coral-bark maple Just when you thought you’d heard the last of colourful winter stems – along comes the coral-bark maple. Please accept my apologies for raising the subject again*, but this one was begging for a mention and right now it’s probably at its peak. I’ve always loved and admired acers but sadly our heavy […]
Japanese quince ‘Nivalis’ By its very ubiquity, the poor old Japanese quince is often overlooked, but I have always rated them highly and not least, of course, because any shrub flowering in February is to be welcomed. This deciduous and woody shrub is very accommodating and adaptable, it’s also extremely hardy and is tolerant of […]
At this time of the year, there’s nothing more cheering than a little pot of gold by the front door, and to be sure, when I chose these last autumn, I had little idea that they would be such a success. The weather has not been kind these past couple of weeks and certainly not for […]
Japanese laurel ‘Crotonifolia’ A couple of days ago, I just happened to get a heads up that this weekend ‘the three’ would be tackling the subject of plants that we love to hate. And on that same dark, damp and spectacularly dull day, as I was taking my regular early morning stroll round the garden, I […]
mountain blue vervain ‘Lavender Spires’ Midwinter brings its own very particular delights and most especially when the darkened skeletons of many plants fall under the cloak of a hard frost. These are the plants that have already given us long-lasting and floriferous displays in late summer and into autumn, and now they give us a […]
Euphorbia margalidiana is a delightful perennial sub-shrub, very floriferous and with a long flowering period from May until November – even, as you see, into December! This noteworthy euphorbia, received rave reviews at the Euphorbia trials at Wisley and was awarded the AGM from the Royal Horticultural Society after their three years’ scrutiny in 2015. […]
barrenwort ‘Fröhnleiten’ If, like ours, your garden has been subject to yet more frosts this week, then you might have been enjoying such delights as my subject today. I do realise that I might be over enthusiastic about walking round the garden in winter but this is precisely why I love it. This barrenwort is […]
I won’t deny that taking my early morning walk around the garden these days, is becoming more of a ‘stock taking’ exercise. Let’s face it, few of us have experienced a year like the last for decades, and I find myself re-evaluating the meaning of ‘hardy’. After record breaking temperatures last summer, a very mild […]
Yunnan liquorice I love a coincidence and here we have one. Once again most of us are waking up to a very hard frost, or even snow, and I am impelled to go outside into the garden and observe all the amazing shapes and patterns that only reveal themselves under such conditions. And while I […]
Dogwood ‘Anny’s Winter Orange’ Getting on for a year ago, I was striding through the rain towards middle growbag Laura’s front door and not for the first time I stopped to admire ‘Anny’s Winter Orange’. Then as luck would have it, Laura rang me a couple of days later to say that she had spotted a couple […]
Crown of thorns I have a confession to make, and I may lose friends saying so, but I am not a fan of poinsettias! To me they are the battery chickens of the horticultural world: propagated en masse, probably at great cost to the environment, and about as original a Christmas present as a chocolate […]
Marguerite ‘Jamaica Primrose’ The temperature dropped just below freezing in our barely heated greenhouse last night; this is hardly surprising as outside in the garden it was minus 6.8 degrees, and this, after the warmest November on record. But what a cheery welcome I received as I walked, with some fear and trepidation, through the greenhouse door this morning. Understandably all the other plants looked a little pinched but not this amazing marguerite. […]
Three decades ago, when our so-called lawn was little more than a rectangle of rough grass and before we planted our walnut tree, in between doing battle with bindweed, changing nappies and keeping rabbits at bay, I would sometimes try to introduce some sort of coherence into my plans for spring bulbs. But I rarely got beyond grabbing a few random crocus at the local […]
primrose Never underestimate the power of the primrose to lift the spirits! A couple of days ago, having forced myself out into the grey and drizzle, I rounded the corner of a path in our garden and there it was, a self-sown specimen I need hardly say, perfectly placed to give hope and cheer just in time […]
My thanks to those of you who have read my column over the past year, it’s been so much fun to write, and I have learnt quite a lot of new details about some of the plants myself! Thank you also if you’ve bought my little book, I do hope that you are enjoying dipping into it from time to time. […]
Yellow-fruited guelder rose – I’ve been admiring this guelder rose for weeks. It all starts when the shrub is still in leaf; then, as the season progresses, the gorgeous, amber coloured, translucent berries stand out more and more on their winter bare stems. And I’m not the only one who appreciates it; the little robin in my photo is unusually shy but she sits very happily among the berries, does she feel safer being so […]
‘ There are less than two weeks to go before winter officially begins, but what an extraordinarily mild autumn it has been. Many borderline hardy plants are still flowering their socks off in containers and I am reluctant to dismantle them because they still look so happy, despite a few frosts at the beginning of the month. However, I need to free up the pots for my tulip bulbs so I must harden my […]
Aster ‘Monte Cassino’ No photograph can do this plant justice because it’s so difficult to capture the airy essence of ‘Monte Cassino’. It has a very open habit, with well-spaced stems that hold generous sprays of tiny, delicate, pure white flowers. The foliage is neat and does not interfere with the overall effect. Not only is this exceptionally beautiful aster a breath of fresh air at […]
Soft shield fern ‘Pulcherrimum Bevis’ Just over a year ago I chose another soft shield fern to write about, and mentioned my difficulty remembering the names of ferns; well, it seems that I am not alone in this as I recently came across an interesting article by one of my favourite garden writers, Val Bourne, who tells of ferns, oestrogen and saucepan lids all in […]
Before this recent bout of snow and frost, the garden seemed almost to be in early spring mode and bursting into life with crocus, aconites, iris and of course, snowdrops. Now we have returned to winter and it’s just what the garden needed. However, my choice this week had already made its mark, quietly but […]
The timing couldn’t be better: the RHS have just announced that the Chelsea Flower Show 2021 is being postponed until September. Bring in the new! This is a big opportunity for change: for the RHS, for the nurserywomen and men, for the exhibitors and for us, the gardeners. The announcement also coincides with a few […]
From Roman times onward, our garden sage has, as its Latin name suggests, been valued in connection with innumerable medicinal and, since Tudor times, culinary uses. Steering clear of the former, I can certainly vouch for its use in the kitchen, as without shadow of a doubt it is my go-to herb in the winter months; not only that, its evergreen good looks are reliably handsome all year round. Over the years, I’ve also grown the forms ‘Icterina’, ‘Purpurascens’ and ‘Tricolor’, also a broad-leaved one, […]
eulalia ‘Morning Light’ The plumes are palish pink – very pretty if you’re lucky enough to get them! That doesn’t sound like much of an endorsement does it? So, it seems odd to be recommending a grass that in most years fails to produce a single flower, and even after this year’s hot summer spell, we had none; but I hardly noticed their absence, for that’s not why we grow it. This statuesque, clump-forming grass grows to 1.2 – […]
“Not a privet!” I hear you cry. But this one is quite distinct: an unusual, curious even, evergreen shrub which once seen is never forgotten. What it does have in common with other privets is the slightly sickly scent that exudes from the white flowers in summer – brilliantly described in the opening paragraph of ‘Spies’ by Michael […]
Along with P. sidoides, which has deep wine-red, almost black flowers, this festively named pelargonium cultivar is one of the latest into flower and together they take first prize for carrying on longest at the end of the season. Sloe Gin Fizz is definitely the winner this year, it has been flowering strongly through October, November and now – well into December! Hardly surprising as this has been the mildest of […]
Make no mistake, this group called the Flower Carpet roses are not trying to compete with the ethereal beauty of the old roses. They were bred over many years by Noack Rosen in Germany, and the main objective within this breeding programme was good disease resistance. They are also exceptionally long flowering, drought tolerant and easy in terms of maintenance. ‘Coral’ was introduced in […]
Oregon grape ‘Soft Caress’ The plant is a winner, literally, for it won the RHS Plant of the Year award in 2013 at Chelsea, and deservedly so. Initially I was so put off by the name I almost didn’t buy it – it sounds like something off the side of a soap powder packet – but […]
I was going to write about a dependable, evergreen, scented shrub but decided at the last minute that we might all need a bit of cheer. This fumitory (as they’re commonly known) ‘Beth Evans’ cuts the mustard and is equally dependable and also tough: a couple of years ago it was covered with snow one […]
Loddon lily, summer snowflake It’s a bit of a misnomer this common name. Leucojum aestivumusually flowers in March or April, yet informally, it is called the summer snowflake. Furthermore, this year, which is far from normal climatically, it’s out in February. This clump forming, bulbous, hardy perennial is very easy going and tolerant of most situations. […]
It’s not all about snowdrops and winter aconites in February. I just couldn’t let the month go by without giving these little beauties a mention. Classic yes, and I do wish I’d planted more of them last autumn; it takes four months from planting to flower, you can’t ask for more than that. And what good […]
This is an interesting euphorbia at any time of the year, but it really comes into its own in the winter, most especially during a cold snap when some of the lower stem leaves turn a brilliant pillar-box red. It’s not a massive blast of colour; it is one of those small delights that catch […]
Unlike many of its springtime show-off cousins, this is an understated and elegant small tree, and one of the best for winter interest in the smaller garden. Deciduous and spreading, its leaves show good autumn colour, and they are followed by delicate, semi-double, white flowers tinged with pink, which can appear intermittently throughout late autumn and […]
If you spot an apple tree still bearing fruit at this time of the year, chances are it will be a Sturmer Pippin. This is a very late cropping variety that was highly regarded in the Victorian period because it keeps so well on (and off) the tree; it will remain hanging on into January […]
Willows are a diverse lot, but if it’s shout-out-loud winter colour you’re after, then look no further than my subject today – it simply cannot be ignored in the December garden. Known also as the scarlet willow or the coral bark willow, the young stems are nearer orange than red, and they create a fiery […]
Despite falling temperatures, still this china rose is in flower. Okay so it’s not a blaze of colour as in the summer months, but I’m so impressed by its persistence. On any given day during this very damp grey autumn I have counted at least a dozen flowers, and many more buds, on our rose. […]
Syn:Ranunculus ficaria ‘Brazen Hussy’Lesser celandine ‘Brazen Hussy’ William Wordsworth wrote no less than three poems in celebration of our native, lesser celandine, so can you imagine the raptures if he had come across ‘Brazen Hussy’? Closely related to the buttercup, this tuberous rooted perennial takes me by surprise every year: one minute the earth is […]