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Daily Flower Candy: Petasites fragrans (Winter Heliotrope)
Our flying visit to Cornwall was punctuated by heavy showers and sunny spells. Farmland around St Agnes was sodden, little tin streams swollen and beaches stripped bare by the storm tides. But where...
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Daily Flower Candy – Leptospermum scoparium ‘Coral Candy’
What is marvellous about gardening is that one is always discovering new things. Last weekend I spotted this pretty Leptospermum, flowering its socks off by the war memorial in St Ives, Cornwall. The...
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Daily Flower Candy: Sarcococca ruscifolia
Venturing out of the terrace doors this morning I am hit, full frontal, by the scent of Christmas Box, Sarcococca ruscifolia. The fragrance coming from the feathery white flowers is sweet, honeyed,...
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Daily Flower Candy: Helleborus argutifolius
Easy to overlook for half the gardening year, Helleborus argutifolius, the Corsican hellebore, is coming into its own right now. From mounds of jade green serrated leaves, flowers of the lightest apple...
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Daily Flower Candy: Schizostylis ‘Pink Princess’
Like a bemused child that has awoken with a start, the blushing, innocent flowers of Schizostylis ‘Pink Princess’ have opened their eyes during the midst of our watery winter. Kaffir lilies, as they...
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Daily Flower Candy: Iris reticulata ‘Katherine Hodgkin’
Not many plants break the rules when it comes to flower colour. Fewer still manage to do it successfully:’ blue’ roses for example. Just occasionally one stumbles upon a flower which does things...
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Daily Flower Candy: Crocus ‘Snow Bunting’ AGM
The problem with crocuses is that no sun + strong winds = flattened blooms that never progress beyond promising buds. Hailing from central Europe and Mediterranean regions, crocuses are bulbs for open...
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Daily Flower Candies: Helleborus foetidus & Iris foetidissima
One might consider it wise to steer well clear of any plant with a latin name ending foetidus or foetidissima. After all the epithet means bad-smelling, or having a fetid odour; something most of us...
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Daily Flower Candy: Crocus tomassinianus ‘Roseus’
Many of us will be familiar with diminutive Crocus tomassinianus, which pops up through lawns and borders in early spring, leaping from the sward like flames from a gas hob. The species seeds itself...
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Daily Flower Candy: Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii
Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii has featured once already in Daily Flower Candy, but I couldn’t resist including a photograph taken this weekend in our local park, where it has formed rolling...
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Daily Flower Candy: Clematis armandii
Good news! Our Clematis armandii is back from its travels. Last May I reported its escape from our garden, but the adventurous vine has now scrambled so high into our neighbour’s trees that we can...
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Daily Flower Candy – Narcissus actaea AGM
Sparkling like diamonds in the sward of St James’ Park, as the morning sun rises over London, this is Narcissus actaea. It’s an old fashioned variety, introduced in 1919, that’s sometimes referred to...
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Daily Flower Candy – Tulipa ‘Czar Peter’
I’ve been to Sissinghurst today, so am spoilt for choice when it comes to spring sweeties to feature as flower candy. Sorry to disappoint, but I am going to resist temptation and save Sissinghurst’s...
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Daily Flower Candy – Anemone apennina
The last time I had a full week away from work was last August, so I am, in a word, exhausted. Our forthcoming break in Cornwall is so keenly anticipated that I am afraid it may have rather too much to...
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Daily Flower Candy – Magnolia ‘Apollo’
When it comes to magnolias, rhododendrons and camellias there is nowhere in Britain quite like Cornwall. It’s to our most south-westerly county that many of the great plant hunters sent their...
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Daily Flower Candy: Olearia phloggopappa ‘Combers Pink’
Nestled deep in the Ashdown Forest, East Sussex, was the location for one of our Christmas photo shoots. It may sound strange, but I live and breath Christmas all year round; it’s my job. Somehow I’ve...
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Daily Flower Candy: Crataegus monogyna
Three cheers for the May Day Bank Holiday. Hip hip, hooray! A Sunday night free of work worries, an extra day in the garden and then just four days until the next weekend. What could be wrong with...
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Daily Flower Candy: Lotus berthelotii
In case you haven’t noticed I am a sucker for anything colourful, exotic and expensive looking. This goes for food, cocktails, shirts, wallpaper and yes, plants too. I am a dreadful magpie, unable to...
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Daily Flower Candy: Lilium ‘Pink Flavour’
I have a new favourite lily and it’s called ‘Pink Flavour’. The bulbs were an impulse, end of season purchase from Sarah Raven and I didn’t have a place for them, so into a pot they went. Within weeks...
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Daily Flower Candy – Campanula lactiflora
I have been a little quiet of late and that’s for three reasons. The first is work, which has been abnormally busy. The second and third are garden related. In London we have been building raised beds...
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