Spring began to fizz at Sissinghurst Castle, a look back to 2015 – and the whole show will just get better and better…. @Sissinghurst NT #SpringWatching

The gates open at 11am sharp and I'm the first to hand in my Shilling token (the price Vita originally charged visitors) to the helpful attendants and I'm flying through, skirting the lawns in front of the Tower and into the woodland Delos garden, before hitting the White Garden (bare bones at this time of…

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…

Spring colour-bombs a riverside Nursery (can you guess which one?)

Flowers inside and out, flowers everywhere -  and a few grateful bees to feast on the early Spring bounty. A kaleidoscope of colour, bright, bold, brash and beautiful but we forgive this extravagant generosity - nothing clashes in the garden at this time of year, as the new season unfolds in our gardens. It's welcome antidote…

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…

Spring begins to fizz at Sissinghurst Castle – and the whole show will just get better and better…. @Sissinghurst NT #SpringWatching

The gates open at 11am sharp and I'm the first to hand in my Shilling token (the price Vita originally charged visitors) to the helpful attendants and I'm flying through, skirting the lawns in front of the Tower and into the woodland Delos garden, before hitting the White Garden (bare bones at this time of…

A kaleidoscope of colour, coming to a garden near you…

So much colour exploding in our gardens now that winter is loosening its grip and Spring is given a chance - longer days, some sunshine but still chill nights and cool temperatures yet ... the sap is rising, buds are bursting into leaf and blossom and the woodland floor is a bright mosaic of primroses,…

Chaenomeles – Japonica to you and me….

Chaenomeles x hybrida, in pink This pink stand of Chaenomeles x hybrida, by the Pagoda at Kew Gardens today. Though I do not know what it is a hybrid of - Chaenomeles speciosa, in scarlet The scarlet Chaenomeles speciosa sits within the Japanese Landscape under the Chokushi-Mon and grabs the eye! The camellias are dropping…