Summer Gardens
Our gardens are flowering in their full glory during June, July, August and September, with all five competing with each other to grab your favour and attention. Take a stroll down the energetic and lively Hornbeam Walk with its vibrant Hot Bank adorning the foot of the pathway. Throughout the season our Traditional Perennial Border provides a classical take on the art of border planting. From the end of July our Dahlia garden erupts into a sea of colour as all our gardens strike their full potential.
Hornbeam Walk
Upon entry to Aston Pottery, the double border immediately in front of you is the Hornbeam Walk, consisting of 60 pleached Hornbeam trees planted back in 2009.
Underlying the trees are two borders, each 3.3m wide and planted on a diagonal (to get more plants in).
By late July the perennials at the back have reached up to touch the trees, forming a corridor of plant growth with the only view point being up to the sky; we want you to be totally emersed in all the colour and texture of the plants.
Hot Bank
This surely will be one of the most original and dramatic borders you will every see. At 14m deep, 70m long and 3m high and topped with a purple beech hedge to frame the whole planted colour scheme.
By mid June the border is in its first mad flash of colour, with orange and yellow spires of Knifophia and Eremus Lilys standing proud against the purple beech hedge to frame the whole planting scheme.
They are followed closely with an underlay of Alstroemeria, Penstemon, Papaver, Salvia with a liberal sprinkling of annuals such as Rudbeckia, Calendula, Antirrhinum, and Amaranthus. All annuals are left to seed freely and come up the following year to create a rich tapestry of colour.
By mid July the highlight of the garden can be found flowering freely above everything else in the Hot Bank – namely Lobelia Tupa with its arching stems of red flowers each tipped with a white spot that mimics a raindrop. We grow these from seed, and it takes three years to get a plant established but is well worth the effort.
The Annual Border
This is the most recent of all the borders being created in 2015 to satisfy our craving for beautiful annuals, which could not be accomodated anywhere else in the garden.
The border is 80m long by 10m deep. It is planted up each lane with over 6,500 plug plants, which we start growing here at the pottery from mid April onwards.
The back row is created using 25 different varieties of sunflower, in front of which are over 140 different annuals, including cleomes titania, amaranthus, chrysanthemum, asters, nicotiana cosmos, zinnias, calendula, tagetes, salvias diascia heliotropium, rudbeckias, ageratum antirrhinum and many more.
Planting starts in the second week of June and it takes three of us 5 days to plant out all 6,500 plants. Do drop in and see us at work, and marvel at the growth and change that will occur in the following 6 weeks.
The Dahlia Garden
Traveling back down the Hornbeam Walk you encounter the path that takes you into the Dahlia Garden.
This Garden was new in 2013 and features a path with a stunning border either side to create a garden 26m long by 12m wide.
With the border either side of the path 5 metres deep, our Dahlia Garden is divided into a network of Dahlias and grasses, framed by a series of Agapanthuses. At this time of the year the plants are the star attraction with 112 varieties of Dahlia in four distinct styles and a multitude of colours.
The planting arrangement of flowers and grasses create a series of colourful flower-filled rooms running down the garden from top to bottom. Each individual room is planted with 4 varieties Dahila of the same form, whether it be cactus, ball, collarette and decorative.
Each room within the garden aims to create a focal point for each of our four selected Dahlia forms. Maintaining a consistent form, these ‘Dahlia rooms’ pick out the individual nuances of each plant, whether it be the strong vibrant reds of the ‘perfectos – cactus’ or the contrasting tones so apparent in collarettes such as ‘mary evelyn’.
Planted at intervals around the perimeter and along the path, the bell-shaped flowers of 6 varieties of Agapanthus – each with their own definite blue, hem the planting structure to complete the garden’s form.
Perennial Border
This border runs parallel to the original shop and is 7m deep and 43m long. It is a riot of perennials ranging from rudbeckia, salvia, eupatorium, helianthus and veronium at the back on to monarda, phlox, angelicia, vercasatrum, asters and sedums which all tiering down to the front.
It is designed to be a celebration of perennials which you can see from the lush growth, colour and texture which starts in June and goes on until the first frosts of November.
