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Ornamental grasses play an invaluable part in the planting palette of today’s Garden Designer.

The variety of grasses now readily accessible ensures that there is a grass suitable for almostall types of planting condition.  The huge range of textures, sizes, forms, colours and flowering times combine to make grasses valuable garden plants, offering a wealth of interest. Grasses also appeal also for their seasonal changes, their movement and their sound.

To quote Rick Darke – International expert on Ornamental Grasses

“Grasses are the first to tell of every caressing summer breeze. Their lissome stalks and flowers flutter and bow, dancing before every winter wind. Supple and sinuous in their yielding, they paint portraits of the wind. As they move, they sing in tones ranging from a low rustle to a staccato rattle. This sound and movement add immeasurably to the vibrancy of the garden and to its resonance with the wider landscape .”   (The Colour Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses, Timber Press 1999 )

In Autumn many grasses come into their own offering showy end of season hues which set the garden ablaze with colour, echoing the many colours of trees in the wider landscape. Having spent all summer growing many are only now beginning to bloom and send up their flowers. Plumes of Miscanthus vary in colour from silver, buff, purple to red and many fade to buff and stand well into winter providing valuable structure to the winter garden. Panicum a late developer also comes into its own offering some wonderful foliage colours, which when caught by the low sun can offer its very own firework display.

While it is undeniable that grasses have become more popular among the gardening public not everyone is yet persuaded of their value and some clients need to be convinced that these more “modern” plants have their place, even in the more traditional border. However some  are more convinced when we tell them that the great gardening doyenne Gertrude Jekyll pronounced her favourite grass to be Miscanthus!

At Gardenmakers we find it hard to do a planting scheme without including at least one or two grasses. Even small schemes merit the inclusion of a Stipa or Festuca depending of the colour palette and conditions. Grasses for shade also add value for offering different foliage and texture to more traditional shade tolerant plants.  All in all there is a grass to suit almost every condition and we get much pleasure introducing our clients to the glory of grasses.

 

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The Serpentine Gallery summer pavilion is always worth a visit and this year’s is no exception.

Designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor this year’s pavilion is the 11th in the gallery’s annual series of architectural commissions, which give international architects a platform to realise their first built structures in England.

Approaching the pavilion the visitor is confronted with a low black box nestling among trees. Concrete paths lead up to entrances  set at regular intervals along the sides of the box – these entrances are dark and forbidding the black of the building being echoed in the interior. On entering eyes have to adjust to the darkness of  a long corridor, shafts of sunlight penetrate the corridor at intervals and the visitor is drawn towards the light. The play of this light and dark can be followed around all sides of box as the corridor provides a perimeter walkway.

Drawn to the light – the visitor stops at the entrance to the inner sanctum, where the darkness is suddenly contrasted with a riot of colour, movement and texture. Here is an inner garden – hortus conslusus conceived by dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf.

The dark walls and roof of the structure create a feeling of enclosure, but the sky pours light into the centre. A long border spans the centre with a tableau of plants with give the internal space a feeling of inviting calmness, atranquil space to sit and contemplate, meet, relax.

“I dream of an enclosed garden open to the sky. Every time I imagine a garden in an architectural setting,
it turns into a magical place. I think of gardens I have seen, that I long to see, surrounded by simple walls,
columns, arcades or the facades of buildings – sheltered places of great intimacy where I want to stay for a long time.
At the centre of my pavilion is a garden; it invites us to gather around…..I am looking forward to the natural energy
and beauty of the tableau vivant of grasses, flowers and shrubs”

Surrounding the walls of the interior are benches and freestanding small tables and chairs inviting the visitor
to take time to sit and relax and enjoy the magic of this hidden garden. On the day I visited the pavilion was being used as a meeting point for friends gathering for coffee; as a quiet space for reading & contemplation; as a kids runaround – the corridors and entrances creating a fun interactive “playground”  - but above all it seemed a place people wanted to linger and enjoy.

For the keen horticulturalist there is a very helpful laminated planting list and plan – which in itself deserves to be studied. I found it fascinating seeing what plants had been chosen to provide successional colour and structure from
June through to October.

Visiting as I did at the end of July – the planting was in full flow with repeated groups of Eupatorium maculatum standing tall and structural against the black backdrop and a bright red Monarda offering a riot of brightbrash colour. Grasses such as Deschampsia, and ferns offer foliage and texture to compliment the perennials.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will certainly make the effort to go back later this summer to see how the planting has changed and developed.

I would encourage everyone to make time to visit this very successful summer pavilion and enjoy the magical hortus conclusus.

 

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This week I found myself taking shelter from a sudden downpour in Berkley Square.

I was killing time waiting for a meeting and had the time to really look at the Square. Sheltering under the eves of the decorative central summer house, I realised that I have driven around the square hundreds of times and walked around it during the period of my life when I worked close by, but I had not actually been in it before.  Like many garden and green spaces, it needs to be experienced from within. The towering and magnificent London Plane trees are the major feature. Standing beneath them you get a full sense of their sheer scale and structure. The leafy canopy providing as much shelter from the rain as the little summer house beneath.  The notice board at the entrance informed me that the trees had been planted in 1789 and that they are reputedly the oldest trees now in central London – now into their 3rd century!

What amazing changes those trees have witnessed. The area that now makes up the square was first enclosed in 1747 during the extensive building period during which most of the properties which form the square were constructed. The  area was originally a lush water meadow on a bend of the river Tyburn but in 1766 an Act was passed to “enclose, pave, clean, lite and adorn the square” to provide a pleasant green space for walking”, and the space we see today began to be developed.

Today the London Plane tree is widely planted throughout the temperate regions of the world from Buenos Aries to Chicago. Tolerant of atmospheric pollution, root compaction and with a good degree of resistance to wind it has proved to be a valuable tree for urban greening. However spring brings the shedding and dispersal into the air of its seeds which can be a major irritant, causing hay fever like symptoms for many. This shedding is often at its peak during the build up to Chelsea Flower Show, and with the showground ringed by great tall London Planes many exhibitors suffer terrible hay fever, which and has given rise to the term “Chelsea Flu”.

Platanus x hispanica – a hybrid between Platanus orientalis and Platanus occidentalis (American Sycamore). The latter scarcely grows in Britain and the hybrid probably arose in Spain or S.France in about 1650 (Collins Field Guide to Trees of Britain & N. Europe). This guide also claims that the first London Planes to be planted in England were in Ely and Barnes in 1680 (with both trees still magnificent and healthy)….. (in 1974!!)….perhaps this needs checking out!

As for the Nightingale – it never sang in Berkely Square however the song, which has been much covered with versions by,  among others………Vera Lynn, Glen Miller, Twiggy, Rod Stewart etc was published in the early 1940′s and will always be associated with the second world war.

A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square lyrics

When two lovers meet in Mayfair, so the legends tell,
Songbirds sing; winter turns to spring.
Every winding street in Mayfair falls beneath the spell.
I know such enchantment can be, ‘cos it happened one evening to me:

That certain night, the night we met,
There was magic abroad in the air,
There were angels dining at the Ritz,
And a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square.

I may be right, I may be wrong,
But I’m perfectly willing to swear
That when you turned and smiled at me
A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square.

The moon that lingered over London town,
Poor puzzled moon, he wore a frown.
How could he know we two were so in love?
The whole darn world seemed upside down

The streets of town were paved with stars;
It was such a romantic affair.
And, as we kissed and said ‘goodnight’,
A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square

When dawn came stealing up all gold and blue
To interrupt our rendezvous,
I still remember how you smiled and said,
“Was that a dream or was it true?”

Our homeward step was just as light
As the tap-dancing feet of Astaire
And, like an echo far away,
A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square

I know ‘cos I was there,
That night in Berkeley Square.