February 2020
“We had a wonderful visit to the gardens in February when the snowdrops were at their best in Foggy Bottom and the carefully placed Cornus were ablaze.”
Adrian Bloom
About Adrian Bloom
Posts by Adrian Bloom:
Adrian Bloom’s Best for Winter and Early Spring
“If there was only one snowdrop allowed to be in cultivation, I would have to choose Sam Arnott!” Adrian Bloom.
The Story of Sam Arnott…
Few gardeners may realize that we are in an era of Snowdrop Mania, and each year at this time so called Galanthophiles meet to view collections, exchange or buy newly found or bred varieties. Prices for rarities are edging up or over the £500 mark for a single bulb!
Gardens with masses of snowdrops are breathing new life, opening to the public to view these harbingers of spring. But which one would you choose for your garden?
Two Questions;
Is there really much difference between them, and if I had to choose one for my garden what should that be?
Two Answers;
The closer you look (probably on your hands and knees), the more difference you might notice between varieties of snowdrops. But in Adrian Bloom’s view, who now has several thousand plants spread through the Bressingham Gardens, and particularly in his own 6 acre Foggy Bottom Garden, for display, and fragrance, it’s difficult to beat the large flowered Galanthus S. Arnott.
There’s a history to this plant. Discovered as a seedling in his garden in Yorkshire in the late 19th century by keen gardener Sam Arnott, who recognised it as a robust, larger flowering seedling than most. Eventually it made its way as Arnott’s Seedling into other gardens, and was finally given the R.H.S. Award of Garden Merit in 1951, apparently then to be correctly (and impersonally) named Galanthus nivalis ‘S. Arnott’.
Fast forward to Adrian Bloom’s story – “I was given a clump by a nurseryman friend over 40 years ago, not knowing much about snowdrops, little aware of what a treasure and delight this ‘mother plant’ would bring to Foggy Bottom in winter”.
Over the past few decades Adrian has divided clump after clump of Sam Arnott, planted in meadow, lawn and woodland amongst trees, shrubs, grasses and perennials and planted Sam Arnott in other gardens! Now in early spring, wherever you look groups and clumps of sparkling white, fragrant flowers light up the garden.
The plants you will get will have come directly from the gardens at Bressingham, part of this long lineage going back to Sam.
Adrian suggests you consider planting this spring in a moisture retentive spot in sun or half shade where they can be seen from your home. You might also consider planting with the black leaved Ophiopogon Nigrescens, ruby red winter foliage of Bergenia Bressingham Ruby, and for gold and yellow combinations, Acorus gramineus Ogon or Luzula sylvatica Aurea.
Galanthus ‘Sam Arnott’ with Luzula sylvatica ‘Aurea’ (left) and with Ophiopogon and Cornus (right)
February 2020
“Fabulous! We’ve been every season and it’s always fabulous!”
February 2020
“Lovely visit – we always enjoy our time here whatever time of the year. Thank you so much.”
February 2020
“Absolutely fabulous! You have brought the revival of the winter season! Thank you for opening this!”
February 2020
“Enjoying the wind in the treetops and the beautiful scent of Daphne!”
February 2020
“So happy to be back! The gardens are as wonderful as ever! Quite exquisite.”
Admin Vacancy
We have an exciting opportunity for someone with administration, IT and social media skills to support the smooth running of our world-renowned gardens.
Working with the garden owner and liaising with other members of the team, tasks may include:
- Typing email correspondence, memos, reports, etc.
- Uploading posts to social media (Facebook & Instagram) and monitoring comments
- Making amendments to website
- Drafting newsletters
- Filing digital images in image library
- General administrative and PA duties for garden owner
Initially 3-6 hours a week on a self-employed basis; this could \’grow\’ into an important larger role with the Bressingham Gardens (Blooms Nurseries Ltd).
Person Specification
Essential Criteria:
- Good written communication
- IT skills including experience with Apple Mac, Microsoft Word, social media
- Keen eye for detail
- A methodical approach
Desirable Skills/Experience:
- Knowledge of horticulture/plants
- Experience of IT software including Adobe Lightroom, website content management systems (Wordpress), Dropbox
- Marketing experience
To Apply
Please send a CV and covering letter explaining your interest and suitability for the role to contactus@thebressinghamgardens.com
Please note that applications sent without a covering letter will not be considered.
Deadline for applications: 9th February 2020
August – time to put your feet up?
August is a strange month for gardeners… this is the month surely when you are allowed to sit back, admire your efforts, cut the grass (if you have any) and sit in your deck chair, enjoying the hum of nectar-seeking bees, the fragrance of your buddleia or roses. Undoubtedly idyllic, but perhaps seldom true – at least at the Bressingham Gardens!
Back in the day when there were fewer gardens and (except for those well-off people with gardeners) fewer garden owners, it was customary not to be concerned about summer colour in your garden, since you would be most likely away in the south of France for the whole month of August. One of our noted garden writers who shall be nameless suggested August “isn’t a month to bother about”…
… But a visit to the Bressingham Gardens in August (a nice day out) will quickly show you how much colour there can be from perennials at this time of year. Alan Bloom was ahead of his time, not only in his creation of flowing island beds (no, the beds didn’t flow – but the style of planting did!). He collected many perennials originating from North America – gold-standard perennials like Heleniums, Heliopsis, Helianthus, Coreopsis, Phlox paniculata (over 100 cultivars), Rudbeckias and others. All flower in August; yellow perhaps predominant (although some strangely elitist gardeners refuse to plant these joyous plants in their summer garden since they follow some designer who didn’t like yellow, in all that blazing August sunshine…).
Crocosmia \’Spitfire\’
Kniphofia \’Bressingham Sunbeam\’
Helenium \’Bruno\’
South African Plant Treasures
So back to Alan Bloom, who also collected perennials with South African origins, many importantly adding other colours than yellow to the summer and August flowering period. Agapanthus, Crocosmia and Kniphofia are the three genera that stand out and Alan, with helper Percy Piper, soon started breeding species and cultivars of all these. Most gardeners will know Crocosmia‘Lucifer’, the most popular and widely grown of all – but not all know it was raised at Bressingham by Alan and Percy. ‘Lucifer’ and others such as ‘Spitfire’, ‘Emberglow’, ‘Bressingham Blaze’ and ‘Vulcan’ are all Bressingham introductions still widely grown today.
Today Jaime Blake, Alan’s son-in-law and curator of Alan’s Dell Garden at Bressingham, is continuing some fascinating selection and breeding (well – as Jaime modestly says, he does the organising, and the bees do the breeding!). Jaime has also continued with Kniphofias – his ‘Penny Rockets’ (available from our nursery online) was recently awarded the Award of Garden Merit in the Royal Horticultural Society’s trials. Several more selections with vibrant colours on free-flowering spikes are being assessed, knowing of course that there will be a need to stand out from other varieties by their vigour, balance and garden worthiness.
In the old grass tennis court created by Adrian in 1963, and long since unused, Jaime has in recent years put it to good use as a trial garden for new plants brought in and for testing those of his own breeding. Adrian (who took the above picture), Jaime and Jason were there on a summer’s day in early August looking at some selected hybrids of Crocosmia and Kniphofia; Crocosmia and Helenium in the foreground.
New plants will continue to be part of our offer. We have, with over 5,000 species and varieties of plants, such a wide gene pool to choose from, and gardening experience to always seek better – as well as demonstrate how our new plants can be used with others in our amazing 17 acres of gardens.
The summer colour in our gardens means August is as much a peak of interest as June and July… and September is pretty good too.
Ideas for Planting in Containers
Image above: Chionochloa \’Rubra\’ planted in a container.
Perennials and grasses make great plants in containers, which Adrian Bloom has been experimenting with over many years.
The advantage with perennials and grasses is that if you choose plants that are hardy, they can be left outside (although pots rather than the plants may need some protection against frost). The plants will start showing interest early in the season and if chosen carefully continue to look attractive almost until the autumn frost. Here are a few ideas:
Geranium ‘Rozanne’ – you just can’t lose out with ‘Rozanne’, as whether it’s in the garden on its own, or as a river, or in pots and containers it takes quite a bit to beat its sheer flower power during the height of summer and on into the autumn once cut back. Here is a container on Adrian’s terrace, a 3-year-old plant.
Although slightly more difficult to handle, is this image of a sport from \’Rozanne\’ called ‘Azure Rush’ in a hanging basket. It works pretty well but you need to have a large enough hanging basket and the plant must be kept well watered – and feeding if it goes into its second year, or even later in the season.
Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’, the black-leaved member of the lily family is an extremely useful partner for summer and other seasons too. You can see it here in combination with Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’, which earlier in the spring had pale blue forget-me-not flowers and now cut back in May has made a display with its attractively marbled leaves. A good substitute for a hosta, as slugs seem less interested.
If you want something for winter interest, what could be more showy than this larger container showing the stems of Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ in early February, underplanted with Ophiopogon and splashed with the fragrant white flowers of our favourite snowdrop, Galanthus ‘S Arnott’ (it seems a pity that such a great snowdrop has such an uninspiring name – we could suggest ‘White Wonder’, or ‘Arnott’s White Wonder’!).
This picture of Hakonechloa macra ‘Alboaurea’ in 3 containers tells a story. The smaller one on the right foreground is a 2 litre plant straight from our Bressingham Gardens nursery. This is ideal to pot on this summer into a larger container such as that on the left, which has been in a pot for 2 years with Campanula ‘Blue Waterfall’ beneath. Behind is an older specimen in a larger container, amongst Campanula porscharskyana, which has the capacity to climb up the pot and into the foliage of the Hakonechloa. This is quite spectacular, but as soon as the Campanula has finished main flowering it should be cut back to the base allowing the Hakonechloa to drape gracefully over the side.
This image shows the still-attractive foliage in late autumn as it has died back. The plant is quite happy to overwinter in a container unless we get below -10 C for more than a week or more, which hasn’t happened here for many years. The old foliage can be cut back to the base in March before new growth starts.
Imagine this view out of your kitchen window on a frosty winter’s day. These ornamental grasses are in containers and have made a lot of growth during the earlier part of the year. The three on the right are forms of Carex (l-r: Carex ‘Frosted Curls’, the plant with the long tassels is Carex comans ‘Bronze’ form, and Carex ‘Everillo’), all evergreens, whilst the plant on the left is Hakonechloa macra ‘Alboaurea’, with growth that has become dormant but leaving the grass to reflect the autumn and winter weather.
Perennials and grasses should be grown in a reasonably open compost, ideally with sufficient fertilizer to last a full growing season. For the following years add a slow- release granular fertilizer to cover each season unless you have a drip-feed fertilizing system. Getting any well-established plant out of some containers can be a problem. Lining with polythene prior to potting may help, as perennials and grasses will need dividing and re-potting every few years. Better still is to select containers that do not curve in at the top, in other words straight-sided – whether square or round.
Containers are in theory a moveable commodity, but the larger they get the more difficult they become. We use a sack barrow, which helps, but you need two people to help manoeuvre your containers to a new position. As ever, plants in containers need watering—and while they should not be too wet, perennials and grasses should never be allowed to dry out in the summer. You can almost never overwater a breathable terracotta pot, but other materials such as plastic or steel will need ‘crocks’ at the base to allow water to drain through the holes at the base, before compost is put in.
You can buy many of these plants from our nursery online.
Gardening with Conifers
At present it seems there are two extreme attitudes when it comes to conifers: love or hate. Those who love them may grow only conifers and perhaps little else, and those who hate them will not grow them at all. However, at the Bressingham Gardens we feel that if you meet the two attitudes half way, you will see that conifers can benefit almost any garden.
Whilst conifers may have fallen out of fashion in recent times, perhaps the apparent increase in conifers seen in the show gardens at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show means they may be catching on again? Naturalistic pines, the distinctive monkey puzzle and clipped yews all featured, demonstrating the structural impact that conifers can give amongst mixed plantings.
Here at the Bressingham Gardens, and particularly the Foggy Bottom garden, you will see that conifers can lend much more than just a structural component to gardens. We hope to show our visitors, to both our website and gardens, the diversity amongst conifers and the many ways they can enrich a garden.
Scale
Some gardeners may be reluctant to plant conifers, associating them with the notoriety of un-pruned and ill-placed Leyland cypress hedges. But if the right conifer is selected, it can offer scale and structure for any garden.
The image on the left shows dwarf conifers in the Winter Garden – Pinus heldreichii \’Smidtii\’ and Picea sitchensis \’Tenas\’. The Pinus \’Smidtii\’ plants are over 25 years old.
The image on the right shows Sequioadendron giganteum, which may not be a suitable size for many gardens, but it makes an imposing presence in Adrian\’s Wood.
Form
Conifers come in an array of forms – columnar, pendulous, rounded, prostrate. In some varieties
this form can be enhanced with training and pruning.
The image right of the Winter Garden shows how the naturally weeping Cedrus atlantica \’Glauca Pendula\’ has been trained to create an arch.
Some conifers, such as this Pinus sylvestric ‘Lodge Hill’ (left) respond well to pruning of lower branches. This
opens up the view to create glimpses of the garden beyond.
Colour
Some conifers offer year-round attractive colour. And some, like this Picea glauca \’JW Daisy\’s White\’, can offer a spectacular seasonal change in colour. This \’dwarf\’ conifer (shown here at 5 years old and 20 years old) bears creamy-white shoots in late spring, toning down to pale green later in the season.
Whilst most conifers are evergreen, deciduous conifers such as Ginkgo biloba (left) and Taxodium distichum (right) offer wonderful autumn colour before they drop their foliage.
Detail
Conifers can, as this image (left) of Picea pungens \’Glauca Prostrata\’ shows, have a dramatic effect in close-up as you see the grey-blue shoots breaking out of their shell-like capsules – spectacular in spring!
The image on the right shows the vibrant red flowers on Abies procera.
Winter interest
Conifers can add wonderful colour and structure to a winter garden. The image on the left shows Thuja occidentalis ‘Degroot’s Spire’ planted to provide vertical accents amongst perennials, sparkling in the frost.
Some also change colour in the winter, such as this Pinus \’Carsten\’ (right), a compact selection of Pinus mugo.
If you feel inspired to learn more about, and perhaps grow, conifers, you can read Adrian Bloom’s comprehensive book Gardening with Conifers.
You can also visit the Bressingham Gardens and see the above conifers, and many more, for yourself. In addition to our main season opening, you can see conifers during our winter opening, from mid-February 2020.
All images by Adrian Bloom and Richard Bloom
Gardening for the Feelgood Factor?
Foliage is dominant in the above spring shot of perennials combined together in semi-shade in Foggy Bottom. From L-R; Rodgersia podophylla, Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’, Hosta ‘Sagae’
The Upside
It seems gardening comes alive in the media as we approach the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019. Stories of that iconic show abound as the excitement and extensive media coverage increases.
We read about what’s ‘on trend’. Houseplants – why not? About time, although they don’t stand a chance if overwatered – or not watered…! The Guardian recently reported in an article by the aptly-named Zoe Wood, “Rockery all over the wold: stone gardens in style again”, backing it up by adding, “A rockery revival is under way as a new generation of gardeners, inspired by Instagram, build the features, which had been deemed old-fashioned.” That seems more like a story than a serious possibility – we suggest the future may not be so rocky after all!
Soap is placed near plants to deter deer
The Reality
We could discuss, but we live in the real (and at present, the busy) world of gardening, dealing with not only some wonderful plants in the 17-acre Bressingham Gardens, but also some challenging weeds (goose grass the main enemy at present!) and wildlife such as rabbits, pigeons and deer, not to mention crows, moles and grey squirrels. We use tree guards and chicken netting against deer and rabbits and soap to keep the deer away from roses and other plants – but now magpies and crows have taken a liking to the soap! So who wins?
By the time we get to June it will probably be a ‘draw’… But we try to be friends too, and the gardens are richer for birds and animals including buzzards, owls, woodpeckers, as well as the more common creatures. Ducks and, recently, Canada geese, nest near the Foggy Bottom pond. Foxes and stoats are around but are seldom seen.
Enjoy your garden…
… But realise that unless you have a gardener or landscaper doing it all for you, you have to garden first. Weeding, pruning, planting, perhaps cutting grass, edging borders etc. Convince yourself (if you need to) that it will all be worth it, and put up with a few aches and pains – it’s both exercise AND therapy.
Use and be guided if you can by your experience to date, advice from fellow gardeners, and websites which are helpful. Beginners ideally should not be tempted by showy plants offered seasonally in some garden centres. Planting for success is more rewarding if you go for the tried and tested plants which will establish more easily.
We will gradually be building sound advice online, uploading excerpts from Adrian Bloom’s popular book Blooms Best Perennials and Grasses – now sadly out of print. We can offer you Adrian’s wide experience in gardening here in the UK as well as in North America, gained from his Foggy Bottom garden as well as small and large gardens elsewhere.
We are really delighted that the gardens at Bressingham are such an inspiration to visitors (see the many comments from our visitors book in Foggy Bottom over the past few years). We are passionate gardeners who realise the challenges and joy of gardening, and try to create something special in this corner of Norfolk!
We want you to have success too, and hope you are already a Bressingham Gardens Nursery customer. If so, you’ll know the quality of the plants that Jason Bloom and his small team grow and sell in 2 litre pots. New (and many older) customers order three or four times a year, so pleased are they with the top quality plants.
“I am very impressed with the speed of delivery and the excellent quality of plants supplied. Thank you so much. I am especially happy with your use of mostly recyclable packaging too.”
“Stunning … I am absolutely thrilled with the plants. I have ordered from numerous nurseries online but these stand out for their quality. Incredibly carefully packaged. Marvellous in every way.”
SB, Dorset
“What a joy it is to share – Beauty everywhere! Many thanks”
East Sussex Visitor
“I’ve always wanted to visit, it exceeds expectations.”
Andrew, Herts
“A stunning hidden gem. I feel sorry for those missing out! Very well kept & maintained.”
Felixstowe Visitor
“Glorious, so many wonderful plants, shrubs and flowers to feast your eyes on. Well done, appreciate the hard work that goes into making everything look so stupendous.”
Anne & Mick
“Turn the corner – a burst of colour & shapes takes your breath away. What a treat.”
April 2019
“A wonderful collection which gives out peace and stimulation at the same time.”
April 2019
“The first time that I have visited in the spring – just lovely and inspirational.”
Steve + Mandy – March 2019
“Stunning even in March”