A guide to spring-flowering bulbs in the garden – planting ideas from January to May in kaleidoscopic style

  Bulbs in the spring garden. The text and images are timely in this piece, looking through the late winter and spring months January through to May, though it was originally written for a September story when the bulbs and corms would be available for planting. There are practical tips and hints planting of course,…

Remembrance of An East Sussex Odyssey and the jewel in the crown, Great Dixter (2018)

  An impossibly bright day, just like today, but taking us back two years to 2018 and a late spring coming back after the Beast from the East chilled (froze) the country over several weeks. Too bright for really good photography but a pleasure to remember. Enjoy. Well this time I'll let the pictures do…

A rainy day at Wisley, well it was in 2016 – there’s Cherry, Camellia, Rhododendron, Magnolia & more…

An exceptionally damp day, last Friday, at RHS Wisley in Surrey but undeterred was I, with my Driza-bone coat, wide-brimmed hat, umbrella and camera - it was business as usual ... Much opportunity for photography with ornamental cherries and Magnolias in blossom and looking fine; Camellias dotted throughout Battleston Hill and Seven-acre Wood; likewise some…

A view from Kew past, this day 2017 – a blossomtastic Spring morning in these Royally Botanic Gardens

It certainly pays to make an early start, especially on such a bright and beautiful morning - and even more so when school holidays are upon us and Kew Gardens becomes a beautiful flower-filled playground and a great spot for a family picnic. For someone as bah-humbug as I about having unpopulated pictures - flowers…

Colour on a dull day, just not today: A banquet-kaleidoscope-smorgasbord-gallimaufry of early Spring colour and scent … (or Where’s Thug?)

  Another look through the Teddington Gardener Archives, mid-March 2016, and as the title says, a jumble of images, woodland and glasshouse, Wisley and Kew and a welcome reminder of Thug, the Petersham Cat, still missed.   Ah, well, you've got me - one huge gallery of images and barely a note to cover the…

Memories (2015) A storm of magnolias at RHS Wisley makes Battleston Hill quite magical… @RHSWisley #MagnoliaWatch #SpringAtWisley

Magnolia sprengeri Copeland Court, one of a bounteous display of Magnolias threading their way through the landscape of Battleston Hill at RHS Wisley. A look back to the end of March 2015 and a riot of colour on the banks of Battleston Hill. Such a pity they are blooming for the very few this year…

Camellias, mostly – a beautifully colourful tour through the woodland landscapes at RHS Wisley – another stroll down memory lane

  Another stroll down memory lane given that these gardens, like most across the country, are closed while Covid-19 runs amok. This time, almost exactly two years ago. Definitely no 'crowds upon crowds' now or any time soon. I promise to limit my re-posts, though with cherry blossom time really just around the corner, and…

A return to Penshurst Place and Gardens, Kent – and this time we definitely have peonies ….

A return, after a years' absence, to the walled gardens at Penshurst Place in Kent. This time around, the famed 100m long peony border was looking fine, colourful and fragrant, growing lush and up through the wire grid, and with a long way to go before it will run out of steam. With the rain…

Kew Gardens – the Woodland Gardens providing welcome shade, dappled and deep and a rich tapestry of leaf, flower & fragrance

A reprisals of a piece from June 2015 at Kew Gardens, as I am hosting a Shade-themed workshop today and have rescheduled several pieces to fill out the subject and which will form the basis of my updated notes. A talk on the beauty and possibilities of gardening in the shade - indeed on a…