THE MODERN MINT BLOG

May26

Dan Pearson’s Must-Have Plants: Perennials

Now we get to the heart of Dan Pearson’s plant recommendations… and he offers far more perennials than another designer we have written of…

(Do also check out this review of his excellent book ‘Spirit’.)

Perennials

Acanthus mollis latifolius group ‘Rue Ledan’

Actaea cordifolia

Anemone x Hybrida ‘Honorine Jobert’

Angelica edulis

Aralia cordata

Baptisia Alba var. Macrophylla

Brunnera macrophylla ‘Betty Bowring’

Bupleurum longifolium ‘Bronze Beauty’

Cephalaria dipsacoides

Ceratostigma plumbaginoides

Dierama pulcherrimum ‘Blackbird’

Digitalis ferruginea

Disporum longistylum ‘Night Heron’

Epimedium wushanense ‘caramel’

Erigeron karvinskianus

Eryngium agavifolium

Eryngium ebracteatum

Ferula tingitana ‘Cedric Morris’

Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’

Gaura lindheimeri

Geranium ‘Tiny Monster’

Gillenia trifoliata

Glycyrrhiza yunnanensis

Helleborus x Hybridus Ashwood Hybrids

Hemerocallis ‘Stafford’

Inula magnifica ‘Sonnenstrahl’

Iris lazica

Lathyrus vernus ‘Gracilis’

Molopospermum peloponnesiacum

Paeonia lactiflora ‘White Wings’

Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Alba’

Persicaria virginiana var. filiformis

Rudbeckia laciniata ‘Herbstsonne’

Salvia nemerosa ‘Caradonna’

Salvia uliginosa ‘Ballon Azul’

Sanguisorba ‘Cangshan Cranberry’

Sedum ‘Jose Aubergine’

Selinum wallichianum

Thalictrum ‘Elin’

Verbena macdougalii ‘Lavender Spires’ (this plant is difficult to find, at least at the time of writing. Not the same but easier to find is a plant we also wrote about here Verbena bonariensis…)

Read part 1, part 2, part 4.

Recommended Reading:

Tokachi Millenium Forest

The Well-tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques

Dream Plants For The Natural Garden

Aug04

Box Hill – Novella by Adam Mars-Jones

I picked this book up back in 2020 because of the title – Box Hill – fabulous, I thought, a book about boxwood. I’ll peruse this for its respective thoughts on the plant I clip most when I make topiary. I didn’t read the blurb on the back. Didn’t know the author (although I knew the publisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions, as I love many of the essays they have published… so trusted the author would be worth spending time with.) By page 2 I realised this novel wasn’t quite what I had expected. I started the book at 10pm, after getting …

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Apr14

Topiary, The Art Garden at The Henderson

The Art Garden at The Henderson in Hong-Kong has now opened to the public. I joined the project last March, to work with Gillespies Landscape Architects on the topiary that had been designed for the Art Garden, which gives a calm, green space below the extraordinary Henderson skyscraper designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. The garden has been designed with butterflies in mind, so lots of nectar plants, and has other art projects and installations within its footprint. The history of the site is interesting too – it was originally the first cricket ground in Hong-Kong! So still a green space….! …

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