A return to Penshurst Place and Gardens, Kent – and this time (well, pretty much exactly this time last year) we definitely have peonies ….

A return, after a years' absence, to the walled gardens at Penshurst Place in Kent. Well, a trip down memory lane but one definitely worth travelling down again. This time around, the famed 100m long peony border was looking fine, colourful and fragrant, growing lush and up through the wire grid, and with a long…

Nymans, pure Romance …

  Lockdown continues and these gardens, as are all, are closed to the public and so it is back to the archives and this collection of photographs from early May last year. I've brought it forward as the Wisteria has really taken to the warm days we have enjoyed this past few weeks and is…

A return to Penshurst Place and Gardens, Kent – and this time we definitely have peonies ….

A return, after a years' absence, to the walled gardens at Penshurst Place in Kent. This time around, the famed 100m long peony border was looking fine, colourful and fragrant, growing lush and up through the wire grid, and with a long way to go before it will run out of steam. With the rain…

Nymans, pure Romance …

  After dropping my Sister- and Mother- in law off at Gatwick Airport, a short drive down the M23 to Nymans, a National Trust Property of great charm. Romantic ruins, beautiful gardens, far reaching views across woodland and downs, formal gardens and naturalistic, some tragedy, some infamy, quite a lot of beauty. Sadly too early…

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…

Kew Palace, the Queen’s Gardens and a Laburnum-swagged pergola

Bright blue skies, golden Laburnum, lilac-pink Cercis siliquastrum, snowballs of Viburnun opulus, pale blue iris, lavender-grey lilacs and a lot of beautiful greenery. A bee-line today straight over to Kew Palace and the gardens behind - a sunken herbalists garden and a more formal parterre. Around the former, an arched pergola wrapping around three sides…

The Darling Buds of May – the first Alliums, fragrant Roses, lilac, flashy tulips and buttercup fields –

Alliums and ironwork in the Cutting Garden at Petersham Nurseries - elsewhere the first of the roses coming into flower - so many more in furious bud; I had to wait until July last year for the first roses to bloom - March was so bitterly and consistently chill, day and night, that the whole…

Random pictures from a Bank Holiday Monday – blossom & blooms at Petersham

Semiaquilegia Sugar Plum Fairy Clematis montana (below) Blossom from our Isaac Newton Apple Tree Anisodontea Large Magenta (below) Lilac Pink Magic somethingorother Aquilegia (below) Lilac and Viburnum Statement Hydrangeas Cow parsley, tulips, clematis montana, honesty, Fritillary persica... A lamp and a vase (two vases) Camassia and Fritillary persica in the cutting garden Clematis alpina Helsingborg…

My day in just 12 pictures – well it would have been more, but the Parrot Tulips have already had their moment…

Fritillaria persica (above) Camassia (below) Reminding me that it is still officially Spring - a golden display of narcissus and below, another softly-shaded tulip. I must ask for the name. (above) The flower buds from the Isaac Newton Apple Tree (see earlier post) and (below) the goblet-bloom of Magnolia soulangeana The Regal Pelargoniums have arrived,…