Colour on a dull day, just not today: A banquet-kaleidoscope-smorgasbord-gallimaufry of early Spring colour and scent … (or Where’s Thug?)

  Another look through the Teddington Gardener Archives, mid-March 2016, and as the title says, a jumble of images, woodland and glasshouse, Wisley and Kew and a welcome reminder of Thug, the Petersham Cat, still missed.   Ah, well, you've got me - one huge gallery of images and barely a note to cover the…

A banquet-kaleidoscope-smorgasbord-gallimaufry of early Spring colour and scent … (or Where’s Thug?)

Ah, well, you've got me - one huge gallery of images and barely a note to cover the 'who, what, why, where and when' of it all - The 'where'will be at Kew and Wisley and a few points in between, including those deliciously cool crocus on my own front step, delicately rain-dropped and rather…

Another day, another visit to Kew Gardens – and not one, two, three nor four – but five Glasshouses and #barkwatch continues – deep joy …

Into the Palm House first, on a rather dull morning (I missed both brilliantly bright days earlier this week, one at Petersham Nurseries, the other being a Good Boy and doing some housework, washing and much-needed shopping). But hey, it's still looking grand and my kitchen floor is shiny shiny clean. The Palm House was…

Dodging the showers for a kaleidoscope of flower and fruit – roses, camellias, hellebores, hollies, decorative leaf, bark and seedheads

The roses too continue to put on a good show, with some near perfect blooms - and other joys - I'm hoping the rain will stop so I can get in an afew hours in my  own garden this afternoon - there are dahlias to lift and a venerable banana to wrap up before the…

If you go down to the woods today (Part 2) – Hellebores, Camellias and more at RHS Wisley

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…

RHS Wisley – life and death in the Surrey hills… Hydrangeas, Camellias and Hellebores, mostly, Sorbus and Malus, Cornus, Salix and Rubus, Acer, Rhododendron, Chimonathus, Henry Moore and a Squirrel

Acer griseum, lauded for its peeling bark, caught here in the chill morning sunlight on the slopes of Battleston Hill at the RHS gardens at Wisley. The gardens feature the remnants of many fine plants, dying beautifully, hydrangeas foremost in this class, as well as the heralds of a new season, with the earliest hellebores…

Battleston Hill – a walk on the woodland side…

The weather forecast isn't great for tomorrow, Saturday, but those careless of a bit of rain, could do worse than spend the time wandering through the winding paths of Battleston Hill, the woodland gardens at RHS Wisley in Surrey. I was there earlier this week, with my umbrella too, and was mesmerised by the colour…

Acers in my garden

Acer palmatum dissectum Acer palmatum Atropurpureum Acer griseum These three acers are all in pots, at the bottom of the garden and effectively screened from the house by a miniature forest of boisterous bamboos and all manner of more traditional ever-greenery. They form a backdrop to the thatched Breeze House (placed under the canopy of…