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Salvia Amistad, Regent’s Park, 9 November 2021

Salvia Amistad, Regent’s Park, 9 November 2021

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RESILIENCE REMINISCENCE - Thank you @cassianschmidt for an enlightening talk yesterday, the chance to see how early ‘new German perennial’ planting has stood the test of time (rather well, and not just Hermannshof), and more of @bettinajaugstetter ‘s work (my sketches of her resilient planting in dug-out concret strips at BUGA last year, which will remain in situ once the former US military base is turned into a local park).

FORMAL GARDENS AND CLIMATE CHANGE - a further walk around Paris on Sunday, to look at the recently renovated Exedra Groves, in the Tuileries garden.

JARDIN EN MOVEMENT - the gardens of the Quai Branly museum, in Paris, designed by Gilles Clement and embracing his ‘garden in motion’ approach on a tight urban footprint. Improbable site, edged by a busy main thoroughfare to the north and by tall Haussmann-style 19th century buildings to the south. And there’s the striking museum building, by Jean Nouvel, on stilts, with the resulting underbelly creating a large area sunken below street level. This acts as an access route to the museum itself and to a restaurant, and it connects the various areas of the garden. Yet, sheltered by a very effective glass sheet on the street side, this is a soothing space, with an informal set of paths winding around different habitats, miles away from the nearby bustle and just occasionally catching a glimpse of the nearby Eiffel Tower. More than 150 trees - a lot for such a small space - selected for their robustness, ferns, hellebores, and grasses. And swathes of Euphorbia characias and [sharp intake of breath] Carex pendula as ground cover. On this kind of scale, it’s quite effective, rather beautiful, and it certainly challenges your views about vigorous self-seeders.

FLOWER FORM IN ART - a few snaps from a V&A visit with garden design students to look at how gardens and plants have been represented in art. It’s about appreciating beautiful objects such as these Iznik plates and vases, but also, from a practical perspective, to think through how forms and textures can be conveyed in professional drawings and technical presentations such as sketches and master plans. These tulips, calendulas, fritillarias and alliums become spires, daisies, and buttons.

Let’s take ourselves back to a bright day in Kew and forget about today’s wet and grey.

GRASS-SCAPE AND SEEDHEADS - RHS Hyde Hall. Decayed beauty holding up well after serious downpours. Top marks for:

CLARE COLLEGE GARDENS - down to the bare bones at this time of year, a pared-back feeling compounded by the impact of extensive works which turned the Fellows Garden into a main access route for site traffic via a temporary bridge across the Cam. But, untouched, the Sunken Garden showed its clean Arts and Crafts lines inspired by the atrium of a Roman villa, with a shallow rectangular pool and a peristyle-like yew surround. And Old Court was a model of simple design, with proportions in keeping with the space, and nothing else other than quadrangular lawns and a thin border connecting the court and the buildings.

THE MED ON THE CAM - The Mediterranean garden at Cambridge Botanic Garden. Perhaps lesser known than the winter garden but no less spectacular. Strong forms year round, with the bonus of seedheads at this time of year, and flower interest in the summer. Photos 3 and 4 from June 2021 for comparison, with cistus in bloom and euphorbia just going over. I remember being impressed when I first saw this one summer a few years ago, and last week it felt like seeing an old friend again, looking well, happy, and altogether grounded.

JOYFUL RIOT OR GARISH PLANTCRASH? The winter garden at the Cambridge Botanic Garden - a cheerful reminder that, at this time of year, interest in general - and colour in particular - comes mostly not from flowers but from foliage, bark, and stems. Such combinations can feel a little manufactured, whether they are 1970s Foggy Bottom style or sleek contemporary variations. But they are impactful. None of the consensual, harmonious colour combinations associated with spring and summer. The whole box of crayons is merrily daubed across the borders here. It even makes Bergenia acceptable. But deep down, it also works because behind the Technicolor effect is a clever combination of forms and textures, focal points that pull you around the garden, and a subtle balance of lower plants against a backdrop of taller trees which together create a welcoming sense of seclusion.

Crisp, cold winter-morning light over Hyde Park.

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