Alliums and ironwork in the Cutting Garden at Petersham Nurseries - elsewhere the first of the roses coming into flower - so many more in furious bud; I had to wait until July last year for the first roses to bloom - March was so bitterly and consistently chill, day and night, that the whole…
Goodbye April – or What the Gardener did Next- and shoe-horning in a mention of Titus Andronicus…
I saw these huge aquilegias at a garden centre yesterday - Virginia and Vermont - rather beautiful but prefer my Blue Barlows... A busy day yesterday, working in two of my gardens in Strawberry Hill. The first, occupied by further planting out in the newly created front garden borders and new container displays. In traditional…
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Petersham House – my first look at the gardens
Petersham House opened its gardens last Sunday (part of the National Garden Scheme) and this was my first opportunity to have a look around. I've glimpsed tree and blossom from behind high walls and hedges, and through the iron gates into the Kitchen Garden, but this was more like it! I'll let the photos do…
Continue reading ➞ Petersham House – my first look at the gardens
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and the final few from an April afternoon at RHS Wisley…
Violas and wallflowers in a very successful partnership. The viola is Etain, a particularly hardworking plant that will be in flower from spring through to autumn, needing little care other than regular watering and clipping back if it gets too leggy. I shall be copying this next year. Meanwhile, some flamingo pink in the gardens…
Continue reading ➞ and the final few from an April afternoon at RHS Wisley…
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If you go down to the Bluebell woods…
The bluebells are out at Wisley, littering the woodland floor with cyan blue - I was thinking just how much it would cost - in time and money - for us gardeners to recreate the scene when Nature seems to manage quite happily by herself. So much of the gardens at Wisley are tended and…
Continue reading ➞ If you go down to the Bluebell woods…
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If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of many more suprises – Rhododendrons, Battleston Hill, RHS Wisley
A quick scoot around the meandering paths that wind round the slopes of Battleston Hill in the RHS gardens at Wisley. I had a glimpse of what I might find in the Wild Garden, another part of the gardens there, when I visited earlier in the week and had less than an hour to explore…
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Rose Helen Knight
I first saw this rose in a wooded situation at Wisley and it was doing fine. This specimen is out in the open in the new Bowes Lyons Rose Garden, again at Wisley though it is a different beast altogether. While it can happily manage a shady spot, it clearly loves an open sky. A…
Continue reading ➞ Rose Helen Knight
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If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise – top marks for RHS Wisley
In the Wild Garden - woodland glades at RHS Wisley in Surrey- meandering paths betwixt the Rock Garden, the Alpine Meadow and Seven Acres. Plenty to delight with bluebells, rhododendrons, camellias, tree paeonies, Chinese dogwoods, Ekianthus campanulatus, Fritillaria Imperialis, Bergenias, Dipelta, Acers, the Judas Tree - Cercis siliquastrum and probably every colour in the rainbow.…
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Beschorneria yuccoides – something from Jurassic Park? Starship Trooper? Little Shop of Horrors?
Something from the movies, sci-fi maybe - these red/green/yellow flower spikes, erupting from these spiky, sharply pointed blue-green strappy leaves - and this isn't the end to their weird display. I hope I get back to RHS Wisley in time to see them develop... a sneak preview in the link below - http://www.cooltropicalplants.com/Beschorneria-yuccoides.html
The Teddington Gardener 