January: In the middle of the winter, you occasionally get a frosty and slightly misty morning. As shown with this picture, the value of structural plants is evident. From the left outline of the deciduous Silver Birch, Betula utilis ssp. jacquemontii, you notice the most dominant conifer in front is a weeping form of the Giant Redwood Sequoiadendron giganteum Pendulum. This makes a great feature, year-round, at the front of a bed in Foggy Bottom. Other conifers behind are the pyramidal form of the Noble Fir, Abies procera Glauca and beyond that in the distant Adrian’s Wood you can see the misty outline of the Giant Redwood itself which I planted in 1964. Sometimes trees just happen to grow on you.
February: For a gardener snow can be quite a nuisance, but in most of the U.K. we get it so seldom and generally it only stays for a few days, so best to enjoy what it offers. Enjoy the tranquillity that happens as snow lands on all plants in the garden, framing branches of trees and shrubs and clothing the surface of the soil and lawn with a homogenous white blanket. Look in this morning picture at Foggy Bottom at the decking and the bridge below the pond as the sun’s rays strike the handrails of the bridge. Across the semi-frozen pond are the snow laden rails of a more rustic fence and the eye, as so often, follows upwards to the majestic Giant Redwoods in the nearby Adrian’s Wood.
March: A wide spreading Magnolia soulangeana bursting into bloom from naked branches, looking from the north. Behind, at the top, a distant tree line, closer an evergreen Rhododendron and fresh golden yellow emerging shoots on Philadelphus coronarius Aureus, a golden leaved Mock Orange. Two days later looking from the south, behind the Magnolia an early morning mist rises in the background above and amongst trees, shrubs, and conifers. On the right the trunk of the same silver birch and leaves of the Philadelphus. The same branch, the same flowers from a different but equally dramatic perspective of one of the most popular Magnolias . ........What you don’t see. Many years before, this Magnolia soulangeana was planted where I thought it had room to grow, probably a familiar thought had by many gardeners as they plant a new addition. Of course, other surrounding plants were also going to grow, and did. Left to their own devices plants generally adapt, as did the magnolia, one long branch extending more each year into the light, whilst on the other side of the shrub not accessing light and moisture, has gradually died back. Now a little careful pruning is enough to maintain this distinctive annual display.
April: Spring in Rosemary’s wood. Scilla bithynica make a perfect and dramatic contrast to Matteucia struthiopteris, the Ostrich fen.
May: This view is from a corner of the Acer Glade, looking east towards the Mini Pinetum. Beneath the canopy of a Tsuga canadensis Fantana are foliage plants, bright green fronds of Matteucia struthiopteris and the large leaved Hosta Big Mama . Beyond to the right and just coming into flower are a group of Rhododendrons and conifers in the distance. If you look closely at the lawn, you will see some footsteps which stand out in the dew, these of course are those of the photographer, early one morning, who strictly speaking should take the photograph first, before walking on the grass!
June: To get the best images, you often must be prepared to get up early on a summer’s morning when you know it’s supposed to be a nice day. Cool, damp evenings can often be followed by morning mist and fog, and as the sun comes up on a June morning, a scene like this on Rhus Corner is as dramatic as it comes. We’ll see it again and again, how much the light affects the image of our plants. Each wisp-like head of Stipa tenuissima bears tiny droplets of water, weighing down on the arching inflorescences, some sparkling in the slanted early sunlight. It reminds me of frothy ocean spray as a wave breaks on the shore, but in this, as many other cases in a garden, an atmospheric image can portray a mood much better than my attempted flowery words!
July: A stunning view, which greets the visitor on entry to the Foggy Bottom Garden in mid-summer. The garden was always designed with a view to creating vistas, and here you can look probably 100 metres to the west side of the garden. Take as your focal point the leaning specimen of the weeping giant redwood Sequoiadendron giganteum Pendulum. Without naming everything you should notice the foliage contrast on the right-hand side, the purple leaves and pink flowers belonging to different varieties of Cotinus coggygria. The use of upright conifers creates a structural opposite to rounded plants and low growing perenials. The one on your right is Thuja occidentalis Degroot’s Spire. Just behind it coming into flower is Hydrangea paniculata Limelight.
August: Here the foreground grouping relies on two outstanding perennials, colour contrast, texture and time all combining to create a tremendous impact from a distance and close up. A well-established clump of the tall, late flowering Agapanthus Loch Hope rises above the closely packed flowers of Crocosmia Walberton Bright Eyes. You can see why this descriptive name of ‘bright eyes’ was given as each open flower has a bright (or dark?) red centre. The All-Seasons Bed continues the right onto the distance, whilst on the left-hand side approaching The Sad Bed is a repetition of the Crocosmia and Agapanthus, joined by even larger heads of Agapanthus Windsor Grey. In the early morning there is a slight mist in the air, which partially blurs the white Hydrangea arborescens Annabelle at the Crossroads planting beyond.
September: From the central crossing path in the All-Seasons Bed, but sill close to the Pinus koraiensis Winton, you look left to get this view beneath the pine and out toward the Rhus Corner planting. Believe it or not, I have been delaying the proposed removal of the two-pronged branch, until we record it on a television programme. Most gardeners are apprehensive about pruning conifers (they obviously haven’t got my book Gardening with conifers yet!) and we hope to cover some of this in the programme. Although there is a view, it will certainly be more open and dramatic when this branch is gone, letting in much more light which will suit the Erica vagans in the foreground, as well as the Imperata. Acer campestre Pulveralentum, which has creamy white leaves in spring is on the right.
October: Another, much larger perspective from the north of The Sad Bed with the Pampas Grass starkly contrasting with red, orange, and bronze foliage of deciduous trees in Foggy Bottom. The taller, clearer white plumed cultivar is Cortaderia selloana Sunningdale Silver, more spectacular than the shorter, denser plumed Cortaderia selloana Pumila. These plants have been in situ for over 40 years and were over time getting drawn into the shade from nearby fast-growing conifers, with whom they were competing for moisture, and gradually losing out. Drastic, but necessary for other reasons a large cedar plus a blue spruce were cut down and removed. This soon offered a new lease of life for the Cortaderias, who don’t mind a bit of shade, nor some dryness of root in summer.... now as they recover have rewarded with an increasingly confident...and annual display.
November: Early morning view from the pond in early winter, across the sun spotted leaves to the redwoods in Adrian’s Wood. It is the sunlight filtering through deciduous plants, grasses and conifers that create the glowing, almost painterly atmosphere.
December: Few would be able to identify the round topped pine as Pinus koraiensis Winton since from this position it is only the outline against the early morning sun rising in the east can be seen---the foliage is too dark and indistinct to reveal the detail. Of course, the conifer name hardly matters, but the fact that I had pruned away the lower branches—lifted the canopy is the reason that this view is revealed. I was almost at ground level looking up to get this dramatic moment in the All-Season’s bed in Foggy Bottom, and all seasons means, this day, Christmas Day! (The roast Turkey, or more likely chicken will come later). This time of year and over several months in winter, sun in low light, snow, frost or mist add immeasurably to this often duller season when more static and dormant landscapes are the norm.
Welcome to the Foggy Bottom Garden Website!
I created this space to share my Garden with you.
When Rosemary and I were married in Trumpington church, near Cambridge in October 1966, our house at Bressingham wasn’t even completed. Having helped local builders in small ways at weekends since March that year, we were quite happy to move in. Returning from a few days’ honeymoon in a very wet Lake District in North West England, we managed for three months with only one bedroom and a kitchen finished. There was no garden.
The home was built in the north-east corner of a seven-acre meadow of which below was a wood, and a herd of cattle enjoyed the verdant grass for most of the year.
The house (we didn’t like the term bungalow) was initially set within one acre, and a barbed wire fence was put up to deter cattle from invading what was to become our family area and garden.
During my travels in the United States in 1959 and 1960, I had come across a place called ‘Foggy Bottom’, and we thought this a great name to give our house and garden.
Such was the beginning of the development of the eventual six-acre all season Foggy Bottom Garden, which has played such a central role in my own and my family’s life, and far beyond. The full story is revealed in my latest book: Foggy Bottom - a Garden to Share, which starts with the Foggy Bottom of today: what it is, and what it means. In it, I reveal its development, decade by decade, since 1966 and the environment in which the garden grew, whilst sharing my observation on plants, design and photography.
Photography has been my other life long passion. I have been lucky enough to be able to record the evolution of the garden day after day, season after season, year after year. This has resulted in an extensive photo library which has made this book possible.
I hope you enjoy this space
All the best
Adrian Bloom