Queens 90th Birthday Patriotic Garden Inspiration

2016 is a busy year for celebrations for gardeners – Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary, Capability Brown’s tercentenary and the Queens 90th Birthday.

Hold on, I hear you say, how does the Queen’s birthday get to be a gardening celebration?

Well, maybe strictly speaking it isn’t, although the Queen enjoys her gardens, she is probably not the keen gardener that the Prince of Wales is or the late Queen Mother was. However, an important royal birthday does lend itself to some patriotic garden inspiration.

There are many planned celebrations, including lots of street parties. If our front gardens are to be on show like this, shouldn’t we make a bit of an effort? You may have had a street party in 2012, the year of Olympics in Britain and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and strewn some red, white and blue flowers across the tables so why not take it one step further?

I have already suggested flowers and plants for a Pearl Wedding Anniversary and a twenty-first birthday, so I’m hardly going to resist a ninetieth birthday!

Royal celebrations may lead garden designers to conjure up patriotic planting schemes, both short term for street parties and general decorative purposes but also for the longer term, this summer and beyond. So, what about a few ideas to get you planting?

Patriotic Garden Inspiration – sun and scent

The demands of a red, white and blue colour scheme can be achieved through summer bedding plants; for example, red pelargoniums, blue salvias, white petunias.

What about a scented planting scheme? A red rose for Lancaster and a white rose for York hark back to the so-called Wars of the Roses which was largely about who should rightfully sit on the throne of England in the 15th century. more to the point, it allows for scented red and white roses, climbers and hybrid teas, to fill your flower borders with delicious aroma. Surrounding these rose bushes with soft blue Nigella, also known as love-in-a-mist gives us our blue flower. The roses are perennials, of course, and the Nigella, an annual, will self-seed. After the blue flowers die, you can enjoy the decorative seed heads.

A bit late now, unless you can find them in flower, but bulbs and corms can also offer a patriotic planting scheme – blue bluebells, red tulips, white anemone, for example.

Patriotic Garden Inspiration – shade

Or you could have a native species mix in a shadier corner. Try blue/purple scented violas, Viola oderata, for scent or the little dog violet, Viola canina; scarlet pimpernel, Anagallis arvensis; with white yarrow, Achillea millefolium, to add height. This combination will keep flowering for months and you’ve added to the garden’s biodiversity too.

Or would you prefer a mix of architectural foliage and flowers? Try Persicaria ‘red dragon’ for the foliage drama with its red stems and red/purple/ bronze tongue shaped leaves. Mix with Geranium ‘Kashmir white’ with its mound of feathery cut foliage and the blue flowered salvia patens.

I saw quite a few patriotic planting schemes during 2012. I particularly liked the combination of blue delphiniums, red lupins and white peonies, lots of height with froth at the base. Great garden design inspiration, although for some gardeners keeping the slugs and snails off might be a problem.

Patriotic Garden Inspiration – royalist plants

Perhaps you could have a Royalist selection, maybe Anchusa ‘Loddon royalist’ (blue), Lobelia ‘queen Victoria’ (red) and for white it has to be Rosa ‘Queen Elizabeth’, named for our current monarch.

Have I got you wondering why ‘Loddon’, the other two being obviously royalist in connection? Well, the River Loddon flows through royal Berkshire, home of Windsor castle, which is the more obvious relationship and sufficient for our needs. However, for those of you with magpie minds, you may like to know that there have been mills on the river Loddon since the 14th century, including a early 19th century silk mill. Which makes a royal link with Queen Elizabeth Tudor, who encouraged the planting of white mulberry trees in order to promote silk worm, and therefore silk, production. So we have a connection between our two Queen Elizabeths. The connection between Queen Victoria and our reigning Queen is that they are the only two British monarchs to date who have ruled over us for 60 years. (Victoria’s reign was 63 years long).

Reigning – or raining – brings us to the weather: personally, I would take a brolly with you when you go seeking out patriotic garden inspiration in one of the many gardens open for the Queen’s 90th birthday; it can double up as sunshade or rain cover…

Whatever the weather, Plews can help you with garden designs, gardening lessons; planting schemes; solutions for garden issues; and more.

There are more birthday, anniversary and wedding inspired ideas in the blog links below to get you thinking about plants and features for your own garden. So whether you’re Royalist or Republican, why not drop us an email and let us spread some red, white and blue into your garden?

Or perhaps you would like help with learning more about your garden and gardening? Why not ask about our bespoke Gardening Lessons, where your classroom is actually your own garden. We can help you learn gardening basics, carry out worm and other experiments and also show you how to plan an ornamental border or kitchen garden. They make a good birthday present!

And for further gardening advice and inspiration, check out our monthly Tipsheet – You could come and find us on Instagram Pinterest and Facebook too.