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Daily Flower Candy: Clematis ‘Forever Friends’
Back in April I ordered a clutch of new clematis for my garden, all from Thorncroft Nursery. They were destined to cover a shabby stretch of fence leading from the street to my new back door. The...
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Fond Farewells
If it were not for the soft patter of rain on the skylight above my desk, I might hear a pin drop. My house guests have gone home, tired and happy, to their own beds and their own familiar routines....
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How to Persuade Agapanthus to Flower
It’s a good year for agapanthus here at The Watch House. A rough count of the flower heads produced by Agapanthus africanus tops 60, which is not the most I’ve ever enjoyed, but is the best in recent...
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Daily Flower Candy: Hedychium densiflorum ‘Sorung’
Ginger lilies are disgustingly straightforward to grow, which is satisfying when one considers their fabulously exotic appearance. Hardy gingers from the genus Hedychium produce lush foliage on...
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Daily Flower Candy: Mirabilis longiflora ‘Angels’ Trumpets’
Although I find growing from seed one of the most rewarding aspects of gardening, I have done so less and less in recent years. It’s partly down to space, and partly down to the requirement to be...
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Garden Appreciation: Sweetbriar, Ash, Kent
When a new garden opens for the National Garden Scheme it's always exciting, but when that garden has been created by two professional gardeners with a passion for rare and exotic plants it's certain...
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Daily Flower Candy: Hedychium gardnerianum AGM
August is turning out to be something of a damp squib. As soon as the kids broke up for the summer holidays the rain moved in and the weather turned decidedly cool. Flowering plants such as dahlias...
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Why Good Gardening is a Risky Business
Whilst you won’t find it on a list of extreme pursuits, gardening is all about taking risks. Tending a garden is one of the most thrilling things one can do in life and is not for the faint hearted....
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Getting Some Air …. Plants
Inspired by my visit to Steve Edney’s garden at Sweetbriar, where a striped bromeliad sat astride the branches of an old cordyline, I decided to look beyond the terrestrial and think about what I...
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How Does my Garden Grow? August
My garden has come together rather later than usual, but come together it has. Unburdened by not opening for the National Gardens Scheme, I have been able to take my time rather than diving for the...
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In The Night Garden
When was the last time you ventured out into your garden after nightfall? Not at dusk, or to put the rubbish out, but to walk there when it’s properly dark? If it’s been a while, or you’ve never...
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Daily Flower Candy: Begonia ‘Million Kisses Elegance’
I consider myself a progressive gardener, but some habits are hard to kick. Growing in containers is an enforced habit as I have no open ground to speak of, and, although I admire great sweeps of the...
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Taking A Liberty With Houseplants
Retailers like to be on trend, so it was never going to be long before plants took the place of the taxidermy, glass cloches and squirrel-cage light bulbs that were once the visual merchandising...
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Watering in the Rain
“I need to water the garden before it rains!”: I know this sounds ridiculous (it looks even sillier) but rushing to wet the garden before storm-clouds break is surprisingly necessary if you garden,...
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Daily Flower Candy: Nerine filamentosa
When I chose to buy bulbs of Nerine filamentosa, I was wooed by the catalogue description of flowers so delightful that one might imagine they were sent from heaven. How easily seduced am I? Three...
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Eternal Eden
I can smell Cornwall before I can see it. Driving across the ancient border between Devon and Cornwall at night it’s pitch black, but I know that if I wind the car window down the mingled scent of...
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Heligan Harvest
I first started visiting The Lost Gardens of Heligan as a student in the very early 1990s. By then the Tremayne family’s forgotten pleasure grounds had been rediscovered by their descendant, John...
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Great Dixter Autumn Plant Fair 2017
My last hurrah before departing for India was a trip aross Kent to the Great Dixter Autumn Plant Fair. I neither had the time nor the need to buy more plants, but I went anyway, prepared to be...
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On The Moove
I’m on the road again. Or rather I’m in the skies and generally racking-up the air miles. It’s buying season and there’s no rest for the wicked. In another life I must have been a very bad person!...
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Chi Lin Nunnery 志蓮淨苑, Hong Kong
Three cheers for British Airways! Why? Because without them charging £1000 more to travel on a Friday night versus a Saturday night, I would not have been able to enjoy a full day off in Hong Kong....
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