When wimbledon.com announced the seedings for the 2015 Championships on Facebook, a host of visitors mis-read it as ‘seedlings’ - as in young plants, not even junior seeded players.
“I was quite excited that there might be some new plant we can all buy,” ran the comment posted by Sam Mundell. Alison Bass-Hammond agreed: “I was all ready to order some Wimbledon pansies.”
To fulfil the dreams of all those green-fingered tennis fans like Michele Hyde, who had hoped to find a horticultural planting scheme posted under seedings, the All England Club’s Head Gardener Martyn Falconer has agreed to describe how to replicate Wimbledon’s visual feast at home. Here goes:
I was all ready to buy some Wimbledon pansies
“The theme you’re aiming to recreate is English country garden,” he says. This is based on a palette of club colours in purple, green and white, with the occasional subtle flash of pink or yellow.
Before we get truly botanical, here are some important specifics. For a Championship-standard garden lawn, you need 100% rye grass, cut to 8mm. For creeper-clad walls, you will want to train Boston Ivy (parthenocissus tricuspidaca veitchii); this may take several years to establish impressive cover. The iconic green paint on the masonry is Permaglaze Spruce Green, code 14C39. Should you wish to highlight the colours of the club logo, the Pantone reference for the green is PMS 349 and for the purple PMS 268.
The theme you're aiming to recreate is an English country garden
But back to plants. An extensive planting of perennials - many more than in previous years - is the backdrop for this year’s distinctive natural look. This includes buxus balls to add structure, wispy grasses such as miscanthus ‘Morning Light’, foxgloves, Scotch Thistle, verbena bonariensis, salvia Mystic and French lavender for height and volume, and hydrangea paniculata and geraniums as floral eye-pleasers.
Overlaid on top of the perennials for the duration of the Championships are a sea of petunias, lupins and a new hydrangea everyone is very excited about called ‘Magical Amethyst’. The plants are compact but produce giant spherical flower heads that open lime green, change to pink and then go back to soft green with pink edges. If you visit The Grounds, look out for these stunners in the beds and troughs under the Clubhouse.
If you have an area of grass that is steep, and difficult to cut, you might follow the Club’s example in planting it instead with British native wild flowers. Not only does it create an appealing mini meadow, which requires minimum maintenance, but such flowers are all ecologically sound, bee-friendly pollinators. Currently causing a buzz on a bank in the Aorangi practice area, Falconer and his team might well roll it out on to other tricky steep beds.
The most spectacular addition to Wimbledon’s floral displays are two giant sculptures by Jenny Pickford, a contemporary artist blacksmith who works with steel and blown glass. Outside the Competitors’ Entrance is her stunning giant Allium, which Martyn Falconer has underplanted with real alliums to spectacular effect. “It’s a high profile spot,” he explains. “The place where players get their first impression of the Club.” Seedings, seedlings and non-seeds alike.
