Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
So much colour exploding in our gardens now that winter is loosening its grip and Spring is given a chance - longer days, some sunshine but still chill nights and cool temperatures yet ... the sap is rising, buds are bursting into leaf and blossom and the woodland floor is a bright mosaic of primroses,…
Continue reading ➞ A kaleidoscope of colour, coming to a garden near you…
The Chokushi-mon and Japanese Landscape at Kew Gardens today Chaenomeles speciosa adding some bright scarlet highlights to the many greens of the Japanese Landscape. Iris unguicularis elsewhere adds bright blue elsewhere in the scheme. Green, however, is the unifying theme. Prunus cerasifera is one of the first trees to come into blossom - you might…
Continue reading ➞ A gander at some star attractions at Kew Gardens today
Pure white crocus, streaked with lilac and tufts if egg-yolk-gold Narcissus Jetfire, a strong sturdy, early narcissus, excellent for naturalising in grass. Primroses coming to the party now too - all manner of colours but I always revert to these more natural tones, if not the original species. Coronilla valentina glauca Citrina - compact evergreen…
Continue reading ➞ White, yellow, pink – three colours Spring
The Osterley Park estate, including Robert Adam House, formal gardens, parkland and extensive farmland, is rather a surprise, a great swathe of greenery within the urban sprawl of Hounslow, airplanes cutting across the skies from nearby Heathrow. It is one of the last remaining 'country estates' in London and under the care of the National…
A light dusting of snow in the woods around Ham, though at home in Teddington there was enough for a serious game of snowballs between the children heading to school. (below) The churchyard at St. Peter's Church by Petersham Nurseries. While the Cutting Garden, while not exactly deep and crisp and even, had a wintery…
Continue reading ➞ What did I say about February? Tricky already…. A Snow/No Snow day
I am dreaming of Spring, mostly. There is a great deal to admire in February so I worry that we might wish the month away without appreciating what is looking - or giving - its best right now, or the quiet simplicity of our gardens stripped bare of all of the spring and summer fireworks…
Continue reading ➞ February made me shiver….
I am blessed with the scent of this beautiful plant - drifting across the nursery and Siren-like, it calls to me so that I can breathe in more of this delicious fragrance. Sweet, honeyed, hints of lily and jasmine, citrus, intense but not cloying. Fleeting too on the breeze, caught and then lost again. I…
Hellebore Harvington Hybrid Rebekah at the Plant Centre, RHS Wisley, today. and another variety also looking rather superb today on my travels, Walberton's Rosemary But let's not rest on our laurels - there are rather more than two hellebores to tempt, delight and enrapture.... Here's a complete catalogue of the Hellebores on sale at RHS…
Hellebores are heading your way - these are from the Hellebore Gold Collection, varieties of Hellebore niger (flowering early in the season) and hybrids, flowering now and into early Spring. Plenty of information, from the breeders and nurserymen, on these excellent garden plants in the Dutch website noted below - which should keep you occupied…
Continue reading ➞ Hellebore Gold Collection – heralds of the Hellebore Season
The Teddington Gardener 