February has few attributes to recommend it, save its shortness and the occasional warm day towards the end of the month when spring really does feel as though it is coming upon us at last. Some of us might feel, come February, that winter has outstayed its welcome; but others, myself included, reckon that the…
I have been revising solidly for weeks. The weather has been most kind: too rainy to go for walks, too frozen to plant my new Sorbus cashmiriana, which has been waiting patiently in its pot, propped back against the wall with a sack of potting compost (or 'growing media', if the RHS insists.) Thanks to…
Madame Ganna Walska was a Polish beauty of enormous charisma, charm and energy. Her initial career was in opera, but her particular talents lay in two quite different directions: firstly, in making prudent marriages (she married a succession of men of huge wealth); secondly, in exotic, exuberant, and extravagant gardening. After divorcing for the sixth…
Continue reading ➞ Book review: Lessons From Great Gardeners by Matthew Biggs
With this month's warm and balmy temperatures, the garden has begun its slow explosion into green, starting of course with the snowdrops and dwarf irises, while narcissi and tulips line themselves up to begin their show next month. So, what is looking good in the garden this month? Looking Good Jobs This is the…
It is a little known (alternative) fact that Maria von Trapp was a keen galanthophile and collector of small vintage objects, and that the unabridged version of 'My Favourite Things' included a line about Snowdrops in Inkpots. I bet you'll be singing that in your head all day long now. The snowdrops are on the…
Continue reading ➞ Snowdrops in inkpots (and warm woollen mittens)
Do you ever forget the names of plants? I do, frequently. I have long conversations in my head that go along the lines of: "What is the name of that dratted plant? It's on the tip of my tongue, I know it begins with an ... M . It definitely begins with an M. Oh yes, it's…
Despite the title of this post, I don't mind February at all. It's a short and snappy month, the days are getting longer, there are lots of interesting jobs to get on with in the garden (tidying up, admiring snowdrops and hellebores, pruning clematis and so forth) and we always manage to get away to…
