In the Alpine House – the best spot to linger on a rainy day at Wisley

As usual, a House of Many Delights, the Alpine display at RHS Wisley; a traditional glasshouse with raised, sand-filled benches and the specimens sunk in their terracotta pots to be viewed at just the right height (though I noticed a folding chair left for visitors this time around). With free entry last Friday and a…

A rainy day at Wisley – but read on – there’s Cherry, Camellia, Rhododendron, Magnolia & more…

An exceptionally damp day, last Friday, at RHS Wisley in Surrey but undeterred was I, with my Driza-bone coat, wide-brimmed hat, umbrella and camera - it was business as usual ... Much opportunity for photography with ornamental cherries and Magnolias in blossom and looking fine; Camellias dotted throughout Battleston Hill and Seven-acre Wood; likewise some…

A few more things ….

A catch-up from a very warm and sunny day at Petersham Nurseries, capturing a few images in my lunch break from the benches and Cutting Garden - and then as I was leaving in the evening, with golden sun strafing across the flowers. One or two images sneaking in from the previous days' batch and…

A few things that caught my eye today ….

There's been a brief hiatus in these proceedings, these past few weeks. There's been a wedding (Neil & Sarah) and a family break in Chichester, and a lot of rain of course dampening the opportunities for much plant photography, however much I like that dew-dropped image. March was a bumper-month for my tweetery, with both…

A snapshot of Spring – Alpine & Woodland – Kew Gardens, mostly

Here's another of those galleries, a tumble-jumble of images but all taken in the last week and mostly at Kew Gardens. I did pop over to RHS Wisley on Saturday for their Spring Plant Fair - and bought a selection of Martagon Lilies from Jacques Armandes International and some brightly (brave, they called them) coloured…

A banquet-kaleidoscope-smorgasbord-gallimaufry of early Spring colour and scent … (or Where’s Thug?)

Ah, well, you've got me - one huge gallery of images and barely a note to cover the 'who, what, why, where and when' of it all - The 'where'will be at Kew and Wisley and a few points in between, including those deliciously cool crocus on my own front step, delicately rain-dropped and rather…

Flights of Fancy – Hippeastrums on trial at RHS Wisley

The Glasshouse at RHS Wisley is host to a trial of Hippeastrums (though you might say Amaryllis) and a fine show they make, with such a wide variety of form and colour, with giant trumpets and spidery filamentous-ness side by side, gentle pastels against the brassiest and brightest, velvet against satin against crystal. https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/plants-blogs/plant-trials/february-2015/hippeastrum-on-trial Amaryllis…

A return to Kew and some contortions in the Davies Alpine House required … plus an invitation to an Open Day

A selection of colourful delights from the Davies Alpine House at Kew, from last week. Bent back and scuffed knees, getting these images, but I love these displays, and as a special treat, there is 'behind the scenes' access to the Alpine Glasshouses and the work of the Alpine gardeners at Kew this coming weekend,…

RHS Wisley this time around, Alpine treasures and Butterflies in the Glasshouse

Butterflies in the Glasshouse at RHS Wisley and moving into the Alpine House next - Plenty of treaures in the Alpine House, Fritillaries especially on this visit Butterflies, first, in the Glasshouse at RHS Wisley - happily I timed my visit on one of the last days of this event (I feared I'd missed it)…