Favourite Garden Catalogues - Cotswold Garden Flowers (Bob Brown) 2020

I was delighted to receive a catalogue from Cotswold Garden Flowers (Bob Brown) 2020 today. It's a real treat to read, for as well as finding a large choice of garden plants carefully described in the manner of the old Hiller catalogue, there is also some trenchant advice on how to buy plants and the things that can go wrong.

'Plants are propagated here (not bought in) and become available and sell out all year. We are not Tesco's'

'Plants might be less than perfect. Youthful plants from a mass-producer would be fresh, disease-free, shapely and have flower buds just about to burst. But they're not from the real world and not used to life in the garden. Real plants are like organic vegetables used to be, They might look less than perfect but are likely to be better garden plants in the long run'.

'Plants succumb to disease quickly. They are probably not from the real world. They will have been grown soft, sprayed and subjected to a precise watering regime. Gardens are harsh environments. I have the knowledge to avoid buying plants like these, but if I did buy them I would recognise their perfection and harden them off slowly before planting them out. We don't sell these'.

'These are bomb-proof plants, suitable for neglectful gardeners'

'Why do the biggest and most vigorous plants always seem to end up planted by the path?'

'Never be sheep-led by a photographer'

In the descriptions too, there are also some wonderfully idiosyncratic asides, such as

Aeonium Goochiae 'Ballerina' - 'Miss Piggy in a tutu'
Allium Spherosephalum AGM - 'Loved by bees, butterflies and me'
Crytanthus Elatus AGM 'Known as the 'Scunthorpe Lily' by the callous'
Lonicera x Purpurii 'Winter Beauty' AGM - 'When it gets too big, raze it to the ground.'
Pachyphragma Macrophyllum - 'Never was such a pretty and welcome shrub damned by its name more'
Paeonia Lactiflora 'Duchesse de Nemours' - 'Classy, unlike the town.'
Penstemon Rubicundus - 'Brashness in November is very welcome'
Rosa Banksiae Lutea AGM - 'Flowers Apr-June that begin to appear when the plant is verbally threatened'
Sambucus Nigra f. Viridis - 'Can be eaten straight from the tree but some people may react to the cyanide by vomiting'
Stipa Tenuissima - 'The 'Andrex' of the grasses'
Viola Mandshurica 'Fuji Dawn' - Dubbed here 'The Scary Violet'
Thalictrum Flavium subsp. Glaucum 'Ruth Lyden-Bell - ' So tough and enduring that it has survived even in my sister-in-law's garden for many years'

....and probably many more that I have missed!






  

Memorial Trees and Roses at Old Swan House

The Orchard at Old Swan House

When I planted up the garden in 2014 my first order was of six fruit trees from Blackmoor Nurseries, Selborne to create an orchard where the vegetable garden had been. The trees were then planted in memory of particularly close friends, and each has a slate label at their base with their name and dates on. They are (with links to their eulogies):

Cherry 'Czar' - Nick Duke

Nick Duke (1945 - 2013) - a Czar cherry in the lower left next to the old Victoria plum.

James Grieve apple (Venky)

S. Venkitsewaran (Venky) (1941 - 2013) - a James Grieve apple on 'Venky's terrace'

Greengage St Julien (Jo Johns)

Jo Johns (1939 - 2014) - a St Julien Reine Claude greengage opposite Venky's terrace'

Mirabelle plum (Lucie Skipwith) 

Lucie Skipwith (1942 - 2014) - a Mirabelle plum close to the drive

Sunburst cherry (Annie May)

Annie May 1944 - 2014) - a Sunburst cherry next to the old damson

A Conference Pear (Nicky Boyle)

Nicky Boyle closest to the garage and drive 

                                     A quince tree commemorating Bill Birch Reynardson (1923 - 2107)

In addition to the fruit trees in the orchard there are two roses:

Sally Wilson-Young / Macpherson (1940 - 2012) - a Mme Alfred Carriere rose planted on the eastern wall

Rose Banksii alba (Kate O'Brian) 

Kate O'Brien 1953 - 2017) - a white Banksian rose planted under the hazel tree on the eastern wall.

Old Swan House Garden in Spring 2020

It's been the finest spring weather that I can remember with almost continuous sunshine since late March. The grasses came down then too and immediately started sending up new green growth The pheasant grass that I had been worried about needed some careful cutting out of dead leaves, but is now growing more strongly. It's the only grass that doesn't get cut down.

We had a couple of very wet days in early April but they were necessary to water everything and refill the pond.

As I write this, on 23rd April, the forecast is for more sunshine, and so I have continued to water the box as well as any new planting - including last year's black bamboos and this year's euphorbia wulfenii. I decided to replace some of the wulfenii as they were getting too leggy.

A few of the box needed attention as some of them had been partially stripped, but all are growing strongly again and producing new growth.

The orchard has done particularly well this year and although there were a couple of frosts, they don't seem to have damaged the blossom, which is now largely set. It would be wonderful to have a good fruit season as last year's was mixed - good for apples and pears and Victoria and Czar plums, but no damsons, greengage, cherries or Mirabelle. Incidentally, Bruce Williams trims the fruit trees (as well as the box) and they are now all perfectly shaped thanks to his ministrations.

Apple blossom in the orchard

Katya has tied the roses in to the wall and left a beautiful tracery of canes that promise abundant flowers this year.

Mme Aldred Carriere - Sally's rose - beautifully tied in. It was surplus to requirements at the Old Rectory until rescued by Katya. 

The lawn (as someone said in another context, 'the silence between the notes' - was scarified in the autumn and hasn't quite recovered. Fortunately, Lawntech have just decided that they can, after all, continue their quarterly treatment and it is already improving with a spring top dressing.

 

Lastly, I took a video of the garden at dusk, turning on the lights as I went round. It's come out quite well