Category: Gardening

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Plants with Impressive LinkedIn Profiles

Penstemon 'Stapleford Gem'

The Award of Garden Merit is one of the highest accolades a plant can officially acquire under the jurisdiction of the Royal Horticultural Society. I always smile at the British understatement in the official explanation:

AGM plants are:

  • Excellent for ordinary use in appropriate conditions
  • Available
  • Of good constitution
  • Essentially stable in form & colour
  • Reasonably resistant to pests & diseases

Though the wording is restrained (I often wonder how ‘excellent’ crept in there), it’s probably fair to say that AGM is the plant world’s equivalent of an impressive LinkedIn profile. It shows that influential people are willing to vouch for the variety.  Continue reading “Plants with Impressive LinkedIn Profiles”

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Bodnant Garden: One of Britain’s Best Rose Gardens

Rosa 'Grace'

Bodnant is a hillside garden with five grand terraces overlooking the Conway valley in Wales. Like so many of our best-loved gardens, it was created over several generations by a succession of enthusiasts.

I first visited as a child and mainly remember the grassy hillside above the ‘main’ gardens. Children are such funny creatures. I wonder if I was encouraged to run off a little energy there or taken on a lengthy hike? More recently my sweetheart and I have visited at various times of the year, though never in autumn. Gathering the pictures for this post has given me a longing to go and see the fall colours, so another visit may be imminent!

Interesting at any time of the year, Bodnant is spread over 80 acres, so most visitors will only manage to explore a fraction on a single visit. During the summer I’m sure many people make a beeline for the rose gardens on the upper and lower terraces.

White roses at Bodnant Gardens

The upper rose terrace is so long that it has room for several colour themes. I’m sharing the white roses for the moon garden lovers among us – just look at all those buds!   Continue reading “Bodnant Garden: One of Britain’s Best Rose Gardens”

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Dahlia ‘Twyning’s After Eight’

Dahlia 'Twyning's After Eight'

Dahlia ‘Twyning’s After Eight’ is one of the most popular of the dark foliage dahlias. The flowers are large and luminous, with pale pink veins and golden yellow centres, making a beautiful contrast with the purple-black foliage.

I had always assumed that this dusky dahlia was linked to Twinings tea, despite the ‘y’, the apostrophe and the thought of tea in the evening. In my rose days, I got several calls from their marketing team, keen to forge an alliance. Now I suspect Cadbury’s After Eights may have been the inspiration.

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Pelargonium L’élégante | Ivy leaf geranium

Ivy leaved pelargonium

This blushing geranium, technically, a pelargonium, has the good fortune to live in a traditional terracotta pot on a narrow ledge in a greenhouse at Stourhead, with several unusual varieties. I suppose that lends it some aristocratic credentials, although the aptly named P. L’élégante would be graceful even if a cutting somehow found itself transferred to the sunny windowsill of a greasy spoon caff. (Please don’t look like that – I’m not one of those who smuggle the odd plant cutting, though I cannot vouch the same for all people of my acquaintance).

When the pelargonium and I were formally introduced (this was at Stourhead, remember), its pretty white flowers seemed almost inconsequential compared to the foliage: tumbling, ivy shaped leaves with creamy margins, suffused pink.

Continue reading “Pelargonium L’élégante | Ivy leaf geranium”