Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life
Dusk was falling when I saw these sweet little roses tumbling amongst some kind of daisies. I wouldn’t have imagined they would make good plant companions, but I thought they looked a pretty pair – the ornate, fully double blooms seemed to contrast well with the simple candour of the daisies. Continue reading “Pink roses with white daisies”
This clematis was a head-turner of a plant. I felt like one of the paparazzi as I lined up with jostling amateur and professional photographers at a recent flower show for my chance to take its picture.
The attraction? Masses of white flowers with showy, fully double centres in shades of purple and green hanging gracefully from a compact vine. I captured these blooms open, in their best finery, but if you search online, you’ll discover a rather strange assortment of pictures. They’re testimony to the way the flower changes as it opens from a gawky youngster to something much more regal. Continue reading “Clematis florida Viennetta”
It’s a terrible pun, but The Wellbeing Of Women garden was the one to wow me at this year’s RHS Hampton Court Flower Show. I wasn’t alone: it won the prestigious People’s Choice in the Small Garden category. Continue reading “Hampton Court Flower Show’s WOW garden”
We were about to leave the RHS Tatton Park Flower Show when we stumbled upon my garden of the day. Lovers of the quintessential English Romantic garden style read on – this one’s for you! Continue reading “The Sunset Garden by Tamara Bridge”
I often post about cottage garden plants, more rarely about the homes themselves. These beautiful thatched cottages (neighbours of Hidcote Manor Gardens) show the love owners of traditional homes often have for climbing and rambling roses. Continue reading “Traditional homes and cottage garden plants”
I took these pictures of fenced gardens earlier this year on a brief visit to the historic district of Colonial Williamsburg. I don’t see many white picket fences at home in Lancashire: dry stone walls are more our thing.
These fences seemed as much symbolic as functional: a way of staking a claim to an area; an imposing of some kind of order. The gates were unlocked so visitors could wander freely from one garden to another. In some places, they were low enough to step over. Continue reading “Symbol: white picket fence”
Susan Rushton 