» It's Show Time!!!
03/04/15 from My Garden
It’s that time of the year, yet again… IT’S SHOW TIME!! This year promises to be as exciting and busy as ever. 2015 is the 10th Anniversary of Outer Spaces and we want to mark it in style! Next weekend, we will be packing our tool bags, ...

» Things to Look Forward to in 2015!
03/03/15 from My Garden
The spring is on its way and we are all starting to think gardens again - Thank goodness, I am very ready for the warm weather to arrive!! We have a busy year ahead with gardens to build at RHS Malvern and RHS Tatton Park where we will b...

» Tatton Park Flower Show - Gold Medal!
03/08/14 from My Garden
When I last wrote, we were all very excited and raring to go for the RHS Tatton Park Flower Show 2014. In what seems to be no time at all, the show has been and gone along with our beautiful garden ‘The Narrows’. Like a proud parent, I a...

» The Summer Holiday 'I'm Bored' Jar
17/07/14 from My Garden
As Charles Caleb Colton once wrote, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"... or in other words, I've totally nicked this idea from someone.   Yes, a month or so ago a friend shared a link to the Somewhat Simple...

» 'The Narrows' Show Garden - RHS Tatton Park Flower Show
02/07/14 from My Garden
So far the summer has been very busy thanks to the beautiful weather we have been having (on and off!). So busy in fact that time has flown by and the RHS Tatton Park Flower Show is upon us! My team and I are so excited to get to site an...

» How to plant a lettuce ball
01/07/14 from My Garden
My veg growing this year has taken something of a Darwinian turn.  Forget carefully chosen produce and well planned beds, it has been much more a case of 'survival of the fittest'. This is all thanks to those pesky slugs and...

» Blackboard plant pots and Yellow Book openings
04/06/14 from My Garden
For such relatively small people, children really do have enormous egos.  I mean they can be incredibly cute, winning and sweet-natured but, let's face it there's a lot of "Me, me, me, me MEEEE" about them. This of...

» Blush Garden Build - RHS Malvern Spring Garden Festival
21/05/14 from My Garden
Well a lot has happened since my last blog. We have been to Malvern, built our garden and returned home with a Silver Gilt Medal!! The show was fantastic… We were living on the site for the duration of the build up, show and breakdown pe...

» Helping out the nesting blackbirds
02/05/14 from My Garden
There are blackbirds ( Turdus merula ) nesting in the ivy growing on the garden wall here. I noticed when I saw a female eagerly pecking at the half apple we’d put under the bench and flying into the ivy with a beakful of it. Seeing her ...

» It’s all happening now!
25/04/14 from My Garden
It’s the fourth week of April and the garden is a hive of activity. Now that spring is underway, the garden is reacting to the warm and rainy winter by racing into growth and the things look incredibly different to this time last year. T...

» Coreopsis ‘Solanna Golden Sphere’: New from Mr Fothergill’s
22/04/14 from My Garden
I know there are gardeners who see perennial coreopsis more as workhorses of the summer garden than plants with character and style but perhaps ‘Solanna Golden Sphere’ (left, click to enlarge) will spark some affection as well as admirat...

» Worms have been moving stones in the garden
22/04/14 from My Garden
There are a couple of corners of the garden that I seldom dig – if weeds come up there, I’ll pull them out, but I like to leave these patches to see what happens to the soil surface and to gauge earthworm activity. Because we garden on O...

» Snail racing
17/04/14 from My Garden
My eldest son is a real wildlife lover. This is mostly a good thing.  It means he's always keen to get outdoors to check on his pond or insect shelter and he can identify far more birds and butterflies than I can manage. Read more

» Veronica 'Blue Bomb': New from Parkers
13/04/14 from My Garden
Veronicas, long lost in the second or third division of hardy perennials, have been making a name for themselves as cut flowers in recent years. Their long spikes and their lasting quality have encouraged florists to take them up. But wh...

» A stoat visits the garden
11/04/14 from My Garden
The garden gave us a new surprise the other day when we found a stoat ( Mustela erminea ) in the courtyard. Great find, except that this one was dying.   Read more

» Are gardens primarily for humans?
07/04/14 from My Garden
In a piece in the April issue of ‘The Garden’ , the author says that ‘the garden is a habitat for other creatures, but it is first and foremost a habitat for us’. She worries that gardeners are being bombarded with unwanted advice, not u...

» Blush Garden - RHS Malvern Spring Garden Festival
04/04/14 from My Garden
I haven’t written anything for a while, as with most people, life takes over and then a month has passed us by! We have had a really busy couple of months with lots of private gardens, planting schemes and also continued work for public ...

» 101 Things For Kids To Do Outside
28/03/14 from My Garden
This has been quite a momentous week.  Not just because we now know who is in the semi final for The Great British Sewing Bee (poor David - so near and yet so far) but also because my new book was officially published. It is borne o...

» Plants for Bugs Conference Previews Results
27/03/14 from My Garden
  Plants for Bugs programme and usb sticks   Read more

» Why some flowers change colour and a worm question
26/03/14 from My Garden
I learned something new today – why some flowers change colour as they age. The reason may be common knowledge to some people, but to me it wasn’t and I’m still feeling happily surprised and more in awe of nature than ever.   Pulmon...

» Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb - Laurent Trenga, Taste of Wisley
26/03/14 from My Garden
  I don’t remember rhubarb featuring in the Trenga potager when I was growing up in France. It was not until I moved to England that I discovered this amazing vegetable-come-fruit and I vividly remember my first rhubarb crumble – se...

» Look! Pretty flowers! It must be a blog post all about pretty flowers...
25/03/14 from My Garden
See what I did there?  That's right, I lured you in with a pretty picture of flowers when really what I want to talk about is MULCH!  But, you know, it doesn't look that pretty - or sound particularly attractive - hence...

» Bees buzzing over pear blossom at Wisley: Orchard Blog March 2014 - with Jim Arbury
23/03/14 from My Garden
Spring is definitely upon us. After the late spring of last year I am surprised by this year’s early spring. I should be though with a mild winter and warm early spring weather it is inevitable. The first pear cultivars were flowering la...

» Colourful new fragrant antirrhinums
20/03/14 from My Garden
Most gardeners enjoy antirrhinums but the familiar traditional types have been joined by a number of colourful and interesting new varieties, such as the Antirinca Series (above, click to enlarge). At once it’s clear that they’re differe...

» Butterflies and newts awake, pond snails laying eggs
18/03/14 from My Garden
The warm weather just lately has encouraged a huge amount of wildlife activity. Species of all types are suddenly visible and active and, in some cases, they are being seen in larger numbers than at the height of last summer. Last Sunday...

» Tidying up Euphorbias on the Trials Field at Wisley with Ian Tocher
17/03/14 from My Garden
Hi, I’m Ian, a horticulturist in Wisley’s Trials Department. Recently, with the help of garden volunteer Dennis, I’ve been tidying up the euphorbia trial in readiness for our Euphorbia Study Day on 26 March.       Read more

» Christmas trees: the makeover
13/03/14 from My Garden
Three years ago I bought a potted Christmas tree.  It had a price tag that made me audibly suck in air and quickly calculate how many bottles of wine could be purchased for the same amount (a perfectly reasonable exchange rate mecha...

» Agastache ‘Arcado Pink’: New from Plants of Distinction
10/03/14 from My Garden
In recent years, more and more agastaches have appeared in catalogues and many of them are very good plants - but few seem have really taken off and become widely popular. Perhaps this one will prove to be the exception. This is a first ...

» Topping up
03/03/14 from My Garden
  Read more

» February gardening… in March
03/03/14 from My Garden
Pesky February - it's only gone and finished already, which makes my blog posts for that month a rather unimpressive... one.  In my defence I really have done gardening - even some with the kids - I just never quite got round to...

» We have a resident Sparrowhawk
02/03/14 from My Garden
It seems we have a resident sparrowhawk ( Accipiter nisus ). Regularly during the last couple of years, I have found the scatterings of feathers indicative of a sparrowhawk having plucked its prey in the garden. This morning’s breakfast ...

» Crows dropping walnuts on driveways
24/02/14 from My Garden
I like crows ( Corvus corone ), but when they drop walnuts right next to where I’m standing, which just miss landing on my head, it has to be said that my affection for them is somewhat diminished. Saying that, they have to make a living...

» Wisley's New Beginning - a Mediterranean Makeover, with Sabatino Urzo
24/02/14 from My Garden
Dear Nation of Gardeners, Buongiorno! It has been a while since my last blog, but here we are, again with more exciting horticultural news for the enlargement of our science issues, design and education.  As you are aware part of ou...

» Begonia 'Fragrant Falls Improved': Scented trailing begonias from T&M
20/02/14 from My Garden
Scented trailing begonias for hanging baskets – doesn't that sound marvelous? Well, here they are, after almost ten years development – the latest from the breeding work at Thompson & Morgan. T&M introduced ‘Aromatics’, the w...

» What species might cause damage in the garden this year?
19/02/14 from My Garden
I’m playing a game with myself to try and guess which garden wildlife might cause a problem in 2014. In 2013, there was a noticeable increase, in the gardens I frequent, in vine weevil ( Otiorhynchus sulcatus ) larvae eating plant roots,...

» Conference and quiz
19/02/14 from My Garden
It may have gone a little quiet here in the Plants for Bugs blog but be assured we are busy preparing for a special event; the Plants for Bugs Conference !!   Read more

» Pelargonium ‘Angel’s Perfume’: Colourful flowers, fragrant foliage
14/02/14 from My Garden
Developments in what we all call geraniums – zonal pelargoniums – are fast and furious around the world with new colours and colour combinations, and continual refinements and improvements in habit and reliability. Ivy-leaved geraniums, ...

» Boosting garden soil after flooding
13/02/14 from My Garden
Being a gardener, one of my major concerns is the soil and the life in it. There can’t be a square inch of soil in the UK that hasn’t been waterlogged these last two months and large areas have been, and still are, under water. I look at...

» New guidebook for Brazilian biodiversity hotspot
12/02/14 from Kew RSS - Herbarium blog
Daniela Zappi and William Milliken describe Kew's latest contribution to our knowledge of the Brazilian flora.

» Three new Barnhaven double primroses
06/02/14 from My Garden
Barnhaven is a name known the world over for primroses of all kinds, but for double primroses in particular. From their early days in Oregon to their present home in Brittany, Barnhaven Primroses have maintained the quality of their wide...

» Apple tree pruning for kids
05/02/14 from My Garden
Four years ago my eldest two children planted apple trees in their garden .  Or to be more accurate they planted some unpromising looking sticks that I assured them were going to grow into apple trees.   Read more

» Warm wet winter in the Orchard at Wisley - Jim Arbury
04/02/14 from My Garden
This is probably the warmest winter I have experienced (although this may change) and certainly the wettest. It has been quite pleasant pruning at Wisley (not wearing as many layers as usual at this time of year). However the implication...

» SCARECROW FESTIVAL AT ROSEMOOR
04/02/14 from My Garden
Even now in late winter time the days are already lengthening and the precious sunlight is creeping over the cold earth warming the soil and bringing the promise of new life.   From times immemorial this is that vital period when, i...

» Skimmia japonica ‘Pabella’: Vigorous and prolific
02/02/14 from My Garden
Gardeners are often disappointed by skimmias. The foliage looks pale and sickly, the berries are scattered over the plant and never make a dramatic display. But this new variety from Holland looks as if it will restore our confidence. It...

» Five years on
28/01/14 from My Garden
I am declaring a breakthrough. Read more

» Choosing late season food plants for wildlife
27/01/14 from My Garden
This year I’m going to put in more herbaceous perennial plants to extend the food season for wildlife. There are already late-flowering plants in the garden – Hesperantha coccinea (previously called Schizostylis coccinea ) flowers reliab...

» Helleborus x sahinii ‘Winterbells’: A lovely new hellebore hybrid
20/01/14 from My Garden
Some unexpected hellebore hybrids have come on the scene in recent years, hybrids between species that you’d just never expect to see. But this is probably the most surprising of all. Helleborus x sahinii ‘Winterbells’ is a cross between...

» Take a Winter Walk around Seven Acres with Verity Bradbury at Wisley
20/01/14 from My Garden
Hi, I'm Verity and I work on Seven Acres at Wisley.  I hope you enjoy reading my blog about an exciting new development... Read more

» Wind in the pittosporums
17/01/14 from My Garden
  Read more

» Forsythia Gold Mine (‘Mindor’): Compact and prolific
06/01/14 from My Garden
Gardeners tend to think that forsythias all look the same – and of course, it’s true, they’re all yellow. The shade of yellow varies a little, but look carefully and you notice that there are other differences. This new introduction from...

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