Plant interest
The garden at home is very different from the work I do for clients. In spring there are flowers too delicate or tricksy to grow in gardens where the concentration on detail can never be as intense as it is for an owner in their garden every day. I know where Cyclamen repandum hides itself under the yew hedge, I am poised for the brief moment when the Paeonia mlokosewitschii flowers and know to wait for the last and prettiest of the scented narcissus, the old pheasant’s eye (9). Clients with weekend houses could miss these precious timings. Irises, especially the fragile ones I love most, need deadheading every day to look their best. The pinky-brown miniature tall bearded iris (main picture, left) came from Daneway House, where I worked 20 years ago. It has a double association for me. Oliver Hill the landscape architect once lived at Daneway and its current owners were clients who became friends. The provenance of plants adds an extra layer to a garden’s impact. Other irises appear above a haze of an odd but worthwhile plant that runs through the beds where they grow. Peltaria alliacea has pale-purple leaves and flowers like miniature Queen Anne’s lace, so it has a long season of interest, but can be pulled out to give the irises room to ripen their rhizomes. Tiny tulips, such as Tulipa ‘Lady Jane’ (10), repay closer inspection than the large lily-flowered ones. Auriculas (11) are an endless fiddle, but an enjoyable one. They are plants that demand up-close and personal attention to appreciate their crazy colourings and they smell delicious occupying the tiers of shelves in the one-time privy with a glass roof. In the greenhouse, pelargoniums are another early season treat. Pelargonium ‘Copthorne’, ‘Clorinda’, ‘Sweet Mimosa’ and ‘Vera Dillon’ are showy favourites but the tiny P. ‘Ardens’ (12) is the one I would never want to lose.