Pots, climbers and windowsill herbs
WHAT DO YOU SEE WHEN YOU LOOK OUT OF YOUR WINDOW? A SPOT OF CLEVER PLANNING CAN MAKE GAZING AT YOUR GARDEN AS GOOD AS BEING OUT IN IT, SAYS KENDRA WILSON
The view from the window in the country room of my dreams is a close-up of a tree. The tree rustles and creaks, and keeps the room shaded in summer and insulated in winter. Birds sit on the branches, peering in. It is, in fact, a real tree in Connecticut, but it feels like a dream because I go there on holiday.
Back at home, I work upstairs, facing south over my long garden. It’s bright; the room has a skylight and a view. Whether I’m working or musing, I like to see the horizon but also the foreground progress of Madame Alfred Carrière (see over the page), the vigorous semi-evergreen rose that twirls around the window. A breeze in summer blows petals inside, a most pleasant reminder to have a break. These things make me realise that, when choosing the plants for your garden, the view from inside is as important as the view outside.
SETTING THE STAGE FRAME THE WINDOW
A house facade is ideal for the more ambitious climbers that would smother a shed. Pears, for example, can grow to great heights when trained against a wall, with the added bonus of fruit within easy reach. I know a London townhouse where a well trained jasmine grows up to the roof; only flowering branches are kept to create a pretty frame – and it generates wafts of scent. For an easier jasmine lookalike, try Trachelospermum
jasminoides. Wisteria, whether mauve or white, is a celebrated framer of windows, although it’s best to buy it when in flower to check it’s scented and mature.
DRESS THE AREA THEATRICALLY
Plants with good structure, that is, interesting in an ‘architectural’ way, provide a happy focal point outside a window or back door. This area can be set-dressed – theatricality is essential for the viewed garden. Pots need as much consideration as plants: the bronzed leaves of Phormium tenax sit well in a plain zinc container and a Victorian urn could house gothic black Aeonium ‘Zwartkop’. Some plants just look better in pots – and can be wheeled on and off stage. A crowd of Lilium regale (the easiest lily to grow) requires a deep container, while tightly packed agapanthus, with handsome green leaves continuing after the long-lived flowers have finished, complement a more shallow vessel. Hostas, corrugated veratrum and jagged Melianthus major are all architectural and beg to be put in a well shaped pot and positioned where they can be seen from the house.
KEEP TREASURES CLOSE BY
Newly bought or over-wintered tender plants are more easily admired by the house. Auriculas demand their own display of individual pots, while early flowering
Iris reticulata, crocus and fritillaries work well raised off the ground in a trough, before being planted out into the wider garden. The velvet luxury of pelargoniums is best appreciated in raised pots (they mingle well with summer bedding) so that you can casually rub their leaves between your fingers as you pass, delivering a blast of essential oil with hints of citrus, rose or mint.
Herbs on a kitchen windowsill work better as a series of pots, since they have individual requirements and
provide something leafy to look at while you’re washing up. At the shadier end, grow chives, lovage, parsley and mint, while thyme, rosemary or lavender love full sun. Aromatic herbs have the bonus of discouraging flies, which you certainly don’t want in your line of vision.
BRING THE LIGHT I N
Plants with leaves and flowers of pale grey, white and yellow next to a ground-floor window can reflect light into the house. Elaeagnus angustifolia is a small tree or shrub with narrow, light-catching leaves. Artemisia,
santolina, lavender and curry plants are silvery and aromatic; in an enclosed space they add scent, as well as the buzzing of insects. And there are hundreds of pale roses and clematis to clothe walls, or grow in deep pots.
THINK ABOUT TWILIGHT
Pale flowers glow as dusk descends creating a magical, luminescent outlook. Unruly climbers such as jasmine and honeysuckle can bring life to an unloved corner and fill it with scent. Other plants that wake up as night falls are night-scented stock ( Matthiola perennis ‘Alba’) and small but powerfully scented night phlox ( Zaluzianskya
ovata). Since scent is more powerful in an enclosed space, plant by the house, close to the windows.
HIDE REMINDERS OF JOBS TO DO
If you spend more time looking out at your garden than being in it, don’t ruin it by being reminded of tasks. Fill your view not only with pots, but with flowering trees and shrubs. These need little work once established and offer height and volume. For a smaller space, Cercis
canadensis ‘ Forest Pansy’ has a good, multi-stemmed silhouette, with heart-shaped leaves. Jolly pompoms of viburnum appear early on (the best is V. opulus ‘ Roseum’), or try its more stately relation, the Japanese snowball ‘ Mariesii’, with shelves of lace-cap flowers.
Hydrangea is excellent value for bouncing light around and providing interest for months on end, as flowers turn various tones of green, ivory and pink. Hydrangea
paniculata ‘ Limelight’ or Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ are designers’ favourites, with good reason.
PLANT ( AT LEAST) ONE TREE
If a tree is to be gazed upon, it can’t be dull – it needs to have flowers, leaves or berries. A crab apple has all three, with orange-red fruit on Malus ‘ Evereste’ or ‘John Downie’. Fruit needs to glow to be seen, so a sorbus is a good choice, with its pale berries lighting up autumn days like fairy lights: try Sorbus ‘ Eastern Promise’ or
Sorbus alnifolia ‘ Red Bird’. A gracious handkerchief tree ( Davidia involucrata), swaying its white fluttery bracts in the June breeze, could be just the thing. Or a magnolia – as long as it’s sheltered from late frost.
Japanese cherry ( Prunus serrulata) is spectacular in spring with clusters of hanging white or pink blossoms, and fiery leaves in autumn. Flowering dogwood ( Cornus
florida) has pale cruciform bracts, good bark, vibrant autumn colour and weird fruits all thrown in. The most shimmery dogwood is Cornus controversa ‘ Variegata’, known as the Wedding Cake Tree because of its tiers of variegated leaves. Once you have planted one in your line of vision, you will be happy to gaze at it from wherever you are, the to-do list instantly evaporating.
“Pale leaves and flowers of white, grey and yellow can reflect light into a house – and the flowers glow as dusk descends creating a magical, luminescent outlook”