Stylish nursery perennials
This colourful nursery garden in Nottinghamshire is packed with inspiration for autumn. “We’re known for our aster displays,” says owner Andrew Ward, a plant scientist and breeder who lives here with his wife Helen. “They look fantastic just now. We grow them with perennial sunflower, helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ and Rudbeckia triloba. “When we first came here 25 years ago it was an empty field,” says Andrew. “It’s a two-acre site on heavy clay that was full of 9ft-high brambles and nettles, which all had to be cleared before we could start.” Like most clay gardens, the soil becomes a slippery quagmire in winter and bakes hard as concrete in summer. “The plants have to be reliable performers in these conditions,” says Andrew. “Last summer the cracks that appeared were so enormous you could have lost a small child in them!” To make matters worse, it’s also a frost pocket, where winter temperatures often dip to -14C (6.8F). “There are rolling hills all around the garden and this is the lowest point where the frost collects on cold winter nights. If I’d realised I probably wouldn’t have bought the land at all!” In spite of these challenges, the garden has become a plant-lovers’ haven. “The design isn’t dotted with plants or bitty though,” says Andrew. “The planting schemes are cohesive for a succession of colour throughout spring, summer and autumn, so visitors can get a good idea of how to use the plants at home.” The garden has evolved gradually since the couple moved here in 1994. “We’ve created lots of new planting areas and borders as we’ve gone along,” says Andrew. “For instance, our woodland area is full of trilliums, erythroniums and hardy orchids in spring, then in autumn we have tricyrtis, hostas and aconitums. “There’s a very large pond area with a bog garden full of opulent planting. Our candelabra primulas are to die for in late spring, then in summer heleniums emerge – they seem to like it quite moist – to mingle with the eupatoriums.”
Other planting areas include scree beds and a woodland garden. “We also have two National Plant Collections of astrantias and hardy chrysanthemums. It was quite a tough, dry summer for the astrantias, so I cut them back and they flowered again in September. I plant them with wirystemmed Verbena bonariensis, pink and purple Verbena hastata and white and pink nicotiana for a haze of autumn colour. “By late summer, the aster buds are waiting to pop. I do like the New England asters (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) which are less susceptible to mildew. Good ones include bright pink ‘Andenken an Alma Pötschke’, darker ‘Marina Wolkonsky’, Norwell-raised purple ‘Dark Desire’ and white ‘Herbstschnee’ for contrast. “I grow a few of the New York asters (S. novi-belgii) that will withstand mildew, such as fluorescent pink ‘Neron’ and shaggy pink ‘Fellowship’. These tend to reach only about 75cm (21/2ft) feet tall while the New England asters grow to 1.5m (5ft) . “We’ve also planted a ‘grassoretum’ – an area of mown lawn punctuated by upright ornamental grasses including Miscanthus sinensis ‘Malepartus’, ‘China’ and ‘Afrika’ as well as M. giganteus, which reaches 4m (13ft). You cut it down to about two inches in March, it sulks for a month, then in April and May it’s so fast and vigorous you can almost see it growing. “Molinias also grow among the asters. ‘Windspiel’ and ‘Transparent’ bring a sense of lightness, and their dark purple flower plumes waft above the dark purple asters.” Andrew’s National Collection of hardy chrysanthemums is another useful source of autumn flowers. “These bloom when the asters finish and in a mild winter stay looking good well into December. Many are honey-scented and bring out the butterflies and bees on mild autumn days. “They’re not the exhibition type our grandfathers grew on their allotments and overwintered in greenhouses. These are hardy perennials such as magenta ‘Mrs Jessie Cooper’, which my wife gathered by the armful for our son’s christening in early December, 22 years ago. ‘Sweetheart Pink’ and orange ‘Killerton Tangerine’ are good too. Double silver-pink ‘Emperor of China’ grows to 1.2m (4ft) and as temperatures drop its foliage turns a fabulous beetroot red. Nerines are another good choice. “Here we grow the aptly named ‘Favourite’, pale pink ‘Stephanie’, more intense pink ‘Isabel’ and ‘Alba’ because it’s nice to have a white, though it’s not as vigorous as the pink ones.” New at the nursery is an experimental area of raised sand beds. “They were built from bricks, in four interlocking sinusoidal [mathematical] curves, and filled with coarse, sharp sand. These have enabled me
We’ve also planted a grasseretum punctuated by upright ornamental grasses
to include all sorts of plants that I couldn’t grow before, owing to the heavy soil. Two of the beds are now full of North American penstemons, gaura, nerines, amaryllis and erodium and two are traditional alpine beds with gentians and daphnes. “It was quite problematic getting them established last summer; we had to water them every couple of days. The idea is that you take all the soil off their roots so the plant has to work very hard at getting their roots down some 40cm (16in) into the clay below. Then, once they’ve achieved that, it’s like a switch has been turned on and they grow phenomenally well.”