VT (for all of my design-obsessed peeps)

photocourtesydeshow.net . . . You can look to the rhododendron for special interest in the tree form, bark colour and texture, leaf colour, form and texture, autumn foliage colouring, a flowering season spread over eight months of the year at least, flower colouring that excludes only the purest blue, flower size and shape and, last but not least, scent.  Several of these points of attractive interest are likely to be combined in the variety of your  choice . . .  Now to consider the conditions for woodland gardening with rhododendrons.  The wood in its own ceases to matter.  You can and will probably want to do without any of its natural contents except for the trees, which are allowed to stand in just the right numbers to provide enough but not too much shade.  The choicest rhododendrons need shade and shelter.  Shelter from wind, whatever the quarter of its origin, is essential . . . The soil must be acid and preferably light.  If pe...

photocourtesyweblogs.baltimoresun.com How can anyone remain indifferent, even hostile, towards this flower, passes my understanding, yet many fastidious gardeners disapprove.  The tulip is many things, not just one, and you can choose and treat it to suit your own tastes.  For use in a formal setting, such as public or town gardens, it is a regimental flower, to be arranged in serried ranks.  It is this treatment that puts many people off tulips.  In the right place I personally like it, although I do not want it thus in my own garden.  Tulips are just as amenable to an informal arrangement. You can choose between formality and informality in the flower itself.  Darwins are the most formal tulip group.  They are also the dullest in outline; rather solid, square-shouldered bulbs, lacking elegance.  But, although generally long-stemmed, they are sturdy and remarkably wind-resistant.  If the flower still holds together, we shall not mind...

photocourtesyofjohnsonmatel.com With their large, bold blossoms so proudly displayed, magnolias are undoubtedly the most glamorous and effective of all shrubs or small trees and there is room for at least one specimen in every garden.  The polluted air of industrial towns does not worry them in the least, and they are tolerant of a wide range of soils, although some are calcifuge. April is the best month of the whole year for planting and establishing magnolias.  They have fleshy roots which are apt to rot away in winter, following an autumn disturbance.  But in spring they can quickly make good any damage done to them, but do remember to keep your young plants well watered until they are thoroughly settled in.  The other point to remember about these fleshy roots is that they strongly resent being dug around.  You can easily kill a large and mature specimen by digging over the ground near it.  Feed, then, entirely with surface mulches of organic ma...

photocourtesyflickriver I am often asked of a plant, by people who are wondering whether it might be worth getting for their garden: 'How long does it flower for?'  If I say: 'For a good month,' in a tone of warm encouragement, they feel all right; but if I say: 'Perhaps three weeks,' in a non-committal sort of voice, they look dubious. Yet the truth about the majority of spring-flowering trees and shrubs is that they last in beauty for one week only.  Almond, plum, cherry and apple blossom{s} come and go with alarming fleetness, each leaving us with another fifty-one weeks of waiting for its return; and yet we do not look at the matter like that at all.  For when they burst into our consciousness and are vividly with us, their presence carries us forward to spring's next revelation and then the next.  There is no time for regrets at this season, or second thoughts or cool evaluations of a plant's rent-paying capacity. Christopher Lloyd, The Well...