Pretty in pink

It's interesting how the people who inspire us and touch our lives are often at the periphery and not those with deep kin or emotional connections. Yet they stay in our subconscious. They invest in us with their wise words or a generous act of kindness or simply inspire us at a personal turning point with their courage, grace or flair. In turn we give the same gift to someone else.

There are many people who've influenced me along the way and I've met one such person recently. I hope she won't mind being described so enthusiastically but she really is the personification of Flora's charm and grace and she is of course, a gardener. This wonderful gardener whom I shall call G is a mature lady and proves my thesis that beauty knows no age but comes from the heart and the soul. To me beautiful people are those who suffer some pain but live their lives with grace and optimism.

My strelitzia from Aldi

Purple carrots for Christmas dinner with knobbly bits

I adored my artichoke blooms

It began with a small cut glass vase filled with different types of roses or peonies or hyacinths. Each week something gorgeous from her garden brings floral beauty to our boring office cubicles and when she leaves G gives me her little posy to take home and enjoy over the weekend. The first time I received a gift of flowers from her I was in shock at her gesture but we began to speak a different language in our workplace as G described her garden and showed me photos of her own backyard garden of dreams. Although our workplace is a far cry from those dark Satanic mills it's been wonderful to see G bring her flowers and object d'art such as little vintage plates into that somewhat soulless environment.

Italian arum 'lords and ladies'

At the coast: our tuzzy muzzy 

Gardens give many people solace and G has created an idyll from a bare patch of suburban dirt despite suffering severe pain due to injury. I favour foliage and I have always steered away from 'frilly' flowers and roses in particular because I can't bare a black-spotted spindly rose in a poor landscape design. G's designs show how it's all done properly with a profusion of cultivars and sympathetic companion planting including lots of silver foliage such as lavender and salvias. I've turned and I'm going to create a profusion of pink in my side garden - it's what's been missing all along! I can't wait to replant my 'naked lady' amaryllis bulbs in this pink and mauve setting. I rescued several amaryllis from another spot and they will look fabulous. I'm also going to brave bluebells and a daffodil maze under my birch trees all inspired by G's garden plans. I'll give my geraniums a go spilling out of an urn and creating a ground cover facing a hot north. I already have magnificent Russian sage flowering at the height of summer and completely drought hardy which will look beautiful with geraniums, pelargoniums, lavender and roses. Marjoram, coriander, dwarf nasturtium, parsley and pyrethrum as well as borage and comfrey are recommended. The lavender oil apparently acts as a mild fungicide but the silver foliage also creates a complementary planting scheme.

Russian sage
I've had to teach myself organisational skills throughout my life mainly to cope as a parent. I love being organised... not to the point of perfection though. While I have my house in order G. has shown me a way forward to get my garden in order which I'd never really considered. It's simple, so obvious but quite brilliant.

The garden journal

G has a meticulous garden journal and in 2012 I plan to follow suit. It details her garden designs and then outlines every planting with notes on care and maintenance. In the left hand page G pastes notes from seed packets and plant labels. Although my garden is not extensive, I forget what I've planted where and I love the idea of tailored reminders of when I should be cutting back or feeding. G has an extensive collection of bulbs which she has documented.

Her neat pages are coded and show a planting scheme such as shrub roses, carpet roses, lavenders, white crocus, Duck egg blue Ixias, romantic blend ranunculi, white rain lilies, nerine, Gold Autum crocus, Autumn snowflakes, Siberian Iris and Ixia. Chives mingle with tulips as chives are thought to help prevent blackspot and mildew and repel aphids. Her standard roses include Princess de Monaco, Burgundy Iceberg, Pink Iceberg, white Iceberg, Princess de Monaco and Jane McGrath Floribund bush rose pink.
Let's face it G's a rose fiend! A table tracks height and width for her bulb plantings, watering, frost tolerance, flowering time, fertiliser and after flowering care.

G chooses her roses for their repeat flowering and their scent. Very important she tells me. Her companion planting and landscaping favourites to complement the repeat flowering roses are violets, daisies, salvia, climbing star jasmine and lavender. G loves her Iris and collects many different types. She also has some English snowdrops.

Gardens Illustrated, galanthus and Nympha

The Galanthus craze has taken off to nearly rival tulips.  My horticultural world has been opened up by the pages of Britain's Garden's Illustrated. Any other gardening magazine I've every read pales into comparison. Check out beningtonlordship.co.uk a gathering place for galanthophiles.

Snowdrops are a sign of hope that winter is over.

Over the holidays with time to read I've also been inspired by the ancient gardens of Nympha in Italy and plan to visit that ruined village and restored garden one day in the future. I particularly adore the giant umbrellas of rhubarb-related plants that line the stream flowing through Nympha.

In the short term I am heading to Japan in just a few months and have booked accommodation in Kyoto so I can visit the bamboo grove in Arashiyama on the outskirts of Kyoto and of course the many sacred temples and gardens. Moss gardens, zen gardens maintained by monks, a temple tea house and all in the height of the Spring cherry blossom season. It will be the trip of a lifetime.