Tag: Weekly HighlightsPage 9 of 32

Fibre but not optic

A clump of contrasting foliage within a mixed border is always welcome. A border full of Lysimachia ciliata is a different matter. This North American native has an…

Hedge your bets 5 of 5: Maintenance

  Maintenance Maintain a weed free root zone. Water establishing plants in a prolonged dry spell. Only cut when the bird nesting season is over. Forming the shape…

Hedge your bets 4 of 5

Hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna, the stock fence on farmland. Deciduous, spiny, flowering, berrying and impenetrable to livestock. These days, often cut with a tractor mounted flail mower. Craftsmen traditionally…

Hedge your bets 3 of 5: Tsuga heterophylla

Tsuga heterophylla, the Western Hemlock, neat and dense, withstands close clipping and retains its shape. A tree of forest proportions in its native Western North America. A Pacific…

Golfing Azaleas

If you have been watching the Masters 2014 Golf from Augusta, Georgia, USA you may have spotted the Rhododendrons (Azaleas) in flower particularly at the 12 and 13…

Hedge your bets: Holly 2 of 5, Hedge your bets: Holly, Ilex aquifolium

When does a hedge become a windbreak? The attached image illustrates Ilex growing in the Garden. As a windbreak the plants are left to grow, gaining not just…

Hedge your bets 1 of 5

Hedges are integral to the design and ecology of the garden. Forget the quick fix provided by larchlap panels, take time to make a choice of the many…

Ercilla volubilis

A spectacular Chilean climber in full flower this week.                  

Pacific plum : Oemleria cerasiformis

This, a deciduous suckering shrub, native to the Pacific coast of North America making a straggling untidy plant. Oemleria cerasiformis, leafs out from the last days of February….

Latua pubiflora

Latua pubiflora has been in flower intermitently since January this year and is still going strong! Click here for more information

Scoliopus bigelovii

Scoliopus bigelovii is referred to as having quaint flowers by the Alpine Garden Society in their Encyclopaedia of Alpines. The RHS dictionary of Gardening is more specific, mentioning…

Perfect for the woodland floor: Chrysosplenium macrophyllum

A mass planting of Chrysosplenium macrophyllum in the woodland garden is looking its best with a profusion of flowers. Botanically, a terminal cymose inflorescence, a selection of Chrysoplenium…

First flight of the Forsythia : Forsythia x intermedia ‘Spring Glory’

It must be spring, the Forsythia has coloured up. Noticeable colour in the buds clothing the bare stems is the first sign that we are pulling out of…

Yet more Mediterranean scents; Iris unguicularis ssp. cretensis

Continuing from last weeks post with the theme of flowers requiring warmth to release their scent is Iris unguicularis ssp. cretensis. A delightful compact species with, at bud…

Mediterranean scent, Clematis cirrhosa

Clematis cirrhosa is the strong growing evergreen climber that hangs around and above the wooden door leading through from the alpine area into the growing on area beyond….

Eranthis cilicica

Not needing the protection of the Alpine House but cultivated to perfection therein is a pot of Eranthis cilicia. This species has much smaller, narrower and linear foliage…

Season’s highlight, Rubus sp. ghostly white stems, dig out and divide for more plants.

A vigorous mass planting of white stemmed Rubus sp. had spread to the detriment of neighbouring, weaker growing plants. The ideal time to dig out the extensive mass…

The national tree

The Scots Pine is an iconic tree within the Scottish landscape. Easily recognisable with its reddish trunk, best appreciated during a west coast sunset when the rays from…

Seasonal plant of interest : Photinia serratifolia

Out with the mower on the 22nd; last Wednesday, topping off the Palm House lawns which with the mildness of the winter had that straggly appearance of uneven…

Seasonal Plant of Interest : Kalopanax septemlobus

Beneath the extensive branch framework of Kalopanax septemlobus lays a carpet of fallen fruit. Further from the canopy edge are seedlings that have germinated from viable seed that…