Pots, Containers & Garden Ornaments

Rosa 'Florence Mary Morse'

Tuscan holiday

A showy forget-me-not, which thankfully has escaped the dwarfing curse of modern plant breeders. Relatively compact compared to the wild species, but still able to extend its arms through neighbours, linking the border community together. Its bright flowers, pierced by a pretty yellow eye, are slightly darker than the norm, and are held in loose helicoid cymes, densely packed to make asea of blue. This abundance has earned it a glowing reputation among gardeners. Best sown in situ or in pots (June or July), pricked out and grown on before transplanting.

The Speedy Vegetable Garden
by Mark Diacono and Lia Leendertz
Timber Press, £14.99
ISBN 978-1604693263

Let’s start by correcting a common misconception: there is a difference between low maintenance and no maintenance. As part of a design brief, clients will generally ask for a low maintenance garden – never yet have I been asked to design a high maintenance garden! But how low is low? In truth, what they are imagining is probably little or no maintenance at all, but unless you want a garden that is completely devoid of plant life there is always going to be some level of care required.

A first-class clump-forming lungwort with glittering long basal leaves 25cm long and covered in a silver wash. The leaf midrib and leaf edges remain a contrasting green. Produces clusters of shallowly lobed funnel-shaped flowers held in purple brown calyxes on elongated stems, which are decorated with small silver spotted stem leaves. The flowers open rosy purple and change colour to violet and violet blue. The whole plant is covered in bristly hairs. Benefits from a haircut after flowering.

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With sustainability in our gardens now a given, and with continued economic concerns, what might our gardens look like in the coming year?