Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
The Osterley Park estate, including Robert Adam House, formal gardens, parkland and extensive farmland, is rather a surprise, a great swathe of greenery within the urban sprawl of Hounslow, airplanes cutting across the skies from nearby Heathrow. It is one of the last remaining 'country estates' in London and under the care of the National…
A light dusting of snow in the woods around Ham, though at home in Teddington there was enough for a serious game of snowballs between the children heading to school. (below) The churchyard at St. Peter's Church by Petersham Nurseries. While the Cutting Garden, while not exactly deep and crisp and even, had a wintery…
Continue reading ➞ What did I say about February? Tricky already…. A Snow/No Snow day
I am dreaming of Spring, mostly. There is a great deal to admire in February so I worry that we might wish the month away without appreciating what is looking - or giving - its best right now, or the quiet simplicity of our gardens stripped bare of all of the spring and summer fireworks…
Continue reading ➞ February made me shiver….
Hellebores running wild in the woods of Battleston Hill at RHS Wisley. I have an inkling that these are just a little wild, I have never seen any them labelled (and pretty much everything else thereabouts is name-plated). There will be more of them in due course, these are the vanguard of a great swathe…
You are met, as soon as you walk into the gardens at RHS Wisley, by the seductive scent of Sarcococca, the Winter Box, in this case with pure white threadlike flowers on arching stems, set against deep green leaves. It is a fragrance that carries on the wind, a siren-call to the few pollinators out…
Galanthus nivalis - nothing common about this common snowdrop There's snow Up North and temperatures hereabouts are heading back down to near freezing. There was an icy wind gusting around the glasshouses at Petersham this afternoon though a wintry sun made a welcome but unheated appearance between some very driven bouts of rain. To buoy…
I visited Standen at the beginning of April 2013 and took these photographs then. March, as I recall, had been a frozen tundra of a month with temperatures barely reaching about freezing day or night. The first daffodils were only just coming through, so different to the early Spring enjoyed last year. I am minded…
Continue reading ➞ Standen – A meeting with some Remarkable Espalier Apple Trees
and the Museum reflected in the lake, late afternoon sun Winter Box, Sarcococca, heavily fragrant by the Victoria Gate complex. Meanwhile, in the Davies Alpine House These Hamamelis on sale in the Garden Shop. Vesna (above and below) The sun is shining (well, it is now) and Kew Garden beckons with so much to…
Roses to the left of me, roses to the right! A fresh delivery today including many classic Old-fashioned roses, climbers and ramblers, some modern introductions too, in the classic style. Many names new to the Petersham Collection and quite a few varieties that I'm looking forward to getting familiar with. These will compliment the expanding…
The Teddington Gardener 