This is the flower that cured me of my indifference to vinca. One glimpse of that little, deep violet face peering up at me from a tangle of small, dark green leaves, and I was hooked…
Read moreDay 100: Tulipa turkestanica
Species tulips are a bit special. Smaller, a touch more refined and less showy than the big blousey hybrids that we all love…
Read moreDay 99: going to seed
It’s almost ‘job done’ for this hellebore, Helleborus x sternii – a beautiful hybrid between the holly-leaved and the Majorcan hellebore…
Read moreDay 98: sea kale
It appears most unlikely that anything as lush and floriferous as sea kale (Crambe maratima) could grow on the shingle shores of Dungeness, but it seems to like it here…
Read moreDay 97: groundsel
I try to make a habit of being on the side of weeds, but it’s hard to love groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) …
Read moreDay 96: dewdrops on lupins
Lupins don’t reach their full show-stopping potential till next month, at which point their colourful spires take centre stage in the beds and borders…
Read moreDay 95: mind your own business
So many great things about this little cushion of green with its tiny leaves, not least being able to say “mind your own business” to people when they enquire after its name…
Read moreDay 94: Helleborus 'Hillier Hybrid Slate'
Plant breeders can be an optimistic lot. So much so that it’s not uncommon for flowers touted as ‘black’ to require the most strenuous act of imagination to be seen as anything other than a darkish kind of purple…
Read moreDay 93: Chionodoxa sardensis
You could, if you were feeling argumentative, get into a barney over whether these are Chionodoxa or Scilla sardensis…
Read moreDay 92: trillium
Every now and then, you should treat your garden to something a little out of the ordinary and, unless you’re particularly up for a challenge, not too hard to grow…
Read moreDay 91: gorse
Gorse (Ulex europeaus) is possibly one of the most useful plants you’ll ever meet…
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