Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
A favourite tree, in bloom intermittently throughout the winter months whenever a mild spell allows - the blossom and the mild weather are both always welcome. These pictures were taken last week, in the Japanese Landscape by the Chockushi-Mon. Bright blue sky and dazzling low winter sunshine adding to the delight of the pretty blossom.…
Continue reading ➞ Winter Cherry – Prunus subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’
Primlets, a very pretty but extremely tough addition to the family of primroses and polyanthus and at your garden centre now - dark green, textured leaved subtly scented evergreen in milder areas a rainbow of colours double, rosebud flowers edible flowers full shade to part/bright shade in the garden and great for containers flowering December…
Continue reading ➞ Primlets – sweetheart rosebuds in sorbet colours
New growth is pushing up through the dark earth, fresh flowers taking advantage of the leafless tree canopy overhead and searching for sunlight. Snowdrops, yellow winter aconites, the earliest oriental hellebores and the first few crocus of the season. All here at Kew - and there is more to come - carpets of crocus (they…
Continue reading ➞ Snowdrops, hellebores, crocus, winter aconites …
Amber, citrine, primrose, sunshine, canary, gold, lemon, tawny, aureate, lutescent, xanthic, chrysal, honey, aurulent... A ripe collection of just a few yellow and golden-fruited shrubs and trees - they have all featured in other entries in the last couple of months - but I thought it would be cool to bring a few of the…
Continue reading ➞ Mellow Yellow (part 2)
Further findings from my most recent walk through Kew Gardens (we've seen Bark!) and I hadn't expected to see much by way of trees in flower, this early in the season. Three specimens caught my eye. The Cornelian Cherry, Cornus mas, was putting on a delicate show, by the lake. bright but widely spaced clusters…
A walk through Kew, enjoying a bright chill day that the BBC weatherman assured me would hold nothing but rain upon more rain. Plus there was a parking space by the Victoria Gate entrance, so there was no excuse to call in. My rules! I've recently explored (deep breath..) the woodland area by the Temple…
Sometimes nature does all the work - this beautiful, double white hellebore was a chance find in a Tasmanian garden, albeit the garden of the noted plantswoman who has given her name to this snowy Lenten Rose. Like all hellebores, give it deep, rich soil, in semi-shade and reliable year-round moisture and enjoy... a Tasmanian…
Continue reading ➞ Hellebore Mrs Betty Ranicar – definitely not a Tasmanian devil…
Rhododendron nobleanum album - at least two specimens on Battleston Hill at RHS Wisley were in flower when I last visited a couple of weeks ago - this old variety will flower anytime between January and March and perhaps even later, after the last frosts. Mid-January, it was the first of the rhododendrons I saw…
Continue reading ➞ Rhododendron nobleanum album – an early flowering beauty
Hermaphrodite Skimmias offer, if it needs to be said, the best of both worlds - self-fertile plants with flower and fruit. Here are two - Skimmia japonica Temptation and a form of Skimmia japonica subsp. reveesiana - Chilan Choice. Admittedly the flowers are not the Main Event that they are with, say, Skimmia rubella or…
Continue reading ➞ I can resist everything but (Skimmia) Temptation
The Teddington Gardener 