A secret garden
There is a plant stand in Fordham, Cambridgeshire. Bang opposite Scotsdale’s Nursery Garden. It could easily be overlooked after visiting the largesse of the nursery garden. That would be a shame because it’s packed with cuttings and baby plants from a wonderful garden. I started buying plants from the stand (40p each or three for £1.00) about a year ago. I became a regular. The photo is of a small border that I planted with bounty from this stand. Everything has flourished. Every time that I visit the nursery garden, I cross the...
read moreOld roses: Rosa Rambling Rector. (1910, unknown breeder(s))
This gorgeous frothy rose makes the biggest impact of all the roses in our garden. We open the back door to find it spilling over the first half of the herbaceous border. It has climbed into the plum trees in the garden next door and splashes over the shrubs below like a floral Niagara. It flowers throughout June. For a whole month we savour it from the first buds to the last few handfuls of flowers. “We ought to have our summer party in June.” Danny declares each year. But we never do. The cottage is small, so big parties take...
read moreHow to make your orchids flower for months
I can now understand why some people get obsessed with orchids. These are definitely flowers with attitude. We have two types of orchid living in the cottage. Phalaenopsis and one Dendrobium. Their flowers remind me of the heads of mythical beasts. Open-mouthed in a chatty rather than a snappy way. If you care for them properly, their extended flowering period almost guarantees that eventually they will start to work their magic and make their presence felt. Our orchids live in the bathroom, on a deep windowsill. They seem to like the steam...
read moreFlowers from the garden: May
It seems longer than four months since I last bought flowers for the house. I’m still finding it hard to keep my vow not to buy any for a whole year. For the last couple of weeks we’ve had no flowers indoors, from the garden or anywhere else. I’ve been returning from work too late to drift into the garden with my secateur. And, I suppose in a way I had lost heart. Last weekend I visited one of my favourite private flower stands (on Duchess Drive, Newmarket). I had surreptitiously spotted that they were selling Sweet Peas a...
read moreOld roses: Rugosa Rose. Rosa Roseraie de L’Hay
We are lucky that our garden is big enough to let some of our old roses grow into large tree like shrubs. This rose is about seven feet tall and ranges across the width of a six foot border. It is one of the old roses that I bought from Sagger’s nursery garden in Newport, Essex. I wanted to plant old varieties of roses but knew very little about these. Roger Sagger is a great guy to turn to for advice. He took a lot of time to find the perfect rose for each aspect. Fifteen years later the roses have matured from the six inch sticklike...
read moreDicentra (Ladies in the Bath, Bleeding Heart)
When I was growing up I was very tickled by these flowers and always thought they were pretty. I was captivated when my mum carefully picked a flower, turned it upside down and gently pulled the deep pink sides apart to show me the slim white lady with thin white arms, sitting in a bath. The lady looked so white, upright and prim. The archetypal Victorian one that has cast away her parasol and announced that she would like to take a bath. If you look at my snap of our Dicentra you will see the early flower and the more mature one. The oldest...
read moreOld roses: Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’
I planted this beautiful rose beside the front door fifteen years ago, following the advice of Saggers nursery in Newport, Essex. Saggers give really good advice. In fact most of the best plants and stunning shrubs in our garden come from them. Being privately owned they are a good bet compared to the more commercial local nursery gardens. This is Rosa Banksiae ‘Lutea’, a rambling rose that does not drop its leaves in winter in this part of the world. It’s also virtually thornless and the clusters of small double petalled...
read moreFlowers from the garden: April
Yesterday it was the birthday of the two Carols in my life. My friend Carol and her namesake, Carol the chicken. As my pal doesn’t have chickens at her new house I thought she might like a box of fresh organic eggs to celebrate her big day, we had three in the larder and another three in the nesting box. This was perfect as two large brown eggs had been laid by Carol. I also found a chicken card in our desk and signed it with the sort of signature that I thought Carol (chicken) would like. A Heavy, ponderous claw. I jumped into Jalopy...
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