As with everything else, plants are subject to changing fashions and trends. Yet despite the clamour for the ‘next best thing’, several cultivars introduced during Amateur Gardening’s 140-year history have stood the test of time.
Looking back on his almost 50-year association with the magazine, 11 of which as its editor, Graham Clarke recalls seeing many plant fads come and go, not least the popularity of heather and conifer combinations during the 1970s and the interest in hardy exotics from the early years of the 21st century, which harked back to the grander gardens of the Victorian era. “Thankfully with gardening there’s room for all of us” reflects Graham.
Certain plants have fallen prey to specific diseases, such as the majestic elm trees stripped from the British landscape by Dutch elm disease in the 1960s and 1970s. More recently, box has become harder to grow due to blight and caterpillars. On a more positive note, scientists and breeders have managed to preserve some plants that went missing from our gardens for a period, including the busy lizzie, now bred to be more resistant to impatiens downy mildew. New cultivars are often developed to offer something different, as anybody surveying the hundreds of agapanthus available nowadays can testify. Yet the conservation charity
