The English Garden

Enjoy over 60 beautiful gardens a year with The English Garden. Every issue features country, city, cottage and coastal gardens, with advice on how to recreate them. Be inspired by articles written by the country's top garden designers and discover the best plant varieties for your garden, chosen by expert nurserymen and plantspeople.

CONTRIBUTORS

Welcome

The English Garden

People to Meet • Introducing the gardeners and public figures we most admire in British horticulture

John’s favourite gardens

Out & About • Unmissable events, news and the very best gardens to visit this month

Things to Do • Keep up to date in the garden with our monthly guide to key gardening tasks

Checklist

Nature to Note • The wonder of wildlife in the garden and countryside this month

Pot Luck • Create perfect potted floral displays this spring with these containers and accessories

Mother Love • Treat garden-loving mums to something special this Mother’s Day, on Sunday 27 March

HELLO SUNSHINE • Nothing says spring is on its way better than a throng of golden daffodils, and at Hever Castle in Kent there are 60,000 of them, old varieties and new, all maintained by Neil Miller and his team and gladdening the hearts of winter-weary visitors

NEIL’S TOP TEN DAFFODILS

A Labour OF LOVE • The lifetime project of woodland enthusiasts Nick and Jane Baker, the garden at Pembury House in West Sussex is an enchantingly curated mix of rescued and found plants and gardenalia, peaking in early spring

SPRING PLANTS at Pembury House • Delicate delights bring subtle early colour to Jane and Nick Baker’s garden and woodland

RUNNING WILD • With its sweeping views across the Malvern Hills, the garden at Arts & Crafts Perrycroft is an exercise in letting go for Gillian Archer, whose increasingly natural approach is enlivened by a sea of rare native daffodils

GOLD STANDARD • The superb and natural-looking gardens at mediaeval Hindringham Hall in Norfolk have been designed to reflect the ancient site, with thousands of shining daffodils mirrored in the still surface of the manor house’s moat each spring

Trumpet CALL • These special daffodils boldly announce the changing of the seasons at Hindringham Hall

BRIGHT & EARLY • Winter and early spring are peak season at Timber Hill in Surrey, where swathes of narcissus, a froth of cherry blossom and a gorgeous collection of specialist camellias light up the garden with broad brushstrokes of colour

CAMELLIAS at Timber Hill • Exquisite flowers emerge among glossy leaves in the Sealys’ extensive camellia collection

Annual Returns • Sow seed from Georgie Newbery’s diverse selection of hardy annuals now, and your cut-flower patch will be paying dividends come midsummer

Winter Fresh • They might not be the easiest shrubs to grow, but covetable daphnes are worth the effort for their enlivening winter show of delicate blooms, which will fill a garden with exquisite fragrance, says Andy McIndoe

Success with Daphnes • Finding the right spot will ensure happy, healthy plants

Prim & Proper • Shyly announcing spring with pale yellow, delicate blooms, primroses also come in much showier shades

HOW TO GROW

Darling Buds • Spring is heralded not only by snowdrops and other early bulbs, but also by the full promise of the buds on trees and shrubs that will provide a year of interest

SUPPLIERS

Wild at Heart • Great Dixter is known for the swathes of naturalised bulbs that spangle its long-established meadows with colour each spring. Max Crisfield takes inspiration from this famous garden and finds out how to create bulb meadows at home

The Gentle Pace of Thyme • Set amid a...