Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2025 i The English Garden

Mark Bolton Mark is an established photographer who recently published A New Cottage Garden, a book about his own garden in Devon. His photographs of blacksmith and tool maker Alex Pole can be found on page 105. Bennet Smith Bennet is a Kent-based garden photographer who enjoys seeking out special places made by passionate plantspeople to share their spirit with a wider audience. His images of Twyford House feature on page 25. Tony Kirkham MBE Tony recently retired as the Head of the Arboretum at The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, after 43 years’ service for which he received an MBE and the RHS VMH. He recommends liquidambar on p83.…

Tom Hart Dyke The intrepid plant hunter and driving force behind Lullingstone Castle’s inspirational World Garden on following your dreams My grandmother, Crac, was my first inspiration. She lived in the gatehouse at Lullingstone, where I live now. She taught me not to worry if you lose a few plants but just to keep on going. Every Friday we’d watch Geoff Hamilton on BBC Gardeners’ World. Our family has lived at Lullingstone since 1361, and I was so lucky to grow up here. I’m a self-taught gardener. My first real adventure came when a friend and I opened an atlas at random in the library. Page 48 described Borneo, so that’s where I went. I had a wonderful time living with tribes out there and improving my orchid husbandry. The…

As autumn approaches, we are reminded of its beauty by the rich and rapidly changing leaf colours produced by trees as they prepare for winter. The production of green chlorophyll shuts down, exposing red anthocyanins and yellow and amber carotins inside the leaves, resulting in trees with wonderful ornamental attributes at this time of year. And the species that springs to mind when choosing a tree to provide these moments is the sweet gum, or liquidambar. The genus was named by the Swedish biologist, Carl Linnaeus in 1753 using the Latin word liquidus for fluid and the Arabic word ambar for amber in recognition of the fragrant, sweet gum or resin that exudes from the tree trunk when wounded. Together they give the tree its name. Previously treated as a…

Our November issue always tends to feature a lot of trees, mostly because it’s that time of year when deciduous trees are at their colourful autumnal best. This year is no exception, as we bring you some beautiful examples of the glorious colour and splendour a well-chosen tree can bring to a garden. At The Old Vicarage in Wormingford, Essex, Jeremy Allen’s splendid walnuts contribute a warm golden glow, while at Pitlowie House, Ray and Penny Cox’s garden in Perthshire, acers and sorbus are at their leafy and berry-laden peak. If you’re in need of more ideas, Andrew Beale guides us around the fantastic arboretum begun by his grandfather at West Lodge Park Hotel – after Kew, it’s the largest collection of trees inside the M25 and well worth a…

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Every piece of art and design has its focal point. Gardens are no exception to this rule and leading the eye to one main area of interest – or several, depending on how much space you have – can have a profound influence on the way a garden is actually perceived. Placement There are two approaches to positioning a focal point, explains designer Alasdair Cameron of Cameron Gardens. The first is the more obvious symmetrical method, where everything around the focal point, which is often in the distance, is equal and the focus is in the centre. Good examples here might be an obelisk or sundial within a formal layout, or a sculpture at the end of an allée. What the viewer sees is clear from the outset and there…

If you’re in the market for a new tree, and you’d like your new purchase to contribute to your garden’s autumn display, little will help narrow down the plethora of choice quite like a visit to an arboretum. Time it right, and you’ll see all of autumn’s most glorious tree species at their colourful peak. It’s a time of year Andrew Beale always looks forward to, when the Beale Arboretum at West Lodge Park Hotel, Enfield, is ablaze with colour, thanks to its vast collection of trees, begun by his grandfather, Edward Beale, in the 1960s. “My grandfather was the sixth generation to go into the family business and I’m the eighth,” he says. “He bought West Lodge in 1945 and by doing so, inherited 35 acres of grounds. A…

Four years ago, blacksmith and toolmaker Alex Pole needed a birthday present in a hurry for his wife. He wasn’t the first person to find himself in this predicament, and nor will he be the last, but then not many people have a small forge at their disposal. When he sneaked out to fashion a garden trowel from offcuts for her, a new business was born. “I don’t buy flowers but I do bring home garden tools,” he quips. Alex is best known for his range of kitchenware, which he sells under his own-name brand through the likes of specialist outlet Borough Kitchen. That has been his focus for the past ten years, and has provided him with the offcuts he now uses to make garden tools. These tools were…

No two autumns are ever the same, and this one has completely undone all my recent efforts. Where I had imposed tidiness and decorum, trimmed hedges, and tidied borders generally about the place, the gnarly November weather has made a right mess. There are leaves everywhere, creating stacked drifts in hedges, beds and borders, which makes them easy to collect for leafmould at least. Lighter concentrations I tend to brush under shrubs and hedges to let them rot down naturally, providing a lovely habitat for wildlife and saving my back for other pursuits. But I always rake them up if they’re thick and dense, since they tend to swamp all the dainties beneath them. It’s fun identifying the leaves that have blown in from other gardens – the ginkgo from…

Jenny Whitmore had one priority in mind when she started designing her West Sussex garden: the view. “It was what captivated me when we first came to look at this house and I knew immediately that anything I did in the garden shouldn’t try to compete with it,” she recalls. Perched on high ground at the edge of Ashdown Forest, Twyford House does indeed boast a splendid outlook, which is particularly apparent in autumn. Beyond the clipped hedges and carefully chosen trees in the garden, the land sweeps away down the slope across a lake to wooded hills and the South Downs in the distance. As you gaze out from the top terrace, your eye skims over a sea of green, with box, russet-tinged beech and the occasional yew gently…

It should come as no surprise at all that the garden at Pitlowie House is filled with varied planting – especially of interesting trees and shrubs. It belongs to garden photographer Ray Cox and his wife Penny and is only a short hop from the Cox family’s renowned gardens and garden centre in Perthshire: Glendoick. Ray comes from pedigree horticultural stock. His grandfather, Euan Cox, eschewed a career in the family jute business in Dundee, preferring to remain in London after World War I, where he was the gardening editor of Country Life. In 1919, Euan joined Reginald Farrer on a plant hunting trip to Burma, bringing home seedlings that were subsequently planted in the gardens at Glendoick House, the estate his father had bought in 1899. These were soon…

A highlight of the year for garden designers is the Society of Garden and Landscape Designers’ annual awards ceremony, judging for which involves site visits and lengthy deliberation by a team of experts. Its chairman is veteran designer and Inchbald managing director Andrew Duff, who here picks his ten go-to plants. “These plants are friends. I’ve known them for years, trust them and know what they do. If they were at the same party, they’d complement each other while each bringing their own personality.” Voting for the SGLD People’s Choice Award is open from 1–31 October. Visit sgld.org.uk/events/awards to explore the shortlist and cast your vote. Winners will be announced in February 2026. andrewduffgardendesign.com 1 Aralia cordata A statuesque perennial that I’ve recently started to use for its large, lush,…

Autumn and winter tend to be the seasons when the structure of a garden is most appreciated. Frost picks out the shapes of evergreen shrubs and hedging, and sun pierces through a filigree of bare branches. But what if, as early autumn approaches, the structure is looking a little worse for wear? When there’s so much to do in a garden, it’s all too easy to put off pruning shrubs in particular, and they can quickly become woody, dominant and out of proportion to the rest of the garden. And after this year’s dry weather, lawns have taken a beating. This cooler season is the time to act, and with careful, considered renovation, you can soon have crisp shapes in the garden once again. If the prospect of renovating shrubs…

Artichokes’ crisped flowerheads are a striking contrast to the fresh, pale mint foliage When I think of garden visiting, I think of walking through an enticing gate and gasping at the hazy, romantic abundance of midsummer at its soaring, delicately coloured loveliest. I think of sitting with tea and cake at a rickety metal table, perhaps under a bower of sweetly scented pineapple broom, noting down the names of newly essential verbascums and the revelation that of the two, Rosa ‘Generous Gardener’ has the most seductive scent, while ‘Shropshire Lad’ the more voluptuous peachy form. Soon, I muse, I will plant both. But visiting a fine garden at the beginning of winter can be just as stimulating. Gravetye Manor in East Sussex was famously the home of the influential Victorian…