Snake charmers – Fritillaria meleagris

Categories Bulbs, spring flowering, Spring GardenLeave a Comment on Snake charmers – Fritillaria meleagris

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardens/Rosemoor/About-Rosemoor/Plant-of-the-month/April/Fritillaria-meleagris http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=814 A very helpful article from Sarah Raven in The Telegraph - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/howtogrow/8009417/How-to-grow-fritillaries.html and from Monty Don - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/gardening/article-1259182/MONTY-DON-A-soggy-spring-drown-tulips-crocuses-daffodils-magnificent-snakeshead-fritillary-thrive-it.html Some like it wet: A soggy spring can drown tulips, crocuses and daffodils, but the snakeshead fritillary will thrive in it By Monty Don UPDATED: 22:30, 19 March 2010 Most spring bulbs do best in…

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Poppycock

Categories Architectural Plants, General comment, Summer gardenLeave a Comment on Poppycock

And which season do we think it is today, pray tell? If we were to take the evidence of this bright beauty, well it would be early summer... and this clump of poppies has been in flower for a couple of weeks, in a front garden a few door away from me at home in…

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Magnolias – a New Ice Age at The Savill Garden

Categories General comment, Magnolia, spring flowering, Spring Garden, The Savill GardenLeave a Comment on Magnolias – a New Ice Age at The Savill Garden

Look up! These are, for the most part, big trees in the landscape, tall, towering forms with blossoms in crystalline white, glacial and very probably played by Tilda Swinton in the movie - but there are elsewhere, blushes of pink too, still cool but not so icy and with one, a definite warm, deep-rose. All…

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Time for lunch… or a spot of tea?

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For no reason, this little entry, save for the whimsy of a pretty picture. A table laid for a Piedmont-inspired lunch at Petersham Nurseries. Meanwhile in the Tea House, hyacinths scent the air and all manner of climbers clamber about (Jasmine, Trachelospermum jasminoides, Passiflora), vying with the Dicksonia Tree Ferns for your attention. Tall urns…

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Spring delights in the The Savill Garden

Categories Bulbs, Camellias, Climbing plants, Flowering Cherry, Fragrant plants, General comment, Hellebore, herbaceous, Japanese Maples (Acers), Open to the public, Plants for a shady garden?, Rhododendron & Azalea, Seasonal colour, spring flowering, Spring Garden, The Savill Garden, Wildlife gardeningLeave a Comment on Spring delights in the The Savill Garden

  A pageant of colour - rhododendrons and camellias, hellebores and pulmonarias, cherry blossom, crocus, narcissus, daphne and more - but which group of plants is missing from this gallery. It's a biggie?! Links http://www.theroyallandscape.co.uk/gardens-and-landscape/the-savill-garden http://www.theroyallandscape.co.uk/seasonal-highlights/the-savill-garden/march-and-april/ http://www.theroyallandscape.co.uk/visitor-information/the-savill-building/

Rosa mulliganii – roses and the Sissinghurst Technique

Categories climbing plant, Climbing plants, Fragrant plants, General comment, Roses2 Comments on Rosa mulliganii – roses and the Sissinghurst Technique

Rosa mulliganii, the rose used at the centre of the White Garden at Sissinghurst, threading its way over a filigree pergola. Vigorous, yet delicate and beautiful, a tracery of stems creating windows through into the garden. And (above) here it is in Kew Gardens. A Monster of a Plant.... A huge abundance of bright rose…

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Heading home… the Thames between Petersham and Ham

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No, I haven't taken to canoeing home but I was cycling along the towpath towards Teddington this evening - and stopped to take these photographs, upriver and into the setting sun. Lovely.

Dark and brooding foliage, deep velvety flowers

Categories dark foliage plants, herbaceous, spring flowering, Spring GardenLeave a Comment on Dark and brooding foliage, deep velvety flowers

Dark and brooding things here - Heuchera Binoche (bottom right, near matt purple-black leaves, blackcurrant liquorish), Ceanothus Blue Sapphire (top, eventually forming a mound just 2' tall, with bright blue flowers) and my favourite, Primula Kennedy Innisfree - fabulous dark, velvety red flowers displayed against bronze-purple foliage... I've used Heuchera Binoche in large container display…

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