Mahonias are woody evergreen shrubs and the best of them flower in winter. In the past, they were regarded as something to shove in the shady corner or, even more insultingly, as car park plants. But now – thanks to the demand for architectural foliage – they are having their moment in the sun... or, rather, their moment in light shade, which is where they prefer to be.
The main garden forms are the Mahonia x media varieties. Their pinnate leaves are sharp and glossy and grow around the branches like Elizabethan ruffs. With a little choice pruning and shaping, these shrubs' natural architectural look can be amplified, so that the whorls of leaves grow in beautifully spaced tiers, adding wonderful structure to the garden.
Atop and amongst the green collars of leaves, clusters of long poker-shaped flower racemes bloom like bright-yellow flames throughout the winter months. As well as adding cheering colour, they exude a delicious scent that is reminiscent of lily of the valley and hangs in the air on still winter days. Being laden with nectar, they are one of the main food sources for the buff-tailed bumblebee, which is increasingly seen foraging in winter as a result of our warming climate. The plant also provides for birds by producing blue or black berries.
The M. x media cultivars are crosses between M. japonica (highly scented) and M. oiwakensis subsp.lomariifolia (very architectural with sun-yellow flowers), which – like most garden mahonias – hail from Asia. The exception is of course M. aquifolium (Oregon grape), which comes from the western coast of North America and is widely grown as shrubby ground cover, although its flowers are not scented. The genus is named after the Irish-American horticulturist, Bernard
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We visited Harriet Johnson’s Maine garden last week, but just focused on what she’d planted in a space that had previously been an in ground pool. She mentioned to me that she had other garden spaces too, so I asked if she’d let us visit those as well… happily she agreed, and today we’re getting a tour of the space she calls her fence garden:
As well as being that haloed place where one can enjoy a bit of peace and quiet and a hot soak, the bathroom is also one of the best rooms to grow house plants. Its high humidity is a haven for a lot of indoor plants because so many of them hail from tropical or subtropical forests. There they flourish in the consistently damp, warm air and the light that pours in between the trees. These plants will feel right at home in bathrooms, shower rooms, and kitchens, if provided with the indirect light and average-to-warm temperature that most of them crave.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that the recent epiphany in gardens and mental health is a new discovery, but gardens have long been linked to good health and quiet reflection. In fact, the late 20th-century rift in our relationship with the natural world can be seen as a historical blip in an otherwise unbroken bond between man and nature. The well-documented surge in interest in the natural world during Covid was in fact a restoration of a healthier relationship that we as a society had been enjoying for centuries.
Natural swimming ponds serve a twofold purpose: not only can you (obviously) swim in them whenever you fancy a refreshing, chill dip, but they also look beautiful in a garden, replacing the luminous blue sterility of a normal chlorinated pool with a wilder look. As such, they are much in demand, though creating one requires a little forethought and consideration of a number of moving parts. With that in mind, we spoke to Tim Evans, owner of swimming pond specialists Gartenart, about how to make one work in your own garden.
Who would be without a hellebore or two in the dark months of February and early March, when we long for the onset of spring? Their generous, characterful flowers bring colour and hope to the garden when we need it most, and they really don’t need much to keep them happy.
You can take an Englishwoman out of England, but you can’t change a deeply ingrained English garden aesthetic. Pom Shillingford has lived in America for 26 years, but she still yearns for the garden she knew as a child — her grandmother’s beloved Arts & Crafts garden in Hampshire, which she remembers always being filled with seasonal flowers. She and her husband David and their three young children moved from Manhattan to the small town of Salisbury in Connecticut in 2013. ‘I had always loved Manhattan, but suddenly I didn’t love it any more and needed to go back to green fields and the outdoors,’ says Pom.
Should you be stopped in your tracks by the blazing colour of a tree this autumn, it is likely to be a maple (Acer). Their distinctive palmate leaves burn breathtaking, vivid shades of scarlet, ruby, or gold before they fall, outshining most trees in the vicinity. Some acers also offer colourful spring foliage; others have a sculptural spreading shape with multiple trunks; and a few provide attractive bark during the winter months.