Ideally flicking through a Summers Place Auctions (summersplaceauctions.com) catalogue of their forthcoming auction of Garden and Natural History on 14th and 15th April, my eye was caught by Lot 336: ‘A collection of Pulhamite stone: 19th-century’. What on earth is Pulhamite
Having just been given a handsome new book ‘Secret Gardens of the Cotswolds’ by Victoria Summerley (wwwfranceslincoln.co.uk) my thoughts naturally turned to the ‘secret gardens of East Kent. The Abbey Physic Community Garden (www.faversham.org/community/clubs/abbey_physic_garden) in the ancient market town of Faversham
Anyone encountering the ancient art of chestnut coppicing for the first time must wonder why a great swathe of woodland has apparently been wantonly chopped down. Aren’t we meant to be protecting forests and woodland at home as well as in far flung exotic climes? The answer is
These days snowdrops are all the rage and more and more special ‘Snowdrop Days’ are springing up each year all over the country. But it was not always thus ‘One hardly ever heard about them when I first started gardening’ Margaret, Lady FitzWalter told
Nothing lifts the soul like a waft of a delicious scent in the garden at this time of year particularly so in the bitterly cold days we have all experienced this past week. Wandering round the garden eagerly looking for signs of snowdrops
‘You won’t get SAD syndrome if you grow Hamamelis’ (a.k.a. witch hazel) says Chris Lane of www.witchhazelnursery.com. I defy anyone to feel sad after meeting nurseryman Chris. He is a remarkable man literally brimming with horticultural knowledge and enthusiasm. It
Window boxes in towns and cities really come into their own in the dank winter months. In the summer there are flowers to be seen at every turn, in parks, square gardens, window boxes not forgetting many florists displays spilling out across
‘A day not in a garden is a day wasted’ says the celebrated garden photographer, Marianne Majerus. (www.mariannemajerus.com) and @MarianneMajeru5. What does it take to become one of the leading international garden photographers I recently asked Marianne? ‘The more you
Border Lines Early January can only mean one thing to avid garden visitors – the arrival on their doorstep of the latest Border Lines brochure. www.border-lines.co.uk now in its twenty-eighth year specialises in exclusive garden tours both in Britain and
At last the age old thorny problem of what clothes to wear when gardening has been solved by two lady gardening whizzes. Genus Performance Gardenwear (www.genus.gs) was established just over a year ago by Sue O’Neil, a sexagenarian entrepreneur. It
Sitting at a wedding or a charity event have you ever wondered what eventually happens to the floral decorations? The chances are that their final destiny is to be dumped into a landfill site. Three cheers for the imaginative ‘green’ charity ‘Floral Angels’ www.floralangels.com
Philip Johnson of wwww.johnsonssweetpeas .co.uk has been captivated by sweet peas ever since his childhood. ’I first grew them when I was 9 years old’. A doyen of sweet pea aficionados Philip is extraordinarily knowledgeable about sweet peas and more