Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
A rather beautiful flower, stained pink on the reverse against pure white, and with golden-yellow anthers, blooming in late spring and followed by woolly seed heads. Dark green, maple like foliage, lobed and slightly hairy beneath, on a plant that reaches between 30-50cm. Well drained soil in sun or part shade, slightly alkaline conditions are…
Continue reading ➞ Anemone sylvestris
A rather lovely (that word again!) spring-flowering plant with shallow bowl-shaped flowers in shades of red, blue-violet and white and as here, painterly - in two tones - appearing from March to April above the deeply divided, fresh green leaves. These pretty poppy-flowered anemones make charming cut flowers. Ideal for a sheltered, sunny site.
Buttercup, Etain and Rebecca. Delightful creatures and fragrant, especially the clear strong yellow Buttercup.
With lovely short spikes of blue-violet blooms and low mounds of highly serrated foliage, this fern-like plant is going to be great for use in containers, front-of-border spots and path edging. It was bred in the US by Washington plantswoman Christy Hensler by crossing Veronica ‘Crater Lake Blue’ with Veronica prostrata. Foliage reaches a manageable 6-9…
Continue reading ➞ Veronica ‘Christy’
A rather wonderful, cushion-mound of mossy evergreen foliage, Saxifrage 'Pixie Rose', is a miniature showstopper when in flower (ie. now and into Summer). Foliage little more than 10cm tall, with a spread of up to 30cm, with star-shaped flowers straining upwards. One for an Alpine bed, scree or rockery, with humus rich, moist but…
Continue reading ➞ Saxifrage Pixie Rose
I've posted about this elegant, arching Spring flowering perennial, recently changing its name from Dicentra to Lamprocapnos (trills off the tongue doesn't it?). Let's settle on Bleeding Heart. An unusual photograph for the concentration of flower, usually seen in, well, single, elegant arches. A bit of a cheat since there were about a dozen…
Continue reading ➞ You say Lamprocapnos, I say Dicentra….
See the humble aquilegia, Granny's Bonnet, a favourite cottage garden plant, single and double forms, familiar names like Nora Barlow, pale pastels though even sultry forms like Black Barlow, William Guinness. Now see the State Series (Montana, Oregon, Louisiana, Virginia, Florida, Alaska et al). Imagine that Grandma took a flight to America, bought a…
Continue reading ➞ Have a nice day… Aquilegia State Series
More bluebells you might think, but nearing this muted haze, you realise they are much, much taller, a massed planting of something different, flower-heads matched in height by umbels of cow parsley. Camassias. Now I see the point of these plants! One part of a walk through the various landscapes at the Royal Botanic Gardens…
Continue reading ➞ Moody blues…
Bluebell time at Kew.
The Teddington Gardener 