Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
I had hoped to get down to the Hillier Gardens this week, or at least to RHS Wisley but time seemed to be against me. And then I remembered that my annual membership to the Romsey garden also includes entry to Kew, which I happened to be passing, (after spending a couple of hours in…
Continue reading ➞ Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (Magnolia storm)
It is almost tulip time, given the speed at which spring seems to be accelerating just now. Magnolia blossom has exploded in our gardens and cherry blossom isn't far behind. I planted up 15 litre containers last autumn with Red Apeldoorn, bright-pink Barcelona, lily- flowered-bright-orange Ballerina, sultry-dark- plum Ronaldo, tall-red Doll's Minuet, white-becoming-intensely violet-purple Shirley's…
Continue reading ➞ Bold & Brilliant
Pieris formosa var forrestii 'Forest Flame'. "One of the most beautiful of all Pieris species, with electric-red new growth that literally stops people in their tracks " (Micheal Dirr, from his encyclopedia on Trees and Shrubs, and no argument from me!). "The new growth transitions from red to cream and then to green and any…
Continue reading ➞ Forest Flames
Back with the Pasque Flower here, this time a cultivar, Red Clock, with large cherry-red flower on typically silky-hairy stems. Fine plants, with emerging buds galore. But enough with the words, enjoy the pictures!
A rather lovely bulbous plant, Muscari latifolium, where the lati or latus means wide, as in the 'wide leaved grape hyacinth' - it develops just the one wide leaf, quite tulip like in fact. Happiest in full sun though tolerant of some light shade and do keep it from being wet in winter. The fertile,…
Continue reading ➞ Muscari latifolium (grape hyacinth)
A very recent post has an elegant bud of this particular Magnolia, Black Tulip, just beginning to break, but with little sign that it would develop into these great blossoms, many inches across. Time to get back to RHS Wisley, where this photograph was taken in 2010, for an update on this particular specimen.
Magnolia Black Tulip, a hybrid raised by Mark Jury in New Zealand and released in 1998. It was selected out of 150 seedlings that were grown from a cross between Magnolia Vulcan and Magnolia Iolanthe. The colour of the flower is an exceptionally dark ruby-red, with a large goblet shaped blossom. The foliage is dark…
Continue reading ➞ Magnolia Black Tulip
Hailing from Northern Turkey, Fritillaria michaelovskyi is a bulbous perennial with delightful, nodding, dark purple-brown flowers with distinctive yellow tipped tepals. There is a diamond pattern to the flowers, though apparent only when looking inside these little bells, with the light shining through. In matters of scale, the tepals are between 20-30mm long, on stems…
Continue reading ➞ Fritillaria michaelovskyi
Paeonia mascula subsp. russoi has lovely large, violet-pink flowers over greyish green biternate leaves. It comes mainly from Mediterranean islands, from Spain to western Greece. It is sometimes labelled P. russii, but the name russoi is correct, and refers to a Sicilian botanist, Father Joachim Russo. It has also been called P. corallina var.…
Continue reading ➞ Species paeonie at Wisley
The Teddington Gardener 