MAKING A SISSINGHURSTINSPIRED WHITE GARDEN

Which plants would you choose to create a white flowerbed?

I would use bulbs such as Narcissus ‘Thalia’, the tulip ‘White Triumphator’ and

Allium neapolitanum Cowanii Group for early interest, together with

Lunaria annua (honesty), which has late-spring flowers followed by papery seedheads. Cosmos and

Chamaenerion angustifolium ‘Album’ (white rosebay willowherb) offer summer blooms, and the Japanese anemone, Anemone × hybrida

‘Honorine Jobert’, and the white aster, Symphyotrichum pilosum var. pringlei, will flower throughout late summer and autumn.

Can you recommend some late-flowering white roses?

At Sissinghurst, we use the fragrant shrub rose, ‘Iceberg’, which flowers in summer and again in early autumn, and the small rambler, ‘Princess of Nassau’; its stems of scented blooms adorn a seating area in the white garden from late summer. We also sow Asarina scandens (climbing snapdragon) to weave through the rambling rose. This easy annual produces beautiful trumpet-shaped flowers throughout summer and up to the first frosts.

Which plants do you use to inject structure and height?

In a flowerbed, I would recommend tall

Eremurus (foxtail lilies) and the silver-leaved Onopordum acanthium

(Scotch thistle) to add height, while shrubs, including white cistus (rock rose), philadelphus and viburnums provide structure and form throughout the garden.