Cobaea scandens – the cup and saucer vine with an eye on world domination

Cobaea scandens - the cup and saucer vine - is more commonly found with creamy-green-to-rich purple-fading-to-pale-lavender flowers though also in a ghostly white. Tender here in the UK, it is grown as an annual though these examples, in the Cutting Garden at Petersham Nurseries, survived through the mild and wet winter and continued to grow…

Autumn Rose Care….

The David Austin rose, Constance Spry, here, winding and spiralling around some birch posts forming a substantial wigwam/obelisk in the Cutting Garden at Petersham Nurseries. Looking forward to my rose-themed workshop tomorrow and hoping that the rain will have rained all it can overnight. A little sunshine would be very welcome!

Five pictures to brighten a wet Monday… cosmos, sunflowers, violas, zinnias in orbit – and Thug, the Petersham Cat….

The cosmos are still floating around at head height, self-supporting and with ferny-filmy foliage - they have just kept on going and going this season with more to come... Likewise the sunflowers have had a great season, though their flower power is slowing down and much seed is being set. The zinnias, another late season…

Practical Classes in Rose Pruning

Already halfway through here - I began yesterday afternoon but didn't have my camera with me, so the full extent of the transformation will be a little understated. This rose, which we believe is Olivia Stone, a Harkness rose, was a towering thing, flowering at 8' to 10', more even, and a dense thicket of…

Magical Mushrooms and other Autumn delights with Claudio Bincoletto

Claudio Bincoletto hosted another Wild Food Forage today at Petersham Nurseries and I peeped at the preparations in the glasshouse before the group returned from their walk this morning. Mushrooms galore - and I'm glad that Claudio knows his stuff as there were some curious looking fungi on display - plus fruits and berries of…

Who do you think you are? Dahlias named and famed…

This time with very useful labels, and an extended range from Petersham Nurseries, including those growing both the Cutting Garden and the House Kitchen Garden. Love them all....!

Dahlias for a Petersham Nurseries Cutting Garden

The Gardening Team were cataloging the dahlias in the Cutting Garden at Petersham Nurseries this afternoon, checking the names and labels, reviewing their present partnerships and considering combinations for next year. Of course I happened along with my camera. Thank you Rosanna Bines and the Gardening Team at Petersham for a superb - and ongoing…