The illustrations below came from available free images but give the flavour of David Clarke and Harry Brickwood’s more extensive display. Following are some of the more distinctive features of the gardens visited.
John Massey of Ashwood Nurseries, in South Staffs, opens his private garden to the public on some Saturdays and takes visitor groups on tours. The Chionanthus virginicus or fringe tree is one of the delights in a graded planting scheme.
Other slides included the peony ‘Golden Treasure’; Castilleja or the Indian paintbrush tree, and Betula Nigra or river birch.
At Cruckfield House about 5 miles west of Shrewsbury, Mr & Mrs G M Cobley have composed a garden around life-size statues of musicians. Slides showed dual colour lupins, delphiniums, paeonia lactiflora ‘Shirley Temple’ and Cornus Controversa or wedding cake tree. The statue of Leda and the Swan near the Iris ensata or “Japanese iris” is by the pond.
The Wollerton Old Hall Garden owned by Lesley Jenkins, in Staffs, has hundreds of visitors each day. An old pathway looks like a stone-coloured Mondrian painting; there are water features, clipped box hedging and straight edged pyramidal cypresses leading to the hot colour border where the Moss Rose ‘William Lobb’ can be seen. There is even a Sinocalycanthus raulstonii ‘Hartlage Wine’ with waxy leaves and flowers.
At Tatton Park near Liverpool in 2010, there was something of interest for most gardeners: Lilies in the marquee, ‘ Miss Lucy’ white and aromatic; begonias showing white petals with red edges; orchids; sweet peas; and the brown allium ‘Forelock’ looking like a coconut chocolate mallow; not forgetting the stand created as a joint effort by different Hardy Plant Societies.
The presenter welcomed us back from the tea break with two suggestions to make the gardening pound go further. Firstly, by putting a meter on your outdoor tap for (say) £10 to measure how much water you use in the garden, when the water company checks and agrees the reading, you would get a discount on the standard sewage charge and secondly, diverting roof water to the garden would save even more.
At Arley Hall and Gardens, Lord and Lady Ashbrook have very large gardens dating from about 1700, with borders 350’ by 20’ (over 100 metres long by 6m deep) divided into “rooms” using shrubs clipped into giant cash register shapes. Over 25,000 plants are used, many reportedly descended from the original plantings, including astilbes and crocosmia ‘Lucifer’.
Other features include “Chesspiece” topiary and grapes in the greenhouse. There was much more, but to appreciate it, you will have to see the presentation!
Links: http://hadleighgardening.co.uk
Harry Brickwood’s contact details: henry.brickwood@homecall.co.uk
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