Time to Consider

an inspired read
an inspired read

Time to Browse and Consider

seem to be growing as well. But sit tight, exercise some patience and wait for drier conditions to arrive rather than compacting the claggy soil by trying to work on it.

Instead use your enforced sabbatical to read well-written gardening books for inspiration, or to browse through informative nursery catalogues to extend your plant knowledge. I learnt much from Beth Chatto’s nursery handbook in my early years and her plant descriptions are truly magical: they catch the individual spirit of each plant.  Iris sibirica  ‘Dreaming Yellow’ is described as “eye-catching creamy-white petals lit with olive-green bee guides”.  The snowdrop ‘Hyppolyta’ as having  “beautifully-formed rounded bells filled with green-edged petticoats”.  This is so much more inspiring and informative than the usual ‘three feet tall with pink flowers’!

Beth’s delightful descriptions are backed up by  sections on drought-loving plants, plants for waterside and bog, handsome foliage plants, bee flowers, butterfly flowers plus many other categories. Any gardener (novice or experienced) can select plants according to planting position and by placing plants correctly you will avoid most plant diseases. Beth’s handbook, which doesn’t contain pictures, costs £3.00 - details below.

Another excellent resource is Wootten’s Handbook. This substantial volume, almost 300 pages in length, is packed with information and illustrated with 400 sumptuous pictures.  You can banish the winter blues every time you open it and fast forward six months and imagine that summer is upon you.  Woottens Handbook costs £6.50 (plus £2.00 postage and packing - details below) but is thoroughly worth it. 

Beth Chatto and Woottens are both based in East Anglia. Wootten’s is near Halesworth in Sussex, along a  sand-swept lane, and this nursery specialises in irises, hemerocallis, pelargoniums, grasses, hardy geraniums and it also grows a full range of herbaceous plants. The Beth Chatto Gardens are near Colchester in Essex and they sell an entire range of garden plants of every type and her nursery and garden are world renowned.

You can visit both nurseries personally or order plants by mail order. The other alternative is to track down local suppliers of the plants you’ve chosen by using the RHS Plantfinder. Woottens and Beth Chatto also have fully illustrated websites and nowadays they get most of their sales through their websites. But I still prefer to browse through a book or catalogue rather than use the internet. But I fear that eventually more and more nurseries will abandon their printed catalogues in favour of the web - but let’s hope Woottons and Beth Chatto don’t deprive of us of a good read.

Beth Chatto’s Handbook -
tel 01206 822007
www.bethchatto.co.uk

Woottens Plantsman’s Handbook
tel 01502 478258
www.woottensplants.co.uk