Phil's favourite planting at Hampton Court
Steal the best ideas from the show gardens and use them at home. Below we have named some of the plants Phil Clayton, Features Editor of The Garden picked in his video, so that you can find them at a nursery near you.
Combination 1: I am, because of who we are garden
This planting particularly attracted me as it was suitable for a shaded spot - beneath the rusty trunks of young Betula albosinensis, white spires of foxglove mingled with the attractive heads of Astrantia, emerging from a ground cover of Tiarella with its foamy white flowerheads and leathery leaved Bergenia. The planting was knitted together by Deschampsia grasses, the diaphanous flowers of which shimmered in the breeze.
Combination 2: The Stockman's Retreat garden
A simple but effective summer combination of Phlox 'Uspekh' with its rounded heads of dramatic white-eyed, bright purple flowers, contrasting with the soft pink spires of Lythrum salicaria 'Blush'. The dainty leaves and blooms of a white flowered Polemonium caeruleum help hold the whole planting together. Good for a sunny, not too dry position.
Combination 3: The Copella Plant and Protect Garden
An appealing mix of white flowered plants attracted my attention - it created a charming, naturalistic effect. Annual cow parsley relative, Ammi majus with its dainty heads of lace-like flowers created a cloud of blooms from which arose another annual, Agrostemma githago 'Ocean Pearl', a large, white flowered selection of corncockle. Spires of white digitalis added structure. These plants would grow well in a sunny, well-drained but not too dry soil.
Combination 4: The Stone Roses garden
Mixing roses with perennials can provide wonderful effects in the garden and this attractive blend is a case in point. Rosa 'Prose' [Burgandy Ice} (a sport of well known R. 'Korbin' [Iceberg] was interplanted with grass Stipa tenuissima with its soft, tactile whispy flowerheads. The silver, rapier-like blades of dramatic Astelia 'Silver Spear' provided striking contrast of form behind.
Combination 5: On The Sea by John Keats garden
This planting combination was devised to similate waves on the ocean. Grasses such as Miscanthus and variegated Phalaris were interwoven with Ammi majus, its white heads here simulating froth on the crest of a wave. Lower down, toward the front of the planting, steely blue sea hollies (Eryngium) give way to the velvety leaves of silver Stachys byzantina, which itself is underplanted by Dichondra argentea 'Silver Falls'.