Welcome to a brand new blog with a difference. I shall be inviting gardening friends around the world to post on what is happening in gardens in their corner of the world. This will become a wonderful reference and source of ideas for people wherever they garden. Check back regularly. A big thanks to Lya Sorano for her encouragement with this idea and blog.
Spring has been rather slow to come to England this year and we are about two weeks late. Buds are appearing in my garden and the signs of new growth are slow but sure. I wanted to share with you some of the wonderful plants that grow in Sheffield, England. I aim to talk about not only my own garden, but also the Botanic Garden and Winter Garden here in Sheffield. The latter is a large scale glasshouse – a design that won many awards, the former enjoys a plot of around 20 acres, some of it with good micro climates and also the famous glasshouses – ridge and furrow, thought to have been designed by Paxton – yes, the same guy that designed Crystal Palace for the 1851 Great Exhibition. I shall also discuss gardens to which I travel throughout the course of the year.
A walk around the Sheffield Botanic Garden this week revealed some beautiful plants that I also grow in my garden. I believe Iris ‘Katherine Hodgkin’ to be one of the most sought after irises and little wonder. I have grown it for several years, but don’t have such fine clumps yet as these in Sheffield Botanic Garden. They don’t mind frozen ground and low temperatures – always a plus here in winter/spring.
One of the flowers I always want more and more of are the dark hellebores. Here’s why.
Ranunculus ficaria ‘Brazen Hussy’ has become a reliable companion to Ophiopogon in my garden and forms good ground cover. For me it has always kept to its place and is well behaved. It can come into leaf in December and by this time of the year has a few golden yellow flowers to enhance its darkness.
The crocus have been coming up for a couple of weeks now and the snowdrops are in full flow. The witch hazels, Hamamelis were also looking fine.
All images copyright 2010 Karen Platt
by Lya Sorano
02 Apr 2010 at 18:32
Spectacular photographs, Karen.
I mentioned your new blog this morning, at a breakfast of “Friends of the Garden” (State Botanical Garden of Georgia in Athens), and saw indications of interests. At least two people nodded their heads when I mentioned your name.
In North Georgia, we have had a colder than usual and wetter than usual winter and it’s now almost as if we have skipped spring, with temperatures yesterday and today that touch on, if not exceed, 30C. How this impacts plants in our gardens is not yet clear, but seeing Daffodils and Tulips in this heat is uncomfortable. Perennials, though, are popping out of the soil everywhere and one can almost watch them grow.
by Karen Platt
02 Apr 2010 at 18:42
Many thanks Lya. Winter has come back here and I am about to post more in a couple of days. I cannot imagine 30C in April. Temperature here is just 7C.