Review of 2022

Even the harshest weather and the depths of Winter have their own sublime beauty 

Plants sleep quietly, building their strength for the seasons to come. Anticipation sits just below the surface. 

One of our constant companions. Keeping us company on the nursery and in the tunnels.

We reward them with any tasty morsels we find.

An early blue Hepatica peeps out from the cold soil.

One of the harbingers of Spring and all the hope that conveys.

Sometimes we just need to look closely at the wonders around us.

 The hot colours of a cold Winter sunset seen from the nursery.

Red sky at night

Gardener's delight

 ‘Little Minnow’ is here and now we’re cooking.

Leaf buds are swelling, birds are collecting nesting materials and the world wakes from its slumber at last.

 The bees are getting busy and Aquilegia longissima welcomes back her friends.

After the quiet of frosty mornings, we wake to hear birds singing and bees buzzing.

 The little piece of woodland behind the nursery shop is getting in on the act.

Our friends arrive in the potting shed after their epic journey.

All ready to raise the next generation, if only they could find a space to land.

Spring has sprung and the nursery is bursting into life. 

Freda watches all the shenanigans with an air of nonchalant disinterest. But don’t be fooled, she misses nothing.

Potentilla ‘Monarch’s Velvet’ in the sunshine with a friend.

Now you can hear the plants before you see them close enough to identify.

The nursery is heaving with life and it’s a joy to behold.

 Butterfly watching is a favourite past time and there are new ones appearing all the time.

Visitors love to spot them and somehow, they bring a smile to all they meet.

Water was at a premium by this point and Eryngium zabelii ‘Big Blue’ is perfectly adapted to hot and drier conditions.

This plant featured heavily in the best show garden at Hampton court for which Hardy’s provided many of the plants.

Sometimes a beautiful planting combination just presents itself.

Hilary spotted this amazing colour combo in a group of plants that had been set aside for a show.

Totally random and absolutely brilliant.

Summer at Hardy’s is busy, but you can’t help but be happy when surrounded by all this.

How many people can say this is their office?

It was an extraordinary year for Delphiniums and they seemed to just go on and on.

This one, Delphinium ‘Faust’ was an absolute showstopper.

The Summer is shaping up to be an absolute scorcher so wearing sun hats and covering our skin was a must.

Our, much missed, Rachel was hard at work with the team making sure all the stock was in tip top condition.

Magnificent Millie was supervising from a spot in the shade.

It can’t be easy wearing a fur coat in the Summer.

We welcome dogs onto the nursey but always ask the owners to be aware that it gets really hot up here.

With colours as hot as the weather, Helenium ‘Ranchera’ shows off her skirts.

We’ve had a few hives on the nursery for a couple of years and the honeybees can’t get enough of the bounty.

Stokesia laevis ‘Mels Blue’ stays low at the front of the border but makes up for her stature with oodles of large lilac blue flowers that just keep coming.

Sometimes you don’t need to be tall and imposing to pack a punch. 

There’s no such thing as a colour clash in nature, only in man-made dyes.

Crocosmia ’Walberton’s Miss Scarlet’ shows how nature can put the most outrageous colours together and still make it sing to her tune.

Hilary, who took the vast majority of these pictures, shows just how tuned in she is, when spotting fabulous colour combinations.

This kniphofia was never going to be a demure lass but set against that electric blue backdrop, she is positively brazen.

Would you be that brave?

There she goes again!

Close your eyes and think. Would you put burgundy red, cream, yellow and orange together and expect it to look this amazing?

Don’t get me wrong you don’t have to be “in your face” to be beautiful, sometimes simplicity is the key.

Rosy is the master of combining texture and form as well as colour. If you take a look at your layout by recording it in black and white, you can see these elements clearly without being distracted by colour.

Statuesque and architectural elements don’t have to be harsh. Sometimes softness and scent come in handy too.

Actaea ‘Pink Spike’ gives all this and more. A bee magnet and well adapted to semi-shade, it is beautifully scented and gives a late summer feast to pollinators.

As the Summer starts to slide towards Autumn the butterflies make use of every last drop of nectar.

This male Blue shimmers in the heat as its wings reflect the azure sky.

 The family Asteraceae show off at this time of year.

So many flowers are produced that they indicate successful pollination by darkening their centres to red. New flowers have the yellow centres that so excite the bees.

Physalis ripening on the stem with colours indicative of pumpkins and changing leaves.

Could any colour evoke the change of season as well as orange?

 “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”

wrote John Keats in his ‘Ode to Autumn’.

Physalis ripening on the stem with colours indicative of pumpkins and changing leaves.

Could any colour evoke the change of season as well as orange?

The flower heads of Miscanthus sinensis ‘Malepartus’ open rich burgundy and sway with the cooling breeze.

They’ll lighten and dry to provide movement and sound through the coming Winter, reminding us that nature may sleep but she’ll be back again before we know it.

The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy

I leant upon a coppice gate
            When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter’s dregs made desolate
             The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
             Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
             Had sought their household fires.