The life and loves of a time-poor plantsman
Late last summer we paid a flying visit to Dyson’s Nurseries at Great Comp near Sevenoaks in Kent. It was all rather unsatisfactory as we were short of time and had our pups Max and Millie in tow. We couldn’t take them into the garden (although I snuck in to use the loo, which was […]
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I started this blog with a clear personal ambition to preserve what I already knew about plants and to encourage further learning. It was as simple as that. Looking back this sounds like a selfish mission, but there was always an intention to share that knowledge, otherwise I may as well have written my thoughts […]
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I am a sucker for a rare or unusual plant. Give me a packed table at a plant fair and I will spot the rare treasure from a mile off. The plant may not be pretty, cheap, or suitable for my garden, but I shall probably buy it; not simply because I can, but because […]
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Orchids are extraordinary flowers. They display remarkable diversity in colour, size and form. Some are scented, some are designed to entrap insects and few, like vanilla (Vanilla planifolia), produce edible seed pods. Among the 28,000 currently known and accepted orchid species, many are cultivated and inevitably there are still new species to be found in […]
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Asarum delavayi ‘Giant’*: Giant Wild Ginger, Panda face ginger As an antidote to my post about Vita Sackville-West’s macabre ‘Box of the Dead’ earlier this week, I thought I’d share a happier tale. Regular readers will know that I often purchase plants without any real idea where I am going to plant them. It’s […]
Read MoreIt’s always good to get away from the big smoke and better still to have the opportunity to visit new gardens in unfamiliar places. So on our way up to Yorkshire for our friends’ wedding we took a very short detour off the M1 to visit Felley Priory, a garden of about 2.5 acres. The […]
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