Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
Liquidambar styraciflua My feet take me, every autumn, to a small stand of liquidambars in the arboretum at RHS Wisley, trees which vie with the Japanese Maple for the bonfire colours they take on as the weather cools and the sun heads south. The yellow leaves are a fastigiate (slender, columnar, narrow) cultivar called Kirsten…
Continue reading ➞ Like a Maple, but not a Maple….
A tree...this really is a beautiful specimen - at RHS Wisley, in the area behind the Bowes Lyon Rose Garden, that, earlier in the season, would be carpeted with spring flowering crocus. Gorgeous elongated leaves, with a twist, and in a Joseph's Coat of autumn colour. With colchicums at the base, the Autumn crocus. Symmetry.…
Continue reading ➞ Tetradium glabrifolium var glaucum. So there!
Tricyrtis macropoda (of the lily family) The Toad Lilies, so-called because of their spotted flowers, are sound perennials, preferring a soil that does not dry out, and containing a good stint of humus. They do well in the north, but the cooler the district the more sun should be available to them, to hasten their…
These galleries are almost all hydrangeas with big, cone-shaped flower-heads, (paniculata), rather than rounded mop-heads (though I have included Nymphe in the galleries) - and one oak-leaved hydrangea (with distinctive leaf shape and excellent autumn colour). They have all been photographed on the slopes of Battleston Hill in the gardens of RHS Wisley, where they…
Continue reading ➞ Happy Hydrangeas
Sissinghurst, now owned by the National Trust, the former home and exceptional gardens of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson From 'The Gardens of England and Ireland' by Patrick Taylor The garden at Sissinghurst, famous as it is, has become for many people more an idea, a myth, than reality. Yet to visit the garden (especially when it…
Continue reading ➞ Late summer at Sissinghurst
The Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire An extraordinary garden containing probably the finest Winter Garden in the UK and not looking too shabby late summer either. Few gardens offer as rich pickings as these, growing over 11,000 different types of plant, in over 40,000 plants and holding 13 National Plant Collections, set in a complementary…
Continue reading ➞ A garden for all seasons
Russian Sage - Perovskia atriplicifolia Little Spire I'm quoting from Graham Stuart Thomas' book, Perennial Garden Plants and I think he is a fan. Ardent sun-lovers for well-drained soil. In shade they will flower but tend to sprawl. Though truly shrubs they are best cut to the ground every spring to encourage strong shoots and…
Continue reading ➞ Blue Spires
Chartwell, Kent. The Family Home of Winston Churchill A late-in-the-day decision to visit Chartwell (getting the best value from the National Trust annual membership), the family home of Winston Spencer Churchill. Presented very much as it was when it was their family home, with gardens that Winston had a great deal to do with -…
Continue reading ➞ Chartwell and Winston Churchill
Hailing from the hills of Honduras/Eastern Guatamala, Passiflora citrina is a delightful form of passionflower, found growing in moist pinewoods. A beautiful free-flowering plant which may be in bloom 10 months of the year. Pollinated by hummingbirds, if you have one about your person. The leaves are very distinct, paddle shaped and quite a lot…
Continue reading ➞ Passiflora citrina
The Teddington Gardener 