text
Read moreDay 193: rice-paper plant
If you’d suggested to me ten years ago that I’d develop a hankering for plants that create a tropical atmosphere, I’d have choked on my cucumber sandwich and told you to toddle off down my lavender-lined path…
Read moreDay 192: ox-eye daisy
I’m fairly certain I’ve never yet met an ox, let alone looked one in the eye, but it always occurred to me that a more appropriate common name for the Leucanthemum vulgare would be the “fried-egg daisy”…
Read moreDay 191: Geranium 'Claridge Druce'
My fondness for hardy geraniums is a matter of record – beautiful, hard to kill, versatile, and great for pollinators. Pink flowered Geranium x oxonianum ‘Claridge Druce’ is a particularly bomb-proof variety…
Read moreThe Naturecraft Garden
At this years RHS Hampton Court Flower Show, I resolved to do things a little differently. No galloping all over trying to see everything, but a more measured pace, and a closer look at a smaller selection. One garden that I’ve been looking forward to seeing for months was Pollyanna Wilkinson’s Naturecraft Garden.
Read moreDay 190: sneezeweed
There are several things in the garden that make me sneeze at this time of year, but helenium, or sneezeweed, isn’t one of them…
Read moreDay 189: lemon catnip
It’s taken me years to appreciate nepeta. Perhaps, as with our feline friends, catnip doesn’t quite get us all in the same way…
Read moreDay 188: cool water
Topiary and water features – two of the design elements that play into the narrative we gardeners like to spin ourselves that somehow we can contain nature and make her dance to our tune…
Read moreDay 187: give the devil his due
The first week of July, and it’s noticeably warmer in the garden – almost uncomfortably toasty. It’s not escaped my attention that its at precisely this time every year that Lucifer appears…
Read moreDay 186: pheasant berry
Some plants are real bruisers, but I wouldn’t be without them. Himalayan honeysuckle, or pheasant berry (Leycesteria formosa) is one…
Read moreDay 185: sowing again
Gaps are appearing. Holes in plantings where earlier perennials have flowered and are being cut back and annuals have done their thing…
Read moreDay 184: Hydrangea 'Annabelle'
By some crazy act of serendipity I’ve managed to get Hydrangea aborescens ‘Annabelle’ to grow through the deep red foliage of the Japanese maple, Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’…
Read moreDay 183: melange
I’ve decided to christen this particular planting style as the “melange”, a word which all proud Europeans among us will instantly recognise as the French mot juste for a mixture…
Read moreDay 182: respect your elders
I like to spare a thought for the biennial and annual plants I’m pulling out. They’ve put on their floral show and now, presumably, are good for nothing but the compost…
Read more