Sopwell in bloom
Spring/Summer Edition.
If you’ve ever ventured to Sopwell House, you’ll know we take great pride in our glorious & blooming gardens. All year round our gardeners show great passion and care towards all the plants and flowers within the grounds for every guest to enjoy, whether their popping by for a coffee on our terrace or staying a few nights in the Mews.
This year, we thought we’d share with you a few of our favourites, along with a little flower-plant insight so when you next visit us, you’ll be in the know…
- Allium hollandicum a.k.a ‘Purple Sensation’
‘Purple Sensation’ is probably one of the most popular of all the alliums. They have a striking silhouette which makes them particularly well suited to gravel or prairie-style planting schemes, but they also look fabulous in pots or mixed borders. Their densely packed umbels of deep violet, star-shaped flowers appear in early summer above strap-shaped grey-green leaves (which will have already started to die off by the time the blooms form). Therefore, they team up well then with things like herbaceous geraniums or ornamental grasses, which will help mask these leaves as they die off.
- Camassia Leichtlinii Alba
Camassia leichtlinii subsp. leichtlinii is a statuesque late-spring flowering bulb with spires of creamy-white flowers which last for a long time, one of the most tolerant and long-lived bulbs you can grow. They’re ideal for being happy in sun or light shade, for naturalising.
- Bergenia purpurascens a.k.a ‘winterglut’
B. purpurascens is an evergreen perennial to 40cm, with erect, oval, dark green leaves becoming beetroot-red in winter. Slender reddish stems bear drooping clusters of deep pink flowers.
- Asplenium scolopendrium a.k.a hart’s tongue fern
A. scolopendrium is an evergreen fern forming a rosette of arching, rich green, strap-shaped fronds around 30-75cm in length, the margins often undulate. Spores borne in conspicuous transverse stripes beneath the fronds.
- Astrantia Major Superstar a.k.a ‘White Giant’
The tall erect stems of Astrantia ‘Superstar’ bear pretty umbels of tiny greenish-white flowers surrounded by large white bracts which are tipped with green. ‘Superstar’ is an upright, clump-forming herbaceous perennial with palmate, deeply cut dark green leaves, a perfect foil to the white flowers. Top tip, you’ll want to cut back the flower stems once they turn brown to encourage a new flush of flowers.
