Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
Prunus Kursar. I've posted about this particular tree before, though the picture I was using was from 2012. This image was taken a few days ago. Flowering ornamental cherries are a fine sight in the spring, though this year, few specimens are giving any hint of the show to come. They can be excellent specimen…
Continue reading ➞ Cherry Blossom Time
The trademark chequered markings to the nodding flower heads of this bulbous perennial, most often this purple/pink colouration, though sometimes white, held singly or paired, with slim linear leaves. Best naturalised in grass. I seem to recall planting, in a pot or two, last Autumn, Fritillaria michailovskyi AGM. I ought to look these out, to…
Continue reading ➞ Fritillaria meleagris (Snake’s head fritillary)
Another charmer from the RHS London Plant Fair today, the Pasque Flower. In spring, upright or semi-pendant, bell-shaped (or narrowly bell-shaped) silky-hairy flowers in shades of deep to pale purple. This variety, Pulsatilla vulgaris Blaue Glokke. And isn't it beautiful! Grow in an alpine house, rock garden or scree. I'm in love.
Excerpts from the RHS commentary on this early flowering cherry: This small tree packs a punch with beautiful deep-pink saucer flowers profusely borne on bare stems. It is a favourite of our gardeners because it gives a splash of intense colour before the other showy flowering trees such as magnolias... really get going. The ornamental…
Continue reading ➞ Prunus ‘Kursar’
Another strong spring colour (I've already touched upon Berberis darwinii in particular and Forsythia briefly) and this shrub too can be a bit of a forceful character. Quite tenacious, it can thrive where other plants would give up and it suckers quite freely (the looser the soil, the greater the spread). If it does get…
Continue reading ➞ Kerria japonica ‘Pleniflora’
Berberis darwinii will be lighting up our gardens in a month or so (this picture taken in the show gardens at Bridgemere Garden World on 2nd April last year) with vigorous, evergreen shrubs smothered in rich orange flowers. Possibly not the easiest display to fit into a town garden (and the shrub grows up to…
Continue reading ➞ Berberis darwinii – a shock of deep orange
There is a particular plant I always look out for, on a lower path on Battleston Hill within the RHS Gardens at Wisley and I'm always superbly pleased to see it in flower, starry and bright, with clove-like fragrance. Anticipating the flowers, it is also lovely in bud, on upwardly ascending bare stems: miniature, silky…
Continue reading ➞ Edgworthia chrysantha
Colourful shoots, foliage and flowers in a shifting range of appealing combinations - Euphorbias come in a variety of styles, both evergreen and deciduous perennials, some shrub like and in all foliage colours from fresh green, lime, blue-greys and variegated, whites, reds, oranges and purples. Euphorbia myrsinites (above), a rock plant with great spring interest.…
Continue reading ➞ Euphorbia – a plant for all seasons
The presence of this very early blooming cherry in the western world is attributed to plant explorer E.H. Wilson, who made numerous sojourns to the hills of western China in the early 1900s. Following on the heels of the snowdrops, this elegant cherry (formerly known as Prunus conradinae) produces slightly fragrant single flowers, white with…
Continue reading ➞ Early Flowering Cherry, Prunus hirtipes
The Teddington Gardener 