Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
There are five acres of orchards at Waterperry, dating back to Miss Havergal's School of Horticulture, holding a collection of more than 60 different varieties of apple, including more unusual types like Ashmead's Kernel, Orleans Reinette and Kidd's Orange, as well as old favourites like Egremont Russet. Plums and pears are also here - Marjorie's…
Continue reading ➞ Waterperry Gardens – a gnome and a rather fabulous Family Apple Tree…
Cenolophium denudatum (above)
Designed by nurseryman Alan Bloom in 1968, the island beds were an innovation on the traditional idea of herbaceous borders, in that the beds are of an informal shape with planting viewed from all sides. Being able to walk through the heart of these displays is a real treat and there is nothing at all…
The Formal Garden is a relatively recent addition, conceived in 1986, though based on a Tudor knot garden, with the addition of a blue and white Wisteria tunnel and this sculpture by Nathan David, 'Girl holding the Lamp of Wisdom'.
Waterperry Gardens has been on my radar for a long time now, but this is my first visit - a perfect break in the drive home from Stoneleigh Park near Coventry and a few hours at the Horticultural Trades Association Plant Show (the best of the plant nurseries from throughout the UK showcasing their wares…
Continue reading ➞ Waterperry Gardens, near Oxford – first up, a glorious 60m herbaceous border…
Rosa Complicata It is the white centre and yellow stamens which give the rose Complicata its brilliance, enhancing the already vivid clear pink. It is sometimes called Rosa gallica 'Complicata', but while the Gallica rose is almost certainly in its parentage, it is a rose of unknown origin. Old, flowering wood should be cleared…
Continue reading ➞ More from Mottisfont – a glorious catalogue of very classy Old Roses
Digitalis (Foxgloves) providing some excitement in these displays - as it does in the garden - with more spires and spikes provided by Salvia Caradonna and, just coming into flower, Aconitum napellus in white. Ceanothus (Californian Lilac) adds more blue to the mix, with bright orange bringing the scheme to life - this is Geum…
A jaunt around the Duke's Garden at Kew - the Arum Lilies in the last entry are to be found here, in some shade and immensely happy. As indeed are all the herbaceous plantings here. I remember the searing quality of the Hemerocallis Burning Daylight - brighter even than the Geums here and in great…
Continue reading ➞ Delighting in the Duke’s Garden at Kew
The Teddington Gardener 