The Daily Telegraph Garden
By Arabella Lennox-Boyd. The theme of The Daily Telegraph Garden is simplicity. Hard elements have been reduced to a minimum, while restrained planting and water come to the fore, encouraging reflection of light and contemplation. The garden was inspired by the purity and restraint found in Japanese gardens.
The garden is a contrast of vertical and horizontal elements; of planting and water; of hard and soft.
A stone-edged, rectangular pool of water fills the space of the garden, and is softened by planting on two sides. A serpentine path of stone, crossed by ribbons of white waterlilies (Nymphaea alba), links the front of the garden to the planting at the back, and leads the eye towards a bamboo thicket.
The pool is punctuated by sculptural rocks, half submerged in the pool, and four trees that frame the views and lend a sense of permanence to the garden, and a sense of age and height to the composition. The largest of these trees is Pterocarya fraxinifolia chosen for its association with water.
The plants in the garden were selected for their strong visual association and effect. Simplicity and precision are key to the planting design. Large green leaves (including Gunnera), grey leaves, vertical bamboo and iris, rounded shrubs and roses create a rhythm.
Planting list:
Alchemilla mollis
Allium stipitatum 'Mount
Everest'
Amelanchier
lamarckii
Athyrium nipponicum
var. pictum
Buxus
Camassia
white-flowered
Campanula
poscharskyana
Cornus kousa
Euonymus fortunei
'Emerald Gaiety'
Gunnera manicata
Hakonechloa
macra
Hebe (e.g. Hebe
subalpina)
Hedera species (e.g. Light Fingers)
Iris sibirica
Miscanthus
sinensis 'Morning Light'
Osmanthus
heterophyllus
Phyllostachys aurea
Phyllostachys sulphurea f. viridis
Pterocarya
fraxinifolia
Pyrus
salicifolia
Roses (e.g. Rose 'Evelyn')
Sagina subulata
Soleirolia
soleirolii
Spiraea nipponica
'Snowmound'
Spiraea ×
vanhouttei
Taxus baccata (hedging)
Viburnum opulus
'Roseum'
Water lilies Nymphaea (e.g. Nymphaea 'Gonnère')
Zantedeschia
aethiopica 'Green Goddess'
"I looked up all the plants I liked on Shoot and decided where they should go in my garden, then went back to the garden centre and bought them. "
