Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
Four completely unrelated plants, though all catching my eye yesterday and each of considerable merit. Clematis alpina Diamond Anniversary, with creamy white tepals backed with a gentle webbed shading of pale purple. Early flowering, growing to 2m. A mediterranean spurge, Euphorbia Black Pearl, a compact form of Euphorbia characias, with black nectaries giving the plant…
Continue reading ➞ Pinks, lime and black… and a Musical
I had hoped to get down to the Hillier Gardens this week, or at least to RHS Wisley but time seemed to be against me. And then I remembered that my annual membership to the Romsey garden also includes entry to Kew, which I happened to be passing, (after spending a couple of hours in…
Continue reading ➞ Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (Magnolia storm)
Beware, not for the average garden! The Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) is a large tree. Many trees planted in the late 1940's are now over 100 ft tall, 25 ft wide. Rather optimistically I have this specimen in a large pot as I like the bright foliage so much but I know that it will…
Continue reading ➞ Dawn Redwood ‘Gold Rush’
It is almost tulip time, given the speed at which spring seems to be accelerating just now. Magnolia blossom has exploded in our gardens and cherry blossom isn't far behind. I planted up 15 litre containers last autumn with Red Apeldoorn, bright-pink Barcelona, lily- flowered-bright-orange Ballerina, sultry-dark- plum Ronaldo, tall-red Doll's Minuet, white-becoming-intensely violet-purple Shirley's…
Continue reading ➞ Bold & Brilliant
Pieris formosa var forrestii 'Forest Flame'. "One of the most beautiful of all Pieris species, with electric-red new growth that literally stops people in their tracks " (Micheal Dirr, from his encyclopedia on Trees and Shrubs, and no argument from me!). "The new growth transitions from red to cream and then to green and any…
Continue reading ➞ Forest Flames
Back with the Pasque Flower here, this time a cultivar, Red Clock, with large cherry-red flower on typically silky-hairy stems. Fine plants, with emerging buds galore. But enough with the words, enjoy the pictures!
Shaun is an auricula, a primrose, and I turn to a book I picked up recently, The Gardeners' Enquire Within, Jubilee Souvenir 1930, Editor A J Macself, (Editor of Amateur Gardening), for details of this Florists' Flower, for that is what an auricula is, a Florists' Flower. This term really has no connection with the…
Continue reading ➞ Meet Shaun…
A rather lovely bulbous plant, Muscari latifolium, where the lati or latus means wide, as in the 'wide leaved grape hyacinth' - it develops just the one wide leaf, quite tulip like in fact. Happiest in full sun though tolerant of some light shade and do keep it from being wet in winter. The fertile,…
Continue reading ➞ Muscari latifolium (grape hyacinth)
A very recent post has an elegant bud of this particular Magnolia, Black Tulip, just beginning to break, but with little sign that it would develop into these great blossoms, many inches across. Time to get back to RHS Wisley, where this photograph was taken in 2010, for an update on this particular specimen.
The Teddington Gardener 