Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
Welcome to Petersham Nurseries A Sunday stroll along the Thames and up to Petersham Nurseries (I have written about this extravagant experience before) and I'm drawn back. The catering experience has expanded significantly since my last visit a few months ago, making all the plants and 'hardware' feel more and more like window dressing for…
Continue reading ➞ More is More – Petersham Nurseries revisited
Sharing the marquee with the roses at this year's Hampton Court Flower Show, with a Vintage theme, were these pieces of floral artistry. Each display a quite astonishing piece of craft, beautifully realised and with such imagination. Rocking around the clock Drainpipes, jukebox, brilliant colours and design. I think 'his' shoes are known as 'brothel creepers...'…
Continue reading ➞ Marilyn, Rockers and a comfy chair..
Echinops bannaticus - Blue Globe Thistle A very useful perennial for the sunny border, preferring well-drained soils, where it will produce a tall, broad, branching plant up to 150cm in height. The flower buds are attractive, perfect spheres, steadily opening to reveal blue flowers - creating a globe of colour. A massed effect as seen…
"I'm ready for my close-up" Hannah Gordon Not I might add our favourite Scottish actress, but the weird and slightly alien landscape at the heart of this bi-colour floribunda that I have taken a recent shine to. A clean crystalline white with neatly cherry-red to pink flushing, picotee edge and a wavy ruffling of the…
Continue reading ➞ Hannah Gordon, up close…
A mixed gallery of roses, including English Roses from David Austin, climbers and modern shrubs, Hybrid Teas and floribundas. No curating of images here, just those that caught my eye yesterday. My blog, my rules!
Clematis Beautiful Bride Large white blooms (an early lemon stripe develops into pure white) and very free flowering. Already winning many awards and with such a name (or despite it), I think it will do well. Even the young plants I saw today are crowded with open flowers and long buds. It is a new-ish…
Continue reading ➞ Polish Spirit
More David Austin roses, this time in a novelty circular themed gallery. Not entirely sure about the presentation - hardly Fornasetti - then again it could be developed into a range of tableware? Get me David Austin HQ! Wollerton Old Hall, Morning Mist, Teasing Georgia (l-r, top) Teasing Georgia, Crown Princess Margareta, A Shropshire Lad…
Continue reading ➞ Introducing the circle…
Staying with David Austin Roses for a moment here, with Crown Princess Margareta, introduced in 1999 and why not refer to the RHS Encyclopedia of Roses once more too? "It is sometimes said that David Austin's latest English Roses are very like his earlier ones. Crown Princess Margareta however, shows how consistent has been the…
Continue reading ➞ Crown Princess Margareta
A rose introduced by David Austin in 1996, with sprays of cupped flowers showing off the stamens within. The strong fragrance is sweet and pervasive, a good example of the English myrrh note, first introduced with Constance Spry - referring to Myrrhis odorata and therefore an aniseed complex, a hint of Pernod perhaps? "A neat…
Continue reading ➞ Scepter’d Isle
The Teddington Gardener 