A Touch of Frost

A touch on the chill side this morning, with pretty much everything rimed with frost until the sun was able to warm things up just a little, though I think a repeat is due tomorrow morning. These hellebores were unfazed by the deep freeze though not everything will be as forgiving, so a roll of…

Orchids all the way at Kew Gardens – the Princess of Wales Conservatory prepares to put on a show (plus a trip into the desert)

The Princess of Wales Conservatory, never a dull destination within the expanse of Kew Gardens, is preparing for their annual Orchid Festival - it begins on the 7th February and runs through to the 8th March. http://www.kew.org/visit-kew-gardens/whats-on/orchids From past experience, it is going to be an intensely colourful and beautiful extravaganza and with temperatures outside…

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…

More hyacinths – one of my favourite scented flowers

I love the scent of hyacinths and have made a statement piece here using a long zinc wndowbox (without drainage holes) and packed it with Skyjacket hyacinth bulbs that I picked up at the Rochdale County Council nursery in Middleton, Manchester, at the beginning of December (a bargain 50p each, so I bought a whole…