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Sally Nex

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Sally Nex

Tag Archives: pomegranates

A Hampton Court takeaway

06 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by sallynex in shows

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

design, garden rooms, Hampton Court, Hampton Court Flower Show, pergolas, pomegranates, Rose of the Year, terrariums

It’s been a funny old Hampton Court Flower Show this year. Mainly because I was there not so much as gardening hack but as part of the show: on Wednesday you’d have found me in the Cookery Theatre, holding forth about all the different ways you can become self-sufficient (and that does mean you, wherever you live: for more, look out for my new bookywook, in a bookshop near you this Christmas).

But I did get the time to take a look around, while scuttling between giant fans in the doorways of the Floral Marquee: goodness but it was hot. I happened to be there on the hottest day of the week, too: 36 degrees it was. I was positively glowing.

As usual, show gardens, rose marquee and plant stands were full of good ideas to take home and make your own garden that little bit better. Here are a few of them:

alliums
Float allium heads on a pool of water: I’ve seen this done with hellebores before, but never with alliums. What a lovely way to display those exquisite starry blooms up close.

belljars 
Grow air plants in mini terrariums: Spotted in the Floral Marquee, these are just too perfect. Terrariums (terraria, whatev) are big right now, and air plants like these tillandsia are made for them. The glass keeps humidity levels high, and the plant needs only moisture in the air to survive. If you fancy a change for the Christmas tree this year – this could be it…

blackwall
Use simple planting against textured black walls for sheer drama: Less is most definitely more in this striking planting discovered round the back of ‘Green Seam’, the Best in Show garden by Hadlow College students Stuart Charles Towner and Bethany Williams (we will, I am sure, be hearing more of these two in the not too distant future).

naturehut
Build a garden room out of things you find kicking around: Garden rooms are definitely au naturel this year. This one was on the sweet little Winnie the Pooh garden by Anthea Guthrie (one of my favourite designers): also spotted at the show were a cosy looking pod woven from willow on the City Twitchers summer garden, and a hobbit hole of a turf cave merging seamlessly into its surroundings on the Macmillan Legacy garden.

patio
Plant your patio: Simple but effective: pull out a paving slab or two from the patio and hey presto: instant planting opportunity. This one was breaking up the monotony of too much stone on the SABO: The Circle of Life garden.

pergola
Reinvent the pergola: It’s not compulsory to build your pergola out of wooden cross beams set on sturdy posts. This one was an old bit of mining kit (don’t ask me what bit but it did look impressively industrial) on the Green Seam garden.

pomegranate
Grow pomegranates: I suspect this one had had a little help to ripen quite this well in the UK: but you can dream. It was on the Turkish Garden of Paradise: and fruiting or not, the tree is lovely.

rose
Treat yourself to the Rose of the Year: I took quite a shine to the top rose for 2016, announced at the show as the next Rose of the Year has been for some time now. ‘Sunny Sky’ is a particularly fetching shade of yellow: hard to get right in the garden, but in this case spot on. It’s scented, too.

Didn’t we have a luvverly time…

22 Tuesday Jul 2008

Posted by sallynex in wildlife gardening

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Agrostis stolonifera, Anizoganthos, bamboo, citrus, Colocasia, fig tree, garden shows, Loseley House, pomegranates

I promised you some pics of our weekend at the Great Gardening Show at Loseley House – so here they are…


Our humble little corner – that’s my hubby and dog looking rather lugubrious (or is that just embarrassed?). We sold quite a few of those nice oak boxes and got lots of interest in the garden storage solutions. Quite a hot topic at the moment, it would seem (all the better for our bank account, then).


Then I set off to have a look around. Got very excited about these “hanging bamboos” – finally, I thought, I’ve found a way of using bamboos that keeps them in their place. But then I found out they’re not bamboo at all but a grass – Agrostis stolonifera. I suppose bamboo is a grass, strictly speaking, but I think my campaign to outlaw the stuff continues unabated.

Loads and loads and loads of flowers everywhere – I thought this display was a riot…


…and so did the bee, which took absolutely not a jot of notice of me while I took this photo. Far too busy. As you would expect, from a bee.


This fig tree was on the rather wonderful stall from Plants On Line. They had some fabby citrus and olives too (I’m a bit obsessed by exotic-ish edibles at the moment as I’m cooking up a scheme for my garden – literally…) And a few pomegranates, which is another tree I hanker for. Apart from their rather regrettable predilection for bamboos, this is a seriously good nursery which I hadn’t come across before.


Further indulging my edible exotics fetish, this is my must-have plant for this year: I spotted loads of colocasia at Hampton Court and this one was a beaut. Just look at those leaves… the edible bit is the tuber, which tastes a bit like potatoes so they tell me. I’d like to know who digs up £20 tubers to eat, mind you…

Last but not least, on the same stall as the colocasia (that’s Athelas Plants – another fantastic exotics nursery) was this gorgeous Anizoganthus in full flower. It’s called ‘Gold’ (can you tell why?): don’t know the plant well but apparently it’s not that easy to get it to flower like this. The label tells me it needs sun and well-drained soil – might do well in my acid sand, then…

My “must-grow-before-I-die” list is getting longer and longer. Better make it to my Queen’s telegram otherwise I’ll never get through it at this rate.

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