A few days …. all manner of early autumn – should I say late summer despite the current chill Bank Holiday weekend ahead? – herbaceous-ness, roses, dahlias, sunflower, more herbaceous perennials, heuchera and Solenostemon (finishing up with Crinkly Bottom….). 2015 here we come …

  Once more wandering through the archives of garden-visiting, photography and plant inspecting - at RHS Wisley right at the beginning of September in 2015 (four days hence and five years back). These gardens are not entirely the same now, in design, layout and content (what garden is?) but suspect that many of the plants…

Kew Gardens – a look back in anticipation of looking forward to a visit soon …

  A look back to a visit in early August 2018 when the Pagoda was reopening after a refurbishment and the installation of the dragons. If you want a look inside the pagoda, or a look at the landscape from its heights, you can use tags or search functions. The gardens are open again after…

A few scribblings on creating a White Garden

  Creating a White Garden Straight out of the block, I'm talking about green. And grey, silver, and variegation. We'll get to white but a few thoughts first. ‘Green is the backdrop to the garden but in its range of shades and textures, green has much more to offer as any foreground interest. Grey dims,…

Stylish late – late summer containers

I hosted a workshop a few weeks ago now, at Petersham Nurseries, with the title of 'Stylish late-summer containers. I promised the guests that I would create some notes and have been very tardy I doing so. I hope to remedy this here, jotting down a few of the points we covered, and details of…

White

Every shade of white .... no need for a white garden to be sterile, with coolness and warmth, blushes of yellow and pink, blue and lime. Keep the palette calm, with grey and silver foliage, add some soft yellows, blue-greys, to keep the colour scheme less static. Vary the shape, foliage, horizontals and verticals, for…

15 Favourites – Garden Plants

At Petersham Nurseries, we are planning our 15th Anniversary this month of May, celebrating the past decade and a half under the stewardship of the Boglione family and the development of the Nurseries and the expert team behind its horticultural reputation. We are choosing 15 favourites, roses of course, garden plants and houseplants, (for we…

A late-September taste of the gardens at RHS Wisley

A mid-week, late morning, late September tour of the RHS Gardens at Wisley. Blue skies peppered liberally with white clouds (today was a brighter, warmer clearer-skies day than yesterday, but probably overbright for my photographic skills so here we are ...) It is still quite definitely late summer, rather than full-on Autumn. Very few of…

Purple

May I refer you to Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple Sometimes more blue, or lilac, lavender, rose, red, but a not pure blue, or pink depending on which is closest, a varied palette - cool, rich, and elegant tones.  Thug, the Petersham Cat, rounding up proceedings. I rest my case ...

Pink

  Pink, by far the biggest gallery with more photos to choose from than with the others, orange, yellow, blue and white. All images taken in 2015, though concentrating on the summer and through until September. I had to stop somewhere. Hellebores early on, and a little Cherry blossom, though i could have majored on…