Few plants make quite such a dramatic statement in the garden as eremurus, commonly known as foxtail lilies or desert candles. Their towering flower spikes bring height, colour and a real sense of theatre to the border. In this week's feature we highlight two of our of our favourites.
Weekly catch up with garden & propagation
POSTED 24th March 2026
Garden Team
with Mattie
This week in the garden with Mattie. Spring is in full bloom! Buds are appearing on the trees and the beautiful flowers are helping us put the wet winter behind us.
The Woodland Garden is a ball of scent and colour. Attending are rosy florets of Ribes sanguineum, elegant yellow skirts of Tulipa sylvestris, stars of epimediums, purple drifts of scilla and vinca, and the tantalising unfurling of the deep red flower of Trillium chloropetalum.
Out in the Water and Reservoir Garden we're getting towards the end of our cut back ready for the growing season. Grasses have been made into small mounds and we've been scattering them as mulch across the beds for insects to emerge out of in their own time. We've also been weeding and edging the outside of the beds.
One big project we've been doing this week is the slow transformation of our bulb bed. It was tough work digging out alkanet and euphorbias but then we then prepared the ground and scattered wildflower seeds mixed with sand. We're looking forward to seeing this little patch bloom!
Across the road on the Chattowood Estate we've been doing our annual cutback, cutting grasses, calamints, salvias, and any dead plant material before raking it off giving fresh growth a start. We've loved hearing from local residents about what they're enjoying about being immersed in the gardens there.
It's been lovely to welcome Julie Skelton who's been taking some gorgeous spring photos of the garden and updating our team photos.
Propagation Team
with Rob
It's been a beautiful week down in the growing department, bar a few blustery moments of wind. Here's what's been going on!
Many of you may know our free postage on orders over £100 with guaranteed delivery for Easter is live! Thank you so much to all who have already taken advantage of this. It's been a super team effort to get our beautiful plants out to you all, with Pete and Callum packing away, and Jack leading the charge with the picking.
We had a few housekeeping jobs on the schedule this week - Mel, Kirsten, Tina and I putting the last touch of magic to the nursery, armed with two pressure washers and some gorgeous new bed cards. Armed with a walkie talkie, it was then time to check the irrigation systems which are incredibly essential to us and we will be reliant on them as soon as the warmer weather truly sets in.
Debs and Kisten have been hard at work at the cuttings table - just take a look at that prop house! The ground cover gunneras, G. magellanica and G. prorepens are amongst these treasures. They're are a fantastic way to add the genus into your garden, with the much larger G. tinctori now unable to be sold.
When not refreshing our charming nursery displays, Emily has been pricking out and plugging up some exciting bits and pieces. With delicate precision, Em helped these tiny Galactites tomentosus seedlings on their journey. If unfamiliar, this is a hardy annual with spiny stems and narrow leaves, attractively veined silver, with pink-lilac flowers in summer. We recommend you allow it to seed to encourage new plants in following years. These are best planted when young and relatively small, so we release these plants for sale, with much less root than compared to our normal herbaceous plants. Exercise a gentle hand with these and you'll be treated to a splendid display!
A huge shout out to Kathy and PJ, who have been superb on the potting benches, filling up our tunnels with the jewels which began on the seedling and cuttings benches.
A second huge shout out to myself, who's celebrating my two year anniversary at Beth Chatto's! Here's to twenty more!
Until next time.
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