The Best Things in Life are Free
Reading time 5 minutes
I have largely avoided being drawn into snowdrop mania this year. I have no snowdrops in my garden (which is […]
Wild Flowers
Hampton Court Flower Show 2017 – The Show Gardens: Brownfield Metamorphosis
Reading time 7 minutes
I’m very aware that I am not opening my Hampton Court coverage with classically beautiful gardens. In my quest to offer the fullest […]
Chelsea Flower Show 2017: Best in Show – The M&G Garden
Reading time 10 minutes
Well slap my thigh and call me Mildred, James Basson won gold and landed this year’s Best in Show for his monumental Maltese […]
My Favourite Walk: Chapel Porth Valley, St Agnes
Reading time 12 minutes
I have been walking down and up the valley to Chapel Porth for over forty years. Not continually, of course, but at […]
Wonder Walls Part II
Reading time 8 minutes
Each time I return to the West Country I am reminded just how damp it is compared to Kent. A crude comparison of […]
Book Review: “Daffodil: Biography of a Flower”
Reading time 5 minutes
“I’m always pleased to see a daffodil” confesses Oxford University botanist Dr Robert Scotland to the author of this new account of the […]
Daily Flower Candy: Crithmum maritimum
Reading time 5 minutes
Crithmum maritimum: rock samphire, sea fennel, sea asparagus, sea bean, sea pickle, crest marine “There is a cliff whose high and bending head looks […]
Nature Knows
Reading time 2 minutes
Walking in the Kent countryside this afternoon I am reminded that, beyond the confines of our garden, spring is not quite as far advanced […]
The Very Best of 2015 – A Year in Pictures
Reading time 18 minutes
The moment I sit down to write my review of the year my mind goes completely blank. How do I sum up the year […]
Shipwreck Weather
Reading time 3 minutes
As we drove across the border between Devon and Cornwall on Friday night it was almost as if the wind were determined to blow […]
Daily Flower Candy: Clematis vitalba
Reading time 4 minutes
Clematis vitalba: Old man’s beard, traveller’s joy, virgin’s bower, ladies’ bower, love vine, traveller’s ivy. When the feathery seed heads of Clematis vitalba start […]
Daily Flower Candy: Viper’s Bugloss
Reading time 3 minutes
Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a big fan of echiums. I love their jewel-coloured flowers, the way they attract […]