Editor’s letter
I’m delighted that in this issue of Garden Illustrated multi awardwinning designer Sarah Price has written about her 100 favourite plants. Best known for her critically acclaimed and intensely beautiful planting at the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, Sarah’s plant selections make many a heart – including mine – skip a beat. Her carefully edited list is both inspirational and practical, and includes annuals, bulbs, climbers, grasses, perennials, British wildflowers, shrubs and trees. From simple and resilient plants, to those that transition the seasons well, repeat flowerers, self-seeders and plants that are easy and lovely in equal measure, you’ll want a notebook and pencil to hand. The list includes some well-known favourites; think the chequered plum and white bells of
Fritillaria melagris, as well as lesser-known cultivars of familiar plants, such as Dierama pulcherrimum ‘Blackbird’. It’s noted for its smaller than typical form and more deeply blackcurrant-toned flowers. Sarah returns as a designer to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this year with a garden that will demonstrate how simple, sustainable materials – earth, water and plants – are enough to create a richly atmospheric and unforgettable space.
In the second of her travelogue series, horticulturist Hannah Gardner describes how in Japan, where the blooming of a popular wildflower can demand a news bulletin, she picked up the habit of celebrating a species at its zenith. This month she visits Scotland in search of snowdrops. There can be few plants that evoke such obsession in gardeners. For many across the UK, snowdrops herald the start of the gardening year. Coosheen is a small, suburban garden on the edge of Cork city that has swiftly become a Mecca for snowdrop fans. Confirmed galanthophile Hester Forde grows a notable collection there with an emphasis on the Irish cultivars. Hester notes
Galanthus ‘Cicely Hall’, a robust cultivar with dark-green inner markings, as the plant that inspired her collection. It remains among her favourites and she shares her tips for sourcing snowdrop bulbs and growing them with us.
If you like to tuck a smartphone in your pocket outside, we have a round-up of the best new horticultural podcasts to download. The latest gardening listening is less how to prune roses or when to sow seed potatoes and more horticulture as cultural literacy and houseplant sowalongs.
I hope you enjoy the issue,