Planting and Arranging in the Blue Garden at Great Dixter

Last month, while we visited Great Dixter, we got to see firsthand the process of succession planting that the late Christopher Lloyd and Head Gardener Fergus Garrett wrote about in their book titled Succession Planting for Year-round Pleasure. Immediately after our tour, our guide Rachael Dodd, got back to work arranging pots with students on the landing of the Lutyens Steps in the Blue Garden. Meanwhile, another group of students was working on making a planting shift in the garden.

Rachael, in the blue-checked shirt, was collaborating with two students on the best arrangement of pots. They were debating/discussing the best combinations of color, and more importantly texture, in the combinations of plants. I'm sure the size and shape of the pots also contributed to the equation. Several of the gardens, most notably the House Entrance, have elaborate pot plantings. It is an excellent way to experiment with combinations of plants because the pots are easily rearranged without disturbing the plants.

In the Blue Garden, another group of students was planting out annuals and shrubs into the garden itself. A series of planks was used to protect the lawn and to prevent the soil in the garden from becoming compacted. Lessons learned in pot arranging translate well into planting a mixed border.

Yet another gardener was working in Orchard Garden while were we at Great Dixter.

The Long Border is the best example of succession planting at Great Dixter. It is a long and very deep mixed border containing trees, shrubs, perennials, biennials, bulbs and tender annuals. The bones that Edwin Lutyens created around 1910-1913 are the perfect backdrop for the vibrant and ever-changing planting scheme for which Great Dixter is known. Below is the arrangement of pots at the Front Entrance to the house that were on display when we visited last month.

For me, the best part about Great Dixter is the energy of learning and experimentation that has been palpable during every visit I have made to Great Dixter. Fergus Garrett has carried on and enhanced Christopher Lloyd's legacy for education. The Great Dixter website says it best:

"Christopher Lloyd established the garden at Great Dixter as a place where young and old gardeners would meet and share their excitement for plants. His writing in both books and the press stimulated gardeners all around the world. Students come to Dixter to learn practical skills and develop a deeper understanding of the craft of traditional flower gardening. Fergus Garrett, Christopher’s friend and head gardener, continues his legacy, both in the borders at Great Dixter and through his work with students."

Hedges and Topiary on the Passionate Gardener Tour

 Hidcote

 Hidcote

 Hidcote

 Hidcote

Vann

Vann 

Pettifers Garden

Rousham Gardens

Rousham Gardens 

Great Dixter

Great Dixter 

Great Dixter 

Sissinghurst

Sissinghurst

"The Passionate Gardener" Tour May 22-31, 2016

For the last five years, I have been an assistant tour guide on "The Best of English Gardens" tour for my friend Michael Induni's company, Discover Europe. "The Best of English Gardens" is a wonderful tour, but it isn't exclusively a tour of gardens. The itinerary also includes Stonehenge, the city of Bath and two nights in Salisbury to see the local sites including the Magna Carta. I have been working with Michael to create a tour for the more discriminating gardener. I researched gardens from London to the Cotswolds. I wanted to visit classic and historic gardens, but I also tried to include contemporary gardens that illustrate the latest in horticulture and design. I thought spending a longer time in less locations would be a more relaxing way to see gardens, so we removed two nights in Salisbury and added time in the Cotswolds.

I came across a December, 2012 article that Penelope Hobhouse wrote for Gardens Illustrated called "25 of the best English gardens to visit throughout England" and cross-referenced that with Tim Richardson's 2013 book The New English Garden and created a new tour called "The Passionate Gardener" Tour. One garden I had been dying to see was Gina Price's private garden, Pettifers. So I scouted Pettifers and Rousham House last year and loved them both. Pettifers has deservedly gotten a lot of press (the cover of The New English Garden) in the last several years. It is a plants-person's garden with a clean modern design. The grouping of four "flask-shaped yew topiaries" have become nearly as iconic as the former yew waves in Piet Oudolf's garden, Hummelo. Her gardener, Polly, is both delightful and knowledgeable. In landscape garden department, I looked to the Hobhouse article and substituted  Rousham House, a privately owned, intimate garden designed by William Kent for Stourhead, a National Trust Garden with hundreds of visitors. As difficult as it was to exclude Stourhead, the intimacy of Rousham House, with about a dozen visitors when I was there, was hard to beat.

I will lead the tour May 22-31, 2016 which will also include the annual Gardens Illustrated Talk at the Royal Geographic Society in London. In the next several months, I will profile the gardens in more detail but below is a list of the gardens in chronological order of the tour:

The New English Garden by Tim Richardson NEG: Pettifers, Great Dixter, High Grove

  

"25 of the best English gardens to visit throughout England" by garden designer and historian Penelope Hobhouse. GI/PH: Sissinghurst, Great Dixter, Hidcote Manor, Iford Manor, Rousham House

"Best of English Gardens" Tour BEG : Great Dixter, Sissinghurst, Hidcote Manor,

Iford Manor, Barnsley House, Kiftsgate Garden, Chelsea Flower Show, Vann

 

Great Dixter NEG, GI/PH, BEG

Sissinghurst: GI/PH, BEG

Chelsea Flower Show: BEG

RHS Wisley: BEG

Iford Manor: GI/PH, BEG 

Rousham House: GI/PH

Pettifers Garden: NEG

Kiftsgate: BEG

Barnsley House: BEG

Vann: BEG

Garden Talk: Succession Planting for New Englanders

Today I will giving a talk to the Garden Club of Amherst, Massachusetts called Succession Planting for New Englanders. I am particularly pleased to be speaking in Amherst because several of the members of this garden club were on The Best of English Gardens Tour in 2014, so I will be having a reunion of sorts.

 

I first learned about succession planting from an article Fergus Garrett wrote in the now defunct White Flower Farm periodical called The Gardener.  The article, written in 2002, was titled "Making a Mixed Border" and was the nucleus of Christopher Lloyd's 2005 book called Succession Planting for Year-Round Pleasure. Garrett's article had perfect timing because I read it just as I was designing the Boccelli Garden in Peterborough. The article had plant lists and a map of the garden Garrett and Lloyd were designing for a new Zone 5 garden at White Flower farm in Connecticut. 

I carefully studied the article making notes in the margins on plants I wanted to include in the Boccelli Garden. The next step was to procure these plants which I did from a variety of local and mail-order nurseries. Sadly, my three main sources of plants, Blue Meadow Farm in Montague, MA, Heronswood Nursery in Kingston, Washington, and Conway's Nursery in  Little Compton, Rhode Island are all now closed. Fortunately, I was able to get my hands on some top notch components of a mixed border: trees, shrubs, perennials, biennials, annuals and bulbs from these nurseries. My talk today will be about my successes and failures in trying to adapt a watered down and simplified version of the planting style at Great Dixter in the cold soil of New Hampshire.

The Boccelli Garden in Mid-June

When the Peony 'Peter Brand' comes into bloom, the Boccelli Garden pops with excitment. I especially like the contrast of the chartreuse leaves of Catalpa bignonioides 'Aurea' and the orange flowers of Euphorbia griffithii ‘Dixter’, a selection made by the late Christopher Lloyd of Great Dixter.

Another Great Dixter plant in the Boccelli Garden brought to the United States by Dan Hinkley of Heronswood fame is Ribes alpinum 'Aurea', which can be seen in the center of this photo. Hinkley brought back a suckering stem of the plant at Great Dixter and propagated it for sale in 2004. I got great pleasure out of seeing the original plant at Great Dixter when I was there last month.

Luciano Giubbilei's Border at Great Dixter

While we were at Great Dixter, our tour guide, Rachael Dodd, mentioned that she has been collaborating with last year's Best in Show winner, Luciano Giubbilei, on a trial border in the vegetable garden at Great Dixter. Giubbilei, an Italian, had designed gardens for clients that reflected his heritage and were comprised primarily of hardscape and clipped hornbeam, yew, boxwood and beech. After he created his 2011 Chelsea garden, he wanted to get a greater understanding of the herbaceous elements of garden design. Fergus Garrett invited him to have 'residency' at Great Dixter and gave him a small plot where Giubbilei can get his hands dirty and experiment with planting techniques and combinations. James Horner, also a former Christopher Lloyd scholar worked with him on his Chelsea Flower Show winning garden.

Euphorbias were a main feature of the garden in May

Cow's parsley was another feature

The garden will also have another peak in autumn when the tall Eupatorium are in bloom.

Rachael Dodd gave a tour that was delightful and informative. Rachael was a former Christopher Lloyd scholar and has continued on at Great Dixter. Fergus Garrett must be doing something right to attract such enthusiastic and knowledgeable students and staff.

Luciano Giubbilei's Gold Medal winning garden at the 2014 Chelsea Flower Show. This planting was a result of his collaboration with Dixter-trained James Horner who worked with Giubbilei, overseen by Fergus Garrett, on in his border at Great Dixter.

Great Dixter 2015

Pictures Speak Louder than Words; Especially at Great Dixter