15 Favourites – Garden Plants

At Petersham Nurseries, we are planning our 15th Anniversary this month of May, celebrating the past decade and a half under the stewardship of the Boglione family and the development of the Nurseries and the expert team behind its horticultural reputation. We are choosing 15 favourites, roses of course, garden plants and houseplants, (for we…

Floating Flowers from Petersham Nurseries

This is something I started in February of last year, when rain filled a huge metal container, a vast pedestal bowl with ornate handles that originally had it's home in the Bank of Rome in Italy, somewhere (one of a pair). Too much water to drain easily, I floated Hellebores on the surface of the…

Spring-flowering bulbs for the Garden – many galleries and my notes for a Workshop …

I've a workshop planned this week as part of the School of Garden Inspiration syllabus at Petersham Nurseries. The subject is bulb planting in the garden, and more specifically, Spring-flowering bulbs that are available now for planting in the coming weeks and months. Some practical information and hopefully, some inspiration along the way. Without doubt,…

A very colourful April, this year, at Petersham Nurseries – springtime bulbs pretty much everywhere …

A few images from April 2018 featuring the Cutting Garden and Petersham House Gardens and more specifically the bulbs planted in great parallel swathes in the working Cutting Garden and then more expansively throughout the gardens of the House itself. A memory-jogger for me, given my workshop on Spring Bulbs together but boy, has it…

April at Great Dixter, reprise, for a spring-flowering extravaganza and a lot of inspiration

These images were taken on a visit on the 20th April this year to the gardens at Great Dixter in East Sussex. I had been to the charming and gently planted King John's Nursery beforehand, and there is some memorable naturalizing of spring bulbs and primroses in the old orchard that is quite superlative. But…

Blue

OK, so there is a touch of rose-making-the-blue-purple going on here too though I have weeded out the more obvious not-blues, but the theme, from palest to the boldest, with some blue-grey foliage too, is a cool blue palette. Fruit, leaf and flower all contribute and I refer you once again to Gertrude Jekyll. In…

Yellow

  From the palest blush, soft cool primrose, sulphurous, acid, gaudy, bright, golden, and adorning the garden right the way through the year - this is a richly diverse palette and can be used to many an effect. I've been reading Gertrude Jekyll's book on colour schemes in the flower garden and she is extraordinarily…

Exbury Gardens, Hampshire

A trip down to Southampton this morning, to drop family off at the airport and then a convenient drive into the New Forest, ponies galore, and the gardens at Exbury. I've never been though know of their reputation for Rhododendrons, Camellias and Azaleas, and for a fine autumn showing of mature Acers. Obviously we are…

RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018 – the show gardens, the great pavillion, the roses and … well, pretty much everything

From my walk through Chelsea, to the very last moment - a few hours in the company of the world's greatest flower show....