Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
This Mexican Fleabane, despite its lowly name, is a classy plant and one, when - and where - happy, will grow to form a daisy empire in your garden. Erigeron karvinskianus forms a froth of tiny white daisies, with yellow eyes and petals that mature through purple and pink to give a very attractive overall…
Continue reading ➞ A daisy with an eye on Empire… Erigeron karvinskianus
A long walk through the Surrey countryside from Westcott near Dorking, south across woodland and vale to Leith Hill, the highest point in Surrey. A National Trust property now, it has a commanding view across the landscape - and from the top of the tower, you have more altitude than the viewing platform of The…
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,…
Continue reading ➞ A kaleidoscope of colour, coming to a garden near you…
Following the sun around the Glasshouse and testing out one or two of the cardboard boxes which brought great numbers of Thomas Etty flower, herb and vegetable seeds to the Nursery. A tough day for Thug, the Petersham Nurseries Cat... I've already added to my seed collection with borage (blue and white), more cosmos, more…
A light dusting of snow in the woods around Ham, though at home in Teddington there was enough for a serious game of snowballs between the children heading to school. (below) The churchyard at St. Peter's Church by Petersham Nurseries. While the Cutting Garden, while not exactly deep and crisp and even, had a wintery…
Continue reading ➞ What did I say about February? Tricky already…. A Snow/No Snow day
Galanthus nivalis - nothing common about this common snowdrop There's snow Up North and temperatures hereabouts are heading back down to near freezing. There was an icy wind gusting around the glasshouses at Petersham this afternoon though a wintry sun made a welcome but unheated appearance between some very driven bouts of rain. To buoy…
A touch on the chill side this morning, with pretty much everything rimed with frost until the sun was able to warm things up just a little, though I think a repeat is due tomorrow morning. These hellebores were unfazed by the deep freeze though not everything will be as forgiving, so a roll of…
Continue reading ➞ A Touch of Frost
I am blessed with the scent of this beautiful plant - drifting across the nursery and Siren-like, it calls to me so that I can breathe in more of this delicious fragrance. Sweet, honeyed, hints of lily and jasmine, citrus, intense but not cloying. Fleeting too on the breeze, caught and then lost again. I…
My day has been perfumed by these beautiful hyacinths - I have more at home, so the fragrance surrounds me even now. Heaven. Especially welcome given the chill, steady mizzling which I hope and believe will give way to something brighter, dryer, though colder, tomorrow. I bought more Hyacinth bulbs today, Gypsy Queen, in a…
Continue reading ➞ Fragrant Hyacinths, a Cutting Garden rich in promise and Thug, the Petersham Cat
The Teddington Gardener 