Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
Kew Palace Historically significant for its association with the Royal family, Kew Palace (formerly known as the Dutch House) is the earliest surviving building in the Gardens. It was built around 1631 by Samuel Fortrey, a merchant of Dutch origin, and is noted for its distinctive decorative carved brickwork and rounded gables. It was used…
Continue reading ➞ Kew Palace and the Queen’s Garden
Further findings from my most recent walk through Kew Gardens (we've seen Bark!) and I hadn't expected to see much by way of trees in flower, this early in the season. Three specimens caught my eye. The Cornelian Cherry, Cornus mas, was putting on a delicate show, by the lake. bright but widely spaced clusters…
A walk through Kew, enjoying a bright chill day that the BBC weatherman assured me would hold nothing but rain upon more rain. Plus there was a parking space by the Victoria Gate entrance, so there was no excuse to call in. My rules! I've recently explored (deep breath..) the woodland area by the Temple…
Sometimes nature does all the work - this beautiful, double white hellebore was a chance find in a Tasmanian garden, albeit the garden of the noted plantswoman who has given her name to this snowy Lenten Rose. Like all hellebores, give it deep, rich soil, in semi-shade and reliable year-round moisture and enjoy... a Tasmanian…
Continue reading ➞ Hellebore Mrs Betty Ranicar – definitely not a Tasmanian devil…
Rhododendron nobleanum album - at least two specimens on Battleston Hill at RHS Wisley were in flower when I last visited a couple of weeks ago - this old variety will flower anytime between January and March and perhaps even later, after the last frosts. Mid-January, it was the first of the rhododendrons I saw…
Continue reading ➞ Rhododendron nobleanum album – an early flowering beauty
Hermaphrodite Skimmias offer, if it needs to be said, the best of both worlds - self-fertile plants with flower and fruit. Here are two - Skimmia japonica Temptation and a form of Skimmia japonica subsp. reveesiana - Chilan Choice. Admittedly the flowers are not the Main Event that they are with, say, Skimmia rubella or…
Continue reading ➞ I can resist everything but (Skimmia) Temptation
This is my beautiful, but simple, orchid exhibition at home - just the two phalaenopsis (moth) orchids. I'm prompted to photograph them given the imminent opening, next weekend, of the annual orchid display at Kew Gardens, transporting an already tropical Princess of Wales Conservatory into a technicolour paradise. I urge you to go if you…
Continue reading ➞ Escape Winter – Orchids at Kew 2014
A gentle pavement expedition, a street safari, to see what the front gardens of this particular bit of Teddington might throw up, by way of Winter Interest. With a tide of concrete washing over so many front gardens, plants are losing out to car parking at an alarming rate, with consequences for wildlife, drainage/water runoff…
Continue reading ➞ Plant Hunting in Teddington
Sorbus glabrescens with Sorbus alnifolia in the background Sorbus glabrescens, with white fruit (above) and (below) the red fruit of Sorbus alnifolia All change - Sorbus alnifolia with Sorbus glabrescens in the background Sorbus alnifolia by the Chokishi-Mon in the Japanese Landscape at Kew I've come across Sorbus glabrescens in the Arboretum at RHS Wisley…
Continue reading ➞ Sorbus glabrescens & Sorbus alnifolia – White and Red
The Teddington Gardener 