Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
Petersham House opened its gardens last Sunday (part of the National Garden Scheme) and this was my first opportunity to have a look around. I've glimpsed tree and blossom from behind high walls and hedges, and through the iron gates into the Kitchen Garden, but this was more like it! I'll let the photos do…
Continue reading ➞ Petersham House – my first look at the gardens
Violas and wallflowers in a very successful partnership. The viola is Etain, a particularly hardworking plant that will be in flower from spring through to autumn, needing little care other than regular watering and clipping back if it gets too leggy. I shall be copying this next year. Meanwhile, some flamingo pink in the gardens…
Continue reading ➞ and the final few from an April afternoon at RHS Wisley…
The bluebells are out at Wisley, littering the woodland floor with cyan blue - I was thinking just how much it would cost - in time and money - for us gardeners to recreate the scene when Nature seems to manage quite happily by herself. So much of the gardens at Wisley are tended and…
Continue reading ➞ If you go down to the Bluebell woods…
I first saw this rose in a wooded situation at Wisley and it was doing fine. This specimen is out in the open in the new Bowes Lyons Rose Garden, again at Wisley though it is a different beast altogether. While it can happily manage a shady spot, it clearly loves an open sky. A…
Continue reading ➞ Rose Helen Knight
Fields of Blue - Camassia leitchlini at RHS Wisley - with Rhododendrons in the woods there too (below) Primula auricula Blue Velvet - in the Alpine House at RHS Wisley yesterday Wisteria floribunda Yae kokuryu (above) at RHS Wisley - below, Clematis alpina Pamela Jackman (in my garden) If you are planning a blue-themed garden…
Continue reading ➞ Springtime Blues at Wisley… and the rather excellent online RHS Plant Selector
Magnolia Black Tulip Of this particularly beautiful magnolia, one of my favourites - Bred in New Zealand by leading Magnolia breeders, Felix and Mark Jury, Magnolia Black Tulip® is stunning. This woody tree grows well in most climates, tolerating all but the coldest temperatures. It performs best in the sun and enjoys protection from strong…
Continue reading ➞ Magnolia Black Tulip – and Escargots à la Bourguignonne
Aquilegia flabellata var. pumila 'Atlantis' (Dwarf fan-shaped columbine 'Atlantis') A short (30cm) aquilegia with these very appealing bi-coloured blooms, with short spurs and glaucous foliage. I'm much happier with this plant than with the State Series aquilegias I saw last spring - big plants , OK, but flowers on steroids, not for me. I'm sure…
Continue reading ➞ Aquilegia flabellata var. pumila ‘Atlantis’, if you please
Something to brighten up a shady spot in the garden, Epimedium grandiflorum Lilafee Interesting foliage, bright amethyst flowers held above fresh bronze leaves, a plant happy in shade, dry shade even, and under tree canopies - a recent (2012) introduction and sure to be a winner. The flowers are not showy or show-stopping, like the…
Continue reading ➞ Finally! Something Not a tulip – Epimedium grandiflorum ‘Lilafee’
Fritillaria persica (above) Camassia (below) Reminding me that it is still officially Spring - a golden display of narcissus and below, another softly-shaded tulip. I must ask for the name. (above) The flower buds from the Isaac Newton Apple Tree (see earlier post) and (below) the goblet-bloom of Magnolia soulangeana The Regal Pelargoniums have arrived,…
The Teddington Gardener 