Asters, grasses and autumn tints are the main ingredients that brought my garden to its final crescendo this year. Following a long hot and merciless dry summer in which everything struggled including myself, autumn arrived with just a little rain and everything changed. Autumn tints were early, but many old clumps of Miscanthus grasses …
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 »
It is in late spring, just after the tulips have ended, that I become delighted by the many flowering shrubs and distinctive foliage colours that seem to dominate the garden. Of course there are various perennials flowering including Euphorbia, Geum, Geranium and bulbous plants such as Camassia and ornamental onions, but foliage colours and the flowering mounds …
My last post showed the garden three weeks ago just after I had knocked down all the perennials with the question “would you want your garden looking like that?”. Well, as promised, the perennials have reappeared rapidly to cover the ground level debris and the shrubs are bursting into flower. This is how it was …
Not everyone would want their garden looking like mine does at this moment. However, what I see is a clean slate; the garden’s perennials have all been broken into small pieces and dropped on the ground where they will rot down over the coming year. After the winter the dead perennial’s stems are brittle and …
Winter has really arrived here in Amsterdam. It is cool and wet and I am glad that I have finished my replanting projects. Last week I weeded here and there, tidied away broken or flopped stems, and topped up the wood chip paths. The garden is quite tidy now if you can appreciate the look …
Miscanthus sinensis ‘Vorläufer’ Ornamental grasses bring excitement and interest to the garden throughout the year when we take advantage of their exceptional qualities, but it is in early autumn that they can steal my heart. Molinia caerulea Subsp. caerulea and Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Overdam’ In soft light their fine details are set against the courser …
The Amsterdam Tulip Museum is a welcome resource for anyone interested in tulips and who happens to be visiting the capital of the Netherlands. Now they have started to share their knowledge and information online at https://amsterdamtulipmuseumonline.com My earlier post gave some impression of the quality of the museum and its shop and to support their …
The warm season grasses are finally in full flower her in the Netherlands. This year they are later than normal as a result of the cool late summer weather. But when they do flower all is forgiven as by then the garden has reached its dramatic peak. Cool season grasses such as Calamagrostis (above) are …
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 …
