Plants

James Horner is a flower gardener, occasional planting designer and floral stylist. For the Gardens Illustrated Plant Issue, James puts on his florist's hat to suggest selections of cut flowers for late summer displays. Here are two from the issue. 

Port wine

Annie Guilfoyle is an award-winning designer and RHS Chelsea Flower Show silver medal winner. For 16 years, in her role as Director of Garden Design at KLC School of Design, she has been instrumental in establishing the highly acclaimed garden design courses. She will be running a garden design course at Great Dixter in Sussex in 2017. 

Piet Oudolf's latest project is a garden surrounding a new gallery of contemporary art near Amsterdam. The 2,000 square metre garden at Museum Voorlinden needed to encompass the gallery's contemporary building and connect it to the surrounding countryside.  

Jekka and Mac McVicar first started planting organic herbs in 1984, on a small patch at their home in Bristol. A passion that outgrew their garden resulted in the move to Alveston in 1987, at which time the farm was growing 26 different herbs; this has now increased to over 650, each one expertly hand raised and benefiting from years of experience in growing high-quality, organic herbs.

Andy Hamilton is the bestselling author of Booze for Free and is known for his wild food knowledge and love of home brewing. As well as writing books, Andy has appeared on television and radio and contributes to magazines, including Gardens Illustrated.

Forcing bulbs, simply requires mimicking the cold, dark conditions of winter (ideally at a temperature of between 1.5ºC and 10ºC) for around ten weeks to give the roots time to develop, before bringing them indoors where the warmth (above 15ºC) and light will fool the bulbs that spring has arrived so that they sprout and bloom around four to six weeks early. The forced hyacinths that are sold commercially to flower in time for Christmas have been pre-chilled.

Ginger beer

Fermentation is the way to create life even in the grip of winter's maw. In Food in England, the food historian Dorothy Hartley describes how as a child she loved to watch the ginger beer 'bee' (so called because it makes a faint humming sound) bubble up and down in a jar on the kitchen windowsill. In cold weather fermentation may take several days to a week to occur.

Ingredients
1 large thumb fresh root ginger
400g sugar
250ml water
2 lemons

Central to Arne Maynard's work as a garden designer is his ability to identify and draw out the essence of a place, something that gives his gardens a particular harmony. He has a holistic approach to design and believes that to succeed, a garden must relate and respond to its surrounding landscape, its history and to the buildings within and around its confines, as well as to the needs of its owners.

On his very first visit, Troy Scott Smith found himself captivated by the romantic beauty of Sissinghurst Castle in Kent. He worked as a gardener at Sissinghurst for five years in the early 1990s and came to love the garden even more but when he returned as head gardener in 2013, Troy realised something was missing from the garden; where were the roses planted by celebrated writer and gardener, Vita Sackville-West?

What is the perfect Christmas tree? In a sense, of course, all Christmas trees are perfect. But there’s no getting away from the fact that some clog up the vacuum cleaner more than others. So here is your essential guide to the various types of tree available, with some advice on the benefits of each, from scent to needle retention. We also provide a guide on how to get the best from your tree over the festive season – and beyond, if you have bought a potted or container-grown one.