Some Benton Irises

Sir Cedric Morris was a doubly gifted man, an accomplished, respected and successful artist and also a wonderful gardener who introduced an extraordinary range of beautiful irises. He established the East Anglian Art School at Benton End and also pursued his interest in breeding irises there. Reportedly, he would sow as many as a thousand …

A Safe Refuge.

In a way it might seem incongruous that a graveyard would be a place of wonderful life but it is often the case. An eagle-eyed friend in our little orchid circle spotted some orchids growing in a churchyard close to where she lives and investigated further. As it turned out she had spotted a small …

I was Moved by This.

My preferred morning is a gentle one, a slow start, a leisurely and quiet beginning to the day but I was moved into action this morning well ahead of my more comfortable schedule and it was a tree which prompted this uncharacteristic exuberance - for, to me, anything beyond a quiet breakfast, a gentle chat …

Tulips in Their Pots.

A pictorial look at tulips in the garden at the moment, mainly those purchased last autumn for pot culture and display and destined to be short-lived garden plants as is their breeding. They are bright and cheering while in flower and a wonderful addition to the garden. And individually:

This Week in the Garden in Photographs.

It has been a beautiful week, a week of marvellous weather and long days outdoors spent in the gardening. I was going to write "working" in the garden but it is more a pastime, a gentle time of light jobs, of bits and pieces, of this and that but no major projects and plenty of …

Prodigiously Prolific.

Lionel and Helen (Meg) Richardson were breeders of daffodils, based at Prospect House, Kilcohan, in Waterford City. The house still stands, now surrounded by modern housing estates which also cover what was previously the Richardson’s farmland – they kept Jersey cows for milk and also grew tomatoes commercially – and the family name is given …

A Wet Day with Beautiful Flowers.

The good weather of earlier in the week has gone. That bright crispness and that sharp coolness in the air have given way to dullness, mistiness, clamminess and a general feeling of misery and no opportunity to garden. Were it tomorrow, November 1st, I could make a timelier quotation of Thomas Hood’s poem, “November” but, …

Drummond and Nelson

Dr. E. Charles Nelson has enriched my gardening for over twenty five years though it has been a disappointment that I have never had a plant from him – he has a special interest in plants of Irish origin or connection and he grows a few that I would give my eye teeth for. Charles …

Every Dog has it Day!

“Let Hercules himself do what he may, The cat will mew, and dog will have his day”, wrote Shakespeare in Hamlet around 1600, and the saying may well be applied to our garden plants for it is a regular occurrence that a year may arrive when a plant gives a display far beyond and far …

The Thug in the Rain

This glaringly red poppy, Papaver orientalis 'Allegro', has been in and out of favour with us since we grew it from seed and planted it in the garden almost thirty years ago. So disgusted did we become with it at one time that we dug it out only for some remaining roots to send up …