Dancing through Borders

James Alexander-Sinclair 17th February 2019

Over 100 members and guests enjoyed a highly entertaining and informative talk from our celebrity speaker for 2019, James Alexander-Sinclair. We really did ‘ Dance through the Borders’ with him, as he took us through gardens he had designed for various clients over many years. He told us how to focus on different areas of the garden, how to introduce focal points to lead the eye to points in the garden, and how to link those points to the landscape beyond. He showed us some of his original plans, how the plantings developed year after year from the initial planting, with seasonal photos, and encouragingly, when some failures happened, how they were rescued. Plants  he particularly favours, and thinks should be in all gardens, were Rosa Mutabilis, for its simple flower forms and wonderful foliage; Lavender ‘Christiana’, a multi-headed bright blue variety, not hardy, but can be propagated by cuttings in the autumn; Rosa laevigata Cooperii, a vigorous climber, shiny evergreen foliage, with large single white flowers, it needs a hot wall to flower well, but once it is happy it is a sight to behold;  white scented Sweet Rocket, to rampage through the borders at will, and finally Geranium Rozanne, for it’s bright blue colour. The plant he would banish forever from gardens is Forsythia! 

Erica Bolam
Chair