Delphinium Black Knight

Flower arranging lessons from Chatsworth House

The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, Debo Mitford, created the kitchen garden and the cutting beds from horse paddocks around 20 years ago. Her son Peregrine and his wife Amanda, the new Duke and Duchess, continue to add to it. They are both keen on the garden – Amanda in particular is very involved in what’s grown and picked for the house. They’re endlessly emailing Steve Porter, the head gardener, with suggestions and photographs of flowers and arrangements they’ve seen while travelling.

The Devonshires don’t like orange, or arrangements that are too formal and complicated. They particularly like seeing a lot of the same flower in season: for example a series of vases of delphiniums only in a room, or lots of different rose buds in small vases all over the dining room table. They love to have peonies in the painted hall or camellias, just single stems, each in its own vase but massed together.

The Duchess’s favourite flower is the pale yellow Caucasian peony, P. mlokosewitschii or Molly the witch. The Duke likes Rhododendron luteum. It smells delicious,” he says “signifies spring is on its way, and reminds me of Chatsworth.”

They are both fond of Rosa gallica 'Versicolor’ (the old Rosa mundi) and are putting in a hedge of it in the kitchen garden. The dark red and blue-purple sweet pea, 'Matucana’ is, as the Duke says: “the colour of a Brigade of Guards tie” and is another old favourite.

From the garden

The kitchen garden is dominated by spectacular beds of peonies. Many of the best picking varieties are here, such as the pure white single, 'White Wings’, 'Monsieur Jules Elie’ which smells of roses, as well as the dark crimson single with huge sea anemone centre, 'Crimson Glory’ and the straight crimson single, 'Lord Kitchener’. But if you’d die for these flowers, just wait till you see the delphiniums.

There are four lines, each 30-feet long, grown in stout frames, with an internal structure of silver birch pea sticks. Two colours dominate – the bright sea blue, Summer Skies Group and the deep indigo-navy Black Knight Group.

They’re also just starting to harvest from rows of achilleas, the brilliant yellow 'Gold Plate’, as well as the paler yellow, silver-leaved 'Moonshine’. Less widely grown and more delicate are the pretty and early flowering, soft red-orange, 'Terracotta’ and 'Walther Funcke’ in rich carmine red.

DELPHINIUM DELIGHT | PARSLEYSAGE

After the disaster last month when the wind devastated the delphinium patch, the remaining ones have stepped up the plate and are now looking rather lovely.  Their stately spires are towering above everything else in this sunny side of the garden at the moment and I am pleased the weather has been rather kinder over the last couple of weeks, as even with supports they are rather precarious in strong wind.

I particularly admire the almost iridescent colours in the Pacific Giant. Glad that at least this one survived the winds.  The Green Twist adds a little something extra, instead of just the plain whites, which are also lovely. I am rather obsessed by green flowers  so any whites with a hint of green will always win me over. The Black Knight looks like inkblots staining this photo. So dark and mysterious looking from this angle, but with the sun shining through it is a deep, deep purple.

I am so pleased that the rest of these delphiniums have come good. They are such a wonderful addition to the garden and it would have been rather a shame if they hadn’t made it into my Plant of the Week post.

I haven’t got any monkshood yet…but am definitely considering. Delphiniums don’t last that long…but monkshood last a good while longer. I thought they would be quite good mixed in with the Delphs….and when the Delphs have gone I’d still have some interesting spires. We’ve got a cultivar called ‘Stainless Steel’ which is a metallic blue-grey (more grey than blue…its lovely). Now that would look stunning against some really dark blue flowers.

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