Like most other things, plants and gardens follow fashion. Once tastefully muted colours were the thing for a flower border, but it’s all changed and after decades of being grown mostly by men for competitions, the showy, brightly coloured flowers of dahlias are everywhere, which is why the The Dahlia Society annual show marquee at […]
Friday gardening favourites.
Wisteria growing over this oak pergola in my local park, 5 minutes walk from where I live, I’ve been admiring it almost daily. An early morning visit to Covent Garden Flower Market in London with my daughter and her fiancee, experimenting with wedding flower ideas. This little sunflower seedling, wearing its’ seed coating as a […]
Cut flowers from the garden in January
Aside from the miles of transportation, there’s something about the brightness of imported, exotic flowers for the house in January that jangles the senses. In any case, big, bright blooms are unlikely to be found in January in my part of the world, but there’s a surprising amount of coloured, shapely foliage and a few […]
How to grow gorgeous gladioli
There was a time when gladioli were deeply unfashionable, and although they haven’t become quite as trendy as their very stylish sisters the dahlia, they’re well on their way. They are so easy to grow, plant them as corms in spring and they’ll re-appear, with only a small amount of care, every year. I […]
The glamour girls of the garden
With their beautiful blooms these are the glamour girls of the garden, these easy to grow herbaceous peonies die back in winter and re-appear the following year. Not only do they look wonderful, once they’re established they produce lots of blooms making great cut flowers, and helping to reduce the need to […]