Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life
Look away now if you never entertain a fanciful thought. Or just ignore the words and see what you make of this odd assortment of images.
For those who are still with me, this post was inspired by a smattering of comments left recently by people who sense the faerie world around them – you know who you are! Since then, I’ve thought of fairies when looking at some of my pictures. Continue reading “Friday Fancy: Fairy Places”
My sweetheart calls Azaleas ‘party girls’, because they burst into flower, divert our attention from everything around them, drop their flowers and then leave things looking a bit boring. His words, not mine! But while they last… Continue reading “Azaleas In Flower”
You might claim this is just on the edge of too much – too bright, too packed, too flowery, if there is such a thing.
It’s the latest in my series of pictures for dreaming. You may need to rein in your imaginations to prevent your senses overloading, especially if you were thinking of adding in bees hovering and humming and birds flying overhead. Continue reading “Flower Fantasia”
I’m offering another picture for dreaming – the view looking down a path framed with garden arches at Chatsworth House. We visited the garden for the first time last year on the same day as the RHS Chatsworth Flower Show. Continue reading “Underneath The Arches”
An English Rose that pretty much has it all. The flowers are huge, fragrant, and very distinctive because of their deeply cupped flower form, although you can’t really appreciate the depth of the bloom from this angle. The colour is classic rose pink. It’s a shrubby type of rose, but fairly compact, with stems sturdy enough to bear the weight of the flowers. Continue reading “Rosa ‘Princess Alexandra Of Kent’”
My picture today is another one for dreaming over for those who have the power to sit down here in their minds and spend a moment enjoying the spring flowers, the view and the fresh air.
Today, I’m offering you a picture to dream over: Clematis ‘Perle d’Azur, Rosa ‘Rêve d’Or’ (the pale apricot climber) and Stachys byzantina with a pink moss rose and papaver at RHS Rosemoor.
Clematis and roses have been planted together in cottage gardens for centuries.
The art of combination planting is to mix plants that will extend the flowering season (just how many buds are there on the moss rose?); be harmonious in colour and contrasting in height and texture (the soft lamb’s ear, the prickly roses) and in flower shape. The lamb’s ear brings its spires; the poppy, cups; the roses are rosettes, and the clematis are single, open flowers. The clematis provides height and a mass of purple-blue, which goes so well with the pastel pinks and apricots. There’s a climbing rose too. For good measure, the roses throw scent into the mix. Continue reading “Classic Combination Planting: Clematis With Roses”
Susan Rushton 