A timely guide to spring-flowering bulbs – choices, tips, techniques and planting ideas for a display from January to May

  More thieving from my back catalogue of articles, this one doubly so since it originally featured in September a few years ago, featuring images taken from 2014 onwards - and repeated again in April of this year. But spring-flowering bulbs are available now so this time of year is probably the most useful as bulbs can be…

A guide to spring-flowering bulbs in the garden – planting ideas from January to May in kaleidoscopic style

  Bulbs in the spring garden. The text and images are timely in this piece, looking through the late winter and spring months January through to May, though it was originally written for a September story when the bulbs and corms would be available for planting. There are practical tips and hints planting of course,…

A rainy day at Wisley, well it was in 2016 – there’s Cherry, Camellia, Rhododendron, Magnolia & more…

An exceptionally damp day, last Friday, at RHS Wisley in Surrey but undeterred was I, with my Driza-bone coat, wide-brimmed hat, umbrella and camera - it was business as usual ... Much opportunity for photography with ornamental cherries and Magnolias in blossom and looking fine; Camellias dotted throughout Battleston Hill and Seven-acre Wood; likewise some…

Spring-flowering bulbs for the Garden – many galleries and my notes for a Workshop …

I've a workshop planned this week as part of the School of Garden Inspiration syllabus at Petersham Nurseries. The subject is bulb planting in the garden, and more specifically, Spring-flowering bulbs that are available now for planting in the coming weeks and months. Some practical information and hopefully, some inspiration along the way. Without doubt,…

A rainy day at Wisley – but read on – there’s Cherry, Camellia, Rhododendron, Magnolia & more…

An exceptionally damp day, last Friday, at RHS Wisley in Surrey but undeterred was I, with my Driza-bone coat, wide-brimmed hat, umbrella and camera - it was business as usual ... Much opportunity for photography with ornamental cherries and Magnolias in blossom and looking fine; Camellias dotted throughout Battleston Hill and Seven-acre Wood; likewise some…

Flowers for a Friday….

I hope that Thomas Bloom won't mind my hijacking these floral displays for my own delight and edification - and yours - but I am very taken with them. Keen-eyed viewers will have seen some of the individual items in my photo-reports from recent trips to Wisley and Kew and indeed, these flowers are all…

In dappled woodland shade, much colour at Kew Gardens … a veritable rainbow of red, yellow, pink, blue, orange, purple (somewhere), green of course – and white … @kewgardens #SpringAtKew

Leucojum aestuvum in great drifts in the borders surrounding the Temple of Aeolus, the very cultivated woodland area at Kew Gardens. Hints of the expansive carpets of Scilla in the background. And so endeth my reports on this most recent visit to Kew Gardens, taking in the woodland around the Mount and the adjacent lake…

After winter, intimations of Spring… Kew Gardens

and finally, the shop - orchid mania due to the extravaganza going on in the Princess of Wales Conservatory