Well, here we are cosily assembled around our devices of choice ready for a nice little natter; the word ‘chat’ now having such a nagging website connotation that, for me, it has started to lose its original chummy charm.
So, to start with, I am not the sort of designer who views ‘Chelsea’ as the be-all-and-end-all of garden design; far from it! However, I did have the privilege of assisting in a garden build there during my days at horticultural college and it genuinely was a real thrill.
At this point I have worked my way through a couple of decades of gardening. I served my apprenticeship under the wonderful colourist designers, Nori and Sandra Pope at Hadspen Garden. This was followed by a very informative month at Kirstenbosch, the botanical gardens of Cape Town, South Africa.
The thing that both horticultural college and my apprenticeship instilled in me was the need to learn about plants, their botanical names, their needs and the wonderful effects (or otherwise) that they produce. At the beginning this was extremely hard work but, as with learning a new language, names become familiar and actually start to make some sense, even though the original meanings seem to have no current relevance. A handy book for me was ‘The Gardener’s Handbook of Plant Names, Their Meanings and Origins’ by A.W. Smith. You start to recognise that plant names starting with‘leuc’ are white in colour; ‘nigra’ is black and anything starting with ‘heli’ requires lots of sun. However, Osteospermum, a perennial favourite of mine for its simple daisy-like flowers and long flowering season isn’t such a helpful name.
Always remember that as scientific and text book as our efforts may be, we are always dealing with the forces of nature in all their forms and things don’t always go according to plan.