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Duty
I have been particularly dutiful this week, even if I do say myself. I began the week in Cornwall, entertaining my beautiful, happy, intelligent niece. As duties go, this was an absolute joy. Martha...
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Daily Flower Candy: Iris reticulata ‘Blue Note’
I adore irises. Their blooms recall the style and elegance of days gone by and appear throughout the spring and summer, starting in early February. After last year’s RHS London Plant and Design Show I...
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Daily Flower Candy: Primula vulgaris ‘Taigetos’
I do so love it when a plant utterly defies the wrong situation and flourishes, when really it should turn and fail. In our London garden we count on such miracles, as the conditions we can offer are...
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Portrait of a Lady: Iris histrioides ‘Lady Beatrix Stanley’
Spring arrived in earnest today, with temperatures reaching a balmy 16 degrees in the sunshine. The mercury has not been that high since October and one could almost hear the sap starting to rise...
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Daily Flower Candy: Dutch Crocus (Crocus vernus)
The groundflame of the crocus breaks the mould, Fair Spring slides hither o’er the Southern sea, Wavers on her thin stem the snowdrop cold That trembles not to kisses of the bee: Come Spring, for now...
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Daily Flower Candy: Iris reticulata ‘Sheila Ann Germaney’
For two years in a row I have waxed lyrical about Iris ‘Katherine Hodgkin’, a reticulated hybrid with bleached denim-blue flowers that remind me of the ghastly jeans I cherished in the 80s. This year,...
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Chelsea Physic Garden – Nick Bailey’s ‘Best in Snow’
Early in February I went along to the Chelsea Physic Garden for one of their annual snowdrop days. I was lucky enough to bag a ticket for head gardener Nick Bailey’s ‘Best in Snow’ walk, where he...
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Daily Flower Candy: Canarina canariensis
Regular readers may already have noticed that I am sucker for a subtropical plant. On a cold Sunday in February, whilst visiting London’s Chelsea Physic Garden, I found myself drawn in by the the...
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Daffodil Week: Symbols of Easter
Happy Easter one and all! For the whole of Easter week I will be writing about the most lauded of spring flowers, the daffodil. Spring is dragging its feet, which means many daffodils are still in fine...
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Daily Flower Candy: Smyrnium olusatrum
We have much to thank the Romans for – libraries, hot baths, straight roads, aqueducts and stinging nettles among them – but over time we have forgotten the delights of Smyrnium olusatrum, otherwise...
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Daily Flower Candy: Narcissus ‘Toto’ AGM
When I set out to post daily on the subject of daffodils, little did I know how distracting this week’s almost perfect gardening weather would be. The opportunity to spend two unbroken days outside...
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Daffodil Week: Going Public
Nothing is more cheering on a sunny spring day than a broad swathe of daffodils emerging from lengthening grass, or a delicate cloud of cherry blossom hovering in the air. Driving out of Canterbury...
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Turning Point
The flowering of the magnolia marks a turning point in our London garden. It’s a fleeting moment, the petals falling just as they appear to be reaching their prime, but it’s a magical moment all the...
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Wildflowers of Cornwall
Clockwise from top left: herb robert (Geranium robertianum); hart’s tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium); lesser celandine (Ranunculus ficaria); Alexanders / wild celery (Smyrnium olusatrum); common...
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Wonder Walls
Cornish hedges are a defining part of the landscape on Britain’s most south-westerly peninsula. From a wildlife point of view they are like Noah’s ark, supporting hundreds of species that might...
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In Search of Captain Poldark
If, like me, you have been seduced by the BBC’s panoramic revival of Winston Graham’s Poldark saga, you will probably have developed certain urges. They might very well relate to the handsome,...
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Enchanted April
It really has been the most remarkable April. So far not a single drop of rain has fallen on either of our gardens and, although night temperatures have hovered just above freezing, the days have been...
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Spring Flower Candy: Pleione formosana
I will be devoting a post to a different spring flower each day this week, and they don’t come much more special than Pleione formosana. I had always presumed these to be tricky customers, reserved for...
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Spring Flower Candy: Prunus spinosa
I’ll admit I am a little overdue with this one, but 2015 has been one of the latest I can recall for blackthorn blossom (the flowers of Prunus spinosa). In a normal year there could be a clear month...
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Spring Flower Candy: Disporum megalanthum
Our London garden offers few plants their perfect conditions – no surprise when you consider it was once no more than a shady patch of shattered Tarmac with subsoil dumped on top. And yet so many...
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