We had an impromptu Sissinghurst skip on Sunday, children, grandparents and all, so I thought I would share a few pics of what’s going on. Tulips These are the last tulip pics I will post for this year. I almost promise. I had to admire this wonderful red-with-a-hint-of cerise-and-crimson lily-flowered tulip. I couldn’t find a…
Category: Bulbs
In a vase on Monday: EMERGENCY RESCUE!
I wasn’t planning to post this morning, as I don’t want to fatigue my readers. However the foul weather (swirling winds, torrential rain) meant I had to perform an emergency rescue on my tulips. These poor things were in danger of getting their necks broken. So was I. The rescue situation explains why some blooms…
Aging Beauties
I am infinitely more at ease with the way I look in my forties compared with my teens, twenties or thirties. I have heard women complain that they feel invisible as they age, but maybe I felt too visible when I was younger. Or visible for the wrong reasons. I was judged on what I…
Six Softies on Saturday
Inspired by all the other Six on Saturday posts which feature the dreamy tulip ‘Angelique’, I thought I would add a few soft and creamy ones of my own. Six on Saturday is where The Propagator invites garden bloggers from around the world to share six things going on in our garden right now. 1. Tulips ‘Jazz’…
A Profusion of Pots at Perch Hill
I went for total indulgence in the hot spell last week. I reasoned that it was too hot for serious gardening, so I may as well visit other gardens and bask in the tulip displays. So on Friday it was Great Dixter and on Saturday I took the family to Sarah Raven’s Open Garden at Perch Hill….
Good morning, my fine feathered friends!
The title is an homage to one of my favourite children’s books, Quentin Blake’s Cockatoos. Each morning Professor Dupont, a dapper chap, jumps out of bed, takes a shower, cleans his teeth, gets dressed, ties his tie, adjusts his spectacles and goes downstairs. He goes into his conservatory and there are all his cockatoos. He throws wide…
A Perfect Day at Great Dixter
I’ve always felt that in any one year, there is one perfect ice-cream. Usually near the start of summer, or even late spring, often the first really warm day. You find the ice-cream van at just the right time, and its Mr Whippy is just the right consistency, and the 99 flake is just the…
Opening to the Sun!
Something magical happened on Saturday: the sun came out! And stayed out! You could hear gardeners around the country stampeding to their back doors to get their wellies on! But once I’d had a little potter around, a bit of weeding here and there, I decided I just had to sit in the sun. Here,…
Unripe Tulips
These last few days have been like the big climb on a rollercoaster, where it goes really really slowly, slower, slower…almost stops…you can see the whole theme park below you… You know any second now, it’s all going to happen, and your breath is going to be taken away, and you will feel the most…
In a vase on Monday: recovered gems
I so loved the arrangement by Cathy, Words and Herbs last week, so I thought I would do something similar with glass bottles and jars. There is Hyacinth ‘Woodstock’ (the deeper purple), ‘Jan Bos’ (the pink), a rogue little tulip ‘Passionale’ who escaped by excavations in the raised bed last year, Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae (‘Mrs Robb’s Bonnet’), Crocus…
Peeling back the layers at Great Dixter
On Saturday it was the Great Dixter plant sale. I have never visited Dixter so early in the season, generally visiting for the tulips in late spring, and again in the summer, for the dahlias and annuals. Great Dixter (in East Sussex but near the border with Kent) was the home of the late Christopher…
