Carol Klein THIS WEEK AT GLEBE COTTAGE
The latest from Carol's beautiful cottage garden… plus her diary for the week!
Why not discover the beauty and ease of these woodland wonders in your garden?
On our way into Exeter, just a couple of miles from our cottage, we drive alongside an ancient wood. There are some large oak trees, but most of it is hazel. In summer, native honeysuckle creates an extra canopy, while underfoot, plush moss softens the contours.
Often in early spring, there is the smell of deer, and later, wild garlic carpets the margins of the wood, and bluebells permeate its shady depths.
Walk past on a gloomy day in early April, and dowdy leaf litter and moss are all you see. But, the next day, when the sun shines from a clear spring sky, suddenly the woodland floor is transformed, as if by a magic wand. Countless white flowers hold their heads aloft, petals outstretched to the warmth and light, offering up sweet nectar to insects. On dull days, they hang their heads, petals furled tightly to protect precious pollen.
Anemone nemorosa, the wood anemone, is one of our most beloved wildflowers, occurring in huge numbers all over the British Isles in woodland and shady hedgerow. In early spring, it pushes up wiry stems supporting lacy leaves wrapped around its infant buds. Its petals, or sepals, are dirty pink on the outside: inside, they are sparkling white.
There are more than 40 selections of wood anemone listed, but none surpasses the simple beauty of the species. As far as I know, none have been hybridised deliberately: they’ve all been spotted in the wild or in gardens. Some are exquisite, others bizarre. Some have large flowers, others unusual colour, yet others some quirky characteristics.
An anemone with no sepals seems a strange concept, yet ‘Virescens’ is just that. It is one of the most textural plants in the garden and a perfect contrast to underpin other large bold leaves, trilliums, early hostas and hellebores.
Another quiet little wood anemone is ‘Bracteata Pleniflora’. As its title suggests, it’s a combination of sepals and bracts. Every flower is different from the next. In ‘Green Fingers’, there is a boss of green petaloid bracts inside a circlet of white sepals.
