Toby Buckland’s garden tribute

Gardener, writer and broadcaster Toby Buckland has replanted the flower beds leading up to the Garden entrance to Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery as a tribute to its collections.

Devon is a county of plant hunters with famous historical nurseries like Veitch and Pinces. This rich history has long been reflected in the displays and exhibits at RAMM. It is now also mirrored in the at RAMM’s Garden entrance.

Toby explains “I’ve been visiting RAMM since I was boy and love the fresh thinking and thought-provoking exhibitions and displays. I go there regularly with my children now so embellishing the Garden entrance with interesting and colourful plants is a particular pleasure”

“The inspiration for planting comes from the museums surroundings. I hope the Romans who built the nearby wall would have approved of the olives! I chose them as their sparkling silver foliage contrasts beautifully with the existing alders and beech hedge.

“The scheme also echoes the global collections inside the Museum with Rosemary from the Mediterranean, Japanese Pittosporum tobira, Verbena bonariensis from Argentina and Stipa arundinacea from New Zealand. African Feather Grass, Pennisetum villosum, provides late summer colour with Syrian Phlomis russeliana looking good long into winter. Meanwhile, cranesbill geraniums bred from our native wildflower meadows froth and spill around the trunks of the trees. The geraniums and exotic flowers look good for a long time but also provide nectar and pollen for the City’s bees”

To find out more about Toby’s great ideas for Devon gardens, book a place at his talk ‘Grow something Different – Plants for the West Country’ on Friday 28 and Saturday 29 April at his Garden Festival at Powderham Castle.

The richly planted Garden entrance is Toby’s second intervention at RAMM. Last year he successfully created a living installation at RAMM: a Plant Hunter’s jungle complete with ‘Grandpa Potts’ plant hunters hut and solar topee.

Pictured: Toby Buckland and RAMM volunteers at the Garden entrance.