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…

Green

  Well I thought I had created a monster gallery of pink, but it turns out that Green really has the stage. Again, all photographs from 2015, and pretty much everyone has the name of the plant embedded in the data. Very organised I was then, and how many photos, especially in July, August and…

Kew Gardens, Part One (there will be more tomorrow now I’ve actually booked for the Great Pagoda)

A first look at the newly restored and be-dragoned Great Pagoda. Of course I didn't think to book, so shall be returning tomorrow at 10.30am for that pleasure. I have ascended the Pagoda before, pre-restoration about what, five years ago? But the Dragons are new, 1.8m long on the lower level carved in wood, greatly…

A snapshot from the RHS Gardens at Wisley

With a friend visiting from Melbourne and cool, cloudy weather, an opportunity to explore RHS Wisley and with 20 Plant Societies - Delphiniums and Cacti, Hostas and Bonsai, Pitcher Plants, Heathers, Vegetables, Dahlias and more - no better excuse to spend three hours in these varied landscapes. We explored the Cottage Garden - gorgeous planting,…

More from Petersham House Open Gardens …

A play with the camera first thing this morning, before the crowds, with a few at the end of the day, with the longer shadows. A cycle in along the river this morning and again on the way home, quite delightful. Hundreds of visitors for the gardens, four hundred? five hundred?, enjoying the double borders…

Petersham House Gardens National Garden Scheme Open Day

A little bit of repetition in these images, but I am dithering about editing them and can't decide exactly which I prefer, so you're getting pretty much them all! A beautiful sunshiny spring morning, after a night of stormy electric rain, and everything after the warmth of the last week - and the weeks of…

Winter Beauty at Osterley Park House and Gardens – a star clematis in the Winter Garden, yellow obelisks in the Tudor Garden, miniature horses in the meadow and… Batman

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…

February made me shiver….

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…

Teddington Gardener Review of the Year – March 2014 – Kew and Wisley, The Savill Garden and Petersham Nurseries. Spring advances.

My first March visit to Kew Gardens A purchase of a very brilliant little machine - scarifying and aerating the lawn with ease... My first March visit to Kew Gardens - taking in the Pagoda, Chokushi-mon Japanese Landscape, the Xstrata and some of the arboretum. My first week at Petersham Nurseries, at the beginning of…