The Yellow Book

Today was the last of my visits to gardens of the yellow book scheme, to Radcot House, near Faringdon. I so nearly didn't go as the black clouds strated rolling over - but I had watched it develop over the past few  years as I drove past, particularly the re-buiding of the Cotswold stone wall which took months and is such wonderful craftsmanship.

The garden today was everything it promised to be, with the structure defined by amazingly tall yew hedges,  a formal pond so long but in perfect proportions for the garden with seating at either end, and many flower beds -  all this punctuated with several pieces of contemporary sculpture. The planting however, shows what can be acheived in autumn with fantastic colour and structure still in the borders, you would never think it was late September. There were some wonderful examples of grasses with unusual perennials but my favourite plant of the day was Lobelia speciosa 'Tania' - still flowering with spikes of magenta against the purple hues of Panicum 'Heavy Metal'. I'll be adding this to my next article on plant combinations using grasses.

Mark it in your diaries for next year if you live in Oxfordshire.

The Malaysian Garden at Chelsea

Just watched an excellent programme on BBC 2 featuring James Wong in Malaysia getting inspiration for his Chelsea garden. It was interesting to see how some of his ideas translated into the eventual garden like the green wall dripping with water and then to follow him sourcing some of the amazing tropical plants. I've never really worked with tropicals until I helped him with the planting earlier this year at Chelsea. I can now understand why the Tree ferns were so fundamental in his design providing the jungle canopy for the garden - which gave it the sense of place of Malaysia.

The varieties of carniverous Nepenthes, tropical pitcher plants or monkey cups were fascinating, but my favourite was the picture of the 'Tree Shrew loo', the rare plant that recycles droppings- just brilliant - a shame they couldn't replicate that one in England.

Its definitely worth a watch while its availble on I-player - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tv48z/James_Wong_and_the_Malaysian_Garden/