Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
Like I said, an Inventory ... The Victorian Walled Garden The Victorian Walled Garden is a formal garden made up of three circular borders, which diminish in width towards the centre. They are planted with English Roses and other repeat-flowering shrub roses. The focal point of the garden is the large central stone carving. Visitors can…
Continue reading ➞ Postcards from Shropshire – Seconds from David Austin Roses
A first look at the Long Garden, mostly, at the eponymous gardens at Albrighton - just a short drive from our base near Shrewsbury and a beautiful, inspirational stop-over on our way to Woodstock. I realised of course today that I have effectively inventories the gardens, as I might once have done to a flat…
Continue reading ➞ Postcards from Shropshire – a first gallery from David Austin Roses at Albrighton
If like me you have rejoiced in the fact that the gardens at RHS Wisley have reopened, but chagrinned that the timed visitor slots are booked solid though to the middle of July, a little public service blogging here, reprising a trip to the gardens exactly a year ago. You needn't miss all the…
Continue reading ➞ RHS Wisley – woodlanders, rock gardens and alpines, many roses and more …
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…
Continue reading ➞ Mottisfont Rose Gardens, June 2018
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,…
Continue reading ➞ A few scribblings on creating a White Garden
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 …
The weather has been decidedly un-summery these past few days and further North, it is set to be one of the wettest on record. Us softy Southerners, by geography if not by birth, have it a little brighter but still, dank, damp, humid and overcast. Still, I wanted to see the new retail space and…
Bee Mindful/Planting for honeybees and beneficial pollinators These are some of my notes for a day-long workshop taking place at Petersham Nurseries today, focusing as we have all month on the honeybee, bee-keeping, planting for bees, honey tasting and fermenting and styling with fresh flowers. And lunch, let's not forget that important little bit, and…
Continue reading ➞ Planting for Honey Bees and other pollinators ….
The Gardens at David Austin Roses, Albrigton, Shropshire They may have been battered by the rains but how beautiful are these gardens still! A veritable riot of colour, in beds and borders, along paths and clothing walls and clambering up and over pillars. Every conceivable space is festooned. Walls have climbers and ramblers flowering from…
