Tag: Plants

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Wilde Weelde, Floriade: a Partnership Between Humans and Nature

Wilde Weelde flower border with heleniums

While your eye may naturally pick out the flowers, when I was face-to-face with this memorable landscape, I marvelled at that long, structured wall of tree trunks and re-purposed construction materials in the background. The fauna wall was by far the biggest insect hotel I’d ever seen.

Ash logs and reclaimed material in the fauna wall

Broad swathes of the Wilde Weelde garden’s boundary are made from small sections of logs of different diameters, stacked leaving gaps between them – the log version of a dry stone wall, you might say. The effect reminded me of the ramparts of a castle, except these walls have gaps that a raider could saunter through. Continue reading “Wilde Weelde, Floriade: a Partnership Between Humans and Nature”

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Southport’s Summer Flower Show is Back at Last

Dahlias displayed as cupcakes at the Southport Flower Show
Dahlias displayed as cupcakes by The Dahlia Society’s Northern Committee

After a two-year hiatus, courtesy of the pandemic, the Southport Flower Show was back in style for its 91st year.  This northern show has something for everyone – even well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome. For those who couldn’t make it, here are some of my pictures:

Burgundy and silver leaf begonia leaves, Dibleys Nurseries stand, Southport
Dibleys Nurseries’ display of begonias with burgundy and silver leaves

Continue reading “Southport’s Summer Flower Show is Back at Last”

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Cooper-Young Annual Garden Walk, 2022, Memphis, Tennessee

Blue bottle tree with red rose

We recently visited Memphis for one of the most eagerly anticipated gardening events in the American South: two days where 90 or so private gardens in the historic Cooper-Young district of Memphis throw open their gates to band-wearing members of the public.

While a suggested route took in many of the highlights, as first-timers, we decided to explore each quadrant as fully as we could. That’s not a light undertaking – Cooper-Young claims to host the largest garden walk in the Mid-South. If there’s one with a better mix of gardens of all styles and skill levels, or a more welcoming one, I want to see it. Continue reading “Cooper-Young Annual Garden Walk, 2022, Memphis, Tennessee”

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The Last Days of Ebullient Ralph Sowell’s Daffodil Collection

Small flowered daffodils

My sweetheart was sorry to hear that his affable gardening friend Ralph Sowell of Jackson, Mississippi, had died and, because his printing company’s property was to be repurposed, his raised beds brimming with many dozens of award-winning daffodils and hybrid daylilies had to go.

It turned out that the garden needed to be emptied more quickly than expected, and unfortunately the daffodils were at the peak of bloom or just about to flower. Bulbs physically empty out when they produce flowers and need a few weeks of sunlight energy hitting the growing leaves to re-fatten for next season. The size and diversity of Ralph’s collection added an extra challenge. Continue reading “The Last Days of Ebullient Ralph Sowell’s Daffodil Collection”