Welcome to the July blog!

The dry weather continues to throw us some big challenges with much of the country under a hosepipe ban.

It is curious to watch the habits of our visitors. We are aware that wherever we plant Snap Dragons, people are drawn there to go and have a closer look at them. And Sweet Peas always invite a visitation.

But did you know there is a place in Titsey that appears to be seldom visited. Granted, it is at the other end of the gardens and there are 15 acres of public gardens to explore. But it is well worth a visit, in my view.

The Coronation beds, as they are now known, were formally the Old Rose Garden. It has a large circular bed surrounded by a number of smaller island beds. Several years ago, we began, with the encouragement of the Foundation to redesign this area while keeping the bed shapes and sizes identical.

It’s an area full of challenges with limestone just below the surface resulting in the fact that some of the new rose plants that we chose, just seemed unable to get started. The result being we had to remove all the roses. Which is really odd considering as I mentioned earlier, this is the site of the Old Rose Garden!

We were really excited to try some new plant material, but the biggest question wasn’t would the plants thrive there rather which ones the deer would leave and which ones the deer would munch! So it’s been a bit of trial and error.

The main flower bed is a 12 meter circular bed which is 39 feet in old money. It’s packed with Rubeckias ‘Herbstsonne’ and ‘Goldstrum’, Helenium ‘Moerheim Beauty’, Echinops ‘Artic Glow’, Cannas, Dahlias, Grasses of various heights and textures and the Sedums (which sadly are a firm favourite with the Roe Deer). So there is a lot of colour going on here. And we like it that way!

It has taken a several years to fully develop this area and no doubt we will tweak things as the years go by.

Another one of the beds is, for lack of a better word lozenge shaped. We grew a number of Cardoons from seed, which is so easy to do that you can do it on a kitchen windowsill. Cynara cardunculus to give it’s proper name certainly makes quite a striking feature early in this season, all silvery and tall at 9 to 10 foot tall. They are not just an architectural wonder but they have striking large purple thistle flowers attracting masses of bees as you can see in the photograph. Probably one for the back of the border, unless like us you have a lot of space to play with.

The other supporting actors include beds of Verbena bonariensis, various Clematis on structures and so on.

So if you are looking for a quiet area to enjoy by yourself, or a bit of inspiration for a ‘Hot Bed’, why not toddle off to the Coronation Beds and enjoy yourself?

Enjoy the blessings of the season.