Tag: Aster

The Exchange, Walnut Tree Road, Erith

One autumn Saturday morning in 2024 my companion and I visited the Sarah Price-designed garden at The Exchange in Erith, South-East London and we were in for a treat.

As Erith Library for over 100 years, and Grade II-listed, this Carnegie-financed building of 1906 finally closed its doors in 2009, thus becoming an unused space with unkept grounds. Two visionary locals, respectively with conservation and community arts experience, approached Bexley Council in 2016. Their initiative resulted in a community arts hub which opened in 2022 – a refurbished building with a new garden to match. 

Mediterranean front garden
Mediterranean front garden

The garden surrounds the building on all sides, with various plantings complementing each of the four different areas. The forefront of the building has become a Mediterranean garden with a tapestry of lime-greens, blue-greens and greys. In amongst the herbaceous and shrubs I noticed Myrtle, Euphorbias, Irises, California poppies and particular favourites, sub-shrub Dorycnium hirsutum and several Hesperaloe parviflora (red yucca), a very choice succulent that I have at home (and managed to keep alive!). On our visit we noticed that flowering was just finishing, with its tall stem of red-orange pendulum flowers just going over.

Continue reading The Exchange, Walnut Tree Road, Erith

Sedum or Hylotelephium? Aster or Symphyotrichum?

Sedum rupestre
Hylotelephium telephium 'Touchdown Teak'
Aster x frikartii 'Monch' in the Old Pond Garden
Symphyotrichum 'Little Carlow'

But which is which?

I’m sure you know by now that herb garden favourite rosemary had its botanical name changed following DNA testing. It was reclassified to the Salvia family and its proper name is now Salvia rosmarinus (while the common name of course remains ‘rosemary’). Another common garden plant, Perovskia (aka Russian sage), has been renamed Salvia yangii. And then there are the sedums, some (but not all) of which must have needed a few more syllables to sound properly botanical!

Gardeners often wonder why this happens, and feel like botanical names are simply there to confuse us. Many gardeners choose to stick to the ‘old’ names, and occasionally (but not usually!) this is rewarded as science progresses, as is pointed out in this useful article from Gardens Illustrated.

Continue reading Sedum or Hylotelephium? Aster or Symphyotrichum?