My Garden

The sweet pea trial at Wisley is always a big attraction to visitors – and the fragrance is often as powerful as the colour is enticing. But it’s not just an attractive display, it’s a serious trial with the expert sweet pea judges assessing the entries for both use in the garden and for exhibition.

Just one new variety was considered of sufficiently high standard to be awarded an Award of Garden Merit this year - ‘John Gray’ (left, click top enlarge). Raised by Roger Parsons, holder of the National Collection of Sweet Peas, its large, boldly waved flowers are pale pink shading to white at the base.

Roger told me about his new award-winning sweet pea: “'John Gray' is remarkable in being exceptionally good both for garden decoration and for cut flowers. Growth is vigorous and it flowers prolifically so that a clump of plants in the garden is covered in blooms. It has exceptionally large flowers and long stems for cutting.

“Larger petals are generally more prone to weather damage,’ he added, “but 'John Gray' has good petal texture to resist this.”

Named for the father of a Roger Parsons customer, who simply loved gardening, not only did ‘John Gray’ receive an AGM last year, but it also received an Award of Merit for Exhibition following the trial at Wisley in 2007.

The panel of judges also assessed sweet peas given an AGM in earlier years to be sure that they continued to perform at AGM standard. For one variety, the news was not good. ‘Florencecourt’, given an AGM in 1997, was disappointing. Not only was there noticeable variation in the colour of the flowers on display but it was known that a completely incorrect variety was being sold under this name. So it was recommended that its AGM be withdrawn.

Four other older varieties were also checked carefully but these were considered to still be of AGM standard. These were ‘Evening Glow’, the very popular ‘Gwendoline’ (left), 'Toby Robinson’ and ‘White Supreme’ – which gained its AGM as long ago as 1994.

Seed of sweet pea ‘John Gray is available only from Roger Parsons.

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In recent years there’s been a flood of new echinaceas, mainly from specialist breeders in North America and Europe. First it was all the new yellow and orange and red shades, now it’s double flowered varieties. Like the single flowered varieties, the first doubles that were available came in pink and white – now we have the ‘Fruity Doubles’ (click the picture to enlarge it).

This collection is made up of four of the best varieties from master Dutch echinacea breeder Arie Blom. Specialising in double echinaceas propagated vegetatively so they’re all identical, and never from seed, these are so superior to the original double, ‘Razzmatazz’, which I found to be a poor plant. The colours are better, they don’t produce single flowers, and they support themselves much more effectively.

This collection includes: ‘Coconut Lime’, white rays with a fluffy creamy lime cone; ‘Pink Double Delight’, in bright pink and like a more stable, self supporting version of ‘Razzmatazz’; and last year’s hot newcomer ‘Hot Papaya’, the first red double.

Completing the collection is the latest of Arie Blom’s new doubles – ‘Double Marmalade’, a fiery orange double which is also available separately.

Impressive in the garden and long lasting as cut flowers, give them plenty of sun and fertile soil which is well-drained in winter and they’ll thrive.

You can order the Echinacea Fruity Doubles Collection of plants from Thompson & Morgan.

You can also order Echinacea 'Double Marmalade', individually, from Thompson & Morgan and also from Mr Fothergill’s.

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For the last three years, there’s been a trial of Abelia varieties at Wisley’s Deer’s Farm. This is a valuable location in Wisley village which provides vital extra space for trials, and a number of important shrub trials have been grown there in recent years.

The abelias have been grown there for the last five years and assessed regularly by the panel of shrub experts with the aim of choosing the very best to be given an Award of Garden Merit. It also proved a welcome opportunity to sort out some of the muddles in naming and this is still being completed.

With so many variegated forms introduced in recent years, this prolonged regular assessment also provided a useful opportunity to check which varieties are stable and retain their variegation and which tend to revert to plain green. Full details will be provided in a Plant Bulletin, currently being prepared. I’ll let you know when it’s published.

So which were the best?

It was agreed that the rarely seen Abelia mosanensis (above, click to enlarge) was outstanding. It was the only one with red autumn foliage, it featured lovely sweetly scented flowers in spring and was also very hardy. It’s much more popular in America than here although the plant in the trial was propagated from a specimen already in the garden. It will be given a cultivar name in due course.

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At the far end of the Wisley Pinetum (come out of the restaurant, turn right, keep going) is the trials area where the spectacular buddleja trial has been such a treat. And in the same area, this year will be the last year for the trial of weigela with coloured or variegated foliage.

In recent years there’s been quite a flurry of new introductions in this group, some with variegated foliage and some with purple foliage – and both, of course, also with spring flowers. Six entries to the trial have stood out so far.

The old favourite known as Weigela 'Florida Variegata', with its creamy variegated leaves, has been popular for many decades and although it occasionally reverts, in general it’s very well behaved. Weigela florida 'Suzanne' is more vigorous, taller, and with a narrower variegation while ‘Sunny Princess’, also variegated, is relatively compact and its creamy edge is also relatively slender. The creamy variegated ‘Praecox Variegata’, with its honey scented flowers, also provoked admiration as did Monet (‘Verweig').

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Autumn cabbage is a valuable crop at a time of year when the season of many summer vegetables is over. So almost fifty different cabbages intended to crop during September, October and November were trialled at Wisley last autumn. Both green and red cabbages were included. As is often the case with the Wisley trials, it wasn't just a matter of finding the best varieties but an interesting aspect of their cultivation was also revealed.

Chickweed is a continuing problem on the trials field and this is especially important in relation to cabbages as it is thought to harbour cabbage white fly. So the young plants were planted in small holes in black landscape fabric which was laid across the planting area. The result was that cabbage white fly was not a problem. It also turned out to bring a double advantage as planting through the landscape fabric prevented cabbage root fly infestation and so the use of collars was not necessary.

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A most valuable recent innovation at the Wisley trials has been the opportunity for visitors to vote for their favourites. I reported on the results of the buddleja voting back in December, now let's take a look at the voting for Amaranthus, Celosia and Dahlia.

First off, I have to say that while placing the voting slips in the Pavilion at the bottom of the trials field (and not alongside the trials themselves) may have protected them from the weather, it noticeably reduced the number of votes cast. Nevertheless, the opinions of Wisley visitors are always valuable - and here they are.

The visitors' favourite amongst the Amaranthus was not one of the familiar, cottage garden, Love-lies-bleeding types but A. tricolor ‘Early Splendor' (above). This variety sports dramatic cerise-scarlet foliage in the growing tips which darkens to bronze-purple later. "Vivid colour. Will stand out in a border" said one visitor, while another liked it because it was the "only one without alien tentacles"!

In Celosias, ‘Smart Look Red' (right) came out top. "Good bright colour. Many flower heads on compact plant. Good dark colour leaves" said one visitor who summed up its qualities well. I also liked the fact that it generated plenty of side shoots after the main dramatic flush and the combination of flower and foliage colour was certainly effective.

In Dahlias, three shared first place. I discussed ‘Twyning's Revel' in my recent post on dark-leaved dahlias. ‘Will's Carousel' is a startling Collarette with petals in purple, scarlet and white surrounding a ring of smaller white petals. ‘Pooh - Swan island' (left) also features an unusual colour combination and it's noticeable that none of these three remotely resemble traditional dahlias.

Be sure to look out for more visitor voting opportunities in the coming season - and this year the voting slips will be placed alongside individual trials. I'll let you know which trials you can vote on when it‘s been decided.

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For so long it was the flamboyance of the flowers that was the attraction of dahlias and no one paid any attention to the leaves. These days we take it for granted that many of the best garden dahlias don't have boring green leaves - they have luscious bronze or purplish foliage which is a feature in itself.

First ‘Bishop of Llandaff' caught gardeners' imagination and also ‘Yellowhammer' came along. Seed strains like ‘Redskin' appeared in catalogues, and the double orange  ‘David Howard' appeared at Great Dixter and other gardens.

Now dark-leaved dahlias are taken for granted. Quite a number, large and small, have been seen in the Wisley trial in recent years and least two breeders, Aad Verwer in Holland and Keith Hammett in New Zealand, have devoted time to them.

In this year's trial, as you'd expect - some did well, some not so well. None from the Dutch Happy Single (HS) series, raised by Aad Verwer in The Netherlands,  have yet been given an AGM but ‘Happy Single Kiss', salmon with a dark centre, ‘Happy Single Date', deep orange with a dark centre, and ‘Happy Single Wink', lilac with a purple centre, have come close.

‘Keith's Pet', from Keith Hammett, was given an AGM as a container plant but, though good, was less effective in the open ground. a star at Hampton Court in 2008 and another from Keith Hammett, with petals striped in lavender pink and white. These must be prime candidates for awards next year.

Two others came close this year and will be examined again next year. ‘Twyning’s Revel’ (top) in soft coral red with a yellow centre and the gorgeous ‘Candy Eyes (left)’, a star at Hampton Court in 2008 and another from Keith Hammett, with petals striped in lavender pink and white. These must be prime candidates for awards next year.
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As a staple of Christmas Dinner, this seemed a good moment to take a look at the awards that came out of  this year's parsnip trial at Wisley. Twenty one different varieties were grown, from old and familiar names like ‘Tender and True' to the very latest F1 hybrids. Ten were given Awards of Garden Merit (AGM).

Seed was sown on 21 April at 2.5cm/1in intervals in rows 16in/40cm apart. And here's a crucial part of the growing regime: the whole crop was covered with Enviromesh as protection against root fly. It was briefly removed for thinning the seedlings to 3in/7.5cm in June, again once for weeding, and finally removed in September. The result: it proved very successful in keeping off the root fly.

By the end of September the crop was ready to harvest although most gardeners will leave their parsnips in the ground and use them as needed. They will continue to bulk up in to the autumn.

Almost half the entries were given AGMs, a testament to the progress in breeding parsnips in recent years. New award winners were: ‘Albion' (above): a uniform crop of unusually white, smooth-skinned roots; ‘Archer': good for the village show as well as the table; ‘Lancer' (left): short, slender roots, ideal for baby-root crops; ‘Palace': good quality roots, with canker resistance; ‘Panache': very evenly tapered roots with smooth skins; ‘Picador': less tapered than many, so with more bulk per root.

Four varieties which received the AGM in 1993 or 2001 were still considered good enough to retain their award. ‘Cobham Improved Marrow': elegant tapering roots and canker resistant; ‘Dagger': smooth roots with a shallow crown mean easy cleaning; ‘Gladiator'; the first F1 hybrid still has star quality; ‘Javelin'; another easy-to-wash variety with canker resistance.

Finally, amongst those no longer considered of Award of Garden Merit standard was ‘Tender and True'. The expert panel of assessors considered that this was now outclassed, having been superseded by more modern varieties, but that it continued to sell well because of its appealing name.

It's also worth noting that all the top varieties are F1 hybrids except ‘Cobham Improved Marrow' and ‘Lancer'. However, unlike many crops, the price difference between open-pollinated and F1 Hybrid varieties is relatively small so seed price need not be a serious factor in choosing varieties.

Hoping you're enjoying home-grown Christmas parsnips. If not, you know which varieties to try for next year.

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Amongst the many thousands of summer Iris cultivars, it's usually the flamboyant bearded irises that get most of the attention. But the recent trial of Spuria irises again proved what valuable perennials they are.

Spuria irises are tall, up to around 1.5m/5ft, and while the flowers lack the rainbow colours and patterns of the Tall Bearded Irises their colours can be intensely penetrating in colour. They also have a more imposing habit than bearded irises, their slender deep green foliage setting off the flowers well

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The figures have just become available for both the visitor voting and the butterfly count for the big buddleja trial at Wisley. Visitors were again asked to nominate their favourites and a count was also made of the number and type of butterflies visiting each variety.

The visitor voting results were both very similar and very different to last year. In 2008 the top two varieties were ‘Miss Ruby', way out ahead, followed by Lo and Behold 'Blue Chip'. I wrote the results up on my Transatlantic Plantsman blog.

This year top of the poll is again the vivid and prolific ‘Miss Ruby' but ‘Blue Chip' was way way down with less than 1% of the vote. ‘Blue Chip' was indeed good in its first year but in its second, when I saw it in mid July, it was very disappointing without a single flower open while many others looked spectacular.

So ‘Miss Ruby' was again way out ahead with twice as many votes as the next placed ‘Raspberry Wine' and ‘Purple Prince' followed by ‘Burgundy' and ‘Santana'.

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