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Sally Nex

Monthly Archives: May 2015

Gardeners’ World Live tickets up for grabs!

27 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by sallynex in giveaways, shows

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BBC Gardeners' World Live, giveaways, shows

GWL-logo---RHS-and-Lexus-must-not-be-cropped-out

Missing Chelsea yet?

I know I am. Luckily Chelsea isn’t the end of the story: there’s a whole summer of shows ahead of us yet to come, including the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show (at which this year – cue slight panic attack – I will be a speaker) and RHS Tatton Park Flower Show in August.

But much sooner than all that, in just two weeks’ time in fact, there’s BBC Gardeners’ World Live, up at the NEC Birmingham, starting 11 June and running on till 14 June and quite the busiest show I’ve ever been to. Show gardens a go-go, a huge floral marquee, advice from the RHS and entertainment from the presenters of BBC Gardeners’ World. And it’s a two-in-one show as well, as you get free entry into the BBC Good Food Summer event too. Get there early and reckon on staying till they chuck you out.

And guess what: I’ve got a couple of tickets to give away, free, gratis and for nothing. Now there’s the perfect antidote to those post-Chelsea blues!

All you have to do is post below or retweet my tweets about this competition (you’ll find them at @sallynex) by midnight GMT on 31st May and it’s first name out of the hat on June 1st. Couldn’t be simpler 😀

Good luck!

Rules:
– entries from UK residents only please
– all retweets and comments made below by 00:00 (midnight) GMT on 31st May will be eligible to win
– winning name picked by someone who knows not a single one of you (i.e. my 13-year-old daughter) on 1st June and notified on Twitter and as a post script on this blog
– the prize will be a pair of tickets for BBC Gardeners’ World Live at the NEC Birmingham
– please make sure you check back here or make it clear how I can contact you to let you know if you’ve won!

Think that’s it – any questions, post below…

**STOP PRESS**

And the winner is…. Sharon, aka @happymouffetard! Congratulations Sharon, and thank you to all the other entries made via retweets on Twitter. Another giveaway follows next month so keep your eyes peeled…

Postcard from Chelsea: And it’s goodbye…

24 Sunday May 2015

Posted by sallynex in shows

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Great Pavilion, plants, RHS Chelsea Flower Show

As I wave goodbye, a little sadly, to the little bubble of dreams that is the Chelsea Flower Show for another year, it’s time to hand over the stage to the real stars: the wonderful, wonderful plants here in their thousands to amaze and enchant. Enjoy.

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Postcard from Chelsea: Getting involved

23 Saturday May 2015

Posted by sallynex in shows

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Bluebell Cottage Nursery, floral marquees, paeonia tenuifolia, RHS Chelsea Flower Show

suesstand

I have for the first time this year been involved in a tiny way with actually creating something at Chelsea Flower Show.

I haven’t mentioned this before, as I am a very clumsy gardener prone to breaking things at Chelsea (sorry Hillier – again – for that branch incident five years ago…). So I didn’t want to say anything in case it didn’t go too well.

But for some inexplicable reason the lovely Sue Beesley, former Gardener of the Year and owner of Bluebell Cottage Gardens and Nursery in Cheshire, agreed to let me within five yards of her stand. Not only that, but she let me tuck in moss and hold stuff and everything.

The whole thing was a huge step for Sue herself as she’s never done Chelsea, though she’s a veteran of other shows, notably Malvern. She stepped in with three weeks’ notice to cover a late cancellation (this spring has claimed a few casualties) and rose to the occasion with an awe-inspiring efficiency and calm.

I can’t believe quite how much goes into putting these stands together. Every plant position was agonised over, changed and changed back again. Tiny bits of polystyrene tip pots a little forward to show off a plant that bit better: a ten-degree turn to the left and every leaf is just where it should be. The camassias, stubbornly in bud on arrival, were ferried off to a friendly greenhouse display for extra warmth in the hope that they’d come good in time (they didn’t). The Paeonia tenuifolia was feverishly checked every ten minutes to see if that promising flowerbud was going to fully ‘pop’ (it did).

I spent a happy day sipping away brown leaves, getting intimately acquainted with the finer details of moss texture, debating plant combinations and drinking coffee. It is an odd thing to look at a stand in the Pavilion and know every leaf of every plant, where it is in the display and why. And – even stranger – I know what’s underneath.

It was the smallest of small contributions but I did feel a smidgen of entirely unwarranted proprietorial pride in the silver medal Sue took home with her. Well done Sue – and thank you. Same time next year?

Postcard from Chelsea: 70 years, 70 golds

22 Friday May 2015

Posted by sallynex in shows

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anniversaries, corylopsis, Hillier, rhododendrons, RHS Chelsea Flower Show

hilliers

You can overdo the anniversary thing, you know.

Hillier’s have, this week, scored their 70th gold medal in 70 years: an astounding and unrivalled achievement all on its own.

But they can’t just stop there, can they. Oh no. This is also the 25th gold medal winning garden for the exhibit’s spectacularly-shirted designer Andy McIndoe. And an astonishing 50th for the less high-profile but nonetheless equally indispensable Ricky Dorlay, responsible for the daunting task of growing 4000 plants to Chelsea standards each year. They don’t do things by halves, this lot.

Hillier is (I hope they don’t mind me saying this) the grand old man of Chelsea: a reassuring presence wrapped around the great monument at the centre of the Pavilion, a landmark by which you can always orientate yourself and a hallmark of excellence by which everyone else measures their own efforts. You want to know what Chelsea standard plants should look like? Pick any one of the plants on the Hillier’s stand, and that’s what you need to do.

What I’ve always loved about their displays is that even if you don’t like whatever is right in front of you (the garish magenta rhododendron ‘Nova Zembia’ was a wince-inducing moment for me this year) there’s something you do like – really, really like – not far away. In this case, the translucent pale lemon raindrop flowers of Corylopsis sinensis var. calvescens f. veitchiana. Hell of a name, hell of a plant.

The theme this year – Crossing Continents – was a gift for Hillier’s trademark set piece style: a journey around the world in plants. You’re in Africa one moment, then a few steps later it’s Japan, looking at a rivulet of water cascading into a still pool, or Europe itching to settle down on the little seat nestled at the end of a delphinium-lined path in a quintessential cottage garden.

It was, as usual, genius. Happy anniversary Hillier – and may you have many more to come.

Postcard from Chelsea: Dark and light

21 Thursday May 2015

Posted by sallynex in shows

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conceptual gardens, design, fresh gardens, RHS Chelsea Flower Show

darkmatter
Dark Matter
Gold and Best Fresh Garden

Now here’s a garden with a sense of drama. And ambition: I’m not sure anyone’s ever tried to explain the science behind dark matter in outer space through the medium of plants and rusted iron sculpture before. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure this attempt quite managed it (I’m still as befuddled as I ever was on the subject) but it had a lot of fun trying.

The steel rods were bent two ways at once by a chair manufacturing firm (the only ones they could find with the necessary equipment to do it) to depict the bending of light around dark matter – the only evidence we have that dark matter exists (you’ll have to excuse me if this doesn’t make sense – I’m reaching my own outer limits of knowledge here).

The garden is full of adventurous, dramatic planting combinations and huge energy and movement: ever-shifting grasses mean this garden is never still. I loved acid-yellow Hakonechloa macra ‘Aurola’ partnered with jet-black Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’, and the kidney shaped green leaves of Asarum europaeum picked up in overhanging leaves of smouldering purple Ligularia dentata ‘Othello’ – same shape, but contrasting colour and size, and a clever design detail to steal for your own garden.

Postcard from Chelsea: Reinventing conifers

20 Wednesday May 2015

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artisan gardens, best artisan garden, dwarf conifers, RHS Chelsea Flower Show

sculptorspicnic

The Sculptor’s Picnic Garden

Gold and Best Artisan Garden

Bit tricky to capture a good pic of Graham Bodle’s atmospheric little woodland nook I’m afraid, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that this was an artisan garden with a quite remarkable sense of place.

For one thing, it reinvents the use of dwarf conifers where most have failed. If you thought pint-sized pines were best consigned to the 70s where they belong, I urge you to go take a look at this sparse, pared-down way of using them in the smallest of spaces.

The sculptural flattened sprays of Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Stoneham’ flanking the path, for example, or the purplish brown cones of Pinus pumila picked up in a simple underplanting of the black-leafed clover, Trifolium pentaphyllum – and all over-arched by massive craggy stripped-back oak branches over seats and a table rough-hewn from tree stumps like something out of a Lord of the Rings film set. I shall never look at dwarf conifers in the same way again.

Postcard from Chelsea: Best Show Garden

19 Tuesday May 2015

Posted by sallynex in shows

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best in show, Dan Pearson, RHS Chelsea Flower Show

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Anyone who has ever visited Chatsworth will recognise the influence of its towering, supersized rockery – more of a small cliff, really – in Dan Pearson’s extraordinary garden, his first since 1996. The rocks dominate the design – but almost scuppered it, too, when Thames Water descended on site and halted all work three days into the build. There is a sewer running under this section of the Chelsea Flower Show – who knew? – and stacking several rocks the size of a small car on top was in danger of cracking it (to say nothing of the huge willow trees, which alone weighed two tonnes each).

The Crocus team hastily rethought their design, painstakingly pre-constructed at their Windlesham, Surrey, nurseries, subtracted one willow tree and moved the rocks over a bit: and the result is a garden that’s among the most original and confident show gardens I’ve seen at Chelsea. It’s a masterclass in naturalistic planting and how to create a sense of place even in the smallest spaces. This is one of those game-changing gardens whose influence we’ll still be referring to many years from now.

Postcard from Chelsea: Press Day

18 Monday May 2015

Posted by sallynex in shows

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press day, RHS Chelsea Flower Show

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It’s crazy… it’s silly… it’s quite often spectacular… but my, it’s a lot of fun!

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day: May

15 Friday May 2015

Posted by sallynex in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

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May, May flowers

Aquilegias, tulips, peas and strawberries… late spring, such a lovely time in the garden.

Click on the first image and you get a lovely big slide show to look at. Enjoy!

Apple blossom: a hint of good things to come
My scented-leaf Pelargonium quercifolium has been flowering its socks off all winter
Strawberry flowers look lovely too!

The clematis hedge on the way down to the garages, in full glorious flower
And here’s another picture, just cos it looks so damn good
Allium ‘Purple Sensation’

Perennial cornflower – adore those spidery blooms
My white sweet rocket, Hesperis matronalis alba
Now here’s a bud ripe with promise (that beetle thinks so too!)

Self-sown aquilegia coming up through the artemisia
Bluebells, bluebells everywhere
No idea what this tulip is: it just keeps coming up year after year, and I rather like it

Another self-sown aquilegia, white this time
Tulip ‘Abu Hassan’
Welsh poppy, Meconopsis cambrica

Silene fimbriata
Geranium pyrenaicum ‘Bill Wallis’
Pea ‘Meteor’

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day is hosted by May Dreams Gardens!

By royal appointment #2

10 Sunday May 2015

Posted by sallynex in garden history

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14th century gardening, garden history, Henry VIII, old gardening manuals, Pietro de Crescenzi, ruralia commoda

Illustration from Henry VIII's copy of the gardening manual, c. 1490-95.  Royal Collection Trust / copyright Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2015.

Illustration from Henry VIII’s copy of Ruralia Commoda, c. 1490-95.
Royal Collection Trust / copyright Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2015.

I am inordinately fond of very old gardening manuals. Most of the ones I’ve collected from second-hand bookshops and garage sales have lost their covers but not the fascination of their contents: I find there’s much wisdom in their yellowing pages, from the finer details of potato clamping to rather impressive photographs of earthing up celery (to thigh height with some dauntingly deep ditches all around. They really liked digging back then).

Plus they have really good adverts: ‘You Must Sow the best to Grow the Best’ from Unwins of Histon, Seeds of Quality; and a slightly scary advert for Corry’s Slug Death: the Magic Slug Killer which states with admirable certainty that 6,572 have been caught with one two-shilling tin. Official.

Anyway – they’re all beacons of modernity by comparison with the manual on display at the Painting Paradise exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery in London at the moment. Ruralia Commoda (literally ‘Countryside Benefits’) was written by Pietro de Crescenzi, an Italian lawyer and country landowner in 1304 and was the first printed treatise on anything to do with growing. There was no other gardening manual available at the time.

Unsurprisingly, it became a bible for 14th century gardeners. Henry VIII himself (or, I suppose, his gardeners) consulted it to create the gardens at Whitehall Palace (now lost). It’s a wonderful insight into growing techniques in an era we can only imagine; and it may have been single-handedly responsible for gardening one-upmanship by recommending that the size of a garden (20 acres, ideally) and the perfection of the plants within it were a reflection of a king’s status.

Pietro Crescenzi, Ruralium commodorum (Augsburg, 1471)

Copies of Crescenzi’s Ruralia Commoda were used by gardeners across the world (reproduced with thanks from the University of Oklahoma Libraries page)

There’s been a lot of sniggering about the contents of the book: reports have concentrated on the exhortation to plant squash seeds in the ashes of human bones, and a warning that cucumbers will tremble with fear in a thunderstorm. But there are also a few tips that are food for thought even in our knowing and worldly-wise 21st century gardens.

It recommends making a turf seat between fragrant herbs, for example: eminently sensible, and advice we follow to this day when we plant perfumed roses over an arbour.

It also goes into detail about how to grow giant leeks; how to graft different coloured figs on to the same rootstock; and how to manage your soil. And there are detailed accounts of how to grow plants such as oregano, Nigella and grapevines.

Unfortunately the details are scanty – apparently the text has never been translated into English. Anyone know a good Latin speaker?

 

 

 

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