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than plant a rose or another wisteria - there might be some unpleasantness hiding in the soil - I decided to stick with annual climbers. We usually have morning glories (Ipomoea species) in pots, so I moved one of them to fill in and it did an admirable

better against a pale background - the darker varieties in particular get a bit lost against the naked soil of February.These irises are terribly easy to grow: plant the bulbs in autumn at about twice their own depth and wait. Clumps can be divided

taste delicious and are much loved by Jekka's dog, and her extensive collection of myrtles. It is always fascinating to visit a proper growing nursery where you can see the plants at every stage, from little baby seedlings to the larger plants

, is surrounded by a thick belt of trees that some far-sighted and very sensible forebear planted. This gives the gardens enough shelter from the Atlantic gales to allow all sorts of interesting things to thrive. So far, so good. However, one of the problems

I have just ordered a whopping great pile of manure. A couple of weeks ago we finished cutting everything back and hunting down any perennial weeds that were hiding beneath the plants in readiness for mulching: had it not snowed we would have

with the original layout and ending here with its new stripy look. All we need now are some plants.But which plants? I managed to salvage some box, a shedload of Crocosmia 'Lucifer', buckets of rapidly sprouting Nectaroscordum siculum and a few anemones, so

my previous blog and this is their reply:Dear Mr Alexander-SinclairMany thanks for your enquiry. For some years we have noticed an unusual number of wisteria dying, and indeed have suffered casualties amongst the Wisley wisteria. There are probably

Over the years, I've taken a lot of photographs. There are photographs of various gardens - my own, other people’s, show gardens, gardens I have visited and front gardens I have passed in the street. And then there are other subjects, including plants

to love was Gerard Mullen's "Home abhaile" - clean modernist rendered walls with windows showing the view of the lake and some good pockets of planting: well done but not exactly original. I have seen it before and the point of shows like

was beavering away naming things in Sweden and new plants were being discovered and brought back to Europe by the barrowload.Commerson decided to start his own herbarium which task he set about with great enthusiasm - so much enthusiasm, in fact, that many