Tag: Flowers

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The Lizard’s Rose (And Yellow Star Jasmine)

Creamy-white rose with double flowers

For several years my sweetheart has been growing a white rose that has been very reliable in his Mississippi garden. I have my fingers crossed as I write. He’s due back home this week and will find out how many plants have survived the summer’s drought, which is reported to have killed even well-established plants.

If the rose has survived unscathed it will have been thoroughly tested. A couple of cold spells last winter put paid to a fine rosemary bush that had been growing beside it and bit off star jasmine below ground level. Continue reading “The Lizard’s Rose (And Yellow Star Jasmine)”

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Osa pulchra: a rare tropical plant that needs a midwife

Osa pulchra flowering at Kew

Last month I was lucky to see a rare tropical shrub/small tree, Osa pulchra, in full bloom. Huge, trumpet-shaped flowers hung just overhead, still and improbable, translucent against light pouring through the magnificent high roof of one of Kew Garden’s conservatories.

At the time I didn’t understand what I was looking at, but I knew it was special. To an observer I must have appeared like a human version of the His Master’s Voice dog. Continue reading “Osa pulchra: a rare tropical plant that needs a midwife”

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Carol Klein’s Iconic Horticultural Hero Garden

Drumstick alliums in Carol Klein's Iconic Horticultural Hero garden, Hampton Court

Plant combinations fascinate me, so I loved the way these flowers, foliage and billowing grasses were painting their lines and colours against the textured background of a gravel mulch in the most alluring feature garden at this year’s Hampton Court Flower Show.

The effect previewed the romantic, soft planting trend that would be taken further at the Tatton Park Show a few weeks later.

The plants pictured here include:
Allium sphaerocephalon (drumstick allium; purple)
Galactities tomentosa alba (milk thistle; creamy-white)
Verbena officinalis var grandiflora ‘Bampton’ (vervain Bampton; lavender-pink)
Erigeron ‘Dimity’ (fleabane; pink)
Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’ (catmint; lavender-blue)
Santolina chamaecyparissus (cotton lavender; yellow)
Stipa tenuissima (Mexican feather grass) Continue reading “Carol Klein’s Iconic Horticultural Hero Garden”

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Black and Dusky Flowers

Black spotted hellebore
Black spotted hellebore

Black flowers are relatively uncommon, and gardeners will understand that a breeder (or a blogger) calling a flower black does not make it so. Then when you do find inky black flowers, they’re not easy to photograph. The quality of light can highlight or conceal whatever blue, purple, red and even green tones are present.

My first shot is one of my favourites. Regular readers who visit my blog directly rather than via the WordPress Reader may recognise it from my sidebar, where I used to keep it. It is overdue an outing.

Double black hellebore
Double black hellebore

My second naturally lacks contrast, so will be difficult to make out if you’re visiting on a phone, but it is a hellebore too, this time a fully double one. Continue reading “Black and Dusky Flowers”