SEPTEMBER 2009
This month is a good time to see our grasses and all the North American prairie plants which also flower at this time. We have just planted an American Prairie in an adjacent paddock and is one of only a handful outside America. It has 70 species grown form seed at Cambo. With the planting pressure off, the gardeners can now spend more time tending and learning from the plantings. We are happy to welcome the arrival of our new Assistant Head Gardener Ruth McHutchon to the team.
WOODLANDS EDGE (1) The yellow daisies are Helenium autumnale, a North American prairie plant which combines well with the late grasses. Teasels and the balls of Echinops add an architectural element.
CALENDAR BED (2) This steppe planting is influenced by dry grassland habitats and has a particular emphasis on transparent plants. The low fluffy grass is Pennisetum orientale which is early flowering and suitable for our climate. Soft pink plumes of Lythrum virgatum and Asters add some needed structure.
STEPPE PLANTING (3) The large grass Miscanthus sinensis ‘Gracillimus’ repeats down the bed supplying rhythm. Echinops spherocephalus ‘Arctic Glow’ combines with the grasses
THE ANNUALS (4) These colour themed beds help supply the garden with late colour. Many of these plants are also found in our naturalistic potager. New this year is a new red Rudbeckia hirta ‘Cherry Brandy’. The fluffy grass is Pennisetum villosum which can be grown from seed in a single season.
TRADITIONAL BORDER (5) Anemone x hybrida ‘Honorine Jobert’ Is excellent value in leaf, bud, flower and seedhead. The red spikes are Persicaria amplexicaule ‘Firetail’ which is long flowering and whose leaves provide good texture earlier in the season.
MOIST AREA (6) This part of the garden is due for redevelopment this year with many of the plants being moved to our new moist bank planting just outside the garden.
CUT FLOWER AREA (7) Verbascum nigrum ‘Sixteen Candles’ Is the slender yellow branching spike. The low yellow daisy is Coreopsis lanceolata ‘Sterntaler’, a hard working little plant that flowers all summer till the frosts.
WOODLAND BORDER (8) The woodland takes a bit of a backseat in September with scatterings of white cimicifugas in the background.
MIXED BORDER (9) The red ball flowers of Monarda didyma ‘Cambridge Scarlet’ combine with the sharply upright grass Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’. The large white daisy is Leucanthemella serotina. In time purple foliage will be supplied by the repeat plantings of Cotinus coggygria, the smoke bush.
EARLY FLOWERING BORDER (10) One of Elliott’s favourite flowers in the garden is the pinkish purple daisy of Echinacea purpurea which also comes in white Echinacea purpurea ‘White Swan’ Here they both combine with the fluffy heads of the grass Pennisetum orientale ‘Tall Tails’.
NATURALISTIC POTAGER (11) Each year we try out a different colour scheme always in the hot range. This year we reduced the yellow and increased red repeating it throughout. The tall orange annual spike is Leonotis ocymifolia ‘Staircase’.
POTAGER ENTRANCE BEDS (12) This bed provides a link with other parts of the garden The giant orange spikes of Kniphofia ‘Prince Igor’ are used to frame the potager.
LATE DOUBLE BORDER (13) Lythrum gives a splash of purple as it repeats with the white daisies of Aster umbellatus, an excellent perennial for the later season. These plantings are less work per year than grass and the butterflies love them.
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