Roy Lancaster- The Ultimate Plantsman

13/12/2010

Video from RHS- The Garden – http://www.rhs.org.uk/

Roy Lancaster is the ultimate plantsman. His garden, which is only one third of an acre, contains a thousand different plants. He wouldn’t dream of planting 12 of the same just because they made a nice display- far rather 12 different plants, however they looked together. And those plants aren’t just any old plants such as you might find in a garden centre- he relishes plants which are unusual, rare, strange and exotic- preferably plants which either he or a friend has found on a mountain side in deepest Asia or Africa.

In this month’s The Garden he describes 10 of his favourite plants from his own garden and in this video another half dozen- some of which I already have, but those which I don’t have I now covet.

There are two which I particularly like. The first is the Cordyline Indivisa, which has larger leaves than the more common C. Australis. I’m a sucker for trees with impressive leaves. The other is the snake bark maple- white tigress (Acer tegmentosa) which has the most amazing striped green bark.

My big project this year is to create a new long border below the kitchen garden and I’m pleased to say that Roy lancaster has given me enough new ideas to fill it already.

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About Slow Life

The idea of Slow Life is to take the principles of Slow Food, which are “good, clean and fair”, and extend them to life in general.

Here in the Lake District, the air is clean, the pace is slow and the atmosphere is calm. If we don’t grow food ourselves, we can buy it in friendly small shops, where you know the quality is going to be the best.

This blog is a celebration of the Slow Life, with forays into the world of design, music, the arts, gardens, and my particular weakness, Japan.