Publications

The Garden
December 2004

General news

Cross-border co-operation

The Gardens Without Limits network of gardens across northeastern France and Germany is to be boosted by the addition of eight new or restored gardens. Taking advantage of European money for cross-border initiatives, the project currently funds 14 gardens of varying sizes and themes with the aim of opening them to the public. So far the project has created 40 jobs and the gardens collectively have attracted 110,000 visitors.

On the German side three of the new gardens are in Merzigs with a fourth in Besseringen. In France the gardens include Meadow Park at Lagrange chateau in Manom, the Garden of the Old Pottery in Sarreguemines and the Garden of Flavours in Laquenexy.

For further information visit http://www.jardins-sans-limites.fr/.

Cross-Channel link

The same funding has helped to develop seven country-themed gardens within Parc de la Deule in Lille, France. Its cross-border partner is East Sussex County Council, which has embarked on a project to develop a 150ha (370acre) green space between Bexhill and Hastings as a country park. The project co-ordinators of Pebsham Country Park will be looking to Lille and the garden of Avie de Valloires in the Somme for inspiration.

Pershore’s crevice garden

Czech student Zdenek Zvolanek spent two weeks at the Alpine Garden Society Centre in Pershore, Worcs, this autumn creating a Crevice Garden using 10 tonnes of sandstone from the Forest of Dean.

Furnished with more than 1,000 plants, many of which were donated, it is being described as a new way of gardening with alpines.

Ron Beeston, who led the garden working party, explained that crevice gardens came into fashion in the Czech Republic in the 1970s but that there are few established examples in western Europe. ‘We made the garden so that we could illustrate another way of growing alpines. A crevice garden does not need to be high or use many heavy stones so it is a way of growing alpines that everyone can use,’ Ron said.

So many alpines naturally suit this type of planting that choosing cultivars to go in the garden was challenging, but Ron has selected plants to provide year-round interest. Some dwarf shrubs such as Daphne have also been planted to provide additional structure to the garden. Tel: 01386 554790.

New housing threat for Hilliers

The tranquillity and character of the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens in Hampshire is under threat from a massive development that could result in up to 1,000 houses being built in adjacent fields.

A public inquiry is under way and will continue until next spring.The key issues objected to by Hillier Gardens Management Committee include the increase of traffic, light pollution, noise, signage and the seeming disregard of Government planning guidelines which state that the effect of the development on registered parks or gardens should be taken into account.

The Committee hopes that the building proposals will be removed completely but in the event that the development is scaled down it will push for deeper areas of landscaping with involvement by its own staff.

The world-famous gardens and arboretum were founded in 1953 and now cover 73 hectares (180 acres) with collections of more than 42,000 plants.

Plant evolution at Bristol

The new botanical garden at Bristol University, due to open summer 2005, will be based on four plant collections: Plant Evolution, Mediterranean Climate, Useful Plants and Conservations.

The 1.6ha (4 acre) garden in the grounds of The Holmes in Stoke Bishop will be significantly different to the original garden at Bracken Hill and is benefiting from university investment of £600,000.

The new garden will be both a teaching aid for students and a garden for plant conservation.

Admission to the garden is free of charge during the week and open by appointment at the weekend.

Change of venue for Westonbirt

A new home is being sought for the Westonbirt Festival of the Garden.

Since its inception in 2002 the event, which provides a platform for design-led mini-gardens, has been held at the National Arboretum in Gloucestershire. However John Weir, Director of the National Arboreta, believes it is time for change: ‘A contemporary, cutting-edge event such as this needs to be located closer to the urban fringes’. Festival organiser TJM Associates is in conversation with several parties as to future locations.

On the move

Harveys Garden Plants in Suffolk, famous for hellebores, is moving premises. The new site in Thurston, near Bury St Edmunds, covers 4ha (10 acres) and there are plans for a visitor centre and show borders. The new site will be open for the hellebore season in mid-January. Tel: 01284 386777.

Northern stars

Harrogate and Darley in North Yorkshire have beaten off stiff competition in this year’s Entente Florale (Europe in Bloom) and have both come away with Gold Medals. The competition attracts two entries from 10 countries to bid for the best town and best village title. This is the first time in the competition’s 27-year history that two entries for Great Britain have come from one district.

Garden for sale

For the first time since it was built in 1930, Orchards, the West Sussex house and garden of the late horticulturist Arthur Hellyer and his wife Gay is up for sale. The property has remained in the family with the garden open to the public for special occasions. The house sits in 2.8ha (7 acres) of mature woodland gardens, herbaceous borders a kitchen and herb garden.

Friends revamp walled garden

A once-derelict site has been transformed into a beautiful woodland and wildlife garden for the whole community.

The Walled Garden at Corstorphine Hill, Edinburgh, now contains a range of native trees after renovation work that cost £44,000. Started by the Friends of Corstorphine Hill three years ago, a number of groups, including Scottish Natural Heritage, have contributed to the work.

Eddie Price, chairman of the Friends, said, ‘We have big plans for the future. A local artist, working with the group, has applied for a grant to sculpt stone panels with details of the plants, which will be set into the ground. We are also producing an educational pack, written by a teacher, for use by local schools and, if we can get the grants, we are going to create a wet woodland area which is an important habitat.’

China blooms in California

This summer visitors to privately-owned Quarryhill Botanical Garden in Sonoma Valley, California, were privileged to see the flowering of what plant hunter Ernest H Wilson described as ‘one of the most strikingly beautiful
trees of the Chinese forests’.

Introduced by Wilson in 1907, Emmenopterys henryi is incredibly shy to flower but what amazed botanists is that the flowers were produced on plants that are just six years old. The China Plant Red Data Book, which lists E. henryi because of its rarity in its endemic China, states that flowers are usually only seen when the trees reach 30 years old.

Seed of the two flowering plants was collected in 1996 during an expedition to eastern Sichuan organised in partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Howick Arboretum of Northumberland. They were germinated the following year and are now growing as shrubs, lacking a single leader, to heights of 4.6 and 2.4m (15 and 8ft). The first recorded E. henryi to flower in the UK was at Wakehurst Place in 1987. At the time the tree was 75 years old and it has not flowered since.

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