Most of my paeonies were sulking last year. A couple of reluctant, albeit fabulous blooms from Sarah Bernhardt, and a load of no shows…

I should be looking at the rosebuds. We’ve waited for them long enough and now here they are…

This is how it begins. The swaying and the sparkling of late June – golden oat grass (Stipa gigantea) catching the sun…

A kind friend sent me some snips this week. And not just any snips, fancy schmancy, Japanese if you please snips, from the awfully nice people at Niwaki…

The sky, wary of spoiling us with a surfeit of sunshine, decided to dump a few week’s worth of rain on us yesterday…

One of my American friends messaged me a few weeks ago, sounding wryly amused. “The enthusiasm you Brits have for our serviceberry tree!”

I’m all for a bit of mutualism, in the garden as much as anywhere else. Quite what the ants are getting up to on the ripening buds of the paeonies is often a cause for alarm…