Winter in Amsterdam is wet and warm. Bulbs are rising out of the ground and many grasses that should have turned to straw are still green. Clearly there is nothing to do in the garden but wait for crisp cold weather and then maybe start thinking about clearing away last year’s debris. Looking around the …
This year I am trialling a number of different species and cultivars of asters and they have brought real beauty into my autumn garden. Aster scaber is spreading too rapidly, but it is very attractive both in leaf before flowering and then when actually flowering very late in the season. Such plants are useful in …
Here are the last glimpses of autumn in my Amsterdam trial gardens. As a photographer I can make carefully composed images, but this “walking video” gives you the wider view.
Beauty is to be found in the chaos of nature and this year, in the struggle for life amidst the perennials and shrubs in my gardens. A drier than average spring followed by a totally dry summer in which a hundred days passed without any significant rainfall in a country famous for its canals; I …
Dutch Perennial Gardens in the Dry and Hot Summer of 2018 Read More »
Rudbeckia and Helenium set the tone in the late summer garden. Their gaiety is modulated by the darker brown tones of tinted foliage and chunky seedheads. Our summer was dull in the end and the warm season grasses have struggled to come into flower. Panicums have performed well, but many Miscanthus have yet to show …
The modern style of mixed perennial plantings uses repetition of the same plants or similar plants to create a total picture. The plants are woven together rather than being set out in contrasting blocks. Even in small gardens this effect is possible as shown here. The flat topped, umbellifer flowers are Cenolophium denudatum and the …
Sun must shine in autumn to reveal what the season has to offer. My bulbs are all planted, the garden is tidy and I have finished moving plants around that seemed in the wrong places. Now is the time to stop and enjoy the changes that occur on a daily basis in this special season. …
Perennials and shrubs continue to offer up surprises and pleasure in the late autumn Perennial Meadows’ garden. Grasses making an important contribution include various cultivars of Miscanthus sinensis; some tall and dramatic, others stiffly upright and low-growing forms such as ‘Pagels’ (above) which is more interesting for its autumnal foliage colour than its flowers. Back …
This was my garden ten days ago wearing its late winter clothes of dead grass “stems” and perennials with their seed heads. Normally I try and tidy the garden in late winter (February) as it catches precotious cool-season grasses and other perennials before they starts growing. Such an early start is also important as it …
Like any good story the plot is revealed one step at a time; my garden is the same. Different seasons have different themes as steadily the plants grow up and express themselves like actors in a drama. By late summer I look forward to waving grasses and sheets of yellow blossom, in early summer the …
