Clever with clematis

Stunning on its own, this climber works even better teamed up with trees and shrubs for a dramatic second burst of colour.

We are used to pairing clematis with roses, but there are hundreds of other combinations to be explored. Many plants offer limited interest for long periods of the year, so why not extend the season by partnering established trees and shrubs with a clematis?

Buddleias are great with the lavender-blue Clematis ‘Arabella’ or the dramatic dark-purple ‘Miranda’. Both cultivars flower non-stop from spring to late summer and will actually benefit from any hard pruning your buddleia requires to keep it in check. Other silver-leaved shrubs such as Garrya elliptica gain from an association with Clematis viticella ‘Palette’, which has delicate purple-veined flowers fading to white at the centre.

Clematis 'Crystal Fountain' is a daring choice with Ceanothus

The purple foliage of Cotinus ‘Royal Purple’ or Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ provides a dashing contrast for Clematis ‘Wisley’ or the late-flowering white Clematis ‘John Huxtable’, but can also marry beautifully with the soft pink of ‘Comtesse de Bouchaud’. In fact, the list of possible combinations is almost endless. The golden rule to remember is that the most successful partnerships have the same pruning requirements.

Read the full article by Alice Bowe at Times online

Bamboozled

Everyone loves elegant, architectural bamboo, but choose the right one or you could end up with a jungle...

Bamboo is one of those plants that people both desire and fear. They desire it, because it’s lush, jungly and instantly architectural in a way few other plants are, but it can also be invasive, so it’s unwise to head off to the garden centre without doing a bit of research beforehand. If you’re going to plant an invasive type, you need to surround it with root barriers.

So which bamboos are invasive and which not? There are two main types, depending on how their rhizomes grow: runners and clump-formers. Runners can be difficult to control as their long underground rhizomes will always try to colonise new areas. They include Sasa, Pleioblastus, Sasaella and Phyllostachys. Clump-forming bamboos tend not to be invasive and include Fargesia, Bambusa and Chusquea.

Although gardeners have worked out how to manage the spread of invasive bamboos, we are just beginning to understand the wide range available. A few years ago, the main trend among garden designers was for black bamboo. With this now established as a firm classic in the planting palette, designers are starting to expand their repertoire of plants. Lime culms (canes) such as Phyllostachys viridiglaucescens are particularly fashionable at the moment.

So why do garden designers love bamboos so much? Partly because they are evergreen, they create strong architectural structure all year round – hugely important in urban gardens. In a small space, they provide volume and drama, and they grow amazingly fast – new shoots can put on 10-15cm a day in the growing season. Yet they don’t block out the light, which means they make great screening plants.

If privacy is your principal concern, think about Phyllostachys nigra, which is very narrow but tall and so doesn’t take up too much space in small gardens. Besides ugly views there’s the issue of ugly noise, and the gentle sound of wind rustling through bamboo can block out both traffic and neighbours even more effectively than a water feature – with the bonus of being much lower maintenance than water. The other great advantage of bamboo is that it can provide strong foliage in a shady garden – Fargesia is particularly good where sunlight is limited.

Those are the basics, but designers will often create sophisticated effects, particularly with the shadows of bamboos – the light foliage creates great dappled effects in sunlight, or dramatic contrast under artificial lighting. In winter, the stems of bamboo can provide a feature in the same way as dogwoods. Try Phyllostachys aureosulcata f. aureocaulis, whose golden yellow stems blush pink in strong sunlight.

So how do you integrate bamboo into a planting scheme? First, look for a variety with plenty of good foliage. Try Phyllostachys bissetii, which is a fresh green even in midwinter, and surround it with flowers as punctuation points.

My favourite bamboo garden, la Bambouseraie in the south of France, can still teach us a thing or two about how to use bamboo in the landscape. Pleioblastus pygmaeus can be clipped to form a low-maintenance hedge, a bit like box, and Sasa forms a wonderful weed-suppressing groundcover. For inspiration closer to home, visit the Bamboo Garden at Kew, the Eden Project in Cornwall or the Bamboo Labyrinth at Alnwick in Northumberland.

CANE MADE PLAIN

Grow in your garden

Select the position for your bamboo carefully. Most bamboos prefer full sun but if you need a bamboo for a shady spot, a Fargesia is ideal.

Some bamboos, as you are probably already aware, are rampant spreaders and so it is important to contain their roots. Line the planting hole to a depth of just over half a metre with paving slabs or a specialist rhizome barrier (available from all good nurseries). Don’t make the mistake of using a pond liner as the roots will easily pierce it. Remember that bamboo roots can arch over low barriers, too, so make sure the top extends at least 3in (8cm) above ground level.

Try: Phyllostachys nigra, Fargesia denudata, Fargesia rufa, Phyllostachys aurea

Grow in pots

Another option when growing invasive bamboo is to grow it in a container of at least 18in (45cm) in diameter. Make sure the pot has good drainage, and keep your bamboo well watered at all times to ensure strong growth.

Try: Phyllostachys nigra, Sasa or Pleioblastus variegatus

FROM ALICE'S ARTICLE IN THE TIMES June 2008

Wildflower Meadows

Over the past 60 years, 95 per cent of our wildflower-rich meadows have been lost, mainly due to changes in farming practice. Creating small areas of wildflowers in your garden not only attracts wildlife and increases biodiversity, but also provides an area of sumptuous beauty. You can create a meadow in your garden with only a few square metres with which to work. The key thing to remember is that wildflowers respond best to hardship and trauma, so impoverished soil is a must.

The first thing to do is reduce the fertility of the soil. This can be achieved by scraping off the topsoil, or by importing a substrate of hard core (builders’ rubble or old broken garden bricks, for example), crushed limestone (available from builders’ merchants) or fine gravel laid on top of a weed-suppressing geotextile. Immediately stop fertilising the area, and either this month or next month sow a wildflower mix that suits your soil type and situation. To make it easier to broadcast your seeds evenly, try mixing them with silver sand. Sow half your seeds lengthways and half widthways, rake in lightly, water thoroughly and leave them to grow. Do not fertilise.

If you are stuck for inspiration regarding which wildflowers to grow, find out which varieties naturally flourish in your area, or use the Postcode Plants Database at www.nhm.ac.uk/science/projects/fff; it generates lists of native plants for any specified postal district in the UK. Where possible, obtain seeds of British origin, grown by wildflower seed companies on their own land. Cut your meadow at the end of the summer, remembering to rake up and remove all debris. Be prepared to manage your meadow in subsequent years by removing any dominant thugs, incorporating further sowings and supplementing with plug plants.

Bear in mind that traditional wildflower meadows can take many years to establish. But for those who don’t have quite that level of patience, there are a couple of cheats and shortcuts available. The first is to sow a Pictorial Meadows seed mix. Developed by Dr Nigel Dunnett at the University of Sheffield, these mixes have been carefully blended from native and non-native hardy annuals to provide a long season of cost-effective and painterly “meadow effect” displays. They overcome many of the problems associated with creating meadows from seed and are perfect for creating flower meadows in the garden. Unlike most wildflower meadows, the success of these mixes is largely down to good ground preparation and good soil fertility. My favourite blend is the annual short mixture, which contains California poppies, larkspur, love-in-a-mist and cornflowers, and which flowers all summer long with glorious intensity.

Or, for an “instant” wildflower meadow, you can buy rolls of pre-seeded felt that you lay just like a carpet. This biodegradable material is the ultimate low-fertility medium and acts as a barrier against pernicious weeds and other more aggressive grasses that would normally stop wildflowers from taking root. The felt also retains moisture, helping the wildflowers establish quickly in the soil below. The British wildflowers in this product have been selected to provide a colourful display and a prolonged flowering period, although you can order a bespoke seed mix if you prefer.

Gardens to visit for inspiration

Naturescape Wild Flower Farm Visitor Centre, Lapwing Meadows, Coach Gap Lane, Langar, Nottinghamshire (01949 860592; www.naturescape.co.uk).

The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Pattinson, Washington, Tyne and Wear (0191-416 5454; www.wwt.org.uk/centre/123/washington.html).

Suppliers

Pictorial Meadows, Manor Lodge, 115 Manor Lane, Sheffield (0114-276 2828; www.pictorialmeadows.co.uk).

Lindum Wildflower Turf, West Grange, Thorganby, York (01904 448675; www.turf.co.uk).

Landlife Wildflowers, National Wildflower Centre, Court Hey Park, Liverpool (0151-737 1819; www.wildflower.org.uk).

Really Wild Flowers, HV Horticulture, Spring Mead, Bedchester, Shaftesbury, Dorset (01747 811778; www.reallywildflowers.co.uk).