4/7/2024 0 Comments Chelsea garden wild thingsChelsea flower show runs from 21-26 September. Matt Collins is head gardener at the Garden Museum in London. Whether or not this autumn show will prove a one-off, the result may be that the Chelsea garden mindset shifts to something more grounded and realistic, continuing the thrill and promise of a spring garden through to the cooler, darkening days beyond. This emphasis on seasonal continuity is appealing. “Sometimes the criticism with Chelsea is, ‘But are these real gardens?’ So this is an amazing opportunity to show that when gardens move into autumn, things senescing and going over can be really beautiful.” Rather admirably, they’ve even preserved the seedheads of their spring-flowering Tulipa sprengeri, which will be added among the planting. “Our Aralia cordata should hopefully be berrying the Rosa glauca will have rosehips the Bergenia ciliata will be reddening,” Harris says. This year’s themes are: inclusivity and promoting gardening for all, minimum effort for maximum reward, how to garden in an ever-changing climate and uncovering the value of. They’re excited, therefore, that plants retained from their original spring scheme will have transformed for the coming season. The four themes at the core of The Chelsea Flower Show 2023 all link together in an effort to promote efficient gardening that's open to people from all backgrounds. Having merged their practices, designers Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg placed year-round seasonality at the heart of their first Chelsea garden together, a public “pocket park” designed as a restorative city oasis. Beyond September’s deepening colours, this means berries, fruit, hips and seedheads. Spring may be draped with blossom, but autumn is the season of harvest. The stems go a vivid orange at that time of year, backlit by the early autumn light.” caerulea ‘Heidebraut’: “It’s a good form of molinia. “They start to take on gold, red, buff hues.” One of his favourites is the purple moor grass, Molinia caerulea subsp. “That’s when grasses really come to life,” Tom Massey says. Stipa, panicum and pennisetum have featured in spring show gardens past, but their colours become amplified by September. Hand in hand with prairie plants come ornamental grasses. It’s a smaller wildflower known for its conspicuously protruding cone and drooped maroon petals. I’m thrilled that Ratibida columnifera, my favourite of the prairie coneflowers, will be making an appearance. Far from the soft, greener tones of spring, these North American daisies range across a summer’s spectrum of blazing reds, magenta, orange and yellow. One of the notable differences at Chelsea this year will be the inclusion of those wonderfully intense, thuggishly bold prairie perennials: the echinaceas, rudbeckias, heleniums and asters that come into their own as autumn approaches. View image in fullscreen Thalictrum Splendide.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |