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Spick and Span
“Every day is a fresh beginning, Listen my soul to the glad refrain. And, spite of old sorrows And older sinning, Troubles forecasted And possible pain, Take heart with the day and begin again.” Susan...
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Brave
Although the shortest day is firmly behind us, the bitter bulk of winter lies ahead. We’ve got off lightly here in Broadstairs. It has been wet and windy; cold at times, but not frosty, so far. My...
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Daily Flower Candy: Polygala myrtifolia
Polygala myrtifolia: myrtle-leaf milkwort, September bush, Augustusbossie At the end of the summer I often buy plants to plug gaps in the garden, with no expectation that they will flower for more...
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Daily Flower Candy: Jasminum nudiflorum
Jasminum nudiflorum: winter jasmine Most plants when translated from their native habitat into gardens adapt quite nicely. Some run riot, others curl up and die, whilst a few just don’t fit in. One...
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Story of Flowers – Azuma Makoto
If you have delved into my essential reading list, you will already know that I find the work of floral artist Azuma Makoto breathtaking, to the point of being moved to tears by it. In a world where...
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Daily Flower Candy: Prunus x subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’
Prunus x subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’: winter-flowering cherry, rosebud cherry January can be a debilitating month, all dark, dreary and joyless. When I think of January, little positive springs to...
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Daily Flower Candy: Iris ‘Blue Note’ and Iris ‘Painted Lady’
I planted so many pots with bulbs before Christmas that I’ve had to bring them on in serried ranks down the side of both paths that lead to my house. It’s not a glamorous solution, but in a tiny space...
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10 Books on my Winter Reading List
Having built myself a library, you would think I’d be spending all my time sitting about and reading. Unfortunately that’s so far from being the truth that I am rather embarrassed to admit it. Even...
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A Chill Wind
Goodness it’s cold. I appreciate my Canadian followers will think I am making a fuss about nothing, and those in Australia will protest that their excessive heat is far more intolerable, but I am not...
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RHS London Early Spring Plant Fair 2018
One event in my calendar heralds the approach of spring like no other: the RHS London Early Spring Plant Fair. Throughout the first, frozen days of February I have been yearning for Westminster’s...
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The White Stuff
Oh! How we love a ‘snow event’ here in England. The rare instances when the white stuff descends from the heavens used to be referred to as ‘flurries’, ‘snow storms’ or even ‘blizzards’ back in the...
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Counting the Cost
I’ve been out in the garden this morning assessing the havoc wreaked by The Beast from The East and Storm Emma. It is not a pretty picture, as you will see from the photographs below. Leaves and...
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Down But Not Out
I’ll confess last week’s wind and snow damage got me down, not that I had a great deal of time to dwell on it. The last few days have been spent finalising my buying for this Christmas: crazy as it...
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Cold Front
Hold the front page, the Beast from the East is not quite done with us yet. On Saturday we’re due to plunge back into the minuses, then on Sunday strong winds and heavy snow showers are returning to...
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Gardens of the East Kent National Garden Scheme
When I first opened The Watch House for the National Garden Scheme in 2015 I felt a little lonely. Compared to the south and west of Kent, the spread of gardens opening in the east of the county was...
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Living in the Moment
The changing of the clocks makes an enormous difference to my enjoyment of the garden. Although the mornings have temporarily descended back into darkness, there is still light in the sky when I...
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10 Easy Flowering Bulbs to Plant For Summer Colour
There are few plants as rewarding and foolproof to grow as those that sprout from bulbs, corms, tubers and rhizomes. Among their number we can count favourites such as gladioli, begonias, lilies,...
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The Late Late April Show
Spring is arriving in slow motion at The Watch House. I’ve been watching a single bud of Narcissus ‘Golden Ducat’ striving to open for ten days, willing it to reveal the acid-yellow petals tightly...
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RHS London Orchid Show & Plant Fair 2018
Orchids are extraordinary flowers. They display remarkable diversity in colour, size and form. Some are scented, some are designed to entrap insects and few, like vanilla (Vanilla planifolia), produce...
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Anything But Magnolia
It’s been a cruel winter for spring flowering shrubs and trees. Today at Trewidden in Cornwall we witnessed the impact of subzero temperatures and six inches of snow on gardens that rarely experience...
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