Best state for an English cottage garden?
zone8heather
16 years ago
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Irma_StPete
16 years agogymnast_gal
16 years agoRelated Discussions
English Garden
Comments (42)Before you get into a discussion on follies, don't you have to define what you are talking about? There aren't going to be any English follies in America because of Ink's point of what does 'English' mean outside of England? If you want to talk about American style follies, there is Opus 40 for starters. Nelson Rockefeller's outdoor sculpture collection at Kykuit may also be in the running at this point in time. But there is a lot that is fairly eccentric about Kykuit. The Mayan statues on Cruger Island would definitely be worth talking about if the Met hadn't hauled them off a century ago. Bannerman Island probably also counts now. Though it didn't start out as a picturesque ruin but only got that way after it blew up. and that's just around here. Do corn mazes count? How about the Chihuly glass exhibition that was touring botanical gardens for a while. To my mind, that defies description. What I was always told about the survival of English Victorian gardens was that the money hadn't been there in the 1920's to redo them to modern tastes. Then the money really wasn't there in the 1930's, the 1940' brought their own problems, and by the time the 1950's rolled around, the gardens were old enough to have historic value....See MoreEnglish cottage garden in hot, dry California
Comments (16)This is a good thread. We have more annual rainfall than you Californians, about 40", but have long summer droughts and very heavy soil, somewhat compensated by the garden's being on a slope. We get snow most winters--last winter was a wet one, with five feet of snow that melted however promptly--but temperatures rarely fall below 20F, tending to stay in the thirties and forties much of the time during winter. I grow my plants as others have described here: roses and shrubs underplanted with subshrubs, perennials, bulbs, and self-seeding annuals. We don't water plants after the first year. Last year we went four months with one centimeter of rain: most things survived. We keep a heavy mulch on our beds. My plant list: Bearded iris, which I DO like; this is unkillable if you don't overwater it. Also I. orientalis, more commonly known as I. ochroleuca. Snakeshead iris, an iris relative, is good. Lavender, mostly lavandins (L. angustifolia x L. latifolia) and L. angustifolia and close relatives: these are hardy and don't mind heavy soil. L. stoechas may need looser soil; my finely cut tender lavender died to the ground last winter but is coming back. L. lanata is supposed to be tender, but I've never seen cold damage on mine: it has brilliant silvery foliage and violet flowers, and does well in hot, dry places. Artemisias of every kind, perovskia. I hear some of these can be invasive; in my garden I think they employ all their energies just staying alive. Caryopteris is good and handsome; sometimes it seeds. Thymes don't hold up well, but I think they might do better at the feet of roses with some protection from sun and wind. Mother-of-thyme (Thymus serpyllum) does very well this way as a ground cover, as does the caraway-scented thyme, the botanical name of which escapes me. Common culinary sage does well for me and is a handsome plant that the bees love; if it's particularly happy it will self-seed. The form with purple leaves dies out, but the yellow-variegated kind does great without summer water: mine stays prostrate. I'm beginning to discover the ornamental sages. I was recently given S. microphylla and S. 'Indigo Spires'; the giver tells my they both do well in a dry garden, but I'm watering mine as they're in their first year. S. guaranitica is a magnificent plant, but it gets big (think two meters tall and wide, though somewhat open in growth) and needs a little shelter from sun and wind, but it's not fussy. Rosemary in its many forms. It can be killed by a very wet winter, but I just plant a new plant: like most of these aromatic plants it's very easy to grow from cuttings. It stretches out and roots as it goes. Dahlias and kniphofias (red hot poker) are surprisingly modest in their water needs, at least if they're in heavy soil. Spring-blooming bulbs do their growing in winter and early spring when there's water, then go dormant in summer during the dry period. Daffodils, tulips, crocus all thrive here. Many of them need winter chill, and critters like them, except for daffodils, which have the enormous virtue of being poisonous. Common daylily (Hemerocallis fulva) grows everywhere. In California I'd be checking out the native bulbs. More aromatics: every kind of Nepeta; lavender cotton (Santolina) in all its varieties; Phlomis, to which a friend recently introduced me; this year I'm trying hyssop in the open garden. Field poppies, the annual red poppy that you see in Impressionist paintings; that stately weed mullein (it does take up a lot of space its second year). Then there are the drought-tolerant shrubs, but that's another discussion. Gardening is always an experiment. Our garden is influenced by our deep and heavy soil and by our usually generous annual rainfall. Since we don't water in summer we usually can grow plants like rosemary in heavy ground, but if we do get a lot of rain in late spring or summer, rosemary can die. A dry garden in summer means that we usually don't have to worry about our tall bearded iris rotting or losing our daffodils. We have enough winter chill for temperate climate plants. There are so many factors that influence a plant's growth that it's worth trying ones you like. Melissa...See MoreDo English Gardens typically have cool colors?
Comments (16)It's true there are tasteless people the world over :) Carefully thought-out gardens should be able to change depending on the season and the plants highlighted at that time. Just a quick example: here's a typical colour set at Mottisfont Abbey during June when the once-flowering Old Roses are blooming: But of course, Summer is much longer than 'Rose Season', and borders change to accommodate the shifts. This mixed border - which we planted just in late May of this year - has taken the richer, late Summer hues that will complement the repeat-flowering Teas, Chinas and Hybrid Musks that are too small this year to notice, but will extend the interest right up until the frosts hit, or Christmas - whichever comes first :) This picture from a week ago: Reds, yellows, oranges . . . colourful, but not garish, I hope. Of course, there are many different styles of 'English Garden', but this is quite a good example of the Gertrude Jeykll/William Robinson/Graham Thomas tradition. Best wishes Jon...See MoreWhich countertop and floors for English-cottage-style kitchen?
Comments (49)Thanks, everyone! You've given me a lot to consider. Here are the main things I'm going to be looking at possibly changing: -- I'm going to take one more look at seeing if I can find natural materials for our countertop and flooring. There's apparently a place an hour away that has some quartzite and light-colored granite countertops and also limestone floors, so we'll see if we can go next week. I do agree that natural = more timeless, but it has been so hard to find natural materials that I like and that will be easy enough to care for. If I *can't* find anything I like with one more trip next Friday, then I'm just going to go with the tile I found and one of the marble-look quartz countertops I've been considering. -- I'm going to consider possibly adding a softer edge to the Shaker cabinets. Our cabinetmaker has some modified Shaker options. -- I'm going to ask the cabinetmaker if he can add legs to the cabinets so they look more old-fashioned. -- I'm going to consider using a more cottage-y style tile for the backsplash. (Thank you to Petula for recommending Winchester Tiles!) I did also love the idea of checkerboard floors, but because we have an oddly-angled transition from the hardwood, I don't think a checkerboard floor (which generally looks best installed diagonally at 45 degrees) would look right with that transition. I also love the soapstone recommendation, but I think that would look best if we were going the checkerboard floor route...See Moreartqueen-2007
16 years agozaphod42
13 years agobotann
13 years agoRosefolly
5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
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