More thieving from my back catalogue of articles, this one doubly so since it originally featured in September a few years ago, featuring images taken from 2014 onwards - and repeated again in April of this year. But spring-flowering bulbs are available now so this time of year is probably the most useful as bulbs can be…
Cottage Garden
It’s all going Vincent van Gogh – Sunflowers on trial at RHS Wisley
More from the Trial Fields at RHS Wisley, time-travelling back five years but a sight that still sticks in the memory. Such variety in height, flower size, colour, texture and bringing out the child in every one of us who ever grew them and watched them tower above us with delight. So, 2015 it is…
Continue reading ➞ It’s all going Vincent van Gogh – Sunflowers on trial at RHS Wisley
An Afternoon at RHS Wisley – the Double Herbaceous Borders, Cottage and Jubilee Rose Gardens, a touch of woodland and more …
Another - sigh -trip down memory lane though I have booked our timed visit for mid-July and hope the gardens might look something like this, from a visit a year or three ago. Always something to admire, some combination of plants, a design feature, something new you might not have seen before. And such…
Postcards from Sussex – the extraordinary Arundel Castle and Gardens
To prevent a general revolt over a daily onslaught of postcards from June 2017, you'll be glad yo note I've left out at least four more galleries from David Austin Roses in Shropshire, the delightful Chastleton House and a mooch around Woodstock and Blenheim Palace. For the not so feint-hearted, please search for stories…
Continue reading ➞ Postcards from Sussex – the extraordinary Arundel Castle and Gardens
Mottisfont Rose Gardens, June 2018
June 2018 visiting Mottisfont with a fellow rose-lover. A day of laughter and fun. Overblown, blowsy, beautiful, fragrant, lush, a little ragged, absolutely in need of some serious dead-heading - but equally glamorous and hopelessly romantic, there are no rose gardens quite like Mottisfont. Soulful, they inhabit the walled gardens of this ancient priory, clambering…
A guide to spring-flowering bulbs in the garden – planting ideas from January to May in kaleidoscopic style
Bulbs in the spring garden. The text and images are timely in this piece, looking through the late winter and spring months January through to May, though it was originally written for a September story when the bulbs and corms would be available for planting. There are practical tips and hints planting of course,…
Remembrance of An East Sussex Odyssey and the jewel in the crown, Great Dixter (2018)
An impossibly bright day, just like today, but taking us back two years to 2018 and a late spring coming back after the Beast from the East chilled (froze) the country over several weeks. Too bright for really good photography but a pleasure to remember. Enjoy. Well this time I'll let the pictures do…
A Grand Day Out (it was in 2018) – Part 2 – King John’s Nursery and Gardens, East Sussex
A second stop in my East Sussex odyssey, having been to Pashley Manor Gardens and now calling in at this very peaceful nurseries and gardens, King John's. A quirky nursery and plant centre, with a delightful cafe and a beautiful garden surrounding the adjacent house. A wild orchard garden, large lawns, canal, woodland garden, statuary…
Roses, what else? Two new arrivals but many obituaries …
Lady Emma Hamilton Familiar readers of these pages, and anyone who has met me to talk about roses, will know how much I admire the roses from the stable of David Austin in Shropshire, and I am looking forward to seeing Silas Marner and The Country Parson, new introductions to be showcased at Chelsea this…
Continue reading ➞ Roses, what else? Two new arrivals but many obituaries …