Overwintering Bananas One plant that flaunts its summer clothes but survives the winter chill in just a lightweight jacket is Musa Basjoo - otherwise known as the Hardy Banana. It is hardy in the UK in the sense that the cold won't kill it and if it dies back it will [...]
Autumn frosts have blackened my dahlias and brought out the fiery colours in my acer and Iris seedheads. I've been keeping warm in the greenhouse, reading an incredible book about gardening in war zones, and joining the committee of my Horticultral Society.
Edelweiss accident A few weeks ago I experimented with sowing seed from my Edelweiss flowers. I followed advice from members of the Alpine Garden Society, which I have joined. I was excited to see some germination in the pot and whilst it's possible that the tiny green seedlings could have [...]
Chrysanthemum 'Avignon Pink' I meet many people who turn their noses up at Chrysanthemums. Undoubtedly, the gaudier selections at supermarkets and petrol stations are not the best advertisement for these flowers. If you grow them yourself, however, you can find some amazing varieties for autumnal flower arrangements. Very soon, my [...]
The garden is showing so much colour at the moment - showcased beautifully in the glorious sunshine this week and clinging on for dear life in the high winds. This week I share some pretty flowers, am proud mum to baby Echeveria and set a mystery shrub identification challenge.
It's been another glorious week for gardening with warm bright days. If it wasn't for the darker evenings and tell-tale reddening of the leaves I could believe it was early summer. Some of the stalwarts of June are still flowering magnificently, such as my roses. The dahlias, asters and sedum [...]
This week we had frost in the Chilterns. The days have been balmy and sunny but the clear nights, which revealed the big harvest moon, brought temperatures right down. The frost was only visible on my car windscreen and insufficient to blacken my dahlias which continue to bloom away. The [...]
This week I drove a family member to an appointment in Rutland and was delighted as it gave me the opportunity to spend a day at Barnsdale Garden. You could call it a horticultural pilgrimage as I was a big fan of Geoff Hamilton's Gardeners World in the late eighties and [...]
It's Dahlia a-go-go in my garden at the moment and these blowsy beauties are providing sought after late summer colour. I've not featured six of one type of plant in previous Six on Saturdays, but with my garden overflowing with dahlias, this is the week. I'm growing almost twenty types [...]
