There is a lot you would quite rightly expect to see in the Mediterranean Landscape at Kew –
- olive trees, of which there are many (and my garden has them both old and gnarled)
- rock roses – Cistus of many varieties
- Hebes – ditto above
- Phlomis tuberosa (ragged)
- tall slender Cypress (I shall use a tall sentinel of Golden Yew)
- Rosemary
- Rocks – golden scree too (I have Indian sandstone spheres, for a more polished look..)
- Cordylines and palms (architectural highlights)
- Santolina (ditto, ragged)
- Helleborus foetidus – grey-green flowers and finely divided leaves
New to me, I will be looking out for Ephedra – slender, gorse-like wands that add movement and a completely different texture to any broad and small leafed -planting. And also for Sophora prostrata – this latter plant I have seen and admired greatly at the RHS London Shows and have assumed it to be tender, yet here it is, big and bold and looking a lot like the models illustrating the chemical structure of complex compounds. It does, doesn’t it?
Both the Ephedra and the Sophora I will explore for my Mediterranean project, a private garden in Kew environs. If there is to be Santolina, I promise to keep it trimmed into neat, cushioned domes and I will avoid Phlomis tuberosa given its ragged performance here at Kew. If they can’t manage it….
A Temple and a view of the Pagoda? That I cannot do.
The Teddington Gardener 