What to plant inyour garden in 2016
Sowing the seeds for what’s bound to be a revolution in your garden...
January in the garden is down time for a lot of gardeners – but for others it’s an ideal time to lift dormant plants that need to be relocated, to tidy up neglected areas and to get the home-made compost out onto the flower beds. It is also a good time to plan ahead to 2016 in gardening terms. To kick-start this, I thought I would examine the new gardening trends out there – some are good, some are questionable but all are extremely interesting and thought-provoking.
To get a sense of what awaits us gardeners, I decided to track down Joseph Blair who heads up Hortitrends, a group that reports and analyses the latest trends in the garden industry in print and online. Joseph has been in horticulture for 18 years, and 12 of those have been operating Hortitrends. Joseph has noted particularly the rise of specialist and artisan plant-growers across Ireland, people who grow herbs, micro-greens and unusual plants.
‘Their enthusiasm is utterly infectious and they’re building up a dedicated following of gardeners, who trail them throughout the various garden shows across the country, buying their plants – and their popularity is gaining real momentum,’ he says.
This type of plant specialisation is contributing to the success of garden shows such as The Mallow Garden Festival, the Clare Garden Festival and of course Bloom as the garden designers need plants that give individuality to their designs.
Joseph visits as many as 20 garden shows across Europe each year but one of the biggest is The Garden Futures event in London andhis year he found it more like a technology conference. Hot topics included the concept of community garden tool-sharing being introduced by garden centres, and the very exciting concept of ‘plant monitors’ that keep you informed in real-time how a single plant or a batch of plants are doing. It can assess whether the plant or plants are dry, hungry or stressed. This, in my view, is a great development.
But the key message pushed at the show was that modern living can be detrimental to our lives – and that plants need to be utilised much more as an antidote to this.
Another trend is portable gardening. This, says Joseph, ‘is because a lot more people are now living in homes without gardens and a lot more are renting. As a result, they are reluctant to maintain a garden even if it is small’.
For many, the only gardening options are planting in pots and containers or high-impact containers such as tower planters.
Joe then took me through a long and interesting list of what is catching his eye in 2016.
Sweet potatoes are becoming the next big thing in the homegrown veg world with Bonita, Evangeline and Murashi the varieties to plant.
Colour schemes have tended to be muted and elegant but Joe informed me that vivid colours will be big next year.
Gerbera, a plant my grandfather grew as a cut flower is very colourful so to keep up with latest in style, I intend on planting it en
masse, rather than dotted around the garden as he did. Dianthus is also regarded as being ‘cool again’ though there is a bit too much dead-heading for me Structural plants with distinctive shapes, such as yuccas and agaves are being used to break up large-scale, single species grass type planting schemes that have been seen a lot at various garden shows in recent years.
Echeveria has undergone a renaissance and is frost-tender evergreen in a range of striking colours, with leaves ranging from pastel to purple.
Black Russian tomatoes are medium-sized blackish tomatoes that are a compact plant, producing a conversation -topper of dark mahogany-brown tomatoes. The ‘Black Russian’ is described as an old variety rediscovered with a rich, complex flavour that has to be tasted to be believed.
The popularity of hydrangea ‘Annabelle’ is to continue, with its large blooms that change from green to lime, to white and really lifts dull areas in the garden.
The Lady of the Lake is a pretty repeat-flowering rambler introduced a couple of years ago – its scent is much less overpowering than some and is delightfully sweet and is tipped as the rose to purchase in 2016.
I’m also excited about the imminent arrival of Portuguese Paving which is inspired by the 19thcentury wave-patterned mosaic squares and pavements of Lisbon. It is being brought to garden designs in this part of the world initially by garden designers in the U.K. The look is achieved by using the black and white setts in small spaces and with more intricate designs in a grander design.
Charcoal grey painted fences and sheds will also be very fashionable. Finally, an organic Moss Ring for 2016 sounded pretty cool. The ring symbolises eternity and the is described as ‘thus “real greenery, forever, with nature’s magnificence right there on your finger’”. The moss in the ring is captured in resin from moss and pine cones – and is then heated in the resin. Once it’s hardened, the result is a bit of nature captured in an actual ring.