Nice Phillip Watson story in our paper

Then there was Christine Garner, a first-time show visitor from New York City. Good thing she didn't come last year. She was positively "wowed by these over-the-top exhibits," but complained that "I thought there would be more ideas for semi-serious home gardeners at this show." Which is why she wanted to hear Phillip speak. "I'm hoping he'll have ideas I can relate to," she said.

And he did. This is a man who designs for super wealthy clients in places like Greenwich, Ct. But he also has a good sense of what's feasible for the rest of us. (For example, he has no problem using Knock Out roses - in huge masses - something high-end designers typically shun.)

So how to have that English garden look in the U.S.? "A lot of people look at books on English gardens and say, 'I can't grow that,' "Phlilip said, "but it's all about flavor. That's what we're after."

The flavor, if not the idential plant list, of English gardens.

Here are a few of this favorite things, in no particular order - colorful foliage, agastache, grape hyacinth, clipped boxwoods, creeping jenny between the stones of a path, 'Caesar's Brother' Siberian iris (oldie but goodie), peonies planted behind a wall so they can droop over it instead of on the ground, English-style roses with better disease resistance than the old ones, little sedums and herbs growing on walls and steps, 'Annabelle' hydrangeas in large masses, Allium senescens (a perennial), very large pots for outside, hardy yuccas for architecture, and brightly colored coneflowers.

"I want fireworks," he said, reminding the audience that U.S. gardeners have it all over our British counterparts in one area: "We have sunshine."