Love your Apples and Pears: Winter Fruit Tree Pruning – Formative, Regular, Renovation and Rejuvenation

Care of apples and pears and a winter pruning guide   We are looking at fruit trees - apples and pears just now - and specifically winter care, pruning and management. Young trees, old trees, productive trees and lost souls alike. We have a lot of ground to cover here but don't panic, we can…

Daphne odora Aureomarginata, Edgeworthia chrysantha, Double Primulas, Hellebores, Crocus and Almond Blossom – A Day in the Life….

I am blessed with the scent of this beautiful plant - drifting across the nursery and Siren-like, it calls to me so that I can breathe in more of this delicious fragrance. Sweet, honeyed, hints of lily and jasmine, citrus, intense but not cloying. Fleeting too on the breeze, caught and then lost again. I…

Up the Apples and Pears – A Fruity Tour of RHS Wisley: Fruit Demonstration Garden, Fruit Collection and Fruit Fields

A tour earlier this week around the Fruit displays at RHS Wisley in Surrey - the Fruit Demonstration Garden and Fruit Collections showing a variety of trained forms especially of Apples and Pears, but also a whole range of stone fruit and soft fruit. I moved on into the extensive Fruit Fields. The Fruit Fields…

Spotlight on Harvington Rebekah and Walberton’s Rosemary – and nigh on 50 more Hellebores…

Hellebore Harvington Hybrid Rebekah at the Plant Centre, RHS Wisley, today. and another variety also looking rather superb today on my travels, Walberton's Rosemary But let's not rest on our laurels - there are rather more than two hellebores to tempt, delight and enrapture.... Here's a complete catalogue of the Hellebores on sale at RHS…

Winter pruning of Apples and Pears – a very fruitful day at Earth Trust in Oxfordshire

On my way this morning to Oxfordshire, just off the quiet M40 motorway at J7 and into the great quiet expanse of this beautiful county. Windmills, golden stone, thatched rooves. Pretty as a Picture. And a note for a stop-over next time I venture this way, or perhaps over to Waterperry Gardens which are not…

Hellebore Gold Collection – heralds of the Hellebore Season

Hellebores are heading your way - these are from the Hellebore Gold Collection, varieties of Hellebore niger (flowering early in the season) and hybrids, flowering now and into early Spring. Plenty of information, from the breeders and nurserymen, on these excellent garden plants in the Dutch website noted below - which should keep you occupied…

Teddington Gardener Review of the Year – December 2014 – Petersham Nurseries, RHS Wisley (twice), Hampton Court (Cabbages & Kings)….

December - ending with a severe chill, here in London, and snow elsewhere- but still much colour to be found. Hellebores and winter cherry blossom, Cotoneaster, Camellias and Anemones, early Narcissus and Hyacinths, some tropical loveliness in the Glasshouse at Wisley, Cabbages and Kings at Hampton Court and a bevvy of Heraldic Beasts. Happy New…

Teddington Gardener Review of the Year – February 2014 – Kew and Wisley, Syon and Petersham Nurseries. Spring approaches.

Primulas providing some welcome colour Birch bark at Kew Crocus at Kew and snowdrops - Ulmus villosa, also at kew The new fruit and vegetable area at Syon Park Garden Centre - my last month there before moving across the river to Petersham Nurseries in March The Orchid Festival at Kew The Rockery and Alpine…

Teddington Gardener Review of the Year – January 2014 – at Wisley and Kew. Winter breaks early.

JANUARY - Hamamelis x intermedia Orange Peel Cornus alba Sibirica in container displays at Wisley Rhododendron nobleanum Album Prunus himalaica Hydrangea paniculata Galanthus elwesii Sarcococca confusa Dogwoods at Kew and the Alpine House from the Grass Borders Galanthus elwesii at Kew and Berberis (below) Chimonathus praecox Grandiflorus Prunus subhirtella Autumnalis and Chaenomeles speciosa at the…