When a plant does well in my garden, I want to grow more of it. As a gardening strategy, this makes perfect sense. So often we struggle on, trying to grow things that are […]
Category: Plant Portraits
In Praise of Nemesias
When something you like grows well in your garden it makes sense to grow more of it. I count agapanthus, zantedeschia, trachelospermum and osteospermum amongst the plants that more than make themselves at home […]
Ever Decreasing Circles
This is a petrocosmea, a ground-hugging, rosette-forming relative of the African violet, hailing from the mountains of Western China. In its natural habitat it has a nice, orderly life, bathed in cool mist, languishing […]
Bella Donnas
Amaryllis belladonna: Jersey lily, naked lady, belladonna amaryllis We gardeners spend so much time and energy trying to cultivate plants which aren’t 100% suited to our gardens. We slave away, attending to our tender […]
Plant Portraits: Aeonium arboreum ‘Zwartkop’
Succulent plants are not everyone’s cup of tea, but one which attracted a lot of admiring glances when we opened our garden for the National Gardens Scheme was Aeonium arboreum ‘Zwartkop’. It’s hardly surprising given […]
Plant Portraits: Dicksonia antartica
For a while in the nineties, when television programmes such as Home Front and Ground Force ruled the air waves, tree ferns almost became a gardening cliché. They were saved from turning into the plant equivalent […]
Plants Portraits: Acanthus spinosus
It’s not often that I make time to really study a plant or flower in detail. Last weekend, whilst staying with family, I seized the opportunity to have a closer look at Acanthus spinosus, commonly […]
