GARDEN NOTES

Everything you need to know to get the most from your plot in July

Everything you need to know to get the most from your plot

WHEN THE GARDEN IS CHANGING ALMOST DAILY, it’s a source of great pleasure to patrol pots, borders and baskets to see what has newly opened. Close inspection bears particular fruit when it comes to gems like Passiflora ‘Snow Queen’ (above, £9.99, squiresgardencentres.co.uk and other online suppliers), a lovely new passionflower bred in Surbiton. Give it a sunny spot with relatively free-draining soil and a bit of support and it will cover a fence, producing exotic, pure white flowers that resemble something that has landed from outer space – each one should last for several days. I love showstopper plants like this, as they add drama and create a talking point.

Another favourite is Angelica gigas, which I first encountered in 2005 in the wonderful walled garden of Cambo in Fife. It was part of what head gardener Elliott Forsyth described evocatively as “a big powerful, juicy bit of planting” and with embarrassment I had to ask him to repeat its name three times before I could decipher his thick Scottish brogue and commit this gorgeous plant to memory. Standing at 1.5 metres tall, it is a stunner, with deep beetroot-red flowers, stems and leaves. Unfortunately, it is monocarpic, so dies off once it has set seed, but is worth raising again from seed the following spring or ordering as a small plant for summer-long interest.