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What Can We Learn from the Brits?
| Roger McGaughey
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>> Published Date: 10/15/2008
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 This month I wanted to do something different and share some ‘holiday’ photos of my recent trip to Britain. (See the print issue of the November 2008 GrowerTalks for the photos.) My wife and I were there for a week in early August to visit friends and family. One thing that impressed me was the abundance of color in the villages and towns that we visited.
Our first stop was Hartfield in Sussex to visit some old university friends. We had an enjoyable walk through the village and as you can see in the accompanying photos almost every available space was adorned with colorful planters. Even one of the local pubs had lots of hanging baskets decorating the front porch.
Our next stop was Spalding, Lincolnshire, where we used to live. Here, a walk through the town center was again rich in color and we encountered an interesting planter tree. I’ve seen planter trees before but never such an elaborate mixture of arrangements. If you look at the top left of the photo carefully, you’ll notice the water line from the adjoining building, which obviously contributed to the freshness and well-cared-for look of the mixed baskets.
Springfield Gardens, on the edge of Spalding, used to be the local display gardens with annual plantings and shrub and perennial beds. Part of the gardens has now been converted to an outlet mall, which was spectacularly decorated with enormous baskets, again supplied with individual watering tubes. Large planters also decorated the walkways and added to the overall floral effect.
We ended our trip by spending a few days with my brother in Stirling, Scotland. Another pretty highlight was in neighboring Dunblane, where we encountered a number of very large planters, which I photographed from the car. What really impressed me here was not only the complexity and quality of the mixtures, but that there were seven of them decorating a pedestrian crossing and set of traffic lights.
The whole experience raised a lot of questions for me. What can we learn from the Brits with respect to landscaping? How can we increase the use of more plant material in our local communities? Even in the cooler British climate, they seem to make watering provisions and use much larger planters, which have more of a moisture reserve. How often do our displays here seem to dry up and look tatty? At the start of the spring season, how can we increase the public’s gardening interest, give them ideas and persuade them to buy more material to make their own arrangements? Lots of food for thought! GT
Roger McGaughey, head grower at Michael’s Greenhouses in Cheshire, Connecticut, was educated in Northern Ireland and England and has 34 years experience as a grower.
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