I've been watching the start of the BBC's coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show. What Alan Titchmarsh and Joe Swift both seem to be agreed on is that green is back. Foliage is cool again and being used as a colour in gardens rather than as a background to supposedly more interesting flower colours.
This probably comes as no surprise to the members of the Hardy Tropicals forum or the British Pteridological Society, but it's nice to have the Powers That Be say so. It's a bit like finding out that baggy jeans and black jumpers are back in fashion courtesy of London Fashion Week.
My garden has always been predominantly green, based mainly on plants that were around before flowers were "invented". I've incorporated a pink Camellia, a yellow Hamamelis and several red or pink proteas. At some point in the next decade or so I also expect creamy pink flowers on my Magnolia.
But the flowers, and the odd vivid blue accent (the pots, the furniture, the hanging lanterns I need to wash out for this year) are incidental to the greens, ranging through blue-greens (Juniperus squamata), dark emerald greens (Araucaria araucana), the pale green flush of new growth (Matteuccia struthiopteris) and the lemony green of Cupressus macrocarpa. I also have the reddish green new fronds of Dryopteris erythrosora peeking out of their older green foliage.
The new growth is well on its way, and I'm looking forward to seeing the leaves and fronds overflowing in their pots by the end of the season. I'm going to have plenty to divide to give me even more green. It's nice to be one of the cool kids again!
This probably comes as no surprise to the members of the Hardy Tropicals forum or the British Pteridological Society, but it's nice to have the Powers That Be say so. It's a bit like finding out that baggy jeans and black jumpers are back in fashion courtesy of London Fashion Week.
My garden has always been predominantly green, based mainly on plants that were around before flowers were "invented". I've incorporated a pink Camellia, a yellow Hamamelis and several red or pink proteas. At some point in the next decade or so I also expect creamy pink flowers on my Magnolia.
But the flowers, and the odd vivid blue accent (the pots, the furniture, the hanging lanterns I need to wash out for this year) are incidental to the greens, ranging through blue-greens (Juniperus squamata), dark emerald greens (Araucaria araucana), the pale green flush of new growth (Matteuccia struthiopteris) and the lemony green of Cupressus macrocarpa. I also have the reddish green new fronds of Dryopteris erythrosora peeking out of their older green foliage.
The new growth is well on its way, and I'm looking forward to seeing the leaves and fronds overflowing in their pots by the end of the season. I'm going to have plenty to divide to give me even more green. It's nice to be one of the cool kids again!
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