Widely regarded as the Vogue of the gardening press, Gardens Illustrated aims to inspire you with an eclectic and international editorial mix of remarkable places, plants and people. With superb photography, authoritative journalism and exceptional design, this award-winning magazine is a style bible for garden designers, garden lovers and enthusiasts alike.
Editor’s letter
Contributors
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Gardens Illustrated Magazine
The French Rose Garden • Join us for a five-day tour from Paris to the Loire in the company of rosarian Michael Marriott to celebrate the French rose
DIG IN • What’s happening, what’s in flower and what to buy this month
News
3 FOR THE GARDEN… APRONS
DIARY
KITTED OUT • For creating your own garden sanctuary
September plants • Autumn may be knocking at the door, but Jimi prolongs the interest in his late-summer borders with long-flowering perennials, a quirky canna and a ghostly, cylindrical cactus
Places to visit • Recommended places to see seasonal plants at their best
FRUITFUL FEELING • With plants still cropping – artichokes and tomatoes among them – Aaron anticipates the apple season, sows winter herbs and plants out fennel to avoid bolting
Jobs for September
LACHLAN RAE • Lachlan is senior gardener at Gresgarth Hall in Lancashire – the private garden of landscape designer Arabella Lennox-Boyd – where he is responsible for maintaining and developing the garden’s vast collection of trees and shrubs
NATURAL RHYTHM • Set within a wild landscape of ancient woodland and f lower-rich meadows, an evolving Somerset garden teems with life
IN BRIEF
LOBELIA • As loved by pollinators as they are by gardeners and designers, this group of plants offers a glorious range of colour and form to suit many garden styles
PLANT PROFILE
IN BRIEF
A GROWING EDUCATION EDUCATION • Unconventionally contemporary in its planting, the grasslands garden at the Horniman Museum inspires visitors with its continuous colour and life
Pocket paradise • Revitalising a residential street, guerilla gardener Richard Reynolds has made his mark on a pocket park in Devon
IN BRIEF
ALISTAIR GRIFFITHS • The RHS director of science and collections on how a childhood love of plants sowed the seeds of a career and how 30 million gardeners can help reverse the climate crisis
DULCET TONES • Horticulturist Alison Jenkins captures the wistfulness of the departing summer with subtle displays of mellow yellows, dusky pinks and coppery foliage that hail the coming of autumn
LEARNING CURVE • In a gradual process of experimentation and discovery, garden and gardener find their feet on a sloping site on the East Sussex coast
IN BRIEF
CHOICE CUTS • A gardener as well as a renowned potter, dahlia devotee Frances Palmer uses her own blooms to adorn her vessels, grown in her imaginatively conceived Connecticut garden
IN BRIEF
A SENSITIVITY TO SMELL • In this extract from her new book, Isabel Bannerman explains her need to marry dramatic, botanical images with poetry and prose to conjure the scents of the gardening year – and the emotions and memories they evoke
IN BRIEF
Bright and breezy • Packed with vitality and colour, Bluebell Cottage in Cheshire is an outstanding example of perennial planting and a destination garden for plant lovers far and wide
The return of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show
ESSENTIAL VIEWING • A first glance at the some of the gardens to look out for at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show
THE RHS GARDENS • This year there are two RHS feature gardens on Main Avenue. The 20m x 20m RHS COP26 Garden, designed by Balston Agius,...