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…
Dahlia Mingus AlexA classic deep dark red Dahlia, Mingus Alex, with strong sturdy stems and growing to a respectable and practical 1m in height. I ordered (I might have said) a few dozen dahlias from Rose Cottage Plants last year, rather forgetting that my own garden is considerably less than the couple of acres I…
Continue reading ➞ If I must have just one dahlia…
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
Clematis alpina Blue Dancer, with these larger than average, very attractive blue flowers, giving us a second flush of flowers this week (the main show is in April/May). A foray into the back issue of The Telegraph now, for an article written by Val Bourne, which, whilst it does not mention Blue Dancer at all…
Continue reading ➞ Clematis alpina Blue Dancer….
Pansy Beacon Blue Such intense colours, on a plant that could go on flowering right through until next spring - unfazed by much that a typical winter can throw at it. Deadhead regularly keep in a sunny spot (but remember they don't like too much heat) trim back if the plant gets too leggy watch…
Continue reading ➞ Blue Lagoons
I'm going straight to Carol Klein here, writing in The Telegraph on 28th September 2002. This beautiful plant was a classic then, and for 150 years before that, and so it remains. How to grow: Anemone 'Honorine Jobert' Carol Klein on the unexpected joy of these classy white flowers that shine in the shade Anemone…
Continue reading ➞ A classic – Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’
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
The Teddington Gardener 