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Coughs and Caterpillars: An Hour in the Garden
It’s all going on in the garden right now. The plants have had a sniff of spring and now they are intoxicated, thrusting out of the ground, sending tendrils hither and thither and scrambling up in...
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Crazy for Corydalis
The defining plants of my pre-teen years were those that grew in the garden of my parents’ 1930’s semi-detached house in Plymouth. Climbing the walls were Rosa ‘Masquerade’ and R. ‘Albertine’, a...
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Daily Flower Candy: Acacia longifolia
Acacia longifolia: long-leaved wattle, acacia trinervis, aroma doble, golden wattle, coast wattle, sallow wattle, Sydney golden wattle Winter has returned for its last hurrah this week, bestowing...
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Running to Stand Still
With April bright on the horizon I am already having to get a wiggle on to keep up with what needs doing in our garden. Within a fortnight that wiggle will have become a jog, and by early May I’ll be...
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Spring at The Salutation
If I were to win the lottery, The Salutation is the house I’d want to live in. I’d spend every spring and summer there, before overwintering in Capri, or the Caribbean; I can’t decide which. It’s...
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Daily Flower Candy: Epimedium zhushanense ‘Zhushan Fairy Wings’
I’ve reached that point in the year when the number of posts I have time to write is overtaken by the number of subjects there is to write about. It happens every spring and causes me a rising sense...
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Great Dixter Spring Plant Fair 2017
Every visit to Great Dixter is a treat, but when the additional carrot of a plant fair is dangled in front of my face, that treat becomes an irresistible temptation. And so it was, having hauled...
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The Great Dixter Dozen
It’s rare that I sacrifice commentary for imagery, but as I look back over the photographs I took at Great Dixter last weekend, I can’t help feeling they speak for themselves. And, being without my...
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Daily Flower Candy: Iris bucharica AGM
Despite being a plantaholic, the existence of certain plants eludes me. Then, all of a sudden, a ‘new’ discovery will burst onto the scene, reminding me of the woefully limited extent of my knowledge....
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Wonder Walls Part II
Each time I return to the West Country I am reminded just how damp it is compared to Kent. A crude comparison of averages would tell you that twice as much rain falls in Devon or Cornwall versus Kent...
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My Favourite Walk: Chapel Porth Valley, St Agnes
I have been walking down and up the valley to Chapel Porth for over forty years. Not continually, of course, but at least once or twice a year and frequently more. Without question this gentle...
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Great Dixter: Pots of Plenty
The recent chilly weather has had its pros and cons. The downside for eager gardeners who have been nurturing seedlings and planting out bedding is that these tender charges now need protection to...
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A week is a long time in gardening
It was British Prime Minister Harold Wilson who first said ‘a week is a long time in politics’. Almost sixty years later, his words have proved as sage now as then. Had Harold Wilson been a keen...
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Drama Queens I: Tulipa ‘Slawa’
Ladies and gentlemen, for my 800th post, may I present you with the first of two floral drama queens; a bold, brassy diva of a Triumph tulip named ‘Slawa’. Those who speak the language will know that...
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Drama Queens II: Tulip ‘Orange Dynasty’
Choosing tulips from a catalogue is rather like deciding which confections to buy from a sweet shop. Each variety has something to tempt – colour, shape, perfume, size – and all are guaranteed to...
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Tears
“Don’t be ashamed to weep; ’tis right to grieve. Tears are only water, and flowers, trees, and fruit cannot grow without water. But there must be sunlight also. A wounded heart will heal in time, and...
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My Perfect Ten Tulips
In spite of late planting and a cold April, it has been an exceptional year for tulips at The Watch House. They have flowered and flowered, and I have discovered some ravishing new varieties; well,...
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In a Tuscan Garden
My job takes me to all sorts of interesting places, some nice, some not so nice, but always interesting. This week I have been in Tuscany learning about winemaking and tasting some remarkable wines....
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Last Hurrah
Slowly but surely the petals are falling from my tulips, one by one, leaving skinny seed pods where yesterday hovered fat balloons of shot silk. The first to fade were ‘Christmas Orange’ and...
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Chelsea Flower Show 2017 Preview
I am taking a different approach to my Chelsea Flower Show coverage this year. Recent events and the amount of time I am able to spend at the show have persuaded me to devote more time to enjoying...
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