Experienced gardener and thoroughly good egg, Louise Sims shares some of her favourite plants as they come into their own through the year
broad-leaved everlasting pea Thirty five years ago when we moved to our present house, it was our wish and our ambition to make and to grow a garden from scratch. We were lucky enough to inherit a blank canvas with very few existing features and even fewer garden-worthy plants, but the one that was there, […]
Silene armeria Sweet William Catchfly bunch pink Annuals come and go don’t they, but this little gem has stuck with us and I am so glad because it makes a big contribution to the garden scene and especially to our containers where it seems particularly happy to grow. I bought my original plant several years […]
red-leaved rose AKA Rosa rubrifolia Seldom do you grow a rose primarily for its foliage but today’s pick of the week is precisely one of those. Anyone who is familiar with this charming species will agree that its beauty lies in the overall picture: purple-tinged, glaucous (from the Latin glaucus meaning bluish-grey) leaves, reddish-blue new shoots and stems, […]
plantain lily ‘Devon Green’ The very first hosta I bought, many years ago, was the blue leafed ‘Halcyon’, so I was interested to discover that ‘Devon Green’ was a sport (a naturally occurring mutation) of this favourite of mine. Like its parent, it is very resistant to slugs. It was introduced by Roger and Ann […]
Japanese wisteria (syn. Wisteria floribunda ‘Macrobotrys’) May is an extraordinary month. Each time I set foot in the garden I notice something new that has just come out, so it’s hard to pick out a favourite at this time of the year; they are all special, but my choice today is hard to beat for drama and impact. It you don’t have a suitable house wall, or if you just fancy a small specimen tree, this method […]
fringe cups This lovely hardy perennial is a tried and tested old favourite, yet as spring gets into its stride, I am once again reminded of the contribution it makes to our garden at this time of the year. Always a welcome sight, the upright spires of creamy white flowers, bell-shaped and tinged with pink, […]
Canary Islands wallflower Almost every gardener must be familiar with, and love Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’, and many enthusiastic adjectives have been used to describe this wallflower over the years: but subtle is not one of them, neither for its colour nor its habit, whereas I have been watching and waiting for my beautiful E scoparium since […]
or dog’s tooth violet ‘Pagoda’ ‘Pagoda’ is one of the most delightful of spring woodland flowers and it definitely ranks high up on my list of favourites for this time of year. The good news is that you don’t need a woodland to grow it – obviously. All you need is a shady spot under […]
Burkwood osmanthus The genus Osmanthus belongs in the olive family (Oleaceae) whose members also include lilac, forsythia and jasmine; and the epithet refers to the nurserymen and brothers Arthur and Albert Burkwood who, in the first half of the twentieth century bred improved varieties of certain of their favourite shrubs. One of the parents of O x burkwoodii is O. delavayi; as you […]
Variegated greater periwinkle – This beautiful variegated form used to be called ‘Elegantissima’, which is a rather more imaginative name for a plant that is a far cry from the thuggish plain-leaved original. Some gardeners might still find it a little over-enthusiastic but I find it relatively easy to keep in check. It’s often described […]
or Cornelian cherry The common name of this cornus I found rather confusing until I learnt that Cornel is another name for dogwood, and I am guessing that the cherry part of the name refers to the gorgeous glossy red, edible fruits it bears in the summer. Native to Southern Europe and Turkey, Cornus mas has been naturalised here for […]
It’s been quite a winter hasn’t it? Yet even rain does occasionally show off plants to their advantage. There are a few that seem designed to catch raindrops on their leaves and so it was this morning as I walked along the path next to our vegetable patch. These can be rather dismal looking places […]
Sempervivums are of course a massive subject, and although usually I’m a stickler for correct horticultural nomenclature I am afraid that I fall into that category of gardener who loves sempervivums but fails to remember all their names. This is due to a number of reasons: some are remarkably similar to each other and I don’t […]
Honeysuckle ‘Winter Beauty’ A gardening friend came round for a coffee the other day and as we sat at the kitchen table where I had placed a stem of this gorgeous honeysuckle, we suddenly realised that we should instead be outside enjoying the sights and scents of the garden in winter. So we pulled on […]
For all of us gardeners this is quite a tough time of the year. After an autumn that was unremittingly dank, rainy and grey, interspersed with occasional fleeting bursts of sunshine, we’re about to embark upon winter proper! That said, this plucky little spurge never complains, it just gets on with looking good. I realise […]
Oregon grape ‘Lionel Fortescue’ Say the word ‘mahonia’ and most people will immediately think of the boring old stereotype M aquifolium, and who can blame them? That’s the one most commonly grown as ground cover in challenging municipal settings and it has few redeeming features. However, my chosen plant today is a hybrid (produced by Lionel Fortescue […]
This has been the perfect autumn for fuchsias because these trusty plants like it cool and damp. I purchased five plug plants of ‘Delta’s Sara’ 18 months ago and initially they took a while to get their toes stuck in and I began to wonder if I’d bought a dud. However, after a slow start, […]
We are constantly re-evaluating the plants we grow – are we not? Is this one rather too enthusiastic? Is that one turning out to be taller than you expected? Why doesn’t that one flower reliably? And why does that one need staking when really it should be able to fend for itself? In our garden, […]
alum root ‘Autumn Bride’ This not-so-common heuchera has often been a contender for my ‘special plant’ slot. I rather dislike that expression ‘all year round interest’ and it’s an unworthy first description of ‘Autumn Bride’ but this great favourite of mine does make a huge contribution to our garden scene and never more so than […]
Purple leaved grape vine and Jackman’s clematis ‘There is a harmony in autumn’. So wrote Percy Shelley, and how right he was, I have long noticed that autumn seldom needs help from me. It’s true that I planted these two climbers originally but they were both intended to grow in the opposite direction: one through […]
Leafing through a few gardening magazines recently I’ve noticed articles about planting up containers now – for autumn! I’ve been wondering why on earth anyone would need or want to do this. I suppose that if you don’t have any existing planted containers, you might like to start now but they will have a very […]
seven son flower tree Just when the garden is starting to feel a little autumnal, and when many trees and shrubs are telling us that they’ve done their thing (and to be honest, some are starting to look a little jaded), this handsome, seldom grown, large shrub will surely pique the curiosity of any gardener. […]
Please read on, and please forget about the common golden rod with shouty, chrome yellow flowers invading every corner of your patch and elbowing out the treasures. This is a totally different ball game – a distinctly different variety and once you’ve got it you’ll be happy to keep it! First off, this one does […]
castor oil plant: For no good reason I’ve always had a slightly ingrained prejudice against growing the castor oil plant in our own garden – until earlier this year that is. Strolling along the main street of a small village in Somerset, there in the distance I caught sight of a plant table set up […]
Everyone loves a blue salvia and I certainly fell for ‘So Cool Pale Blue’. It is one of a series of ‘So Cool’ salvias recently bred in Australia and launched in the UK in 2018. The breeders wanted to produce woody varieties with cool colours on reliable and compact plants. These salvias are also very […]
all-heal or cat’s valerian You may already feel confused by its name but this elegant perennial has little to do with the red (or pink or white) valerian that is so commonly seen growing on walls, verges and banks all over the UK – that one is not Valeriana but Centranthus! Having said as much they are […]
(formerly Chiastophyllum oppositifolium AGM) lamb’s tail Not for the first time am I made a little grumpy by plant name changes. It took a while to get the old one into my head and once embedded there, I used to relish the occasions when friends would spot it in the garden and ask what it was called! […]
alternate-leaved butterfly bush – Almost exactly five years ago, we took part in our village’s open gardens scheme and I remember well how many visitors stopped to admire our butterfly bush – it really stole the show! I also remember wishing that I had taken many more cuttings as so many people wanted to buy […]
Rosa ‘Spanish Beauty’ – Over the years I have tried to wow our house guests by training the roses around the windows which is a very rewarding way of bringing the garden into the house. It has taken a few years but we’ve finally made it! Mme. Grégoire Steachelin is one of the earliest roses to […]
American alum root ‘Harry Hay’ Part of the enjoyment of writing this piece every fortnight is that invariably I get carried away by my subject and end up being side tracked: be it about the origins of the plant itself, the nursery where I first bought it, or sometimes, as in this piece, I start […]
A good place to start, for anyone who loves clematis, is to buy a copy of Christopher Lloyd’s highly respected book of the same name. It’s a massive source of information and a good read. However, my choice of clematis today was bred in the same year as my revised edition of 1989 was printed, […]
Sedum rhodiola roseroot During the winter months the knobbly rootstock of this succulent plant looks like nothing on earth, and in January and February I find myself endlessly peering at it trying to spot the first sign of life. It’s a fascinating thing to keep an eye on as spring approaches and sometimes hard to […]
PKA Chionodoxa sardensis Common names: Lesser glory-of-the-snow or squill (from Sart*) Any mention of these beautiful little bulbs immediately brings to mind a passage in Beverley Nichols’ book ‘Down the Garden Path’ (how very dated it reads now) in which he catalogues the planting of (and waiting for the appearance of) an ‘avalanche’ of chionodoxa […]
coral-bark maple Just when you thought you’d heard the last of colourful winter stems – along comes the coral-bark maple. Please accept my apologies for raising the subject again*, but this one was begging for a mention and right now it’s probably at its peak. I’ve always loved and admired acers but sadly our heavy […]
Japanese quince ‘Nivalis’ By its very ubiquity, the poor old Japanese quince is often overlooked, but I have always rated them highly and not least, of course, because any shrub flowering in February is to be welcomed. This deciduous and woody shrub is very accommodating and adaptable, it’s also extremely hardy and is tolerant of […]
At this time of the year, there’s nothing more cheering than a little pot of gold by the front door, and to be sure, when I chose these last autumn, I had little idea that they would be such a success. The weather has not been kind these past couple of weeks and certainly not for […]