A visit to Goodnestone Park Gardens
Wow, it’s been a busy few months. In September I left my old job gardening at the Powell-Cotton Museum to start Gardening Mentor. But for two months I was working seven days a week in both jobs.
In fact, I worked in gardens for sixty-four days in a row between July 20th and September 21st!
It was time for a day off.
We decided to visit Sussex Prairie Garden on Sunday 22nd, and I was really looking forward to it. But when the day came, I was so worn out that I couldn’t face four hours of driving. So we decided to go somewhere a bit more local. Very local in fact…
We went to Goodnestone Park Gardens.
Some of my favourite plants in Goodnestone Park Gardens
I’d really missed going to public gardens over the last few months. I love the whole feel of big, old gardens; but most of all, I love the plants. You normally see one or two that you haven’t seen or thought about for a while, and it can be like meeting up with an old friend.
When you realise what plant you’ve stumbled across, it brings back memories from previous experiences with that plant.
Here’s a look at some of my favourites growing in the gardens at Goodnestone Park.
Perovskia 'Blue Spire'
Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’ is a fine example. It’s now changed its name to Salvia ‘Blue Spire’ (a reclassification by botanists), but I still call it Perovskia. It’s not that I doubt the plant’s relatedness to other Saliva, I’m just being nostalgic.
Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’ is an upright subshrub originating from the steppes of central and southwestern Asia.
The steppes are very harsh environments which experience extreme highs and lows of temperature. Furthermore, due to their low annual rainfall, they cannot support much in the way of tree growth. Strong winds sweep across the grass dominated land chilling plants one second, and wicking away any moisture the next.
It’s no surprise then that Perovskia is a very resilient plant and does well in gardens throughout the UK.
Whenever I see this plant, I’m reminded of the long row of them that grew in front of the Curator’s (Jim Gardiner at the time) house in RHS Wisley. When I joined the Wisley curatorial team back in 2009, these plants were spectacular all summer long. And although they’re probably long gone by now, that’s always where I’ll remember when I see a Perovskia flowering
Indigofera heterantha
From one curator to another, Indigofera heterantha started popping up throughout RHS Wisley after Colin Crosbie (then Superintendent of the Rock and Woody teams but who would go on to become curator) had what I’m sure must have been an inspiring plant spotting trip to China.
There was a beautiful specimen on the rock garden at Wisley and many more throughout Battlestone Hill.
Indigofera heterantha is a shrub and can be pruned “however you like”. By that, I mean it’s not fussy. A hard prune in spring, or not pruning it for years, it doesn’t matter.
The important thing is to give it a sunny position with free draining soil. It will thank you by flowering all summer long.
Verbena bonariensis
Purple Top Vervain is common as anything, but I love it!
It looks amazing when dotted throughout borders, where it reaches high above most other plants. Thankfully it propagates by cuttings so quickly and reliably that it’s not difficult to build up large numbers and to make a big impact.
I loved seeing them at Goodnestone amongst Solidago and Eryngium.
When growing Verbena bonariensis, be aware that they self seed very freely. This can be a blessing (if you like them as much as I do), but I know a few people who really can’t stand them.
Eryngium sp.
It took me a while to get into Eryngium, but they’ve really grown on me.
After our visit to Goodnestone I was inspired to order a couple of species for our home garden. I ordered Eryngium planum and E. bourgatii.
I don’t know which species they were growing at Goodnestone (many of them look similarish to me). But here’s a nice photo of one in their walled garden.
Eryngium are usually good in dry gardens as they’re very drought tolerant. They also give a great textural contrast, excellent winter interest and provide valuable nectar to pollinating insects.
They’re such good value plants; I don’t know why it took me so long to get into them!
Persicaria amplexicaulis
I remember working at Chelsea Flower show in 2011 and Persicaria were all the rage. Specifically the pale pink P. bistorta. It’s not hard to see why they’re a popular plant.
Tough, fast growing, attractive but not garish. What’s not to like?
Goodnestone were growing the most common and largest growing species, P. amplexicaulis. I love it and also grow P. affinis and P. bistorta at home; both of which are much lower growing. Perfect for the edge of a border.
Aster (so many cultivars to choose)
Aster cannot be beaten for late season colour. Many of them flower all the way from late summer into early winter.
I can identify a few cultivars, but many of them look so similar that I don’t bother. Why waste time with trivial matters like identification when you could be enjoying them?
At home I grow a stunning large flowered cultivar called Aster x frickartii ‘Monch’. This hybrid is a cross between Thompson’s Aster (A. thompsonii) and the European Michaelmas Daisy (A. amellus).
Another favourite cultivar of mine to grow is the beautiful Aster amellus ‘Rudolph Goethe’.
The list of incredible Aster varieties goes on and on. Similar genus that were once classified as Aster include Eurybia, Symphyotrichum, and Doellingeria.
Teucrium x lucidrys
I love this little plant than brings on visions of dry Mediterranean landscapes in the heat of summer.
Perfect in dry gardens in a sunny spot. Goodnestone were using it as a low edging plant along the edge of a path. They’d planted them in a line to form a low growing hedge covered in beautiful purple flowers.
I believe that this is a cross between the Wall Germander (Teucrium chamaedrys) and the less common Teucrium lucidum.
Sedum telephium
I really like Sedum. In fact, Sedum spectabile ‘Autumn Joy’ was the first plant I ever propagated from cuttings when I started horticulture college back in 2007 (they root really easily).
Sedum have actually be re-classified as Hylotelephium, but I use the old name whenever possible (as with Perovskia, it’s nostalgic).
Following this visit, I realised that I don’t have any of the red-leaved Sedum growing in my home garden; so I went out and bought the first one I could find. It’s a cultivar called Hylotelephium ‘Oriental Dancer’.
A yellow Asteraceae planting combination
Let’s finish on a planting combination. I enjoyed seeing this one between three of the tall yellow plants in the Asteraceae family.
The large, flat, yellow plates are Achillea filipendulina. The lax spikes turning form green buds into yellow flowers are a Goldenrod (Solidago). And dotted amongst them both are the medium sized blooms of a perennial sunflower (Helianthus).
I thought the monochromatic colour scheme of this combination worked very well thanks to the different textures and structures of each plant.
