The gates open at 11am sharp and I'm the first to hand in my Shilling token (the price Vita originally charged visitors) to the helpful attendants and I'm flying through, skirting the lawns in front of the Tower and into the woodland Delos garden, before hitting the White Garden (bare bones at this time of…
Open to the public
The best of the rest from RHS Wisley; a grand Stachyurus, a great Edgworthia chrysantha Grandiflora and a huge Fuji Cherry, Corylopsis (2), many Corydalis and Camellias and other Woodland Stars plus the Plant Centre (see the Fritillaria meleagris & persica Ivory Bells) …! @RHSWisley #Wisley #SpringAtWisley
Stachyurus chinensis, a beautiful golden rain next to the House at RHS Wisley, looking across to the Lily Pond, past the King and Queen.. An exceptional specimen this, spicily fragrant and with larger flowers than the common-or-garden variety - there is one Ordinary specimen next to the Stachyurus pictured above that is going over now,…
Magnolias – A grand display at Kew …. @kewgardens #springatkew #magnoliawatch
Magnolia campbellii (above and below) A chill hour spent in Kew Gardens but mightily impressed with the Magnolias - all I went to see and I confess I was not optimistic about seeing so much in flower, a delightfully grand show. Such a glorious sugar confection of pinks and white! I had been thinking we…
Continue reading ➞ Magnolias – A grand display at Kew …. @kewgardens #springatkew #magnoliawatch
The Savill Garden, fragrant, fizzing with colour and all set for Spring
Rhododendrons like this amazing Choremia Tower Court, blazing in the sunshine this afternoon in The Savill Garden within the greater Windsor Great Park - made this a fine choice for a walk, through these extensive gardens before exploring further into The Royal Landscape to search out the Jubilee Horse and the Copper Horse, with views…
Continue reading ➞ The Savill Garden, fragrant, fizzing with colour and all set for Spring
Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome! Here life is beautiful. Even the orchids are beautiful…. The view from Kew.
Such a cold wet blustery day - outside - but inside the Princess of Wales Conservatory at Kew this afternoon, life is indeed Beautiful. Especially the orchestra Orchids! The annual orchid festival - Alluring Orchids - started last weekend and goes on until March. It is a riot of colour. Some of these huge displays…
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…
If you go down to the woods today (Part 2) – Hellebores, Camellias and more at RHS Wisley
Hellebores running wild in the woods of Battleston Hill at RHS Wisley. I have an inkling that these are just a little wild, I have never seen any them labelled (and pretty much everything else thereabouts is name-plated). There will be more of them in due course, these are the vanguard of a great swathe…
If you go down to the woods today (reprise) – Scented Witch Hazels, Daphne & Sarcococca, Edgeworthia too at RHS Wisley
You are met, as soon as you walk into the gardens at RHS Wisley, by the seductive scent of Sarcococca, the Winter Box, in this case with pure white threadlike flowers on arching stems, set against deep green leaves. It is a fragrance that carries on the wind, a siren-call to the few pollinators out…
Standen – A meeting with some Remarkable Espalier Apple Trees
I visited Standen at the beginning of April 2013 and took these photographs then. March, as I recall, had been a frozen tundra of a month with temperatures barely reaching about freezing day or night. The first daffodils were only just coming through, so different to the early Spring enjoyed last year. I am minded…
Continue reading ➞ Standen – A meeting with some Remarkable Espalier Apple Trees









