The life and loves of a time-poor plantsman
If you’ve been reading the newspapers or listening to BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week programme recently, you will already be acquainted with one of Britain’s most interesting but perhaps least well-known plant collectors, Collingwood ‘Cherry’ Ingram (30 October 1880 – 19 May 1981). Following a genteel and somewhat quirky Edwardian upbringing in Westgate-on-Sea, […]
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Prunus x subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’: winter-flowering cherry, rosebud cherry January can be a debilitating month, all dark, dreary and joyless. When I think of January, little positive springs to mind, only diets, resolutions, needing to exercise, refraining from alcohol, writing thank you cards and the guilt related to not tackling any of the aforementioned, which […]
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It’s rare that I sacrifice commentary for imagery, but as I look back over the photographs I took at Great Dixter last weekend, I can’t help feeling they speak for themselves. And, being without my laptop, I’m also going to publish them as they were taken, with minimal enhancement and just a brief description. […]
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And so, it is done: Christmas signed-off for another year. It’s time to re-group, sleep, do the ironing, see friends again, sow seeds, plan building works, pay bills, buy gifts, plant summer bulbs, refresh my wardrobe, send bills, repair woodwork, spread manure, clean the windows, book holidays, write my blog, drink wine, choose new furniture, […]
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I began my traditional Boxing Day post last year by commenting on the unusually mild weather that lead up to Christmas. Had I known then what I know now, I may well have made less of it: the UK is about to record its warmest ever December, with temperatures 4°C above average for the time […]
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I’ll admit I am a little overdue with this one, but 2015 has been one of the latest I can recall for blackthorn blossom (the flowers of Prunus spinosa). In a normal year there could be a clear month between the single white flowers of blackthorn falling and the appearance of hawthorn blossom (lovingly referred to as ‘may’), but this spring the […]
Read MoreEaster’s almost here! How will you be spending the Easter holidays?
Read MoreIn spite of the biting wind, these fragile pink blossoms of Prunus and Camellia put on a brave show this weekend at Goodnestone Park, Kent. Surely spring can only be days away now?
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“He who carries giant satsuma tree on back of bicycle must take great care on journey”. Clearly he never said that, although I think it’s still sound advice. I never thought I’d be quoting the 2564 year old Chinaman in a gardening blog, but I have taken a shine to some of his pearls of […]
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