Chelsea Preview

For reviving this feature and bringing it to Chelsea alone, Mr Myers has proved himself worthy of a gold medal. The Great Pavilion teems with the world! s

flora, enough raw materials for a world of gardens. With spires of starry flowers produced in that awkward time just after the tulips have finished, the North American bulbs Camassia have grown in popularity of late. Long-lived, exulting in damp, and tall enough to overtop their competitors, they are superb when naturalised in rough grass. But they are usually only blue. Now

Darren Saines! s Naturally Norway Garden [MA19]

Broadleigh Gardens (GPG11) is introduc- ing a new group of variants, Broadleigh Belle, with flowers in pink, mauve, opal, and white. Growing to 3ft tall, they are capable of turning a small managed meadow into a spangled early summer sensation. Meanwhile, Knoll Gardens (GPF4) is

exhibiting a new grass for places where grass wouldn! t normally grow. Festuca idahoensis Tomales Bay is less of a bun than Festuca glauca. This makes it easier to use en masse without producing a bed that looks like a failing hair transplant. Steely blue, slender and spilling, the foliage lasts well through the winter. This cultivar! s greatest merit, however, is its exceptional drought tolerance, once watered-in and established. I may try it in a gravel garden near another drought-proof debutante, Philadelphus maculatus Sweet Clare from Hillier Nurseries (GPE15). A hardy selection of a Mexican species, it! s a shrub to 5ft tall with slender, arching branches and petite silvery leaves. Produced from June onwards, its flowers are large, down-

Top left David Austin! s new Rosa Susan Williams-Ellis. Left Knoll Gardens! new grass Festuca idahoensis Tomales Bay

productivity out of fruit in a small area.

Medwyn! s of Anglesey [GPG3] returns after

a five-year absence with an inimitable display of container-grown vegetables in great variety.

W. Robinson & Son [GPE18] celebrates 150

years of its business in a range of period set- piece displays of heritage vegetables. Garden Organic! s One Pot Pledge [GPK2] sets its sights modestly on challenging visitors to ! grow one pot of tasty vegetables, herbs or fruit this year! with a collection of unusual planters, ranging from commercially available Ladder Allotments to a chest of drawers.

Nostalgia

A Touch of France Garden Design and

Chilstone celebrate Christian before Dior

[RM14], an evocation of the garden at Les

114 Country Life, May 19, 2010

Rhumbs, childhood home of the eponymous fashion designer, and apparently the source of his interest in design. Plants include those used in Dior scents, including jasmine, heliotrope, lily of the valley, peonies, honeysuckle and scented roses. Cardiff Council and allies bring

A Centenary Garden for Captain R F Scott [RM10] commemorat-

ing the centenary this year of Cap Scott leaving Cardiff on the SS Terra Nova at the start of his Antarctic polar expedi- tion. Cardiff!s Belle Epoque gardens, financed by coal and

ward-facing, and white with ruby centres. Despite its demure appearance, this Mexican mock orange is yet more power- fully fragrant than its familiar cousins. This year, David Austin (GPG10) has

surpassed even his own stratospheric standards with six new roses, at least three of which merit instant classic status. Rosa Princess Anne makes a compact bush of lustrous deep green foliage, to about 3ft tall. The flowers appear in June and continue until the first frosts. Densely double and ruffled, the petals are deep carmine on opening, with a gold highlight on their undersides, and fade through magenta to finish in pure pale pink. If you have ever wished the naïve beauty

of our native eglantine could be replicated in concentrated and courteous form, then Rosa The Lady! s Blush is for you. Although it commemorates the 125th anniversary of magazine The Lady, this new rose puts me more in mind of an older and grander lady altogether: it would not look amiss in a miniature by Nicholas Hilliard. A rounded bush to 4ft high, it! s ideal for mixed borders, but I! ll be using it (as per its Elizabethan aura) in the gaps of a knot garden. Opening from finely pointed buds, the flowers are semi-double and shell-pink with a white

shipping, inspire the exhibit with formal plants and topiary.

Shade plants and woodlanders

Plantagogo.com [GPJ2] and Solva Plants of Lymington [GPE5] bring matchless ranges

of Heuchera, Heucherella and Tiarella, including many new

plants. Harveys Garden

Plants [GPG13] picks a wide

variety of species to enhance shade and woodland locations. Victorian

Violas [GPA7] brings old-fashioned hardy perennial violas, revealing their vast array of colourings, fragrances and versatility. Spring woodland planting drifts under birch trees (left)

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