Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
I love the Alpine House at RHS Wisley - a traditional glasshouse packed full of plants, their terracotta pots sunk into a raised sandy bench. Just the right height for a close look at these intricate and beautifully bright jewels. The Davies Alpine House at Kew - the clam shell - has cutting edge architecture…
Continue reading ➞ The Alpine House at RHS Wisley – a box of delights!
Primlets, a very pretty but extremely tough addition to the family of primroses and polyanthus and at your garden centre now - dark green, textured leaved subtly scented evergreen in milder areas a rainbow of colours double, rosebud flowers edible flowers full shade to part/bright shade in the garden and great for containers flowering December…
Continue reading ➞ Primlets – sweetheart rosebuds in sorbet colours
Ornamental cabbages and kales - decorative leafy additions that are especially useful for winter containers. The RHS has the following advice on the care of winter planted containers and the choice of plants available. I don't see the coloured stems of various dogwoods (Cornus selections) here but think they would make excellent companions to these…
Continue reading ➞ Of cabbages and kings
Echinacea Hot Papaya These magnificent blooms are the first ever orange-red double coneflowers - the colour stays true and doesn't fade. The fragrant flowers are borne on strong stems are excellent for cutting. Attracts butterflies in a wide variety of garden settings. Full sun, moist but very well-drained soils. Flowering June-September/October. Height and spread 80cm…
Continue reading ➞ No shrinking violet.. Echinacea Hot Papaya
Viola Citrus (above) with Pansy Citrus (below) Hardy things, violas and pansies, and excellent for injecting some welcome long-term colour into seasonal displays - not that there is much shortage in the garden at the moment, but as the season moves deeper into autumn and on into winter and pigments leach from the landscape, these…
Continue reading ➞ Little and Large (and Orange)
I can just about get to the front door, after three hours of potting and pottering, pretty much everything has a new winter home... A maintenance day today - bright blue skies, chill, the wicked wind has died down and I've lots of plants to pot up into more suitable containers before the weather really…
Pansy Beacon Blue Such intense colours, on a plant that could go on flowering right through until next spring - unfazed by much that a typical winter can throw at it. Deadhead regularly keep in a sunny spot (but remember they don't like too much heat) trim back if the plant gets too leggy watch…
Continue reading ➞ Blue Lagoons
Viola Beacon Blue - just one from a myriad choice of violas and larger flowered pansies Large-flowered Cyclamen, bringing colour to autumn and winter containers September next week it is, and the nights are drawing in. Containers full of summer colour - lobelias, petunias, marigolds, begonias and all that - might be looking a little…
Continue reading ➞ Life after the petunias….
Bedding Asters, a little cool sophistication for summer pots...
The Teddington Gardener 