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Gardeners World blog

Plants

...and so to bed

Posted by: James Alexander-Sinclair, 25 September 2007, 09.32AM

Bedding scheme There is a tendency among some gardeners to look down their noses at bedding. They sneer at the humble petunia, cock a reproachful eyebrow at a tumbling lobelia and positively guffaw at any sign of a begonia. I admit that I used to share their prejudices: I, too, dismissed all hanging baskets and garishly coloured window boxes as tasteless and vulgar.

But a couple of years ago, brothers and sisters, I saw the light. No matter how much I disliked the colour combinations I could not deny the fact that most schemes are grown with great care and are purely designed to make people happy. That is a principle you cannot knock: who are we to dictate taste to people in their own homes? To misquote and plagiarise Voltaire: I dislike your bizzie-lizzies but will always defend your right to grow them.

Parks, however, are a different matter and everybody is allowed an opinion. I was pondering this subject while I was loafing around Paris last week in perfect weather and wandered into the Jardins de Luxembourg. This is a public park that surrounds a fine palace originally built for Marie de Medici, mother of Louis XIII - it is now home of the French senate (hence the presence of various bored policemen in the grounds: I thought initially that they were there to stop people walking on the grass but even the French are not that fierce). The most impressive thing was the standard of bedding. Rather than strict lines or groups the plants were arranged much more informally. Great swathes of orange dahlias, salvias and marigolds. Specklings of petunia and verbena. Whooshes of Ricinis communis (Castor Oil Plant) and even occasional ticklings of chard. All this as well as huge phoenix palms and pomegranates in great steel tubs. Very exciting, very impressive and miles better than a bunch of pelargoniums in a hanging basket.

Much bedding in British parks is admirable and is a result of the work of skilled and dedicated gardeners but it is very staid, rather blobby and clinging on to a Victorian ideal (although, interestingly, bedding was originally invented by the Aztecs in Mexico). Schemes like this in a park in Moffat are all very well - although pretty hideous, if I am honest - but it would be good to see something a bit more innovative. Even Hyde Park is not really up to snuff and Buckingham Palace is pretty unspeakable.

Surely we can do things as well as the French? Maybe we do: I wonder where?

Comments

  • Methuselah

    25 September 2007, 07.55PM

    The displays outside Tate Britain are a good example of 'us' getting bedding right...

  • frjohnemlyn

    27 September 2007, 12.34PM

    I share your hate of Bizzie Lizzies, but everyone to their taste.

    Agree with bedding plants in swathes, as opposed to regimental lines. Enjoy mixing my bedding plants to give added colour, and variety.

  • John

    27 September 2007, 11.15PM

    Taste? What a cheek! Stop dissing those lovely flowers dude!

  • Beryl

    28 September 2007, 01.23PM

    I have hanging baskets and planters because I can't get "down and dirty" any more due to arthritis. At least I can get down, but getting up again is a totally different matter. The borders now do their own thing. The orange double daylilies, once occupying a corner of one bed, have multiplied and taken over half the bed. The daffodils come up in spring, and once finished the daylilies start to re-emerge. I weed that part then forget about it for the rest of the year until they die back. Weeds don't stand a chance against those flowerbed thugs. A quick hoeing over the top when they die down, and I can forget about it. This end has forsythias underplanted with cyclamens and miniature bulbs. They've been there for 40 years, and one has died, so I am going to cut them down, and fill the border up with other weed suppressing stuff. The border the other side is filled with flowering shrubs which have intermingled making a dense hedge. The birds love it, and weeding is minimal. The top corner has a huge Lavatera. It fell over last year under the weight of the flowers. I asked my grandson to stand it up and stake it again, but he forgot. I thought it would die, but it filled the corner up with purple blooms over 8 feet high, and with a spread of about 7 feet. There is no way it can fall down any lower so I am leaving it there. The tubs and planters mean I can have flowers and weed them with ease. My vegetables are in raised beds too, so I can still grow my own. I haven't the strength to dig the garden. 40+ years of digging in compost, straw,manure etc. has made no difference. It still goes from baked brick to a swamp in a matter of hours. Dig down 2 feet and you hit yellow clay. Ugh!

  • Sue

    28 September 2007, 02.31PM

    I've had a lovely display of summer bedding plants this year but does anyone know if I can compost them. Will the seeds they've produced just rot down, or will they germinate once the compost is used in my garden?

  • Terry

    28 September 2007, 05.25PM

    I have 16 baskets full of Bizzie Lizzies still in bloom, truely a beautiful picture.

  • h4elen from ceres

    28 September 2007, 10.33AM

    have you visited the botanical gardens in edinburgh lately? wow!

  • bettylewis24

    29 September 2007, 02.40PM

    bizzie lizzies have their place I have two hanging baskets and they are beautiful give a lovely cheerful approach to my home with their blossoms hanging down so extravagantly.

  • valylily

    30 September 2007, 12.47AM

    bizzie lizzie's good shade plants try white ones with trailing pelegoniums and mixed blue/white lobelia in hanging baskets, brighten up that shady corner also good in tubs!!

  • The Garden Monkey

    01 October 2007, 12.20PM

    Ah, but aren't the borders outside the Tate by a german lady?!!

  • James A-S

    03 October 2007, 01.19PM

    What a lot of Bizzie-Lizzie lovers there are out there. I see the point of them (especially white ones in shade as Valylily says) but still cannot get over my personal dislike (maybe that is too strong a word - indifference is better). There are lots of plants that will do the job better - the best place for shade/woodland plants is Crug Farm Nurseries in North Wales. An absolutely earth shattering range of plants many of which have been collected in the wild. Borders at the Tate are indeed not bad but a bit flat (I don't know who designed them - could be a German or it could be that the Garden Monkey is stirring things up!). Have not been to Edinburgh Botanic Gardens for years and cannot find a good picture but, being Scottish, they are probably lovely! Is that all we can come up with? Beryl seems to have got easy gardening pretty well sorted - although you do have a lot of yellow in your garden (daffs,daylilies and Forsythia - the Lavatera must come as a welcome relief.)

  • Gigi

    03 October 2007, 06.04PM

    Bizzzies are ideal for plonking into a container then enjoying-trouble free until zapped by the frost. I think we should be respectful of each others' tastes,there are no 'right' or 'wrong' types of plants to grow, there's room for all comers in our gardens, that's what makes us a nation of gardeners.

  • The Garden Monkey

    06 October 2007, 07.51AM

    Stirring things up James? Moi? Now who's being a cheeky monkey. The borders at Tate Britain are by Brita von Schoenaich.

  • Marysa

    09 October 2007, 03.18PM

    It is not just in the Jardins de Luxemburg that innovating planting can be seen. I have just come back from Kew to (to see the wonderful Moores) and I was thrilled by the vegetable and herb plantings outside the Palm house. What an improvement on the usual bedding. The temptation to pick some of the peppers, especially the black ones, was only just resisted and I am definitely going to grow some of the exotic aubergines I saw in the containers around the lake. I hope more parks and garden will be equally adventurous in their bedding displays next year.

  • Linda

    15 October 2007, 04.20PM

    Following an article in GW earlier in the year I planted a pot with suggested plants one being Salvia 'Mystic Spires' What a wonderful plant this is. It is still blooming. Wanting to know more about it I went into your plant search but not one Salvia came up in the name of 'Mystic Spires'. How can I find out more?

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