the blossoming of the Renaissance, was an era during which human culture waited to be rediscovered.

I started with the Capitulare de Villis, a legal document issued by the court of Charlemagne around AD800. Its plant list is interesting not only for the glimpse it provides of plants deemed to be essential, from cucumbers and peaches to roses and lilies (all of which must have been freely available), but also because it was deemed necessary to legislate on this at all. Perhaps those with horticultural responsibilities were using their skills to grow plants that were not those specifi ed – were there too many ‘sweet-smelling fl owers of various colours’ being grown?

With further reading of Piero de’ Crescenzi’s early 14th-century Liber ruralium commodorum (Book on Rural Arts) and the earlier Roman de la Rose by Guillaume de Lorris, it became clear that key elements in medieval gardens were those for which we design today – with an emphasis on features that appealed to the senses of sight (plentiful fl owers), sound (birds calling from the trees) and scent (the perfume of the fl owers: in a time without sewerage systems a sweetly scented retreat may have been all the more important).

Above all a medieval garden was described as a garden fi lled with plants: ‘fragrant herbs and fl owers of every type [that] not only delight by their odour, but their fl owers also refresh the sense of sight by their variety’. � e annuals and perennials in our borders today, sourced from the vast range of plants discovered around the world in the intervening years, and with years of breeding for improved scent and colour by dedicated horticulturists, are therefore the timeless ingredient that help to link us and our gardens with those from centuries ago.

Avoiding border prima donnasMary Keen, writer and � e Garden columnist

How garden plants span the centuriesMatt Haddon, garden designer living in Yorkshire

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How garden plants span the centuries

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✤ For National Plant Collections of Miniature Tall Bearded and other irises, visit www.nccpg.com