Harlow Carr is no longer the Royal Horticulture Society’s only northern garden, and not the biggest, but has the benefit of an extra 70 years or so of continuous cultivation. Highlights for me include wonderful collections of primula and meconopsis, typically in flower around mid June to early July. The collections mingle in naturalistic drifts, their bold colours sparkling like jewels in their stream-side setting. Continue reading “RHS Harlow Carr: Candelabra Primulas, Blue Poppies And Other Treasures”
Using Birch in the Garden for Light, Rhythm and Texture

Today, I’m featuring gardens that use birch trees to great effect. Flower lovers sometimes overlook trees, but if you can imagine these gardens without their chalky trunks, you’ll take away more than you might anticipate. Our eyes would hunger for them, were they absent. Continue reading “Using Birch in the Garden for Light, Rhythm and Texture”
Wordless Wednesday: Flower Garden
Bluebells of Different Colours in a Cottage Garden
I often walk by this sweet cottage garden and pause to take a picture. I don’t think it is ever prettier than in spring when the bluebells are out in force, mixed with daisy type flowers I’d say were osteospermums were they not so early, and classic wildflowers such as forget-me-nots. Continue reading “Bluebells of Different Colours in a Cottage Garden”
Decorative Arched Footbridge, Desert Wash, East Ruston, Norfolk
While this wooden footbridge prompted my post, I thought I’d add a few words about Old Vicarage Gardens in East Ruston where it can be found. Like many English gardens, it’s a series of themed garden rooms that make the most of micro-climates, both natural and created.
Being close to the North Sea, the garden doesn’t have the arid conditions or unrelenting sun we associate with a desert landscape but yucca, aloe, agave, dasylirion and cactus seem happy there in the Arizona-inspired Desert Wash. Continue reading “Decorative Arched Footbridge, Desert Wash, East Ruston, Norfolk”
Plants Outside the Gardener’s Bothy at Rousham
I wonder how many different cultivars there are in this small collection of pelargoniums and other potted plants at Rousham in Oxfordshire? Continue reading “Plants Outside the Gardener’s Bothy at Rousham”
Salvia sclarea var. turkestanica at Rosemoor (and a Rant)
Clary sage is a biennial or short lived perennial. Showy white flowers, with pink bracts and lavender hoods tower above the leaves. Continue reading “Salvia sclarea var. turkestanica at Rosemoor (and a Rant)”