Table of contents for June 2024 in Gardens Illustrated Magazine (2024)

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Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024WelcomeSummer is finally here and we have decided to celebrate its arrival this issue by bringing you six glorious gardens to enjoy. First, we visit the iconic rooms of Sissinghurst Castle at peak rose-blooming time (page 28), and get to look behind the scenes at how head gardener Troy Scott Smith and his team keep it looking so enchanting.There are more roses on show in the garden of Michael Marriott (page 72), the expert rosarian, who shares his outdoor space with his partner, horticultural TV producer Rosie Irving. They tell us how they manage to divide the space and maintain harmony despite differing gardening styles. Michael also offers fantastic tips that bust some myths around caring for roses.Our other gardens include a magical new gravel garden and meadow planting around…1 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024WHAT TO DO IN… JUNE8 Royal Windsor Flower Show Visit Windsor Great Park for a day celebrating gardening, nature and cookery, opened by honorary president Alan Titchmarsh. Saturday 8 June, 10am-6pm. £21. Windsor Great Park SL4 2BS. rwrhs.com10-14 A Celebration of Flowers Join nurserywoman Claire Austin as she celebrates 25 years at her nursery. Various events across the week. Claire Austin Hardy Plants, White Hopton Farm, Wern Lane, Sarn, Newtown SY16 4EN. Tel 01686 670342. claireaustin-hardyplants.co.uk11 Paper Parrot Tulips Learn how to transform crepe paper into everlasting parrot tulips on this one-day course. Tuesday 11 June, 10am4pm. £130. Leighton Lodge, Leighton, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY5 6RN. Tel 07769 707717, mastertheart.uk…1 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024Summertime at SissinghurstMy team and I analyse the planting throughout the year in each of the ten Sissinghurst ‘rooms’, making comments on what's looking goodThe vernal equinox may be the signal for the garden to wake up, but the slow burn of April and May is only fully ignited with the blaze of June. Soaring spikes of lupins begin to show colour, peony buds rupture revealing their crinkled petals, cow parsley froths in broad waist-high swathes and poppies dance in excited fecundity. For three weeks in June, the air within the crumbling walls of Sissinghurst hangs heavy with the intoxicating scent of roses.Of all Sissinghurst's flowers, it was the rose that most captured Vita Sackville-West's imagination. ‘They have a generosity which is as desirable in plants as in people,’ she wrote. They're…11 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024Faith in the futureIN BRIEFWhat A biodiverse rural retreat featuring a meadow and wildlife pond and an aromatic gravel garden.Where Wiltshire.Size Half an acre.Soil Shallow lime-rich soil with a loamy texture.Climate Temperate maritime.Hardiness zone USDA 9a.To the rear of the chapel lies the graveyard, where headstones are now wreathed in wildflowers and peppered with species rosesChapel House is an intriguing and unusual property with a rich ecclesiastical history. A Grade II-listed congregational chapel and manse, it's set in a secluded rural valley on the edge of the Cotswolds, close to an old Roman road, the Fosse Way. When interior designer Sheena Murphy, the founder of Studio Nune, bought the property, the chapel and manse, set just 1m apart, had already been meticulously restored and linked by a modern glass walkway, designed by Mark…6 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024How to grow summer-flowering alliums• Alliums are relatively easy to look after and can be reliably perennial if grown correctly. They perform best in freedraining conditions, as they dislike sitting wet in winter and during their summer dormant period, so avoid heavier clay soils. National Collection holder Jackie Currie recommends lifting the fussier varieties, such as A. atropurpureum, allowing them to dry and bake as they would in nature, before replanting early autumn, to ensure a good display.• For bulbous types, plant dried bulbs soon after purchase in late summer or autumn to a depth of approximately three times the height of the bulb.• For the clump-forming types, it's best to treat them like a herbaceous perennial, buying container-grown stock and planting in spring or late summer to a depth where the surface of…2 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024PERFECT HARMONYIN BRIEFWhat A garden of two halves, one wild and the other designed. Where Shropshire.Size Three quarters of an acre.Soil Neutral clay soil.Climate High rainfall and partly exposed site.Hardiness zone USDA 8.One person's love can be another's loathing. Letting weeds float in and out of borders might please some, but offend others. Creating a garden is very personal, so it's no wonder that gardeners might struggle to share a space, spending many precious hours arguing over plans and plants.Michael Marriott and Rosie Irving met 14 years ago through their work in horticulture, and have shared their Shropshire garden for the past ten years by having their own designated areas. Their decision to divide the garden and the success of this idea has proved that two gardeners can successfully transform a…9 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024DesignLeaning into technologyAward-winning landscape designer Jo Thompson has been awarded the highest accolade, the Grand Gold Award, at the GBA Shenzhen Flower Show in China. Her show garden, I Live with Nature, included a curved brick pavilion at the centre, which was created in collaboration with Princeton University's Form Finding Lab, and researchers from the Universities of Bergamo and Pegaso, using augmented reality (AR) technology.This AR technology, combined with traditional bricklaying methods, allowed masons to position the bricks with greater accuracy so that a skilled mason wearing an AR headset was able to place each brick in exactly the right place to achieve perfect leans and geometries.As a result the walls of the pavilion are able to lean into the central space and also out over the planting, which includes…1 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024ContributorsBenjamin PopeHead gardener Benjamin chooses the best summer alliums, page 54. “It's great to see these later alliums making their mark in our summer gardens, enriching displays with flower and foliage.”Matthew BiggsMatthew recommends 30 excellent plants for year-round interest, page 80. “Every garden needs plants that provide several seasons of interest and it was challenging to reduce this to relatively few.”Rachel WarneRachel photographs a clever courtyard garden, page 98. “Angus has created a garden of solace and calm. Only the hum of pollinators and the ripple of water could be heard.”CONTRIBUTING EDITORSCharlotte HarrisCharlotte co-founded the values-driven landscape design practice Harris Bugg Studio with Hugo Bugg in 2017. She has won three Gold medals at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, as well as Best Show Garden in 2023.Fergus GarrettFergus was appointed…2 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024MAGGIE TRANEarliest garden memory My grandmother's council house garden was my first connection with growing. It was small but she had roses trained all over the walls, and every single patch of the heavy clay soil was jam-packed with Asian vegetables. I don't even know where she got the seeds from. On a hot summer's day when the strawberries ripened, we would eat them straight from the plants.Life before gardening? I studied fine art, and worked as an artist specialising in performance art and experimental theatre, setting up social art spaces with my partner Graeme. I don't see gardening as a career change; more of a transition. I merely changed my medium.First plant love Myosotis. I like to think it was Myosotis ‘Royal Blue’, as it is the most incredible sky…2 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024FRESH APPROACHIN BRIEFWhat Private contemporary-style garden that forms part of a larger walled garden.Where Suffolk.Size 650 square metres.Soil Sandy but generally good garden soil (the site used to be a managed productive walled garden).Climate Temperate, with occasional frosts but sea breeze keeps most cold away. Generally dry and sunny.Hardiness zone USDA 9.Gardens need to look and feel beautiful through the year. I want seasonal rhythmsJust as parents aren't meant to have a favourite child, garden designers aren't meant to have a favourite project. And even though designer Colm Joseph would never admit to having preferential feelings for this scheme, he does agree that “it is certainly one of my most important”. From concept to execution, and from client buy-in to project maturation, it's clearly a garden that gives Colm a great…6 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 202430 plants with interest all yearPerennials1 ECHINACEA PALLIDA This exquisite native of the North American prairies, the most dainty of blooms, displays its balletic elegance with slender, pale-pink ray florets that are held horizontally, then gradually droop groundward and flutter in the breeze. The orange-brown central cone remains through winter, topping the bronze stems. Despite its appearance, it is hardy and attractive to bees and butterflies and is outstanding when planted in a troupe with other prairie-style plants. Full sun and moist, well-drained soil create ideal growing conditions. Cut the stems back to ground level in late winter. Height and spread: 1.25m x 50cm. RHS H5, USDA 3a-10b†.2 ECHINOPS RITRO ‘VEITCH'S BLUE’ Spiny, deeply cut leaves, which are dark green on top and white below, provide interest from spring until the blooms of this globe…17 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024STEPS TO SUCCESSThe briefThe owners of this Cotswold property had recently retired and downsized from their 18th-century dower house by converting their former barn and other outbuildings into a new home. The house is arranged around a 16m x 12m courtyard, originally a rectangle of scruffy turf, with a central sunken gravel area. “The clients were pretty open in their brief,” says landscape and garden designer Angus Thompson. “They just wanted a more elegant version of what they had; something that had to look after itself. For me though, this lovely, closed, southwest-facing courtyard lent itself to other, more exciting treatments.”The designAngus sees this as a garden of three parts: a lawn quadrangle bounded by a perennial walk; a west-facing ‘gin terrace’ that captures the evening light; and a courtyard garden. “The…6 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024‘No one ever said gardening was a job option’What is your new book about? It is about my garden – the first I've ever owned. I moved in in early 2023, and BBC Gardeners’ World filmed it. Then BBC Books asked me if I would document the first year of how to tackle a new garden. Initially, I felt I'd have to have something concluded by the end, with a big reveal. But that's not how I'd approach a new garden. So it is really just the documentation of that first growing season, what I managed to do, and how I approached it.What did you learn from writing it? It gave me an overview of my gardening journey. I had a very traditional start – as an apprentice at 19, my job was to pick up dog poo…4 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024CrosswordACROSS1 Genus of monk's-hood and wolfsbane – Naomi cut badly (8) 6 Encouraged … what the successful cutting did? (6) 9 Knar in tree bark noticed (4) 10 ___ Pagels, German plant breeder (died 2007) – terribly stern! (5) 11 See 3 down 12 Enclosed eg like Mottisfont Abbey's rose garden (6) 13 A very dwarf pea plant aka ‘Tom Thumb’ – small beer? (4,4) 15 Common name of Aechmea fasciata bromeliad with vase-shaped rosette of leaves (3,5) 17 In short, the county location of Trentham Gardens (6) 19 A named Mahonia x lindsayae hybrid (of a major English university) (6) 21 Common name of Galega officinalis – nanny's regret? (5,3) 23 Like a cottage garden, ie not rigidly laid out (8) 25 Fibre in eg apples used to set…2 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024DIG INFESTIVAL FLORAL FLOURISHSince its launch in 2013, British Flowers Week – the annual celebration of seasonal, British-grown flowers – has been organised by New Covent Garden Flower Market. This year, however, it is passing the baton to Flowers from the Farm, the association that brings together more than 1,000 flower farmers across the UK. It promises to be the same glorious celebration of all things floral, with London's Garden Museum once again inviting some of the country's top floral designers to create showstopping installations around the museum, and flower-filled workshops, demonstrations and other events will be taking place at locations around the UK. 3-9 June. britishflowersweek.comTalking point SHOULD WE LEAVE IVY ALONE?Ivy is a common sight in UK gardens and landscapes – scrambling up walls, covering ground and climbing trees.…4 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024KITTED OUT1 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024HEAVEN SCENTJune, and the garden is at its most sensuous, inviting – no, imploring me – to look, touch and sniff. It is a wonderful month for smelling the garden. I do this first thing in the morning and again in the evening when everything is at its olfactory best.Perfume was one of the first considerations when I started this little garden. The lavender bushes, I planted along the path to run my fingers through as I walked past, didn't last long in my London clay, but the high hedges planted to trap the scent of wallflowers and the vanilla notes of sweet box (Sarcococca hookeriana) have worked as I had hoped. Wallflowers are the smell of my childhood; as sweet as the tin of Parma Violets my grandmother kept in…4 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024SUMMERFLOWERING ALLIUMSFACT FILEWhat Allium is a genus of more than 1,000 species that include cultivated onion, garlic, shallots, leeks and chives. The summer-flowering species featured here are largely ornamental plants, sometimes known as ornamental onions.Season June to late August.Size Heights vary from 5cm to 2.2m. All heights and spreads given here are approximate.Conditions Sunny to light shade in free-draining loam.Origins Throughout North America, Europe, Asia and parts of northern and southern Africa.Hardiness Hardy throughout the UK and suitable for gardens in USDA zones 4a to 8b.*Holds an Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society.†Hardiness ratings given where available.Valued for their firework displays that supersede the cacophony of tulips, alliums have rightly become a stalwart of the garden and a familiar addition to our borders in late spring. Not only…7 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024ANNIE GUILFOYLEFor someone whose life is built around the creation of beautiful gardens, Annie Guilfoyle has remarkably itchy feet. She teaches several prestigious garden design courses in this country, including at West Dean and Great Dixter, but also lectures as far afield as Pennsylvania and Poland.She is an obsessive Italophile and travels there annually for the Bergamo landscape festival (she's on the selection committee), to run workshops, and at any other opportunity she gets. She designs gardens up and down the country, and the Garden Masterclass events she runs with garden writer Noel Kingsbury only add to her mileage.“I have always loved to travel, to go to new places and meet interesting people,” she says. “I grew up on Exmoor in the middle of nowhere, which was very beautiful but isolated.…4 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024Colour therapyIN BRIEFWhat Naturalistic perennial garden with exuberant use of colour.Where Victoria, Australia.Size One-and-a-half-acre garden as part of a seven-acre property.Soil Clay.Climate Temperate, with an average rainfall of 710mm.Hardiness zone USDA 10a.There's musicality to the garden, with lulls and crescendos that are accentuated by the play of lightAnn-Maree Winter knows better than most the transformative power of gardening. Her garden on the Mornington Peninsula in southern Australia is a place of solace, joy and plenty of colour. She and her husband Paul bought the property in 2015, moving from a 450 square metre suburban plot with sandy soil to seven windswept acres of rich volcanic soil. “I can stick my finger in the ground here, and it should grow,” she says, with a chuckle.When the couple first arrived, the garden was…5 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024IN SUBURBIABEHIND THE PRIVET HEDGE: RICHARD SUDELL, THE SUBURBAN GARDEN AND THE BEAUTIFICATION OF BRITAINby Michael Gilson Reaktion Books, £16.95, ISBN 978-1789148602Everyone is an activist now. At least, that is how it seems to me, as so many artists, celebrities and influencers describe themselves in this way. Such faux-activism tends to add up to little more than relentless self-promotion via social media. Not so with Richard Sudell. He was the real thing: a zealous crusader in the cause of gardens for working people.Having left school at 14 to work as a gardener for eight years, Sudell trained at Kew, was imprisoned as a Quaker conscientious objector in the First World War, and then became a tireless advocate for gardens of any size. He sat on just about every committee going, produced…3 min

Gardens Illustrated Magazine|June 2024CUSTOMISE YOUR PLANTSI can think of no greater way to be truly connected to your garden than to weave yourself into the ecology of the space, by breeding plants that respond both to you and to your garden. It's such a simple idea to grow a garden that responds to you as a gardener, both to your quirks and desires, but also to your place, your soil microbiome, your compost, your sunny corner and your frost pocket. And one of the easiest ways to get there is through creating ‘grexes’.We are all trying to do this one way or another, but from the very beginning, that most simple of gestures – to sow seed – takes us, often unwittingly, further away and not closer to this desire. Because we start with a…4 min