Going to the dogs

A few years ago I wrote a handful of entries for a coffee table book called 1001 Gardens You Must See Before You Die. The book was pretty comprehensive, covering gardens in North America, Asia, Central and South America, Africa, New Zealand and of course the UK. While the section on English gardens contained all [...]

Right, time to kick yourselves. The answer to Mystery guess #12 is not a caterpillar, the lower spike of a trachycarpus or any other palm – it’s a close-up of the flower spike from that moisture-loving, giant leaved architectural perennial from South America, Gunnera manicata. Alas, nobody came up with the right answer, so I’ll [...]

A woodland garden Although I spend most of my time bashing out (sorry, finely crafting) features on the computer keyboard, I am lucky enough to escape my office at least once a week to visit a garden and interview its owner. This year I’ve been to urban gardens in London, Bristol and Wolverhampton, along with [...]

I have to admit that up until a few hours ago everything I knew about oriental poppies could have been written down on a teeny weeny scrap of paper. However, after spending a rainy afternoon at Water Meadow Nursery in Cheriton, Hampshire, I am now intimate with all things papaver. If you’ve never been to [...]