An Englishman's Garden Adventures
Pulsatilla vulgarisFlowering profusely on my green-roof at Easter this year The Pasqueflower — Latin name Pulsatilla vulgaris — is a rare wild flower of the UK being found now on just a few chalk and limestone grasslands. Known as the …
Watery sunshine lights up the garden at the start of the new year. On this mild midwinter’s day I find a few errant blooms, bravely struggling on long after closing time: The last violet buds of agapanthus trumpet towards the …
Dew-jewelled gossamer frames Hosta “Praying Hands” The spooks have been out over night. Hundreds of tiny garden denizens worked unseen through the night. As the morning mist lifted their work revealed: everything shrouded in Halloween webs. Let’s go and see …
A friend of mine has just spent a small fortune filling a large border with the miniature bedding cyclamen that are in all the garden centres at this time of year. I agreed with her that they are great plants …
I have three clumps of lily turf in one of my woodland beds in my permaculture mini-woodland. They have been there for well over five years, but have only ever produced a few sparse flower spikes each year, despite the …
This is the white form of the Willow Gentian, Gentiana asclepiadea alba. It is a choice, slow growing and long-lived and reliable plant for shade or part shade. Its natural blue-flowered form is native to central and Eastern Europe, where …
This is the Abyssinian gladiolus. It’s one of those plants that has switched genus recently. Previously Gladiolus callianthus, it is now known as Acidanthera bicolor ‘Murielae’. I can see why they went for the name change, as it is quite a different …
At first glance you might mistake these flowers for those of an exotic orchid They are actually the blooms of Hosta ‘Undulata Mediovariegata’. When I wrote about them in my post “Are Hosta flowers Worthwhile?” I was rather dismissive and said …
This is the latest bed I have added to my garden. It is made out of a new kind of wood called Accoya which is effectively rot-proof. But before I talk shop, here is a bit about the design ideas… …
In the background, white English lavender; in the foreground a white Hebe. Both plants have dense spikes containing hundreds of individual flowers which open over many days. This long sunny border in front of the greenhouse is ideal for these …