Daily Flower Candy: Iris reticulata ‘Sheila Ann Germaney’
Reading time 3 minutes
For two years in a row I have waxed lyrical about Iris ‘Katherine Hodgkin’, a reticulated hybrid with bleached denim-blue flowers that remind me of […]
Daily Flower Candy
Daily Flower Candy: Dutch Crocus (Crocus vernus)
Reading time 5 minutes
The groundflame of the crocus breaks the mould, Fair Spring slides hither o’er the Southern sea, Wavers on her thin stem the snowdrop cold […]
Daily Flower Candy: Ypsilandra thibetica
Reading time 4 minutes
Just occasionally, well, maybe a little more often than that, I buy a plant for all the wrong reasons. Invariably my foolishness leads to […]
Portrait of a Lady: Iris histrioides ‘Lady Beatrix Stanley’
Reading time 4 minutes
Spring arrived in earnest today, with temperatures reaching a balmy 16 degrees in the sunshine. The mercury has not been that high since October […]
Daily Flower Candy: Primula vulgaris ‘Taigetos’
Reading time 3 minutes
I do so love it when a plant utterly defies the wrong situation and flourishes, when really it should turn and fail. In our London garden […]
Daily Flower Candy: Iris reticulata ‘Blue Note’
Reading time 3 minutes
I adore irises. Their blooms recall the style and elegance of days gone by and appear throughout the spring and summer, starting in early […]
Daily Flower Candy: Iris reticulata ‘Spot On’
Reading time 2 minutes
As I predicted exactly two weeks ago, the latest bulb to start flowering in our coastal garden is Iris reticulata ‘Spot On’, a new […]
Daily Flower Candy: Crocus chrysanthus ‘Herald’
Reading time 3 minutes
I wished for snow, and it came, although not the right kind of snow. It began promisingly, fine and dusty, but rapidly transformed itself into […]
Daily Flower Candy: Echium candicans
Reading time 5 minutes
Travel agents report that the second week in January is the peak week for holiday bookings. This is hardly surprising given the short days, miserable […]
Daily Flower Candy: Lilium ‘Kushi Maya’
Reading time 3 minutes
‘Lilies in October!?’ I hear you exclaim. Maybe in the southern hemisphere, but not in England, surely? Well yes actually, these wonderful, fragrant flowers […]
Daily Flower Candy: Colchicum ‘Waterlily’
Reading time 3 minutes
These flowers may faintly resemble those of a Nymphaea, but here the resemblance of Colchicum ‘Waterlily’ to an aquatic plant ends. Like other colchicums, the flowers […]
Daily Flower Candy: Kniphofia rooperi
Reading time 3 minutes
Before the Second World War kniphofias, better known as red hot pokers, were one of Britain’s most popular garden plants. They sustained gardeners’ Victorian […]