There is a mid-17th century adage that says “if you would be happy for a week take wife; if you would happy for a month kill a pig; but if you would be happy all your life plant a garden” and I couldn’t agree more. Having your own garden is delight, but having a garden in mid-May is a double trillion delight, for it’s full of promise and interest. My pleasure shows in my face, weather-worn and wind-beaten though it is, with laughter lines spread over it like a map. I recommend it to all potential hedonists for gardening isn’t all work!

At the moment I can’t decide what I adore the most. Is it the unfurling polystichums? These hardy ferns with intricate fronds look like they’ve been crocheted in newly spun silk as they unfurl their crosiers. Or is it the wine-red cockades of Trillium kurabayashii? This Californian species was often called T. sessile due to its stemless flowers. Both are in the woodland bit of Spring Cottage.

The trilliums have been a special challenge here: they are slow to settle and need moisture as they break into growth. However they mustn’t become waterlogged in winter, or get wind-blown and that’s quite a tall order here, because the south-westerlies batter us. In their native habitat (in North America and Asia) trilliums emerge as the snow melts and become dormant as summer wears on. Common names include Wake Robin, because they define the arrival of spring, and Triplet Lilies, due the arrangement of three leaves and three petals. The way to encourage trilliums is to provide humus by adding compost, or leaf mould because the rhizomes must sit just below the soil. Plant the rhizomes any deeper and they will never appear. It’s much better to start with a well-grown plant: all too often bought rhizomes have already begun to shoot when they arrive and grow very reluctantly. Hugh Nunn’s Harvington Nursery (not open to the public) near Evesham is developing fine strains and these are finding their way into good garden centres. Trilliums admittedly are more expensive than other plants, but tricky and slow to raise as anyone who has grown them from seed will know. Although lovers of light shade, I saw some glorious clumps in full sun at Kiftsgate Court in Gloucestershire. They had been there for years and were divided roughly ten years ago. This family-owned garden, now open five days a week between April and September, has great charm and atmosphere. It’s one of the most romantic gardens I know, particularly when the roses are out (01386 438777/ www.kiftsgate.co.uk). Erythroniums enjoy the same conditions as trilliums, dappled shade and fertile moisture retentive soil. These are plants that draw comment from strangers peering over the low cottage garden wall. Normally they would preempt the trilliums, flowering in the second half of April, but the topsy turvy weather has caused them to appear together. Hugh Nunn, who once owned his own garden centre and was unable to find good woodlanders, has been breeding some good ones. E. californicum Harvington Snowgoose has better foliage than White Beauty, but both are well worth growing. Erythronium revolutum Harvington Wild Salmon is an elegant pink with mottled foliage and this mottling, thought to look like fish scales, gives them one of their common names, the trout lily. Other names include the dog tooth violet because the brittle white bulbs, which bulk up very quickly, are fang-shaped.

 

Looking Good

This lovely woodlander with the heart-shaped marbled leaves also has sprays of blue flowers. These are made bluer by the golden leaves of Bowles golden grass – Milium effusum Aureum.

 

 

Looking good

Grown from Elizabeth Strangman’s (ex-Washfield Nursery) stock and beginning to thrive and shine.

 

A good read

George Plumptre, now chief executive of The National Gardens Scheme (aka the Yellow Book), has edited this book celebrating 80 years garden visiting, with chronological sections by Elspeth Napier, Leslie Geddes-Brown and Catherine Horwood among others. Fifty gardens are covered in all.