Bumper Battersea Update: 14.06.2025

Bad bed, pot refresh, & A HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT

THE BAD BED

This post was supposed to be called ‘Bad Bed: 6 Month Update’ and was going to be a review of the horrible, awkward little bed by the back door 6 months on from my first post about it on 13 January 2025.

However, having spent some time staring at a blank screen yesterday I decided that this grim little horror show was not worthy of a full post of its own because it would merely read: I still hate it.

Because yes, it is still in shade and still awkward. Despite my efforts to put the right bloody plants in the right bloody place it is still just a sad and desolate area of an otherwise incredible (if I say so myself) garden.

The thing is, I think I need to start getting into… ferns.

Eurgh.

I really just… can’t be interested in ferns. I’ve tried.

Ok, I haven’t tried. I just… EURGH.

It’s not that I’m completely hostile to them. I love them colonising the banks of the roads around Dartmoor, turning old gold and rust in the autumn, making the scene jurassic and gilded and wild. But here? Eurgh. I don’t know.

And I know what you’re thinking: what about a hosta? I am even less enthusiastic about hostas.

Anyway, here it is 6 months on from my attempt to improve it:

[ Eurgh. Shady bed. 14.06.2025. Note to my neighbours: Miami Vice called, they want their tree back ]

THE BIG BATTERSEA POT REFRESH

What is far, far more exciting to me is an update on the Battersea pots. They have languished since the end of Tulip season and I felt at a complete loss over what to do with them until - on a recent trip to Neal’s - I found Digitalis ‘Bella’.

I already have a rose in the garden called ‘Leo’s Eye’ for Leo (the only once-flowering rose in the garden because wtf is the point, honestly, in a garden this size) but had failed thus far to find a floral representation of Bella to include in the scheme.

Digitalis ‘Bella’ seems to exist under several names, but whatever she is she is going to be spectacular! Just like the real Bella, but less nervous.

With that neon orange as a base I went on a hunt around to find fillers and spillers and decided on a semi-trailing Verbena ‘Peach’ and a trailing Fuchsia ‘Bicentennial’.

[ Pot archipelago, 14.06.2025 ]

[ Fuschia ‘Insulinde’, Calibrachos ‘Honeycomb’, and Thunbergia ‘Lemon’. 14.06.2025 ]

Yes, it is going to be a lot. But even before I had a ridiculous orange garden I always felt late summer is the time to go absolutely ballistic with colour before we mellow into autumn hues. After all, the time of dahlias and zinnias is surely a time to lean in to the shades of school highlighters. Throw taste to the wind. Embrace chaos.

With the big pot sorted I moved on to the two smaller pots that make up the little central archipelago. To begin, each smaller pot has at its centre a Fuschia ‘Insulinde’.

One is accompanied by a semi-trailing Calibrachos ‘Honeycomb’ and Thunbergia ‘Lemon’ (I can’t see or read or hear the word ‘Thunbergia’ without singing it (silently) to the tune of Rhianna’s ‘Disturbia’)

The other has Petchos ‘Beautical Cinnamon’ and ‘Beautical Red Maple’ and Thunbergia ‘Red’ (thunbergiaaaa).

[ Fuschia ‘Insulinde’, Petchos ‘Beautical Cinnamon’, and Thunbergia ‘Red’. 14.06.2025 ]

[ Fuschia ‘Insulinde’. 14.06.2025 ]

[ Fuschia ‘Insulinde’, Calibrachos ‘Honeycomb’, and Thunbergia ‘Lemon’. 14.06.2025 ]

Yes, for some of you this is a hellscape but I am so excited to see it all fill and spill and shout and scream as the summer wears on.

I also refreshed the two pots in the tiny front garden which had been similarly lost since the end of their amazing Narcissus show.

A small update on the front garden: it looks incredible!!! The Hydrangea ‘Annabelle’s have grown remarkably. If I had bought four or five I would have a glorious, perfect hedge already, but given their growth in just four months it will ultimately be the right call to have kept it to three. Here’s the absolutely COMICAL ‘before’ picture the day I planted the hydrangeas on 26 February 2025:

[ BEFORE: Front garden, 26.02.2025 ]

Rosa ‘Rambling Rosie’ continues to be one of the best investments I’ve ever made. After moving her into the front garden last autumn I was entirely unsure how she would feel but my goodness she is thriving. TWO of my neighbours have asked me about ‘the red thing’ (to be fair she is not the most rose-looking of the roses) already.

But aside from ‘Rambling Rosie’ I have decided to keep the scheme to greens and whites, so for one of the two pots I returned to Fuschia ‘Hawkshead’ - probably one of my top ten favourite plants - as the centre piece and planted around it with Indian Mint and Hedera Helix.

[ Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' and Rosa ‘Rambling Rosie’. 14.06.2025 ]

[Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle', Rosa ‘Rambling Rosie’, Fuchsia ‘Hawkshead’. 14.06.2025]

Then, on another, different, recent trip to Neal’s (yup, I’m there most days when I’m in London I’m obsessed) with my sister-in-law, I was reminded of the incredible scent of Philadelphus ‘Belle Étoile' and couldn’t resist. She, too, is surrounded with Indian Mint and Hedera Helix.

[ Philadelphus ‘Belle Étoile', Hedera helix, Satureja douglasii. 14.06.2025 ]

[ Philadelphus ‘Belle Étoile', Hedera helix, Satureja douglasii, and Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle'. 14.06.2025 ]

Indian Mint (Satureja douglasii) is another recent Neal’s find. It isn’t a mint at all, but the scent would fool you. It has the most gorgeous spilling habit and will be excellent as a tea.

On another trip to Neal’s recently with my friend (and owner of Norman the Norfolk), Alex, a professional gardener, she introduced me to Strawberry ‘Ruby Ann’ which she bought to use as a spiller around the edge of pots she was designing for her friends as a wedding gift (isn’t that the best idea for a wedding gift? Years of enjoyment and helps decorate their wedding reception which will be held at their home). ‘Ruby Ann’ has the most incredible, deep magenta flowers and I cannot stop thinking about it. I just need one more pot…

Anyway, the front garden has gone from my least favourite part of the Battersea gardening scheme to my favourite. BIG joy every time I walk in or out of the house. I call a Hydrangea hedge a ‘Hamptons Hedge’ and I finally have a little touch of Hamptons glamour at home. Of course everything is still very newly planted and this tiny space will only grow in glory (I hope) as it matures, but even now with much room for things to fill out I absolutely love it.

[A very patchy hedge, but so beautiful! Spot Leo considering making a break for it. 14.06.2025]

[ Sweet Leo. His haircut money was spent on pretty pots, poor dog. 14.06.2025 ]

ANNOUNCING: A HORTICULTURALISH PODCAST!

I have decided that, like all millennial narcissists, I should have my own podcast. Thus I bring to you: VOICENOTES. Here’s the plan:

1. You send me voicenotes

2. I edit it together with voicenotes of my own

3. Together they create a syngeristic podcast that will blow your minds

Voicenotes could be questions, comments, complaints, jokes, general chitchat - I’m also hoping to persuade some other Substackers to contribute, too…

Why this format? Partly because I like the idea and think it will be fun (let’s see), kind of like an old fashioned radio call-in show, and partly because I am on the road so much at the moment that this format makes it easier for me to actually do the recording.

So, send your voicenotes to horticulturalish@outlook.com and standby for the first episode which will drop into your inbox on 21 JUNE!

Final note: if you’re in the States and you’re planning to attend a NO KINGS protest my heart and spirit and thoughts are with you. Thank you for standing up for due process. I love you.

And, of course, I love all of you, whichever side of the Atlantic you are on.

Final, final note: Happy birthday to my little brother (who you can find on Substack here). I love you so much and am so proud of you, Bubsy.