Dahlia Disaster Averted – The National Dahlia Collection Finds A New Home
Reading time 5 minutes
When the National Dahlia Collection announced its closure in September 2020 The Beau and I were bereft. This little patch of dahlia heaven was […]
Cornwall
Getting Away From It All
Reading time 7 minutes
Like many folk, we’ve barely spent a night away from home since the New Year. I love The Watch House with all my heart, […]
Growing My Own Tree of Life
Reading time 11 minutes
For the last three summers I have been growing airplants outside in the Jungle Garden. Secured to the branches of a tree in dappled […]
Morrab Gardens, Penzance, Cornwall
Reading time 11 minutes
March can be a wild and windy month, especially in the far south-west of Cornwall. So it was that we turned up at Trewidden […]
Trewidden, Cornwall: Anything But Magnolia
Reading time 4 minutes
It’s been a cruel winter for spring flowering shrubs and trees. Today at Trewidden in Cornwall we witnessed the impact of subzero temperatures and […]
Heligan Harvest
Reading time 9 minutes
I first started visiting The Lost Gardens of Heligan as a student in the very early 1990s. By then the Tremayne family’s forgotten […]
Eternal Eden
Reading time 5 minutes
I can smell Cornwall before I can see it. Driving across the ancient border between Devon and Cornwall at night it’s pitch black, […]
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 […]
Pretty in Pink: Podranea ricasoliana
Reading time 3 minutes
Draped elegantly over the high walls surrounding Marrakech’s wealthier villas and riads is an elegant climber known variously as pink trumpet vine, Queen of […]
Daily Flower Candy: Magnolia doltsopa
Reading time 5 minutes
Magnolia doltsopa: Michelia doltsopa, sweet michelia There are trees and then there are trees. Queens among their ranks are the magnolias; strong, majestic, ebullient […]
Tumbledown
Reading time 2 minutes
We are staying at Trevoole, one of our favourite places in Cornwall. And because I am on holiday I can take precious time to […]
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewintered
Reading time 5 minutes
As winter draws to a close, I can sum it up in one word: soggy. Dreams of bracing walks along the beach beneath clear, […]