Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
Rain, rain and more rain, yesterday - persistent and accompanied by chill winds too. Considering the balmy temperatures of the previous day it was quite a shock to the system! It did, however, provide an opportunity for some picture taking with the advantage of some photogenic rain drops...
Continuing with my wanderings through Kew, leaving the Duke's Garden behind and passing the emerging grass borders, we head to the Davies Alpine House and the serpentine Rock Garden beyond. More peonies and iris, more intense colour and floral fireworks - though this last specimen, Viburnum macrocephalum Sterile is more of a giant snowball!
Bright blue skies, golden Laburnum, lilac-pink Cercis siliquastrum, snowballs of Viburnun opulus, pale blue iris, lavender-grey lilacs and a lot of beautiful greenery. A bee-line today straight over to Kew Palace and the gardens behind - a sunken herbalists garden and a more formal parterre. Around the former, an arched pergola wrapping around three sides…
Continue reading ➞ Kew Palace, the Queen’s Gardens and a Laburnum-swagged pergola
A long walk through the Surrey countryside from Westcott near Dorking, south across woodland and vale to Leith Hill, the highest point in Surrey. A National Trust property now, it has a commanding view across the landscape - and from the top of the tower, you have more altitude than the viewing platform of The…
A field of buttercups in the deep depth of the countryside? A bucolic scene where black & white cattle graze the long grass and rub their rumps on wild plum and ancient hawthorn? Petersham Meadows, actually, and the cattle are the Belted Galloways that are taking their summer holidays from the main herd at Box…
I hope that Thomas Bloom won't mind my hijacking these floral displays for my own delight and edification - and yours - but I am very taken with them. Keen-eyed viewers will have seen some of the individual items in my photo-reports from recent trips to Wisley and Kew and indeed, these flowers are all…
Continue reading ➞ Flowers for a Friday….
A perfect wander through the meandering paths on Battleston Hill at Wisley - quiet too (it usually is) giving you the peace and solitude to really appreciate the diverse planting, the understory, shrubs and tall mature trees. The magnolias were until recently the thing here, some real superb specimens, absolute stars, and the hellebores too…
A tour through the Surrey gardens of RHS at Wisley, taking us from the entrance (and before we even get going we have to stop and gawk at the Clianthus Kaka King!) before skirting along above the water lily pond to see the Wisteria and Roses enjoying the warmth of a long brick wall -…
Continue reading ➞ A little early May tour around RHS Wisley – Rockery, Woodland and Rockery again…
The Cherry Walk at Kew Gardens, coming up from the Mediterranean Garden and heading towards the roses and Palm House. A couple of weeks ago, this path was lined with pink and white confections, flurries of blossom in candyfloss shades - but now green is the theme. Yet... There is still rather a lot going…
The Teddington Gardener 