Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
Dicksonia antarctica (tree fern) - a dramatic addition to any shady garden, creating an umbrella of very large, feathery, bright green fronds, measuring up to 3m long, turning dark green as they age. A fibrous, rough, hairy-mossy trunk though, as the plant is slow-growing, you will have to pay significantly for if you want…
Continue reading ➞ Highgrove here I come… more tree ferns please
From the Telegraph, 27th April 2002, an article reproduced in full, written by Ursula Buchan. What can I say, I have dinner to make (the photographs are mine at least). How to grow: Gentiana Ursula Buchan's guide to the queen of all alpine plants Gentiana verna: exhilarates the heart and mind MENTION the word "gentian"…
Continue reading ➞ Gentian verna
A rather beautiful flower, stained pink on the reverse against pure white, and with golden-yellow anthers, blooming in late spring and followed by woolly seed heads. Dark green, maple like foliage, lobed and slightly hairy beneath, on a plant that reaches between 30-50cm. Well drained soil in sun or part shade, slightly alkaline conditions are…
Continue reading ➞ Anemone sylvestris
A rather lovely (that word again!) spring-flowering plant with shallow bowl-shaped flowers in shades of red, blue-violet and white and as here, painterly - in two tones - appearing from March to April above the deeply divided, fresh green leaves. These pretty poppy-flowered anemones make charming cut flowers. Ideal for a sheltered, sunny site.
Buttercup, Etain and Rebecca. Delightful creatures and fragrant, especially the clear strong yellow Buttercup.
The first rose in my garden to flower, this delightful Rosa chinensis Mutabilis. This variety rivals 'Old Blush China' for its excellence as a garden shrub. Its pointed copper-flame buds open to single copper-yellow flowers of butterfly daintiness, soon turning to pink and finally almost crimson. Given a warm sheltered position near a wall it will…
Continue reading ➞ Rosa Mutabilis
All my la-di-da with photographs and tours around botanic gardens... I'm scrubbing the composted manure from beneath my fingernails this evening! Some time in the garden for a family with a couple of Big Birthday celebrations coming up and a little TLC on their front-garden-front needed. I've already planted out the garden at the back…
Continue reading ➞ A garden re-fresh, Duchess of Cornwall, English Roses and Other Plants
A rather lovely form of knapweed, Centaurea montana Amethyst on Ice, with contrasting inner, and longer, outer florets. Perennial cornflowers prefer sun, poorer soils and good drainage, lime too. I'm looking forward to seeing an all 'black' flowered form, the name of which entirely escapes me at the moment....
Gales and driving rain. It won't be good for the cherry blossom. In parks, on pavements and roads - a knee-deep lava flow of tissue-thin pink and white petals. I know Cherry Blossom Time is an ephemeral display, but does it have to be blasted off the branches. So soon? Oh well, what's next?
The Teddington Gardener 