Thank you!

Stones

The stones are from a beach in Dorset and are very satisfying to look at and hold.  We rearrange them from time to time, but this is how I saw them for the photo.

Shadows through glass

These next ones are shadows through glass.  I love the way the light is focused and dispersed in such a short space; it ranges from complete intensity to softness.  The patterns are an amazing network of light and dark in seemingly random patterns but they are consistently recreated as the glass is turned.

Shadows through glass

Tropaeolum 'Peach Melba'

Flowering until the first frosts, nasturtiums always make a good show. This one is Tropaeolum ‘Peach Melba’. The leaves of nasturtiums are distinctive flat, fleshy, frost-tender discs on long stalks like juggling plates, able to balance and twist in the wind.  In damp weather, dewdrops and raindrops settle on the leaves like mercury.  Really pretty!

Tropaeolum

Tropaeolum

Tropaeolum

Phormium tenax variegatum

When we first spoke about underplanting, my clients imagined traditional, low, ground cover plants and were really shocked when I showed them these 1.2m high phormiums on our nursery visit.   They are completely bowled over with the finished effect; these magnificent Phormium tenax variegatum planted between the roots of established sycamore trees, really add drama to the garden.

They’re planted away from the fence and as light to travels down the length of the leaves, it lifts and balances shape and mass of the tree trunks and boundary.

Festuca glauca

We finished off planting this jewel of a garden during the week.  Festuca glauca was planted under Trachelospermum jasminoides in lightweight black terrazzo planters from Cadix, with 4mm white Nordic spar stones to finish the look.  We gave purple leaved Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’ the same treatment in matching black terrazzo pots, moodily set against a dark fence.

Acer palmatum 'Bloodgood'

Mission accomplished! Here’s a female garden spider having caught a fly.

And although markings vary from spider to spider, you can easily recognise her by the white cross on her back.

The Garden Spider, Araneus diadematus

Late summer colour

I first designed and planted this garden seven years ago and in September, as part of my Event Gardening service, I was asked back to prepare it for a party.  The concept for this south-facing border is for hot colours and jungle-style plants, with this image featuring purple- and green-leaved bananas, Musa basjoo with scarlet shocker Dahlia ‘Bishop of Llandaff’. I continued the show-stopping scene by adding orange Dahlia ‘Gallery Art Deco’, purple Verbena bonariensis and the bruised mahogany colour and distinctive leaf shapes of Cordyline australis ‘Red Star’. It’s full of razzle-dazzle and just gets better and better as the summer progresses!

House fly - Musca domestica

A house fly resting on a nasturtium leaf.  Incredible!

Rudbeckia triloba

I have this safe, English, summer combo of box balls (admittedly, the box is positioned half in and half out of the border into the lawn area for a bit of anarchy as when I planted them, I had this thing about breaking boundaries), alliums and iris, with wisteria followed by roses and clematis.  All gorgeous from late April to the end of July – then terrifying gaps!  I’ve added the tall white daisy Leucanthemum x superbum ‘ Highland White Dream’ for July / August and Rudbeckia triloba to lift the border from August to October.  The wisteria leaves will turn yellow in the autumn then I’ll have the twisted silver-grey wisteria stems and green clipped box shapes to sustain me until a yellow winter-flowering jasmine comes out, then the hellebores and spring bulbs.

Here’s the bright yellow Rudbeckia daisy against the box balls. I haven’t staked it and it has a sort of weighted, balancing kind of habit, where the flowers are well supported but bob forward slowly in the breeze. The border is a narrow 1.2m wide but I mainly view it along it’s length so plants can stack up like that instead.  I’ve also deep blue Agapanthus out at the moment and bright cerise roses, so what with the yellow daisies too, it’s quite a bold primary colour collection!