J's Garden Notes - Spring 2015

Container Gardening - Snowdrops

Rosemary Campbell-Preston

It is snowdrop time again. In spite of the cold this week they are all appearing and bringing joy to all those galanthophiles across the country.  I suppose that I now include myself in this happy band of plant lovers as the arrival of these beautiful white flowers heralds early spring and I do find they are exciting to look at and enjoy. In fact in quiet moments I find myself trying to memorise the markings of the snowdrops I love the best.

However there is a problem this year.  Each new snowdrop season I try to add to my small collection, perhaps three of four new plants each spring. I find that my Galanthus ‘Lapwing’ which should be emerging close to its appointed label, has flown off somewhere.  I have plenty of mice about in the garden but I know they avoid these plants and this delightful snowdrop cultivar has obviously fallen victim to one of my summer weeding expeditions from last year.  One way to avoid this plant loss is to grow your best and most loved snowdrops in containers where they can be appreciated as they flower but then cared for during the rest of the year when they are not vulnerable to other gardening activities.

This may not work for all species and cultivars but in a beautiful Northamptonshire garden I visited this week I saw how well this system worked.  So I am off to buy some of those gorgeous old stone sinks and to retrieve and replant my Lapwing when I find where it has landed in my flower bed.

Rosemary Campbell-Preston is principal of The Plant School.  The school is based at the Garden Museum, Central London and takes students of all ages and capabilities.  All courses run once a month through the year from September to the following June.  

To find out more about The Plant Course, The Tree Course and other courses and plant tours go to www.theplantschool.org

Inspiration:

Inspiration in the garden is drawn, isn't it, from a lifetime of 'feeding the boiler' with ideas, experiences and admiration. When I think back, I have been building gardens all my life.  As a child my mother introduced me to the pleasures of growing things.  I had my little garden to tend and I would spend hours in the wood making miniature gardens with mosses and bark, daisies etc.  At school I used to grow things in the crooks of the tallest trees in the wood (why, who knows, but it was fun to see if they would grow).

Later on I drew inspiration from several incredibly talented gardeners, one of which was Nancy Chaplain.  She lived in the next door village and was a friend of my mothers.  At that time she headed up the team of Garden Guides that were operating in the 1980’s in the wonderful gardens of Lady Salisbury at Hatfield House.

Nancy used to write a monthly missive with her garden tips for the local parish mag which I always cut out and kept as it was full of ideas and advice.  She said that she used many of these articles to form the book she wrote.  

She sadly died many years ago now but I always refer to her much treasured little book – A Year in My Garden published in 2002.  It is packed full of wisdom throughout the year in the garden, practical, tried and tested genius.  I highly recommend it to you.  

She had a very ‘old English’ way about her and her garden reflected that – quiet and charming with real brilliance in her plant combinations.  I was lucky enough to be talked around her garden on a few occasions and memories of her planting inspires me in my own planning over and over again.

She wrote:   “February is the month when the garden wakes into life and is in many ways the most exciting time of the year.  Unless the ground is still in the grip of frost, green shoots of early bulbs are poking up everywhere.  It should be possible even in the smallest garden to tuck in some clumps of these little early bulbs.  It is particularly worthwhile if you can find a place close to the house and enjoy them through the windows or perhaps near a doorway where they will greet you as you go out and welcome you home again.  They will be happy to grow underneath the leaves of any plant that dies back in winter, when they can enjoy light and air, and once their foliage has died down they will retreat underground until the following spring”

Her choice for snowdrops would be the common but lovely Galanthus nivalis and a slightly taller one – Galanthus plicatus ‘Warham’ which, as the story goes was brought back by a soldier fighting in the Crimean War to Ireland as a present for his sister.  Coming from a sun baked country they are happier in drier conditions than nivalis which prefers moist, shady soil.  If moving snowdrops in the garden it is best to do so ‘whilst the leaves are still green’ immediately after flowering.  She also has a tip for planting bulbs – that they should have twice as much soil over them as their own height, so for a snowdrop bulb that would be around 2in or 5cm.

Nancy, like my mother also had a real passion for old roses.  One that I unsuprisingly also share!  My mother’s garden, like Nancys was full of rambling roses over apple trees, shrub roses of all sorts and colours and scents.  She would plant Clematis cleverly partnered and running through the climbing roses on the house, giving mixes of colour.  A real pleasure but that is for another day I feel.

Ice Houses of the 18th Century

Ice houses in the 18th and some of the 19th Century were a crucial part of life in a large country house.  

I am fascinated by how these were constructed so that you could store ice for up to three years at a time.  Ice or snow would be collected during the winter months, compacted down to exclude any air and then would remain as ice for long periods of time for use in the house.

The key was to not only site the ice house in a cool, perhaps north facing position, in the shade but that it was very well drained and dry.  The dryness was the vital element in the preservation of the ice.  Compacted to exclude all air, kept centally in the raised structure.

This drawing is taken from J.C.Loudon's 'An Encyclopaedia of Gardening' 1834 and shows a 19thC ice house as a raised mound of earth with a central core.  The walls (d) would have been constructed in brick and have been 2 feet deep.  The drain at the base of the ice well a) and b) was very important for draining off any moisture from the ice.  The ice was topped up through the top hatch  e) and used and accessed through the door f).  Often these buildings had a cold storage room above the ice well - a fridge.

Ice houses were used through the 18th, 19th and into the early 20th century but mostly were replaced by ice making machines in the 1870's.

(Thank you to English Garden Ornament by Paul Edwards for information regarding ice houses)