Search - Articles

20,000 — so I try to visit as many of them as possible at this time of year. This is partly to see the fruits of all that labour, but also to make notes ready for the next planting season in autumn. Generally, as my family will happily tell you, I am

mistake.One of the very earliest flowering bulbs in many gardens is Iris reticulata, which is flowering away right now. It has the same shaped flowers as its early summer cousins with hanging falls, but without the distinctive beards (more like Siberian

November is the month to plant tulips. There are few things more wonderful in this world than to cradle a tulip bulb in your hand; the rustling wispy-crispy skin and the smooth, slightly clammy flesh. Supremely organised and efficient gardeners

m, flowers May/June.Allium 'Globemaster': a huge and spectacular mauvey number, with tight packed petals. Height 0.8m, flowers May/June.Allium hollandicum: probably the most popular variety. Dark purple, perky tennis ball sized flowerheads. Height 1m

I do love the garden in October - especially in the sunshine. In the early Spring it is all about hope and waiting: all that mulch and neatly tidied brown border. A month or so later and there is green stuff and bulbs all over the place. Then we

than Allium species. Then they send up tall slender stems (about 1.2m) topped with a tight bud, shaped like a torpedo. Over the next few weeks this bud gets fatter and fatter, while the membrane holding it in gets thinner and more papery. Some of you

, the bulbs haven't started and they had a fabulous morning.All I need to do is fill in the holes, fork over the compacted soil and wait. However, it is probable that there are many better ways of deterring moles rather than allowing two Tibetan terriers to do

candidates - lots of little bulbs cropping up all over the place, like snowdrops, crocus and Iris reticulata - and wonderfully scented Hamamelis mollis, Sarcococca and Daphne bholua.The winter stems were also looking particularly fine - in particular

and barrowing loads of muck all over the place. For a while everything will be empty and brown but beneath the soil roots will be stretching, bulbs will be shooting, worms will be worming and everything will be getting ready to sprout.But, for those of you

of year “in the green”. This means that they appear with leaves rather than as dried bulbs. You do not have to have a huge woodland in order to grow bluebells as they will grow happily under deciduous shrubs or along hedgelines.Like all the best things