Don’t Forget to Support your Garden!

Despite the early cold and wet spring and the continuing cool temperatures, the garden is quickly filling out and will soon be in full bloom. I have just about caught up with the work that needed doing while we were at Chelsea Flower Show and the big pots have all been changed from winter to summer planting

Early in May I was delighted with the first flowers on the wisteria column that I planted a year ago. I have been winding the whips around the column and will prune it hard in July and again in February to produce the flowering spurs. Next year I hope for an entire column of blossom.

In the same area, my fruit trees seem to have set a good harvest and I am putting fruit stakes in place to hold up the heavy crops of Tzar plums.

The climbing rose that I have been training round the Clematis & Rose Obelisk is in full flower. Like most climbers, including wisteria, training the branches of roses to the horizontal or in arches, encourages flowering. I tie the new growth into a cross-cross pattern which looks architectural in winter as well.

In the courtyard, midsummer is heralded by the beds of Iris ensata that give a stunning display of deep purple ruffled heads for a few weeks. Once the flowers have gone, verbena bonariensis and ammi majus will rise through the spears of the iris leaves to give clouds of purple and white. I have positioned stakes down the borders and will tie in the verbena and ammi loosely as they can get very wind-swept.

The espalier that we put in three years ago is finally looking mature. The alliums and Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’ are about to give way to Lilium Regale and lavender (daily lily beetle patrols seem to have kept the wretched beetle at bay) and apples are forming on the branches of the trees, some of which have reached the fourth tier and now only need pruning for shape and fruiting.

Now is the time to get semi-circular supports into the garden. Obelisks and peony supports stay in place all year round but I move semi-circulars round to where they are needed. I love Campanula lactiflora ‘Pritchard’s Variety’ with its mauve bells that last well both in the border and in vases but it will reach 1.5m and flop. As soon as it begins to look top-heavy, I pop a few large semi-circulars into the clumps to keep them upright. Another favourite is Campanula ‘Sarastro’ with its deep aubergine bells but it, too, needs support.

Hydrangea ‘Annabelle’ has almost reached the top of its L3 Three-ring Support . This support prevents ‘Annabelle’ from flopping when those full heads weigh the plants down in late summer. 

I followed Monty Don’s advice some years ago and bought Rosa ‘Pompon de Bourgoyne’, a miniature centifolia rose, which seems to be perfectly happy in a pot. The shrubs are semi-evergreen and, in early summer, are covered with a profusion of pinky purple flowers. It is easy to keep in shape and I love the two ball shapes that sit at the entrance to the terrace garden.

Another rose that I keep in pots is ‘Cecile Brunner’ whose pink, thimble-sized flowers are the perfect buttonhole rose. Sadly, this rose is somewhat prone to blackspot so this year I am trialling a new control. The roses, which are in generous pots, have been underplanted with Salvia ‘Nachtvlinder’. Not only does ‘Nachtvlinder’ have the most lovely deep purple, velvety flowers but the sulphur in the salvia’s scent profile releases a natural fungicide in warm weather which acts against mildew and blackspot. A double bonus if it works!

Last week I was privileged to visit some of Gloucestershire’s most lovely gardens which opened in support of Tetbury Hospital. It was impossible to visit all 20 in two days but a friend and I managed 14 gardens with glorious riots of roses, walled gardens, potagers and wild flower meadows which, in their perfect distribution of grasses, buttercups and ox-eye daisies, put my grass-dominated meadow to shame. Thank you to everyone who was involved with ‘ Magical Gardens ’ – they really were!