When I wrote my equivalent post this time last year, I thought 2012 was a momentous year, but reflecting on 2013 I find the last twelve months have more than measured up.  I celebrated my 40th Birthday and over the course of the year visited 10 countries, including Nepal, India, China and Bhutan, the Land of the Thunder Dragon.  Our journey to Bhutan is one I will never forget and alongside Madagascar goes down as my most remarkable destination yet.  With Him Indoors, I visited UK gardens from Wallington in Northumberland down to Trevoole in Cornwall and a great many in between – still the list of future gardens to visit grows longer!  Meanwhile, the blog adopted a new theme (Further) in March and seemed to gain followers overnight, much to my delight – it’s nice to be noticed.  Eighteen months down the line, I am chuffed to have 175 followers, plus all the other people who check in via Facebook, Twitter etc. Thank you all – it makes the effort worthwhile.

Boudhanath Stupa, the largest in Nepal and the holiest Tibetan Buddhist temple outside Tibet.

As for 2014, I am more or less prepared for the year ahead.  We are looking forward to opening our tiny garden for the National Garden Scheme on August 2nd and 3rd.  There’s nothing like a deadline to galvanise me into action and already the seed and plant catalogues are stacking up on the coffee table, begging for attention.  I am happy to be travelling less, giving me more time for both our gardens and visiting others – not to mention my friends, some of whom I have neglected recently.  Will 2014 be another warm summer I wonder?  Perhaps this is tempting fate, but it would be nice to think so.

Before embarking on another year packed with wonderful plants, sublime gardens and happy blogging, here’s the very best of The Frustrated Gardener’s 2013.

The highest point we reached by road in Bhutan, the pass at Chele La.

No sooner did the year begin than I turned 40 – gracefully of course. We had a lovely party and I managed to draw the celebrations out for weeks. The snow helped by cutting off the venue for my family party in beautiful Bibury (featured image), delaying our gathering until the snow thawed.

Still chilly in March, our first garden visit of the year was to Goodnestone Park, a lovely Kentish garden which features frequently in this blog and has a special place in my affections.  The sharp pink of this plum blossom lit up the woodland on a otherwise gloomy day.

Then, before we knew it, it was Easter and our trip to Nepal, Bhutan and India beckoned.  Bhutan for me was a pilgrimage.  This tiny kingdom, covered by forests and snow, is like no other place in the world.  Bhutan’s natural beauty, impressive biodiversity and unique culture make it extraordinary in every way.  If you are tired of life then go there.  You’ll discover there’s a different way of inhabiting this earth that we might all learn from.

Phunaka Dzong (monastery) and the Mo Chhu (mother river) from above.

On the road we encountered a host of rare and not so rare plants , but what set the experience apart was seeing them all growing in their natural habitat.  Rhododendrons and magnolias abounded, but it was common-or-garden Primula denticulata that remains etched on my mind, its tiny drumstick flowers carpeting damp meadows and valleys wherever we wandered.

Primula denticulata, one of millions we enjoyed in Bhutan

No visit to Bhutan is complete without a visit to the famous Tiger’s Nest. I made it far enough to take this picture but then vertigo took hold and I couldn’t face the last hour’s trek to the monastery itself.  It was no matter, this stunning glimpse between the prayer flags was enough for me.

Spring had very kindly put itself on hold for our return, so we got to witness some of most sensational displays of rhododendrons and azaleas I have ever seen. At Sandling Park the deciduous azaleas were making up for lost time and boy were they bonny! The bare-stemmed bushes were bursting with flowers in every shade from bright white to blood red with every shade and hue in between.

Our entire spring seemed to be defined by rhododendrons, and there were yet more jewel-bright flowers to enjoy at the Savill Garden in Berkshire. However the stars of the show were Lysichiton camtschatcensis, the Asian skunk cabbage, and its US cousin L. americium, surging up through the boggy ground.

Both Chelsea (chilly) and Hampton Court (scorching) impressed in 2013.  As always I bypassed the show gardens to reach the floral marquees, where the real gems are to be found.  With a new patch of our London garden in the planning I was, for once, in the market for some new plants.  My favourite Chelsea exhibit was staged by Kevock Garden Plants of Midlothian – packed with pretty meconopsis, primulas and trilliums.

Looking back there have been thousands of photographs that never made in into a post, including this one of some imaginative floral artistry at this year’s centenary show.   I hope to present some of my favourite flower portraits in a post early in the New Year.

In late in May we enjoyed a week away at Leckford Abbas, once the home of retailer John Lewis. The house is nothing to write home about but the gardens are, quite simply, sensational. Longstock Park Water Gardens are renowned as being amongst the best in the world and never disappoint. The standards of horticulture and plantsmanship are outstanding. As a lover of colour, I find the dazzlingly rhododendrons and candelabra primulas reflected in the water wonderfully uplifting.

At nearby Mottisfont Abbey most of the famous roses were still firmly in bud, but Him Indoors joined the irises, tulips and early perennials basking in the sunshine. Believe it or not this photograph was not posed.

Late July saw us in Northumberland, a county I have wrongly overlooked until now. We visited two completely different gardens, The National Trust’s Wallington and Herterton, a private garden on a more intimate scale. I lusted after Wallington’s Edwardian conservatory packed with exotica, including an enormous Sparmannia africana which would have dwarfed the sickly creature that resides in our London flat.

Neptune’s fine derrière did not go unappreciated either!

At Herterton, in squally rain, we we were greeted on the gravel drive by Frank Lawley. With his wife Marjorie, Mr Lawley created this beautiful garden over four decades. I came away, wedged into the passenger seat of our sports car surrounded by freshly dug plants, wrapped in newspaper. A small price to pay for such well cultivated treasures.

Biggest personal achievement of the year (and a rare joint effort between Him Indoors and myself) was the long overdue replacement of our boggy London lawn with something more appropriate – a shade garden. It might not look much, but it involved a lot of blood, sweat, tears and Cumbrian compost. Planting up during August is not something I’d normally advocate, but the weather was kind to us and by late autumn everything was growing away nicely. Next year we must renovate the decking area – the list of jobs never ends!

In the pot, my new favourite Lily, Lilium ‘Red Velvet’.

Once again we spent the end of August with our friends at Trevoole Farm in Cornwall. Trevoole is a magical place, as an increasing number of visitors are discovering. It’s not a place to see high horticulture, but if you are a lover of vintage, great food and unfussy, practical gardening, then you’d be in your element. I had great fun arranging armfuls of cosmos, dahlias and asters for one of Trevoole’s regular Thursday open days, supporting the National Gardens Scheme. It was on this visit that we were encouraged to follow suit in 2014.  Clicking here will take you to Trevoole’s own WordPress blog.

Cornwall is my ancestral home and any time spent there is precious time. We were blessed with fine weather – good enough for a spell on the beach at Kynance Cove (below) complete with surfboards and sandy sandwiches.

A third visit to India followed, this time for work. I love my time in India, mainly because of the food and the people. One has to look beyond the poverty to see the great tapestry of the subcontinent, riddled with abandonded cities, fascinating religions and beautiful scenery. Sadly I usually feel I am missing out on the real India during these short business trips, although a visit to the Taj Mahal was a welcome diversion. I stayed at The Trident in Gurgaon, a hotel set in the most gloriously impressive grounds. Alas there was no time to plunge into that mirror-like pool. Maybe next time.

I had just two weeks in the UK before jetting off again, but it was long enough to enjoy something of autumn’s splendours. Back at Goodnestone Park the walled garden was buzzing with bees, feasting around a blazing bonfire of heleniums, rudbekias and asters. Yellow and purple has to be one of my favourite flower colours combinations particularly in autumn.

Lest I forget our own coastal garden, it is adapting well to increasing shade as our trees mature. Having been transplanted in spring, our Agapanthus africanus came good and gave us almost 80 flower heads. I’m not sure what I need to do to guarantee a repeat of this next year, but on occasion we’ve enjoyed up to 100.  In the foreground are Aeonium ‘Zwartkop’, Fuchsia arborescens and Eucomis bicolour, all pot grown.

December went by like a winter whirlwind. In Paris, we enjoyed a surprisingly warm day, the sun turning the poplars on the banks of River Seine into golden torches….

and before we knew it, it was Christmas. And a very good one it was too. In between eating, drinking and socialising we got out for a walk across the heath to Hampstead, enjoying a cornucopia of crab apples and other bright berries. Between Christmas and New Year we got to stretch our legs once more at Minnis Bay on the Isle of Thanet, listening to the oyster catchers and watching the sunlight dancing in the reeds (below).

So, that was the year that was. By my own standards it a was a busy and sometimes challenging one. Looking back there was much to be grateful for and many happy memories in the making.  If 2014 is as glorious I shall be a very happy man.

To all my followers, thank you for entertaining me with your own beautiful blogs and for looking in on mine. I wish you all a very Happy New Year and a frustration-free 2014.

A reminder that next week, on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd February, the RHS will be marking the imminent arrival of spring with their London Plant and Design Show.  There will be ravishing displays of spring bulbs and winter flowering shrubs from the country’s top nurseries, plus a preview of this year’s Chelsea and Hampton Court Palace show gardens.  If you’re anything like me it will be impossible to come away empty handed or uninspired.  This year’s show will incorporate London Potato Days; visitors will be able to chose from 75 varieties of seed potatoes, take part in chitting workshops and listen to talks about potato growing.  In celebration of British chip week, there will also be freshly cooked fish and chips, served in traditional cardboard boxes.  Try keeping me away!

Click here for more information, or simply enjoy my photograph of the sublime Crocus malyi at last year’s show.

Those of you who look in on The Frustrated Gardener regularly will know that I treasure my little jaunts from my place of work to the RHS London shows. I rarely break for lunch, let alone horticultural indulgence, so these occasions are indelibly inked into my diary with clear instructions to ‘KEEP CLEAR!’

This year’s RHS London Plant and Design show occupied both Lindley and Lawrence halls. As pieces of architecture both buildings are unusual and really rather fabulous. The light, airy Lindley Hall was the constructed at the behest of Edward VII, who encouraged the Royal Horticultural Society to build a bespoke exhibition space for their regular shows. The hall was designed by Edwin J. Stebbs with a brief to allow in as much natural light as possible. Delighted with the elegant architecture, the King opened the venue on 22 July 1904 alongside the Society’s patron Queen Alexandra. Whatever the weather outside, the diffuse light in the hall always makes the most of the exhibits, without baking the plants alive or dazzling the judges.

The Lawrence Hall (above) was constructed a little later to designs by Easton and Robertson. It was completed in 1928 using reinforced concrete, rather than the red brick and dressed stone used for the Lindley. The Art Deco interior played a part in the hall winning a gold medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects. The building is now listed Grade II* and the nets are there to protect the marvellous ceiling lamps from damage when the hall doubles as a school sports venue.

Both spaces have a wonderful atmosphere on show days. A pervading scent of floor polish and freshly cut greenery is discernible the moment one crosses the threshold. At lunchtimes especially the friendly crowd of visitors fills the space with a comforting hum.

For this show the more often used Lindley Hall was deployed for the faintly disappointing ‘design’ event. This principally constituted a central glasshouse which was filled with aloes, aeoniums and neon tubes nestling in a landscape of a what appeared to be baking beans. This was a ‘participatory installation’ designed by Cityscapes, which asked (/ begged) the questions: What is garden design? What is it for? What is the substance behind the style? I declined an invitation to write my answers on a pane of glass, but had a lovely chat about the weather with one of the volunteers, which I felt was a much more British response!  Representatives from the design school stands circling the perimeter of the hall had my sympathy; I am sure they’d have preferred to be across the road amongst the snowdrops and irises, which is where I headed, pretty swiftly.

The outstanding exhibits in the Lawrence Hall were strategically located at the front. Only the colour-blind could have failed to be dazzled by Jacques Amand’s ocean of Iris reticulata varieties, including navy blue I. ‘Eyecatcher’; Wedgwood blue I. ‘Alida’; and the stunning I. ‘Blue Note’ (above) with raven black tips to its petals. A gold medal rewarded great artistry in the design of the stand as well as A1 horticulture. Next door Avon Bulbs ably demonstrated why gardeners are fascinated by galanthus. Buxom G. ‘Melanie Broughton’ caught my eye with her fabulously broad leaves and pillowy petals – quite a lass.

Among Chris Ireland-Jones’ other temptations were quirky G. ‘Trymposter’, wide-leaved G. elwesii ‘Three Leaves’ and stately G. ‘Galatea’, which stole the show for me, set against a shock of copper coloured grasses. There’s an idea one could try at home.

Had I succumbed to snowdrops it might have been costly, so I moved on quickly to admire Christine Skelmersdale’s Broadleigh Gardens exhibit.  Cyclamen, primulas, snowdrops, narcissi and aconites mingled with lush moss to create an Alice in Wonderland carpet of flowers (see top of post). Resistance already low, I gave in to the simple appeal of a Broadleigh speciality, Primula vulgaris ‘Taigetos’, a relative of our native primrose which was collected in Greece. Milky white flowers are produced in abundance from Christmas onwards but are, alas, sterile. Mine will be planted amongst Galium odoratum, beneath a magnolia, flowering when little else in the garden is showing willing.

Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants never fail to come up trumps, this time with adorable Pulmonaria longiflora ‘Bertram Anderson’, Helleborus x hybridus ‘Anemone Picotee’ and Euphorbia subsp. characias ‘Glacier Blue’.  P. ‘Bertram Anderson’ displays vivid blue flowers from the very dawn of the year, followed by lance-shaped, dark green leaves, boldly marked with silvery spots.

Colourful and coquettish, the plumes of E. ‘Glacier Blue’ emerge edged white on reddish stems. Stunning associations could be made with Tulipa ’Flaming Spring Green’ or T. ‘Redshine’ against a backdrop of Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’.

Whilst I could happily have done without the design element of this particular show, our leading nurseries maintained their customary high standards, sounding the starting pistol for the new gardening year. I came away laden with as many plants as I could carry, including rare and critically endangered Lobostemon belliformis from the lovely people at Trewidden. I hope to give this gorgeous South African a good home. If you missed this show and are within easy reach of London, make a date in your diary for the RHS Great London Plant Fair on April 1st and 2nd.  The show stays open until 9pm on April 1st, with lots of food and drink on offer.  See you there!

Even for London it’s been a strange evening. The temperature in the city is not much below 20 degrees, which would be remarkable for a summer night, let alone the first in April. As I strolled home between the darkened mansion blocks of Victoria the air was filled with the heady aroma of cherry blossom and wallflowers; it reminded me of May.

The other unusual happening tonight was the RHS Spring Fair Late, an experimental ‘after hours’ extension of the Great London Plant Fair. Instead of the reverent hum of conferring show-goers, the Lindley Hall was filled with the strains of Mother Ukers and their four-string Ukuleles. Delicious botanical cocktails were served by Midnight Apothecary and scrumptious craft beers by The Real Ale Company. My favourite was Hiver Honey Beer, brewed by Hannah Rhodes using a mix of urban and rural honeys; splendidly smooth and eminently drinkable. Two bottles barely touched the sides.

I could wax lyrical about beer for hours, but let’s get back to the plants. The displays weren’t quite as magnificent as the earlier RHS London Plant and Design Show, but there were shopping and ogling opportunities aplenty. Cropping up everywhere this year is a new selection of bleeding heart, Dicentra spectabilis (now Lamprocapnos spectabilis if you care to be completely up to date, which I don’t) called ‘Valentine’. The choice of name is apt, given the elegant, cherry-red, heart-shaped flowers that drip from its arching burgundy stems. The fern-like foliage changes through the season from red-tinted to attractive powdery grey-green. All-in-all a tempting new plant for a damp border or woodland garden. From the same nursery, Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants, was the superb Mathiasella bupleuroides ‘Green Dream’, here photographed against a backdrop of orange geums and mauve anemones.

From Fibrex nursery was Pelargonium cordifolium rubrocinctum which, apart from having an unnecessarily long name, was delicate, pretty and beautifully bushy. Without any of the stiff formality of hybrid pelargoniums, this would make a marvellous summer patio plant, perhaps combined with dark, velvety petunias or silver foliage.

An inevitable consequence of making merry whilst at a plant fair was that unplanned purchases were made. The damage was as follows:

1 x Ipomea indica AGM (blue dawn flower) from Fibrex Nurseries

3 x Hyacinthoidies non-scripta, white form, (English bluebell) from W & S Lockyer

3 x Primula ‘McWatt’s Cream’ from Primrose Bank

That’s quite enough to be struggling home with on the London Underground, believe me! Overall I’d say the RHS Spring Fair Late was a great success. At times the Lindley Hall was packed to the gunnels. The atmosphere was jovial and not the least reverent; everyone seemingly having a great time. If a risk was taken with this deviation from the normal weekday, daytime programme then I hope very much that it paid off and we’ll get to enjoy more of these occasions in future.

The RHS Great London Plant Fair concludes tomorrow, April 2nd 2014.  Click here for more information.

We’ve spent the last two days on the Isles of Scilly, a tiny archipelago of islands off the southwestern tip of England. The climate is famously mild but occasionally wild. This suits plants that like to bask frost-free in the sun, but which have tough hides when the salt laden winds blow in off the Atlantic. Succulents such as aloes, aeoniums, echeverias and sempervivums treat the Scillies as home from home. The hardiest have naturalised and can be found adorning walls and rocky banks with their fleshy rosettes. Some, like Aeonium cuneatum, even survive on the front line, just above the high tide mark. Echeveria lilacina is a little more choice. The silvery-lilac bloom on the leaves would be damaged by salt spray and windborne sand, but dazzles when planted outside in the Scillies provided the plants are found a sheltered, bone-dry spot. As if the leaves are not attractive enough, Echeveria lilacina also produces coral pink flowers in spring. The icing on the cake is a few drops of rain – all too plentiful, even in this island paradise.

This lovely specimen was shown by Calamazag Nursery, based in East Taphouse, Liskeard, at the Cornwall Spring Flower Show last weekend.

May is well and truly here, so naturally my thoughts turn to Chelsea and what we can expect of the world’s most famous flower show in its 101st year.

The omens are good. To start with we’ve enjoyed a milder, sunnier spring. Last year, in my summer finery, I caught the mother of all colds after twelve hours plodding around the show with temperatures barely in double figures. My abiding memory is of the Cayeux Irises exhibit, usually abundant with extravagantly-coloured, heavily-bearded irises, staged with almost every plant in tight bud. Chelsea was ready for May, May wasn’t ready for Chelsea. A little suburban? This year’s design for The Telegraph Garden by Tommaso del Buono & Paul Gazerwitz

The RHS’ dubious secret weapon this year seems to be Alan Titchmarsh who, for the first time in 30 years, is designing a show garden. According to the media, some would-be show goers are buying tickets on the black market for up to £575 just to see the TV presenters design first hand. I am sure the RHS are delighted, with tickets sold out in the second-fastest time in the show’s history. Let’s hope Mr Titchmarsh, hardly known for being cutting edge, delivers something that will titillate the ladies of Tunbridge Wells.

However we will surely miss Trailfinders’ and Fleming’s Australian offering this year, usually so exuberant and wonderfully un-English. The travel company and nursery team went out on a high last year with a thoroughly deserved ‘Best in Show’. It won’t be quite the same without them.

Trailfinders’ Australian Garden presented by Flemings won gold and ‘Best in Show’ at Chelsea 2013

The jury is out for me on this year’s big show gardens along Main Avenue. It would be wrong to judge any of them on paper, but I am just a little tired of the Laurent Perrier formula of crown-lifted, multi-stemmed trees planted in a sea of tightly clipped shrubs and meadow perennials. It’s a safe, attractive, crowd-pleasing formula, but let’s not pretend it’s cutting-edge any more. The garden will be immaculately presented, that’s for sure, but it feels to me that the exorbitant cost of creating a Chelsea show garden (£250,000 plus) is pushing designers to produce schemes which are guaranteed to win a their sponsors a prestigious gold medal rather than to explore the frontiers of their art.

Beautifully rendered, design for the Laurent Perrier garden by Luciano Giubbilei

The main sponsors, M&G Investments, have allowed veteran Chelsea designer Cleve West to take slightly more risk. His design for a paradise garden was inspired by ancient Persia. Water will cascade from an octagonal fountain made from Bath stone and flint; it’s a feature that’s slightly reminiscent of the interior of Dr Who’s Tardis (a resemblance which I sure is entirely unintentional). The roots of the Tree of Life will be engraved into stone wall panels, alluding to English gardening’s origins in ancient history. Four multi-stemmed Cydonia oblonga surrounding the fountain will represent the elements of earth, water, air and fire.

Cleve West’s garden for M&G Investments. Persia meets the Tardis.

Other gardens with potential to excite me are Wilson McWilliam Studio’s design for Cloudy Bay which, you guessed it, includes yet more multi-stemmed trees. The idea is to represent key wine tasting notes using materials and plants, hence the inclusion of charred oak, minerally limestone, sparkling water, coppiced nuts and berry fruit. A delicious concept which I hope will be just as mouthwatering when realised.

A beautiful bouquet, the design for the Cloudy Bay garden

Finally, I am intrigued to see how Susannah Hunter and Catherine MacDonald’s exquisite watercolour rendering of a Cape Cod garden will leap off the page. Their design is inspired by the Massachusetts landscape, particularly the Cape’s wild sand dunes. Leather appliqué panels will depict a coastal scene and bold sweeps of roses and hydrangeas will provide a theatrical backdrop to the naturalistic garden. A contemporary building is inspired by the many artists’ retreats nestled within sand dunes near Provincetown.

The Massachusetts Garden, designed by Susannah Hunter & Catherine MacDonald

The weather may disappoint, but Chelsea never does. The show gardens on Main Avenue will garner the lion’s share of attention and awards, but the real innovation will be found in the Fresh Gardens category and, indeed, the Floral Marquee, where real horticulture still reigns supreme.

Check back during Chelsea week, May 20th-24th, for more news and views from the greatest flower show on earth.

More details about the show can be found on the RHS website

Sophie Walker’s Cave Pavilion will illustrate the relevance and importance of plant collecting in the 21st century

I was right about some things concerning this year’s Chelsea Flower Show; the weather was better; most designers defaulted to the tried and tested formula of multi-stemmed trees underplanted with tight-knit perennials; and Alan Titchmarsh’s garden was far from cutting edge – more of a blunt axe one might say.

However I was wrong about one thing, and that was The Telegraph Garden. Having suggested the garden might be a little suburban, I now have to eat my hat. I’d happily eat two if the designers Tommaso del Buono and Paul Gazerwitz asked me to, so far adrift was my assessment. Any similarity to a suburban garden ended with the rectangular-shaped plot, the rest was pure, carefully considered, contemporary genius.

Tommaso grew up in Florence, which explains something about the strength and structure of the duo’s second design for a Chelsea garden. References to the gardens of the Italian lakes and Renaissance palaces run throughout, without ever surfacing in an overt or crass way. Common limes (Tilia x europaea ‘Pallida’) are trained and pruned to create a tabletop of foliage, giving shade to the seating area and lemon trees arranged beneath. Then there is clipped box, not shaped like giant exercise balls, but soft, wide and flattened, like beautiful emerald pincushions. Another Mediterranean shrub Phillyrea angustifolia, which sports darker foliage than box, is clipped into similar forms along the boundary of the garden. Tuscan terracotta pots planted with Gardenia augusta ‘Florida’ welcome visitors entering from the side axis.

The designers’ choice of hard landscaping materials is also resolutely Italian. Half way down the garden the boundary is punctuated by a panel of nougat-coloured travertine limestone, characterised by its watermarked patterning. The brass band above the bench is a refined, glamorous, understated touch; it’s clever details like this that separate exceptional designers from the rest. I found myself completely in love with the white mesh chairs selected for the garden by Tommaso and Paul, designed by Eero Saarinen and Harry Bertoia in the 1950s and still in production today.

Behind the shady lime trees a second vertical panel, this time fashioned from grey-green, white-veined verde issorie marble from the Italian Alps, was turned into a water feature. Gardens of the Italian Renaissance celebrated, indeed flaunted water, and this was a nod to those extravagant statements of wealth, power and control over nature. The recessed band of brass was repeated here, adding sparkle and shine to the gently falling water.

It was the planting for me that most clearly demonstrated Tomasso and Paul’s restraint. There was an immaculate lawn which, despite being the pinnacle of ambition for many British gardeners, is barely ever seen at Chelsea these days. My Australian companion was dazzled; I was reminded of what an incredible backdrop a well maintained greensward can be for a good planting scheme. Let’s see more lawns at Chelsea next year please.

In yesterday’s diffused sunlight the planting sparkled. The colours the designers had chosen were those of gemstones – peridot, citrine, emerald, sapphire and opal – vital, saturated and so redolent of May. Thankfully there was no homogenous mix of wispy, meadowy things here, but the sort of generous clumps one would plant at home. Stand out plants were Iris ‘Jane Phillips’ (an absolute classic, below), acid-yellow Euphorbia ceratocarpa, royal-blue Anchusa azurea ‘Loddon Royalist’ and magenta Gladiolus byzantinus, rising above misty cloudy of Nigella damascena ‘Miss Jekyll’ and Foeniculum vulgare.

Paul Gazerwitz is quoted in The Telegraph as saying ‘There is always the temptation at Chelsea to show off and put in lots of stuff. We wanted to go for something simple, bold and punchy’. It was a good move which earned them a gold medal and had them firmly in contention for Best in Show. Sadly the pair missed out on that accolade to Luciano Giubbilei and Laurent Perrier, but to them I award my own prize for best show garden. Now, where are those hats…..?

Tommaso and Paul’s international design practice del Buono Gazerwitz Landscape Architecture is based in Shoreditch, east London.

In my next post I’ll be writing about my runner-up Chelsea show garden, The Garden for First Touch at St George’s by Patrick Collins.

Plant list

Trees

• Tilia x europaea ‘Pallida’

Hedges

• Laurus nobilis
• Magnolia grandiflora

Topiary

• Buxus sempervirens
• Osmanthus x burkwoodii
• Phillyrea angustifolia

Herbaceous plants

• Amsonia tabernaemontana
• Anchusa azurea ‘Loddon Royalist’
• Borago officinalis
• Camassia quamash
• Campanula persicifolia
• Cenolophium denudatum
• Centaurea cyanus ‘Blue Boy’
• Dianthus carthusianorum
• Euphorbia ceratocarpa
• Euphorbia palustris
• Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae
• Euphorbia wallichii
• Foeniculum vulgare
• Geranium himalayense ‘Gravetye’
• Gladiolus byzantinus
• Hyssopus officinalis
• Iris germanica ‘Blue Rhythm’
• Iris germanica ‘Jane Philips’
• Linum perenne
• Lithodora diffusa ‘Heavenly Blue’
• Nigella damascena ‘Miss Jekyll’
• Phlox paniculata ‘Blue Paradise’
• Sesleria autumnalis
• Silene dioica
• Veronica spp.
• Viola cornuta ‘Belmont Blue’

Over the years the rock bank site at Chelsea has provided the setting for some of the show’s most exciting gardens. Last year it was occupied by The Australian Garden created by Flemings for Trailfinders, a stunning garden that will linger long in the memory and which marked their end of their eight year long association with the show.

Curiously for such a prominent location the rock bank has been carved in two this year, one half occupied by the kind of water features that mercifully most of us are unable to afford, the other by Patrick Collins’ design for charity First Touch. Being gently elevated towards the back, the plot offers its designer opportunities that Main Avenue does not. Philip has taken full advantage with a scheme composed of intricate terracing and falling water. Like The Telegraph Garden, which receives my ‘Best in Show’ accolade, Patrick eschewed prairie-esque planting and limpid pools for a design which I felt had genuine stand-out.

The garden is a celebration of the amazing work carried out by the neonatal unit at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, London, which cares for some of the sickest and most premature babies born in the South East. Patrick’s own daughter, Isabel, now 13, was born at 27 weeks and spent the first three months of her life in St George’s, so his commitment to this garden is a very personal one. First Touch is a charity which supports the hospital, raising money for vital equipment, specialist nurses and support for the families of sick babies. They have their own WordPress blog where you can find out more. Patrick’s design for the First Touch garden is symbolic of the strength and determination shown by premature babies and their families on their journeys, which can be long, distressing and painful.

The garden has two central features, the first an asymmetric flight of steps crafted from rust-coated steel (a finish repeated in several show gardens this year) and buff-coloured gravel. This is a lovely contrast, the sharp angles of the chestnut metal against the lightness of the stone. The tone of both materials is cleverly echoed in the papery bark of Chinese red birch, Betula albosinensis, its new foliage fluttering cool and luminous above the terraces. Without this dramatic juxtaposition the garden might have been dense and heavy, but both gravel and water reflect light pleasingly into all corners of the scheme.

A second key feature, the watercourse, starts its journey in the form of a narrow, dramatic waterfall almost hidden amongst foliage at the back of the plot. It makes its way through a series of stepped pools and small cascades to the front of the garden. This is intended to symbolise the difficult time families experience when a baby is born prematurely, followed by greater calm as the journey (hopefully a positive one) unfolds. The water’s course ends in a slightly larger pool where a pale, abstract sculpture in loosely human form marks the centre.

The plants that tumble down the banks of the stream could have come from my own garden - a typical waterside combination of astilbes, Hosta fortunei var. hyacinthina, ferns, irises, Tradescantia ‘Purwell Giant’ and Primula pulverulenta. Patrick’s contemporary use of these plants was a nice reminder of the country’s great stream-side gardens, such as those at Trengwainton, Cornwall and Harlow Carr, Yorkshire.

The other side of the terraced steps was devoted to lovers of drier, sunnier conditions such as thyme, Alchemilla mollis, Nepeta x fraassenii, Tulbaghia violacea, Armeria maritima and Erodium × variabile ‘Roseum’. Against the cool greens at the stream side, the sharp blues and candy pinks really popped.

This was a show garden that many gardeners might glean inspiration from. Sloping sites, either at the front or back of a house, are not easy to resolve. This treatment could be a great solution for a partly shaded situation, perhaps with the inclusion of a more extensive level space for entertaining and sitting out. If I had any criticism it would be that very little information about the garden and the idea behind it is given in the accompanying brochure, and that the plant list misses out several key plants, such as the astilbes, irises, dwarf pines and regal fern (Osmunda regalis). This oversight won’t have spoilt anyone’s appreciation of this charming garden, which gets my runner up award for Best in Show and my vote for People’s Choice.

(Patrick Collins is a landscape architect and garden designer. This is his sixth Chelsea garden, four of which won gold medals. Inexplicably, this scheme was only awarded a Silver Gilt medal.)

No doubt spurred on by TV talent shows, where the audience as well as expert judges get a vote, the RHS introduced People’s Choice awards at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2010. These awards reflect entirely the opinions of the public and are awarded in the Show, Fresh and Artisan categories.

Triumphant in the show garden category this year is ‘Hope on the Horizon’, designed by Matthew Keightley in support of charity Help for Heroes. The garden’s design represents the path towards recovery taken by wounded, injured and sick military personnel, veterans and their families. Matthew, who has never designed a show garden before, works for landscaping firm Farr & Roberts and describes himself as more of a hands-on, practical designer. However with a brother currently serving in Afghanistan, he is well qualified to understand the sensitivities of the subject he’s been charged with representing.

When the show ends to day, rather than being broken up or sold off, the garden will be carefully dismantled and transported to Chavasse, a Help for Heroes facility near Colchester, Essex. Here it will form part of a larger landscape for recovering servicemen and women to enjoy.

Matthew’s garden, sponsored by the David Brownlow charitable foundation, is arranged along two axes, forming the shape of the military cross. At one end a sculpture by the Scottish artist Mary Bourne depicts the horizon. The piece is formed of five slate-grey panels set against a shaded, tightly-clipped yew hedge. An artist whose work explores mankind’s emotional, intellectual and physical relationships with the world we live in, Mary’s work is a great choice for this project.Visitors to the show will no doubt have been struck by the garden’s signature features, blocks of cool granite surrounded by clipped box and colourful, optimistic planting. The finish of the stone monoliths, which represent soldiers’ physical being, becomes more refined as one moves through the garden, describing a journey towards physical recovery. They end up dark, smooth and perfectly sawn, surrounded by crowds of soothing ferns and foxgloves. It’s a nice analogy, but practical too as the blocks might double as seating or pedestals for other sculptural pieces.

Meanwhile, Matthew’s choice of planting is intended to represent psychological well-being. It becomes more structured and controlled as one progresses through the plot but is always colourful, uplifting and ultimately crowd-pleasing. There are tactile grasses such as Calamagrostis × acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’, Stipa tenuissima (above, with Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’) and Briza media, intermingled with herbs which will release their scent when soldiers brush past. I could have done without the lupins which, although pretty, contribute to a plant list which is perhaps overly long for a space just 10m x 15m. Not being someone who abides by the principal of ‘less is more’ I can hardly criticise, but I have a feeling the RHS judges may have had this in mind when they decided to award the garden a silver gilt medal rather than gold.

My favourite part of Matthew’s design, the shorter cross axis, is terminated by a simple slab bench inlaid with the inscription ‘It’s about the blokes, they are just blokes, but they are our blokes‘. (I hope servicewomen everywhere will forgive their omission from this dedication.) Underplanted with hostas, Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’, ferns, polygonatum and Liriope muscari ‘Big Blue’, this would be a tranquil spot in which to rest and contemplate the symbolism of this poignant yet hopeful garden which captured the hearts of the British public this week.

Medal: Silver Gilt

Plant list

• Agapanthus ‘Peter Pan’
• Agapanthus africanus
• Aquilegia vulgaris var. stellata
• Asplenium scolopendrium
• Asplenium scolopendrium ‘Angustifolia’
• Asplenium trichomanes
• Astrantia major ‘Large White’
• Astrantia ‘Roma’
• Briza media
• Brunnera macrophylla
• Brunnera macr. ‘Jack Frost’
• Buxus sempervirens
• Calamagrostis × acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’
• Carex oshimensis ‘Evergold’
• Carpinus betulus ‘Fastigiata’
• Convallaria majalis
• Delphinium ‘Black Knight Group’
• Dicksonia antarctica
• Digitalis purpurea
• Digitalis purpurea Excelsior Group
• Dryopteris affinis ‘Cristata the King’
• Dryopteris lepidopoda
• Dryopteris wallichiana
• Delphinium ‘King Arthur’
• Euphorbia amygdaloides ‘Purpurea’
• Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii
• Euphorbia mellifera
• Fatsia japonica
• Foeniculum vulgare
• Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’
• Thymus citriodorus ‘Aureus’
• Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue’
• Geranium himalayense ‘Gravetye’
• Geranium ‘Bright Red’
• Heuchera micrantha ‘Palace Purple’
• Hosta ‘Big Daddy’
• Hosta tardiana ‘Halcyon’
• Hosta ‘Sum and Substance’
• Liriope muscari ‘Big Blue’
• Lupinus ‘Gallery Blue’
• Lupinus ‘Red Rum’
• Matteuccia struthiopteris
• Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’
• Pachysandra terminalis ‘Green Carpet’
• Papaver orientale ‘Royal Wedding’
• Pittosporum tobira ‘Nanum’
• Polystichum setiferum ‘Dahlem’
• Rosmarinus officinalis
• Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’
• Salvia officinalis ‘Purpurascens’
• Stipa arundinacea
• Stipa gigantea
• Stipa tenuissima
• Taxus baccata
• Tellima grandiflora
• Thymus pulegioides ‘Aureus’
• Tradescantia ‘Zwanenburg Blue’
• Zantedeschia aethiopica ‘Crowborough’

Despite the inevitable fuss over the show gardens, the highlight of my visit to Chelsea Flower Show is always the Great Pavilion. At 12,000 square metres, about the same size as two football pitches, it dominates the show ground. It’s here that many of the greatest nurserymen and horticultural organisations showcase their latest discoveries and cutting-edge projects; and they are not just from the UK, but as far afield as Japan, Grenada, Thailand and South Africa.

The standards are always incredibly high with 54 exhibits, more than half of those housed under the Pavilion’s taught tarpaulin, awarded gold medals this year. The stand-out result had to be that achieved by Hilliers, celebrating their 150th year in the nursery business. The family firm was awarded its 69th consecutive gold medal for its stunning display of trees, flowering shrubs and perennials around the central monument. Congratulations to them on their record-breaking achievement.

Hosta ‘Firn Line’, a new introduction for Brookfield Plants

The Hilliers exhibit features around 4,000 plants, so choosing just 10 from the show to feature in this post is a challenge. My selection this year is a little eclectic and reflects what caught my eye on the day rather than what’s new. So many of the plants launched at the show have that ‘trying too hard’ look about them, so I tend to steer well clear. There was a definite fashion for dark coloured flowers, not all of them attractive, and foxgloves abounded to the point of excess. None of them made into my list.

I love a good hosta; grown well there’s no foliage plant to rival its beauty and variety. Brookfields’ gold medal winning display caught my eye this year, brimming over with beasts as large as H. ‘Sum and Substance’ and H. ‘Empress Wu’ and as diminutive as H. ‘Cracker Crumbs’. A new introduction called H. ‘Firn Line’ was my favourite. Its striking heart-shaped foliage is blue-tinted with a broad cream margin which fades to white during the growing season. Lavender blooms (alas unscented) appear in midsummer, but are simply gilding the plantain lily.

Convallaria majalis ‘Verwood Golden Slippers’ from Avon Bulbs

Staying with the foliage theme for the moment, no-one could pass by the luminous lily of the valley, Convallaria majalis ‘Verwood Golden Slippers’ without lingering to admire its vitality. From Avon Bulbs, this is a plant that requires some patience to get going, but will reward you with startling golden leaves in early spring. Who would not wait with baited breath to see this emerge from the soil each year?

Rosa ‘Simple Peach’ from Harkness Roses

My Australian friend and I were both agreed that Britain’s rose breeders need a kick up the backside when it comes to staging their exhibits, which look increasingly old fashioned and uninspiring. Even David Austin Roses, which have done so much to move the industry forward, have not done anything exciting at Chelsea for years. Most of the new rose introductions were not worthy of my list, if indeed one could identify them at all. However Rosa ‘Simple Peach’ from Harkness Roses was undeniably pretty. The single flowers are attractive to bees, making it a great choice for anyone looking to encourage wildlife into their garden.

Mystery Zantedeschia

It’s generally considered something of a faux pas to make spelling errors on plant labels at Chelsea and this one did not go undetected. Not only was this lovely Zantedetia (sic) misspelt, but the variety, ‘Queen of Dominica’ also appears not to exist, in the UK at least. Despite its uncertain identity, I felt this lovely flamingo-coloured flower deserved a mention. If you are as taken by it as I am, Zantedeschia aethiopica ‘Marshmallow’ has a similar stature and colouring.

Leucospermum glabrum x tottum ‘Volkano’ from Trewidden Nursery

Before I move away from the coral theme, two plants shown by Claire and Jeff at Trewidden Nursery in Cornwall. Their meticulous display of hardy (ish) exotics earned them a well deserved gold medal, a brilliant achievement after the trials and tribulations of the wild winter they experienced in the South West. The first is Leucospermum glabrum x tottum ‘Volkano’, a spring flowering South African shrub which is best suited to coastal gardens, where it requires very little water or routine maintenance. The flower heads are nothing short of spectacular and earn it the common name ‘pincushion protea’.

Aloe polyphylla from Trewidden Nursery

Taking centre stage amongst a superb array of succulents was Aloe polyphylla, the spiral aloe, so called because of the way its leaves spiral out from the centre of the plant. Aloe polyphylla is endemic to the Kingdom of Lesotho in the Drakensberg mountains where it grows on high slopes and in rocky crevices. Summers here are cool, and in winter the plants might even be covered by snow. It is considered particularly tricky to grow, so hats off to Trewidden for coaxing this magnificent specimen into flower right on cue for Chelsea.

Celmsia semicordata from Kevock Garden Plants

One of my favourite exhibits at Chelsea is staged by Kevock Garden Plants from Midlothian, Scotland. This year’s island site provided new opportunities and as always the array of rare and interesting alpines was second to none. The stand-out plant for me, occupying centre stage, was a magnificent Celmsia semicordata, a plant hailing from New Zealand’s South Island. Here the Maoris used to peel the silvery underside from the leaves and attach it in rows to create a rain cape. The leaves were also packed into leggings and shin protectors for warmth and to guard against thorny plants. A plant as useful as it is beautiful.

Saxifraga ‘Brynhyfryd Hybrid’ from Kevock Garden Plants

Staying with Kevock for another of my top ten, this divine saxifrage, producing delicate veils of pure white flowers, is Saxifraga ‘Brynhyfryd Hybrid’. It was shown alongside another hybrid cultivated by Matthew Ruane at Brynhyfryd Nursery called S. ‘Nicholas’. Two wonderful plants for an alpine garden and just crying out to be admired.

Polygonatum stenanthum from Tale Valley Nursery

My big discovery at this year’s Chelsea was Tale Valley Nursery, a small specialist nursery in Devon offering a range of alpines, bulbs, herbaceous woodland plants and ferns. I was bowled over by the variety and quality of the display, which rightfully won proprietors Chris and Lorraine Birchall a gold medal. I noted down treasures such as Beesia calthifolia, Disporopsis ‘Min Shan’, Carex siderosticha ‘Shima-Nishiki’, Vancouveria hexandra, Coptis omiensis ….. I could go on but any more dribble on the laptop keyboard and it might fuse. I had to choose just one plant to feature in my top ten and that is Polygonatum stenanthum, a towering giant of a polgonatum that can grow up to 2m tall. Absolutely wonderful and a nursery I have a feeling I will be patronising in future.

Pelargonium ‘Australian Mystery’ from Fibrex Nurseries

Finally, and in honour of my fabulous friend and flower show companion ‘Helen of Oz’, a pelargonium named ‘Australian Mystery’. Unlike some other pelargoniums the flowers are simple and nicely spaced apart, the top petals stained and feathered berry red and the lower petals pure white. Shown by Fibrex Nurseries, this would make a super infill plant for borders after early bulbs and perennials have died down, or planted to cascade out of a pot or urn.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my somewhat random but considered selection from Chelsea’s finest. Do let me know which is your favourite or if, indeed, any turn you off completely.

Away from the hype and hubbub of Chelsea’s Main Avenue, two categories of show garden highlight the newest talent and the most innovative ideas in garden design. These are the Artisan and Fresh gardens. Many famous designers cut their teeth here, where the cost of staging a garden is less and the scope to push boundaries is greater. Some graduate to the big show gardens, whilst others are content to stay and play, year after year.

The Artisan Gardens, seven in all this year, are strung out along the shady length of the Serpentine Walk and are major attractions for showgoers. The smaller gardens here are intended to engage visitors with their artistic and naturalistic approach. They tend to be traditional, vernacular and less esoteric, designs with which British gardeners will feel instant empathy. If I have any beef it’s that there is a tendency for them to become overly twee; masterly recreations of traditional British gardens comprising stone walls encrusted with moss and packed with a riot of cottage garden flowers.

Breaking this stereotype for a new years has been Kazuyuki Ishihara, who with his incredible style, exuberance and attention to detail has fast become a Chelsea legend. Mr Ishihara is one of Japan’s best known landscape artists and gardening personalities. Maving mastered Ikenobo, the purest form of Ikebana (a Japanese style of floral arrangement), his tiny flower shop in Shianbashi Nagasaki became the highest grossing florist per square metre in Japan. In 2004, Mr Ishihara created his first garden at Chelsea where he won a silver gilt medal and then from 2005 to 2007 he won three consecutive golds. Not a bad start. Using flowers, greenery and traditional hard landscaping materials he continually expresses the Japanese spirit and identity through his work and this year won both a gold medal and the award for Best Artisan Garden. As always the composition of button mosses, acers and irises around a scaled-down tea house and water wheel was rendered impeccably, clearly guided by a gentleman who understands one of the world’s most precise forms of artistry.

A few gardens away, one of Mr Ishihara’s students, Shuko Noda, created his first ever Chelsea garden entitled ‘Arita’. He won silver gilt, just like his teacher ten years previously. The town of Arita in the Saga Prefecture is where Japanese Imari porcelain is made. This artisan craft was represented by ceramic spheres, tiles and bowls within the garden. In contrast to his tutor’s design, Mr Noda’s garden was consciously contemporary with an elegant modernist pavilion, pale stone paving and rolling swathes of moss. The planting was carefully contrived to echo the rich colours and natural imagery depicted on the porcelain’s smooth surface.

Lupinus ‘Noble Maiden’, Digitalis purpurea f. albiflora and Camassia leichtlinnii subsp. suksdorfii ‘Alba’ in The Topiarist’s Garden.

In complete contrast The Topiarist’s Garden, by Marylyn Abbott of West Green House, was a space designed for a theoretical gardener influenced by the tradition of ‘Topia Opera’ – or fancy gardening to you and I. What was so striking about this garden was the quality of the building or ‘bothy’, which looked as if it could have been sheltering below the trees of Ranelagh Gardens for hundreds of years. In fact it had been there for less than two weeks. The clever twist in Marylyn’s garden was that pots of bulbs, annuals and perennials could be placed within the framework of box hedges to create constantly evolving display. Balancing the need for structure and seasonal interest in a small garden is big challenge and this was an inspired way in which to achieve it.

Brooding, black water was not confined to the main show gardens and appeared as the focal point of the Tour de Yorkshire garden. This year the Tour de France has its Grand Départ in God’s Own County and Alistair Baldwin celebrated with a garden evocative of the moors over which the elite cyclists will toil. An elliptical pond fashioned from Corian, and looking rather too much like a very posh bathtub, had its surface broken by a discreet circle of tiny bubbles. In a nod to the prestigious event, the York stone wall at the back of the plot was adorned with bicycle wheels reclaimed from recycling centres around Yorkshire. Iris sibirica, which must have appeared in over a third of all show gardens, featured here alongside yew, ferns and thalictrums.

I will leave you tonight with this detail of a stepping stone, inspired by Nordic rune stones, part of the Viking Cruises Norse Artisan Garden.

Every so often a particular date throws up so many opportunities for merriment that one is spoilt for choice. The next such occasion is June 21st and 22nd, when two gardening events I’ve been hotly anticipating clash over one weekend. It wouldn’t be so bad, but they’re taking place in capital cities on either side of the English Channel.

Never one to be thwarted by such obstacles, I’ve devised a means of attending both, so am feeling very pleased with myself. Too much smugness means something is bound to go wrong!

On this side of the Channel, just on the other side of Hampstead Heath from our London home, preparations are already well underway for a shiny new gardening show. GROW London is a contemporary event which will be putting up shoots in leafy North London from June 20th to 22nd. It’s the brainchild of Will Ramsay, founder of the Affordable Art Fair, and is inspired by the sort of relaxed garden shows enjoyed on the continent. Billed as a boutique event (so often used as an excuse for being plain small) the main marquee on Hampstead Heath’s Lower Fairground site will bring together around 100 exhibitors selling plants, furniture and garden decoration. The whole shebang will be curated and dressed by floral designer Shane Connolly (a Royal Warrant holder no less) and there will be talks by horticultural grandees Chris Beardshaw, Val Bourne and James Alexander-Sinclair. The show will feature four ‘pocket gardens’ offering ideas for small urban spaces and naturally there will be necessities such as a plant creche, licensed bar and posh eats.

Despite landing in one of the leafiest and most affluent parts of the city, GROW London is aimed at all urbanites with a love of gardens and gardening. And quite unlike Chelsea, which positively basks in its elitism, the show is founded on egalitarian principles – compare the £68 price tag for a Chelsea ticket with just £10 for a day at GROW London. Let’s hope Will’s idea takes root and becomes as successful as his art fairs.

As we are leaving for our other engagement on the morning the show opens, I’ve treated Him Indoors and myself to tickets for the charity preview in aid of the Garden Museum on June 19th. I am calling it a treat, Him Indoors will pretend to grin and bear it, but will secretly enjoy every minute.

If this has whetted your appetite, visit GROW London’s website to book tickets and find out more.

The weekend’s main event, which has been inked in my diary for months, is Amsterdam’s Open Garden Weekend, or Open Tuinen Dagen in Dutch. Each year, over the third weekend in June, more than twenty five of the city’s garden owners open their private outdoor spaces to the public. For 2014 the theme of the weekend is ‘Utility and Pleasure’. This reflects the period when most of the city’s gardens were designed, in the 17th century, when their purpose was principally to provide food for the household. Old maps show orchards, vegetable and herb gardens in place of what later became ornamental pleasure grounds. Across Europe the ‘grow your own’ trend means that many of Amsterdam’s gardeners are once again turning their attention to fruit, vegetable and herb growing.

Four of the gardens belong to museums, a handful to smart hotels and the others to private individuals content to have the general public traipsing in and out through their homes to access their secluded courtyards. Many follow the formal canal garden style, comprising clipped box hedges flanked by hostas, ferns, geraniums, roses and hydrangeas. The gardens were originally designed in this way to be admired from the first floor, where the wealthy families of Amsterdam had their main reception rooms.

For the princely sum of fifteen Euros a single ticket can be purchased giving access to the gardens over a three day period. As one would expect in Amsterdam there are push bikes to transport the more energectic along the canalsides between the various properties. Personally I like the idea of being able to meander at will, revisiting gardens at different times of day to see the light changing and avoid the crowds. All participating gardens are open every day from 10 am to 5 pm.

Find out more on the Open Gardens Weekend website and check back at the end of the month for a full report.

Garden of the Museum van Loon, Amsterdam

Chelsea needs to watch her back. Her bigger, louder and brighter sister at Hampton Court Palace is slowly but surely stealing her crown. Chelsea may be smarter, better educated and popular with the establishment, but compared to Hampton Court she is starting to look a little too prim and proper.

Costing just £15,000, this contemporary sunken garden by Alexandra Frogatt had all the quality of a garden costing ten times more

I used to view The RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show as very much a poor relation to Chelsea. I doubt I will ever warm to its overtly commercial side, over which I wish the RHS would exercise a little more restraint, but whilst Chelsea appears increasingly stuck in a stylistic rut, Hampton Court gets more and more daring every year. For the first time, I think I prefer what Hampton Court has to offer: more variety, more adventure, more excitement and more inspiration for real gardeners.

The 100th anniversary of the start of The Great War was commemorated at Hampton Court using gardens, flowers and even scarecrows

Hampton Court’s gardens were split into four categories: the big-money show gardens; small but perfectly formed summer gardens; ‘Your Garden, Your Budget’ gardens (with price tags ranging from £7,000 to £15,000) and finally conceptual gardens. The result, to my mind, was a well balanced spectrum of size, style and cost, offering something of interest for everyone. The quality of gardens at Hampton Court has come on in leaps and bounds over recent years, but still one or two, disappointingly staged by garden centres, fell wide of the mark. That aside, I have never been harder pressed to choose a favourite, so here’s a selection, about which I hope to write in more detail shortly.

In Vestra Wealth’s Vista garden, designer Paul Martin created the ultimate outdoor living space

If I had to choose my number one it would be Vestra Wealth’s garden entitled ‘Vista’, designed by Paul Martin. This really was a garden for entertaining on a grand scale and frankly made me green with envy.  The quality of the materials and plants used to create this superlative design was second to none.

For a garden with such a rosé outlook, the glasses were not quite half full

In ‘A Space to Connect and Grow’, designer Jeni Cairns had thrown in everything bar the kitchen sink. In fact there probably was a sink amongst the recycled and upcycled materials used to create this vibrant garden. Interest and detail was incorporated into every corner, justly earning the garden both a gold medal and the award for best summer garden. Unlike Chelsea, many of Hampton Court’s show gardens are designed to be viewed from three sides, or in the round. Jeni had embraced this opportunity, treating the boundaries of the garden with as much love as the centre. The choice of plant material was suitably upbeat, including zesty yellow eremurus and plant of the moment, Echinacea ‘Hot Papaya’.

Featuring recycled and upcycled materials, a green roof, flowers, fruit, vegetables and herbs, Jeni Cairns’ garden ticked all the boxes

I am not sure who had the idea of theming the conceptual gardens around the seven deadly sins, but it was an inspired decision. Rachel Parker Soden’s ‘Lust’ included a neon Peep Show sign draped with Gloriosa superba ‘Rothschildiana’ (top of post), orchids exploding from a red velvet settee, and suggestive anthuriums parading themselves gaudily behind steamed-up windows. Never have plants looked more suggestive.

Steam rising from ‘Wrath – Eruption of Unhealed Anger’, designed by Nilufer Danis, drew unsuspecting crowds in, rewarding an unlucky few with a soaking from sudden jets of water. As an evocation of a volcanic landscape it was near perfect; flame coloured kniphofia, achillea, crocosmia and echinacea mingling with Dryopteris erythrosora and grasses, all emerging from a landscape of charred black rock. Ominous rumblings from the smoking mound added to the brooding, sensory experience.

Smoke rising from Nilufer Danis’ gold medal winning conceptual garden, entitled ‘Wrath – Eruption of Unhealed Anger’

If ‘Lust’ wasn’t provocative enough, Katerina Rafaj drew attention to the vast amount of food we waste in her garden entitled ‘Gluttony’. Despite the relative lack of planting the garden was awarded a gold medal.

Love it or hate it, the design for ‘Gluttony’ highlights the huge amount of food that we consume or waste every day

Equally thought-provoking was The World Vision Garden designed by John Warland. This large show garden celebrated the transformation of the Antsokia Valley, part of Ethiopia hardest hit by famine thirty years ago, from drought stricken wasteland to fertile farmland. Orange-clad assistants helped visitors interpret the garden’s exuberant displays of tomatoes, maize, cut flowers and fruit, all products that Ethiopia now exports to the rest of the world.

30 years on, The World Vision Garden celebrated Ethiopia’s recovery from famine

My new found interest in vegetable growing was piqued by these pot-grown cherry tomatoes

Having been absent from Chelsea this year, Hampton Court welcomed back Australia and Trailfinders with a superb garden designed by Jim Fogarty for Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. Naturally this huge plot had a completely different feel to any other garden, featuring a palette of plants from the states of Victoria and the Northern Territory. Many plants were unfamiliar to me, but the varied textures of silver foliage set against red Devonian sandstone were easy to appreciate without any knowledge. A timber-clad structure at the back of the garden symbolised the rock formations of the Northern Territory, such as Uluru and the MacDonnell ranges. The sinuous layout of paths and pools was inspired by the Rainbow Serpent, a dreamtime creature from Aboriginal culture.

Essence of Australia celebrates the beauty and diversity Victoria and Northern Territory Flora

We return to the UK for my last three gardens. The first was the winner of a competition run by TV’s The One Show, designed by architecture student Alexandra Noble. The garden featured nine regularly spaced reflective pools representing the underfloor heating systems the Romans knew as hypocausts. Fine, billowing grasses were employed to create the impression of steam rising from the water, with other planting in shades of purple and lime green. This was a wonderful design for a sunken space and I am sure we’ll be seeing more from Alexandra Noble in future.

The designer of The One Show Garden, Alexandra Noble, was inspired by the Roman hypocausts of my home town, Bath

Nothing could have been more English than The Forgotten Folly, designed by Lynn Riches and Mark Lippiatt. The garden centred around a ruined stone building sitting high above a tumbling stream. Exuberant planting demonstrated how garden plants can successfully be combined with native wildflowers to create a haven for wildlife, as well as a beautiful space for humans to enjoy.

Nature takes hold in and around a ruined folly in this naturalistic garden

Finally, a garden which could have been a complete shocker, the NSPCC Legacy Garden designed by Adam Wollcott and Jonathan Smith. Four periods of garden style, from Victoria through to the present day, were represented in this small summer garden. The progression was marked by changes in the paving and plants, beginning with a shaded Victoria fernery, then an Edwardian rose garden, moving on to the the kind of 1970’s gaudiness I remember from my childhood. The present day section was filled with a familiar assemblage of perennials, but it was the humorous accessories, the teddybears, plaster ducks and lead soldiers, that really brought this whimsical garden to life.

A little bit of joyful whimsy, the NSPCC Legacy Garden depicts garden styles from the Victorian era to the present day

I hope I have managed to illustrate the enormous stretch of the gardens at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show this year and that you found something among them that inspires you. Already I am looking forward to seeing how the show moves forward again next year. Chelsea needs to take heed of her more worldy, provocative sister and let her hair down, just a little so as not to frighten the horses.

Exemplary planting was a feature of ‘Untying the Knot’ designed by Frederic Whyte for Bounce Back Foundation

I had never heard of Vestra Wealth before this year’s Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and that’s for one very good reason – I have no wealth to manage. Should I come up trumps in the lottery, I would have no hesitation in beating a path to Vestra’s door, based purely on the strength of their show garden. Decisions like these are probably why I am not a millionaire.

Vestra Wealth exercised a fair degree of prudence in commissioning show garden veteran Paul Martin to design their showpiece. The result, a contemporary space focussed on outdoor entertaining, was cool, calm and carefully considered; the sort of space someone in possession of both money and taste might aspire to. I certainly did.

A cedar rill seemingly floats above a plinth of clipped box

Everything from the materials to the planting was beautifully detailed. A smooth cedar rill delivered water into a pool surrounded by hostas and irises. The monolithic table, constructed from the same timber, cantilevered over an area thickly planted with ferns, Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and Lavandula ‘Hidcote’, delicately veiled by Deschampsia cespitosa.

The dining table cantilevers over an area of lush planting

Ground level surfaces were composed of traditional hoggin, smooth terrazzo and neatly sawn slate which contrasted beautifully. Gabions topped with copper sheeting or cedar wood were intended to attract wildlife, although how welcome bugs and beasties would have been in this sleek space is debateable.

Cool terrazzo, traditional hoggin and stacks of split cedar create a varied texture

Set for six, Paul Martin was clearly minding his sponsor’s pennies when he poured the wine, but who would not have wanted to join this garden party? The silver mesh chairs were a great accompaniment to the heavy slab of timber and slid neatly underneath. At night, lit by lanterns, the white flowers in the garden would have appeared cool and luminous.

A top-up please!

In a garden so strong structurally it would have been easy to oversimplify the planting, but this element of the design was not found lacking. Paul’s training at the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin shone through in the discerning palette of plants, which focussed on greens, whites and blues.

Hosta sieboldiana ‘Frances Williams’ mingles with Geranium ‘Rozanne’

Paul Martin had understood his client’s brief, and his client’s clients’ well, producing a garden rich in texture, interest and quality without resorting to ostentation. I am certain it will have gained him some suitably affluent new customers. As for me, I’m off to buy a scratch card…..

Plant List

Acanthus mollis ‘Rue Ledan’
Agapanthus africanus ‘Albus’
Agapanthus ‘Northern Star’
Agapanthus ‘Silver Moon’
Agastache foeniculum ‘Black Adder’
Ammi majus
Angelica ‘Ebony’
Aster laterifolius ‘Horizontalis’
Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’
Buxus sempevirens
Darmera peltata
Deschampsia cespitosa
Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’
Epimedium rubrum
Eryngium bourgatii ‘Oxford Blue’
Ferula communis
Geranium ‘Rozanne’
Hakonechloa macra ‘Albo Striata’
Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’
Hosta ‘Royal Standard’
Hosta sieboldiana var. elegans
Hosta sieboldiana ‘Frances Williams’
Hosta tardiana ‘Halcyon’
Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’
Hydrangea arborescens ‘Incrediball’
Iris pseudacorus
Lavandula ‘Hidcote’
Lavandula stoechas ‘Christiana’
Nepeta faasenii ‘Six Hills’
Nepeta faassenii ‘Blue Wonder’
Penstemon ‘Electric Blue’
Perovskia atriplicifolia ‘Blue Spire’
Salvia nemerosa
Selinum wallichianum
Stipa gigantea
Thalictrum rochbruneanum
Thymus ‘Pink Chintz’
Tiarella ‘Pink Skyrocket’
Tulbaghia violacea
Verbena bonariensis
Verbena macdougalii ‘Lavender Spires’
Veronica longifolia ‘Charlotte’
Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Album’

Apart from Cinderella, few people are likely to consider an after-dark encounter with a giant pumpkin an exciting prospect, but the Royal Horticultural Society are out to change all that. In a revision to the normal schedule, the RHS London Harvest Festival Show opened late on Tuesday, treating members and their guests to an evening of carrot carving, apple bobbing, foraging masterclasses and, of course, prize-winning fruit and veg.

Office workers, locals and keen gardeners mingle in the RHS Lindley Hall

Long standing followers of The Frustrated Gardener will know that the RHS London shows are favourites of mine. They are gloriously old fashioned, so much so that one can imagine Downton Abbey’s Lord Grantham sending his best grapes down on the train from York, or Sherlock Holmes inspecting the entries with his inscrutable eye. The show must appear now very much as it did in the 1920’s and 30’s.

1st prize went to Peter Geyelin’s gargantuan fruit

The competition for heaviest pumpkin may be a little light-hearted, but other classes certainly are not. Gardeners and growers who exhibit here know their onions, their leeks and their parsnips. The highest standards are called for and judges take no prisoners. However, in the new spirit of transparency adopted by the RHS at other shows, a table is laid out explaining what the defects are that exhibitors will lose points for. Heaven forbid one’s cauliflower should have a lumpy curd or one’s leeks be slightly kinked. It’s a level of perfection, indeed artifice, that very few strive for nowadays, but wonderful to witness.

What not to do. The National Vegetable Society point out the faults the judges will be looking for

The first thing I do every year is check out which Duke has won first prize for his grapes. This year the Duke of Devonshire came out tops in both classes for white grapes, going head-to-head with the Duke of Marlborough. I imagine their noble rivalry must be something of a friendly tradition and, like the Oxford and Cambridge boat race, I’d like to imagine it will continue in perpetuity.

No kinks here! Perfect leeks, as white as alabaster, pick up the prizes

In an area ambitiously dubbed the ‘Wild Wood’, master forager Claudio Bincoletto was on hand to give advice about hunting for your own food. Asked what he thought about British truffles, he kindly described them as ‘tasting like wet hazlenuts’ and offered a jar of the real thing to sniff. Woodsy and wonderful. He didn’t look like man you’d argue with.

Not long ’til Halloween and the pumpkins and squashes are in their prime

The catering at these events is a big attraction; nothing too corporate, just a handful of well chosen suppliers offering quality food and drink. Hiver beer from the Real Ale Company always goes down a treat, as do the little gyoza prepared by The Garlic Farm. If I were a coffee drinker, I’d have dived straight for the espresso martinis served from the back of a Piaggio Ape by Word on the Street.

Through the evening we were serenaded by Robin Grey and friends, playing on a banjos, ukeleles, guitars and percussion. They were lucky to be heard over the din created by ‘Can You Dig It?’ and their carrot recorder making workshop. I regret not having a go, as participants seemed to be having a lot of fun, even if the resulting cacophony almost made one’s ears bleed.

Showgoers of all ages take the weight off their feet and enjoy a snack in the Wild Wood

Ending on a more serious note, opening late does seem to be helping the RHS attract a more mixed audience, without who’s interest I suspect they might struggle to continue these venerable London shows. This part of Westminster is hardly buzzing at night, so it’s a fun diversion for locals and office workers alike. As for me, I’ll keep going for as long as they continue, making the most of a living, breathing piece of England’s horticultural heritage.

All the colours of autumn can be seen in rainbow chard, chillies and tomatoes

I embark on my review of 2014 with a degree of trepidation, as this year did not turn out to be quite as joyful as I hoped it might be. The two preceding years were gloriously packed with exotic travel and big events, so in hindsight 2014 was probably never going to live up to expectations. There have been many sadnesses, including the passing away of my granny and great aunt, marking the end of an era in the Cooper family. Work has been all consuming for us both and we have not enjoyed our usual ‘big’ holiday. In retrospect this may have been a sacrifice too far as we love our sun and adventure.

Yet one great happiness, the arrival of my niece Martha, rescued 2014 from the doldrums. I’d re-live all of the last twelve months just for that life-changing event. Happily the two generations, Great Granny Cooper and little Martha, were able to meet before their ways parted again. Martha will be one year old on January 3rd and is an ever-moving bundle of joy, laughter and smiles.

A-one, a-two, a-three, BLOW!

Meanwhile The Frustrated Gardener has gone from strength to strength, thanks to all the people who looked in regularly, or even dropped by just the once. It matters not, as the views, comments and likes are what have kept me going through a year of ups and downs, and will propel me into 2015 with as much gusto as I started 2014. Thank you for looking in and I hope you enjoy my review of this year’s best bits.

Yours truly, pictured in our new vegetable garden

There is no denying that 2014 was a vintage year for gardening, garden visiting or simply being outdoors. The UK escaped with a mild but very wet winter, followed by a lovely spring, summer and autumn. The growing season in both of our gardens was long and productive, creating an equal abundance of flowers and foliage ….. and for the first time in London there were fruits and vegetables too.

Our first crop of tomatoes was pampered in the sunniest corner of our London garden

In January, following the birth of baby Martha, we made the first of three visits to Cornwall. There, in the depths of winter, we discovered camellias, daffodils and leptospermums in full bloom. More incredible still was the profusion of aeoniums sprouting from walls and pots in St Ives’ narrow streets and alleyways.

Leptospermum scoparium ‘Coral Candy’

A second New Year highlight was the brilliant Hellebore Day at Bosvigo in Truro, the event which kicked off my gardening year. I took the sleeper train from Paddington, arriving in Camborne at the crack of dawn, and just had time to freshen up at Trevoole before joining the long queue for Wendy Perry’s hellebore bonanza. I purchased four beautiful seedlings from Wendy’s ‘Bosvigo Doubles’ strain and gave them all pet names in order that I could identify them in future. I am excited to see their richly ruffled blooms again in 2015, especially ‘Blackberry Fool’ and ‘Eton Mess’. Wendy’s next hellebore day is on Saturday February 21st, 10am-4.30pm.

I named this beautiful Bosvigo double hellebore ‘Blackberry Fool’

March saw us travel up to Sheffield for a family birthday celebration, offering us the chance to visit the city’s wonderful Botanical Gardens. We were blessed with exceptional weather and greeted by swathes of hepaticas, crocuses, polyanthus and oxlips. It is heartwarming to witness the renaissance of public parks such as Sheffield Botanical Gardens, when as recently as the 80’s and 90’s so many seemed doomed to become drug-blighted, no-go areas. As the UK economy improves, it’s to be hoped that councils apportion an appropriate amount of their funds to the continuous improvement of our precious green spaces.

Restored Glass Pavilions, Sheffield Botanical Gardens

To my mind one can never pay enough visits to Sissinghurst, which truly deserves its matchless reputation as a garden of great beauty, style and plantsmanship. I visited three times during 2014, which further proved to me what a remarkable job the Sissinghurst team make of keeping this famous garden looking tip-top year-round. I am ashamed to admit that I never got around to writing up my April sortie, when the orchard and Delos were blanketed by a delightful patchwork of narcissi, anemones, fritillarias, scillas and hellebores.

A swathe of anemones carpets the ground in an area of Sissinghurst known as Delos

Sissinghurst’s orchard studded with cheerful narcissi, an early treat for the bees

It was a lovely day, with fewer visitors than one encounters later in the year. As always at Sissinghurst I was dazzled by the accomplishment of the plant associations, one of Vita Sackville-West’s many legacies which endure through today’s gardening team. A very special combination was Chaenomeles x superba ‘Knap Hill Scarlet’ set against the weathered brick and silvered oak of the Tudor castle. The Japanese quince’s colour is more tangerine than scarlet, but is exquisite next to its emerging lime-green leaves and the terracotta-tinted walls. Equally stunning and thoroughly modern was the dazzling pairing of fiery greigii tulips with the verdigris-coated urn at the centre of the Cottage Garden.

At Sissinghurst, climbers are selected to complement the warm tones of the castle walls

This eye-popping combination is just what’s needed to welcome in the spring

May is the month when The Frustrated Gardener gets more visits than any other. For the first time I took a week’s holiday for Chelsea and immersed myself in this greatest of all flower shows. There was much remembrance of the start of the Great War, both in show gardens and the Great Pavilion. This sobering theme was continued through many other RHS shows in 2014, a poignant reminder of the devastation, suffering and loss experienced in a conflict that began 100 years ago. Featuring blackened water and Iris sibirica (both widely employed at this year’s Chelsea), Charlotte Rowe’s brooding pool represented a crater left by an exploded bomb.

‘No Man’s Land’, designed by Charlotte Rowe

My ‘most read’ post of the year was my write up of The Telegraph Garden designed by Tommaso del Buono and Paul Gazerwitz. When I look back on my photographs I love this garden just as much, if not more, than I did back in May. Those saturated greens and cool blues are right up my street, and I admire the careful balance achieved between structure and informality. It’s not a garden I’d care to maintain – too much precision trimming required – but I could enjoy it endlessly, especially with a glass of Veuve Cliquot in hand.

Style and substance – The Telegraph Garden designed by del Buono Gazerwitz

Later that week, with my Aussie friend Helen, I visited Sissinghurst once again, but it was lesser known Goodnestone Park (pronounced ‘Gunston’) that captured my companion’s imagination. It may have been the roses, it may have been the bucolic vegetable garden, or it may have been the chatty head gardener, but we came away thoroughly inspired by this magical Kent garden and appreciated the relative absence of other visitors.

All set for the season ahead, the kitchen garden at Goodnestone Park, Kent

June saw us visit Amsterdam, me for the first time, to enjoy the city’s open garden weekend. We were blessed with great weather and found the whole event a fantastic introduction to Dutch garden style. Approximately 30 gardens opened their gates to the public, varying from grand museums to small domestic plots. For anyone challenged by narrow, shaded or dry spots it’s great to see what others have achieved in the same conditions, and the refreshments on offer aren’t bad either. Amsterdam’s gardens open once again in 2015, June 19 to June 21 inclusive.

The narrow garden at Singel 124, Amsterdam

Late June brought upheaval to our London garden when we embarked on the particularly ill-timed construction of raised vegetable beds, utilising a spot which had been neglected for a couple of years. Furthest away from the building, the designated spot receives plenty of sun, so we chose to incorporate seating for those balmy summer evenings. Despite having to lug over 300 bags of topsoil and compost through the flat, we had it planted up and ready to go by the second week in July. Although the sweetcorn and courgettes didn’t quite hit the mark, we enjoyed as many herbs, tomatoes, salad leaves and beans as we could eat.

Various forms of lighting mean that we can enjoy the garden in the evenings

Hampton Court Palace Flower Show was excellent this year and I declared Paul Martin’s exceptional garden, entitled ‘Vista’, my best in show. It had all the elements I love in a garden – generous entertaining space, ebullient planting, modern materials and close attention to detail. The cantilevered table was to die for, although if I were the host I’d have been topping up those glasses of rosé pronto. It was good to see Australia represented again at an RHS show, after we waved goodbye to Flemings at Chelsea in 2013. Jim Fogarty showcased the diversity of Australian flora in a garden full of colour and movement.

For a garden with such a rosé outlook, the glasses were not quite half full

‘Essence of Australia’ celebrated the diversity of Victoria and Northern Territory Flora

One thing had been on my mind all year, and that was the opening of our garden for the National Garden Scheme. It seemed such a good idea when our friend Beth suggested it back in September 2013, but as the big day approached the pressure mounted. Sometimes the moon and stars align and this was one such occasion. The sun shone, the flowers bloomed (many for the first time this year) and the people came – 220 of them in the space of 2 days. What struck us was how friendly, kind and considerate all our visitors were and how far people were prepared to travel to see a garden measuring just 20ft x 30ft. When the sums were done we had raised almost £700 for the NGS charities, which is an amazing figure. None of this would have happened were it not for a small band of people who publicised the opening and helped out on the gate and selling refreshments. We’ll be opening The Watch House again in 2015 on August 1 and 2 and hope for another fine turnout.

The Watch House Garden in August 2014, ready for opening

The garden was thronged with visitors on both days

The men with the money, Nigel, James and Simon manned the front gate

September was a sad month, marked by the passing of my last remaining grandparent. Granny Cooper was not a great gardener but loved to be outdoors, either walking or, in later years, sitting in my parents’ garden. In perfect partnership with my grandpa for over 70 years before his death, I like to believe they are now together again, enjoying each others’ company over a steaming cup of tea and slice of lemon drizzle cake. Granny Cooper loved the colour yellow so these roses are for her:

Vera Cooper: 7 June 1920 – 1 September 2014

Late summer was not without its happier moments. We enjoyed three nights of luxury at Hotel Endsleigh, Devon in a room that looked out over the magnificent long border, reputedly the longest unbroken expanse of herbaceous planting in England. Whilst other guests arrived by helicopter, we had to make do with conventional wheels. Soft top down, we crossed the county to visit Cliffe and Gill Heavens, fellow blogger and author of Off The Edge Gardening. Now there is a garden with a view and a gardener with a wealth of knowledge.

Hotel Endsleigh’s long border is planted to give guests enjoyment throughout the growing season

The garden at Cliffe (now closed to the public) overlooks sublime Lee Bay

As usual, most of October was spent working in China, so it was great to return to two gardens still going strong. Having been blighted with mildew through the summer, Clematis ‘Madame Julia Correvon’ came into her own in October and was still blooming on Christmas Day. She was joined by Anemone ‘Wild Swan’ and Eomecon chionantha, otherwise known as the snow poppy, despite normally blooming in May and June.

A lady with staying power – Clematis ‘Madame Julia Correvon’

Most of December was spent in bed, not relaxing, but recovering from a succession of unwelcome bugs. For the most part it was a month I’d rather forget, but by Christmas Day I was well enough to pose with Him Indoors for our traditional festive self portrait. You will spot on the right of the photograph a miniature greenhouse I bought for myself on a recent trip to Holland. Well, Father Christmas took the hint and delivered (albeit in 100 pieces) a tiny, lean-to greenhouse; the sort that stands against a wall but that one can’t actually go inside. It’s perfect for what I need and will allow me to start sweet peas early, bring on seedlings and give tender plants a little additional protection. All I need is time to put it together, and before I know it there won’t be an inch of staging left unoccupied.

Thank you for reading this post and for joining me on my trip down memory lane. The going was a little rough at times and my suspension almost failed, but as 2015 approaches I can see open road ahead. I hope the same goes for you. Happy New Year!

A Happy New Year from The Frustrated Gardener and Him Indoors

Only fifteen days into the New Year and the RHS have offered the public a glimpse of how the show gardens will look at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. As you’d expect there’s little that might risk furrowing the brows of the judging panel, but there are some distinct trends emerging from the panoply of designs that have been revealed so far.

The World On Our Doorstep

Last year Cleeve West alluded to Islamic styling with his Persian inspired Paradise Garden for sponsors M&G Investments. This year we get the full monty in the shape of Kamelia Bin Zaal’s ‘The Beauty of Islam’, which explores the relationship between mankind and the earth.

The Beauty of Islam will mark designer Kamelia Bin Zaal’s Chelsea debut

Poetry, sculpture and calligraphy will be employed to demonstrate the beauty of Arabic and Islamic cultures, whilst Kamelia’s planting will illustrate the extent to which the Arabic empire grew, extending to regions where rosemary, papyrus and jasmine could be found. There’s surely no better time to reinforce the beautiful, cultured and peaceful nature of Islamic culture and I am sure this garden will garner a lot of positive attention. Too much hard landscaping can turn the Chelsea judges off, so it will be interesting to see if Kamelia’s completed project strikes the right balance between authenticity and high horticulture.

Kamelia Bin Zaal studied Landscape Design at Inchbald School of Design in London

Several of this year’s first time designers are not Brits, or even Europeans, which I hope will start to turn the tide against the tedium of endless perennial prairie and annual meadow plantings. I doubt either of the latter will be found within ‘The Hidden Beauty of Kranji’, a garden designed by John Tan & Raymond Toh. Their show garden is inspired by a lush suburb of their native Singapore and will brim with orchids, tropical ferns, coconut palms and jungly creepers. This is a garden that is certain to turn heads, provided it can survive the vagaries of a British early summer.

The Hidden Beauty of Kranji is inspired by the gardens of a Singaporean suburb

A garden guaranteed to hog the limelight is the Sentebale garden designed by Matthew Keightley. With HRH Prince Harry as it’s Patron, and last year’s People’s Choice designer at the helm, it would be hard not have the highest hopes for a gold medal. Sentebale provides healthcare and education to Lesotho’s vulnerable children and Matthew’s garden aims to offer visitors a taste of this mountainous country, along with a sense of the vibrant atmosphere in the charity’s Mamohato camp. A central building constructed using traditional materials will anchor the scheme, which also includes rocks and water features.

The Sentebale garden has already had Royal approval

Effortless Elegance

Chelsea would not be Chelsea without the stylish presence of both Laurent-Perrier and The Telegraph. The prestigious Champagne House has surely secured greatness by partnering with leading British designer Dan Pearson and one of our country’s greatest estates, Chatsworth. Having been absent from Chelsea for more than a decade, Dan’s garden is inspired by the wilder reaches of Chatworth’s historic garden, featuring an ambitious rockery and stream. It will be a welcome change of pace for Laurent Perrier, who’s garden I admired, but did not love in 2014.

The Laurent-Perrier garden will occupy the prominent ‘triangle’ site at Chelsea

The Telegraph have left much to the imagination, releasing only a black and white pencil drawing of their garden designed by Marcus Barnett. To better understand Marcus’ design, think of Mondrian, a principal member of the De Stijl Movement (which translates from Dutch as ‘The Style’) founded in Amsterdam in 1917. The garden will rely heavily on rectilinear geometry, with bright blocks of flower and foliage contributing colour and texture. In place of the monochrome rendering, expect vibrant, primary colour-blocking against a foil of cool greens.

The Telegraph Garden will employ the vibrant colours and closely related tones favoured by the De Stijl Movement

Knowing What Works

My parting shot is to herald the return of TV gardener Chris Beardshaw to Chelsea, with a garden that brings together tried and tested features such as rusty metal pillars, pollarded trees and effervescent perennials. It’s been a winning formula before, and I am sure it will be again, but at face value this garden (top and below) feels a little too safe for my liking. I would be more than happy to be proved wrong.

What’s for sure is that Chelsea Flower Show will once again hold the nation in its thrall. Running from May 19-23 2015, tickets are still available, but don’t dilly-dally, they’ll be gone before you can say ‘Alan Titchmarsh’. Do let me know which gardens tickle your fancy, or dowse your bonfire.

Chris Beardshaw’s garden will be relocated to East London following the show

Driving south to the pretty village of Saltwood for the annual NSPCC plant fair has become something of a tradition in our household. Even Him Indoors looks forward to going, or at least pretends to. We have both been poorly this week – Him Indoors with a cold and me with tonsilitis – but after a recuperative lie-in we set off. Having not been to any of the RHS London plant fairs this year, the opportunity to kick start my plant buying campaign for 2015 was too tempting to pass up on account of a sore throat.

Lead planter with pale peach tulips – an elegant combination

For as many years as I can recall the day of the fair, held in the magical grounds of Saltwood Castle, has been cold and breezy. Today was no exception, but for once we were prepared with coats, scarves and an unnecessary umbrella. Swallows dipped low over the castle’s lawns, a little early to signal the start of summer, but a welcome sight nevertheless. The wooded slopes around the ancient walls grew thick with Spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica) and late flowering Narcissus poeticus. The orchard, apple trees in full bloom, was artfully planted with Rembrandt tulips, elevating it from the ordinary to the sublime.

Pretty but polluting, Spanish bluebells, Hyacinthoides hispanica

The fair is attended by a select band of twenty nurseries offering really top notch plants. For geraniums there’s Hall’s Court Nursery and for herbs, Invicta. The one nursery I cross my fingers will turn up is Decoy from Pevensey in East Sussex, a specialist in shade plants. Last year I purchased Anemonella thalictriodes ‘Oscar Shoaf’, but was not confident it would grow for me. I am happy to report it has thrived, although I think I probably let it dry out more than I should during the summer. This year I went a little wild, as you can see from the list below but, when presented with such treasures, what is a plantaholic to do? Among those that got away this time were Epimedium ‘Spine Tingler’, Cyclamen repandum, Sanguinaria canadensis f. multiplex ‘Plena’ and Athyrium filix-femina ‘Dre’s Dagger’.

Decoy Nursery, with a fine selection of plants for shady gardens

There were some tantalising auriculas for sale, including P. auricula ‘Forest Lemon’ (top of post), but I was not buying. Last year’s purchases did not fare well in our snail infested garden; they were munched to within an inch of their lives before winter finished the job. I will try again another day when I have the time and patience required to grow these charming little primulas.

Auriculas – easier to look at than to grow

The Damage:

• Anemonella thalictroides ‘Green Hurricane’ – an unusual anemonella with green flowers over thalictrum-like foliage.
• Dryopteris wallichiana – a hardy fern, with upright stems covered in brown-black bristly hairs.
• Asarum delavayi ‘Giant’ – huge cyclamen-like leaves and curious chocolate brown flowers at carried at ground level.
• Pleione formosana ‘Clare’ – that white pleione I had been on the lookout for. Bought in generous potfulls which can be split in February.
• Jeffersonia diphylla – an American woodlander with white flowers and dancing leaves that appear lighter than air.
• Dryopteris erythrosora ‘Brilliance’ – an advance on the species with brighter red fronds that retain their colour.

Chinese Paeonia ludlowii flourishes in the shadow of Saltwood Castle’s walls

The car boot packed with plants, including others bought as gifts (honest!), we headed down a mile along a dead-end to The American Garden (about which more soon) for a spot of rhododendron appreciation. This part of Kent is unique in that a swathe of acid soil sweeps across the chalk landscape, creating little pockets that are just right for growing rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias. Next Sunday I can look forward to the annual opening of Sandling Park, one of the finest woodland gardens in this part of the country, especially if you like deciduous azaleas. Now all I have to do is persuade Him Indoors.

Other posts about Sandling Park: Great Balls of Fire (2014), A Spring Spectrum (2013)

Other posts about Saltwood Castle: Spring Comes to Saltwood (2014), Saltwood Castle, Hythe (2013)

Azalea ‘Thisbe’, Sandling Park

Generally speaking I am not the kind of person who wins lotteries or ballots. I don’t even come out of tombolas or raffles particularly favourably. I am the man that walks away with the cider vinegar or the oversized tea cosy fashioned from yarn that looks like it would induce an electric shock. But today fortune was smiling on me as, for the very first time, I managed to get my hands on that most precious of prizes, a Chelsea Flower Show Press Pass. Rather like turning left on a plane, once you’ve experienced preview day at Chelsea it is hard to go back. There are film crews, photographers, hacks and celebrities galore, but compensating for that is the space and time to take in one of the greatest celebrations of horticulture on the planet. It was as if all my birthdays had come at once. Of course I will be back tomorrow for the first member’s day, but the experience will feel decidedly ‘economy’ compared to today, even though I only had a couple of hours to spare and an iPhone in my pocket.

Despite the inclement weather (high winds and drenching showers), most of the show gardens on Main Avenue were holding up well. I felt for the designers of the Hidden Beauty of Kranji garden who had bravely bedded out orchids beneath palm trees almost bent double by the gale. My highest hopes were for Dan Pearson’s Laurent Perrier garden, but, exceptional as it was, I am not sure it’s a shoe-in for Best in Show. So skilled is the garden’s execution that it appears to have been torn straight from the Derbyshire countryside and pasted into the grounds of the Royal Hospital. It is wild and authentic, but is it a Chelsea garden? We’ll know what the RHS judges think first thing tomorrow morning. If the accolade does not go Dan’s way, My top tips for the big prize would be The Retreat, designed by Jo Thompson for sponsors M&G investments, and Matt Keightley’s Hope in Vulnerability garden for Prince Harry’s charity Sentebale. Jo Thompson has created an archetypal English garden (above), with a contemporary twist. Matt’s design (below), inspired by the Mamohato Children’s centre in Lesotho, made my heart sing with it’s colourful planting and warm, friendly atmosphere: if not the top honour it deserves serious recognition.

Given my rare good luck, I think it’s only fair to share with you the highlights of my afternoon at Chelsea. Whether you are visiting, watching the TV coverage or admiring from afar, I do hope you enjoy the show. Check back throughout the week for more pictures, analysis and my top 10 Chelsea plants for 2015.

At about 10.30am yesterday morning a small crowd surrounded Monty Don and RHS Director General Sue Biggs as they prepared to announce the prize for ‘Best Large Show Garden’. Their position, next to the island site at the bottom of Main Avenue, left little doubt as to the winner – the Chatsworth Garden designed by Dan Pearson for Laurent-Perrier. It was the bookies’ favourite to take the accolade and, judging by the rapturous applause, the public’s as well.

Managing Director of Laurent-Perrier in the UK, David Hesketh, is the man with the enviable task of selecting a designer for the Champagne house’s Chelsea garden each year. He is clearly persuasive, as Dan Pearson has not designed a Chelsea garden for eleven years. David’s brief to his designer is a simple one, purely to reflect the value’s that Laurent Perrier adhere to when crafting their distinguished cuvées: lightness, freshness and delicacy.

Rocks surrounded by the fragrant flowers of Rhododendron luteum

There can be no argument that David’s brief was achieved. During last night’s BBC coverage Monty Don described The Chatsworth Garden as one of the most significant ever created at the Chelsea Flower Show. I would have to agree. Not only is it one of the largest (no show garden has ever occupied the full island site before) but also one of the most ambitious. Taking his inspiration from two of Joseph Paxton’s lesser known features within Chatsworth’s 105 acre garden – the magnificent rockery and the ornamental trout stream – Dan Pearson has masterminded a garden of unrivalled detail, impeccable naturalism and enormous charm.

The layout of the Laurent-Perrier garden from the northern edge

Dan’s design is unusual for Chelsea in that it can be glimpsed from all sides. This in itself is a challenge as views from every angle have to be considered, whereas in other gardens the main viewpoint is from the front and one side. A tiny stream begins high on an austere rocky outcrop, out of view from visitors. It then flows gently down and through meadows of flowers where it is crossed by giant stone slabs, ending its course in a small pond: “Getting the levels right was crucial” explained David “every stone and pebble in the water course has been carefully secured in place to achieve the right effect”. The mammoth stones used for the garden do not just simulate Paxton’s monumental rockery of 1842, they are the actual rocks that Paxton rejected during his original project. They were found discarded, scattered around the Chatsworth estate, many weighing several tonnes.

Rheums and osmundas in the shadow of Paxton’s gargantuan rocks

Although they are species commonly found in England, the trees that Crocus sourced for Dan Pearson have come from all over Europe. “British nurseries don’t tend to hold mature specimen trees for landscape projects” Crocus founder and CEO Mark Fane told me, “so we had to look to Europe”. The characterful pollarded willow that stands at edge of the garden came from Holland, whilst other trees were found in Germany and France. I was interested to learn that the location of one of the willow trees had to be changed during the build after the team discovered a Victorian sewer running under the site. It was doubtful that the old pipes could have withstood the direct weight of the tree, so it had to be moved elsewhere at the last minute.

The rocks, flanked by Enkianthus campanulatus, through which the tiny stream flows

The comment that was repeated by everyone I overheard was how incredible it was that this garden had been created in a matter of days and yet appeared as if it had been there forever. David Hesketh explained to me that the entire garden had been created at the nursery three months earlier and allowed to knit together over the weeks leading up to the show. Unlike some other show gardens, all the plants were transferred growing in the ground to Chelsea, and not left in pots. A swathe of wild flower meadow was grown specifically for the garden and cut into large square sheets of turf before being transported on trollies to the site.

A grassy bank strewn with red campion, troillius, irises and primulas

The planting creates as rich and colourful a tapestry as one could ever hope to see. Completely unswayed by trends and ‘it’ plants, Dan Pearson has used a palette of natives, carefully augmented by ornamentals, just as you would find in the wilder recesses of a garden like Chatsworth. I loved the floating canopies of Rhododendron luteum;  the fringes of candelabra primulas which appeared to have seeded themselves alongside the stream; the random spikes of camassia and marsh orchids poking through the turf; and the white clouds of Luzula nivea, Lychnis flos-cuculi ‘White Robin’ and Cenolophium denudatum foaming at the base of the trees. There were wonderful touches such as clumps of Narcissus poeticus hiding beneath the bushes and purple stemmed irises along the water’s edge. Many visitors would not have noticed these details, but the judges certainly did.

Turk’s cap lilies in all shades of orange populated shady parts of the garden

I was lucky enough to be invited to walk through the centre of the garden, across a heavy plank boardwalk, over rough stepping stones and then onto a lightly worn grass path. From inside, the garden felt even more permanent, as if I was standing on a little island of Chatsworth that had floated down from Derbyshire to South West London. Any team capable of creating a show garden this convincing deserves a gold medal.

Heavy oak planks invite visitors into the garden

A privileged view from the top of the grass bank inside the garden

Unlike many other show gardens there is a future for the Chatsworth Garden. When the show closes most of the trees, plants and stones will be transported back to Chatsworth where they will be used in the regeneration of the trout stream area. This was one of the main reasons Dan Pearson took on the project. He says: “I felt when I was here the last time it was wrong to make a garden for just five days and I felt uncomfortable about the waste and that the gardens were not being recycled. I wanted to work on something that lasts decades rather than days, so that is why I said I was important that the garden had another life.” The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, who live at Chatsworth, were clearly delighted with the whole project and spent the day handing out leaflets and talking to the public.

White thalictrum

Dan Pearson vowed yesterday never to work on another Chelsea Garden. In the short term his Garden Bridge project will keep him out of mischief, yet firmly in the limelight. With that under his belt, surely another Chelsea garden will seem like a walk in the park?

In Paxton’s original design for Chatsworth, rocks were delicately balanced so that they could be made to sway for the amusement of visitors

Plant List

A complete plant list was not provided, and would have run to many pages. Here are some of the highlights:

• Asarum europaeum AGM
• Asplenium scolopendrium AGM
• Briza media
• Brunnera macrophylla ‘Betty Bowring’
• Cenolophium denudatum
• Cornus canadensis
• Deschampsia cespitosa
• Digitalis purpurea f. albiflora
• Dryopteris erythrosora AGM
• Enkianthus campanulatus AGM
• Euphorbia palustris AGM
• Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus
• Iris ‘Berlin Tiger’ AGM
• Lonicera pericylmenum ‘Graham Thomas’ AGM
• Lunaria rediviva AGM
• Luzula nivea
• Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’
• Matteuccia struthiopteris AGM
• Melica altissima ‘Alba’
• Osmunda regalis
• Polygonatum x hybridum AGM
• Rhododendron luteum
• Smyrnium perfoliatum

Cornus canadensis carpeting the ground