Property News · November 12, 2016

Gardens: the splendour of grasses


November is often gloomy but at Knoll Gardens in Dorset, the grasses reach their peak and extend the garden season right through winterNovember is a time when many of us lose heart in our gardens: the clocks have gone back, winter is coming, and there’s nothing but dreariness in prospect for months.Not so Neil Lucas at Knoll Gardens in Dorset. As far as he’s concerned, the garden is at its peak. It’s been hotting up since August, reached a first flush of glory in September and October, and is now revelling in autumn splendour. A gingko tree blazes like a gorgeous golden firework. Scatterings of spindle trees dangle pink, coral and scarlet fruits; a sturdy whitebeam (Sorbus intermedia) groans with berries; Rosa glauca is studded with glossy red hips. That flash of jewel red is repeated in every direction: the persistent rosy blooms of persicarias and fuchsias, blood-red acers, the leaves of the sacred bamboo (Nandina domestica) turning from green to bronze to vermilion, the lipstick-red heart of the wildly exotic-looking bromeliad, Fascicularia bicolor. And all is drawn together by a rippling sea of grasses in full flower – furry pennisetums, plumes of cortaderia and soft clouds of panicum, silvery fountains of Miscanthus ‘Morning Light’, bronzy mounds of pheasant grass (Anemanthele lessoniana) topped with a gauzy nimbus of pink. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
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