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

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

-forgiving whiteness has gone and left behind it … well, a lot of soggy, mucky chaos. Hedges are staggering slightly after supporting all that weight and my flower borders look about as attractive as roadside ditches. I tend to leave my herbaceous plants standing

March is not really prime garden visiting time: a few gardens with specialist collections are open for the wonderful National Gardens Scheme, but most of them are keeping their powder dry in readiness for spring and summer.However, gardeners still

closes, if you look closely then spring is visible everywhere. We have buds fattening as quickly as a troupe of bun-loving chubbies and the pointy shoots of bulbs push themselves through the cold soil. These are stark reminders that soon things will need

.Stachyurus praecox - deciduous shrub that grows to about 3m high. The hanging, greenish flowers in early spring (before the leaves appear) are very pretty. Leaves good in autumn as well.Magnolia denudata - one of the finest magnolias which flowers a couple of weeks