Harvey Stephens led a PlantNetwork Technical Training Day of talks, with discussions out in the garden. The spectacular new visitor entrance, opened in 2006, had resulted in a great increase in the number of visitors and changed the dynamics of the garden. It was time to entice visitors from the building out into the garden, and to take a fresh look at how the plant collection was displayed.

The herbaceous borders at the Savill Garden are 104 m long and 11 m wide, on either side of a broad grass path. They were originally densely planted to provide colour and interest in the summer, but had become infested with bindweed. It was decided to strip the borders and let the land lie fallow for 2 years. The ground was sprayed with Roundup every 6 weeks. Bindweed does still occasionally recur, but is spot-treated the moment it appears. This gave the opportunity to redesign the borders, starting with a blank canvas. Initial planning by Mark Flanagan and Lynn Randall was later taken on by Harvey Stephens and Caroline Rutherford. The plan was to develop a more contemporary style of planting, with an emphasis on strong hot colours, providing a late-summer feature, in August, September and October, in contrast to more pastel plantings in the Golden Jubilee Garden, at their best in early summer. The original herbaceous borders had been so densely planted that it was difficult to get into them for maintenance. The new planting was designed to be more open, with footpaths among the clumps of plants. Hot colours are repeated in a zigzag across the beds to give an open airy feel. Plants are grouped in waves of purples, reds, oranges and yellows, to give a crescendo of colour in the border.

Caroline explained how she spent a year visiting other gardens, taking photographs and recording flowering periods. A catalogue of possible plants for the new borders was compiled, grouping plants according to colour, flowering time and height; and making up pages of small pictures for the various colours. Approximate plans were drawn for the borders; flowers were picked from elsewhere to see whether they were pleasing together. The new borders are photographed from different directions at the peak of the season, so that displays can be tweaked for the following year. Observations of visitors show that people walk up the grass path viewing the borders at an angle of 45º, so displays are planned from different angles. The borders are planted with 85% herbaceous perennials, including some grasses, and the rest as annuals. The border can be used as a marketing tool, to attract visitors to the garden in late summer. A ‘plants of interest’ leaflet for late summer features colour photographs of plants in the herbaceous border, some of which are on sale in the Garden Centre.

Amongst the topics discussed were staking, durability of path surfaces; problems with rabbits, badgers and pheasants; and seeking advice from holders of NCCPG National Collections and RHS trials when choosing cultivars. Elsewhere in the Savill Garden, a dramatic, mass planting of Agapanthus and Galtonia candicans with kniphofias, against a dark yew hedge was much admired. In the Dry Garden, started in the 1970s, Lesley Jones outlined the work in progress. It had been a very mixed planting, but was now being given more of a geographic, narrative theme. The recently planted New Zealand Garden is already looking good and is likely to mature into an attractive and unusual feature. Our thanks to Mark Flanagan, Harvey Stephens and their staff for hosting an interesting day.