In and out of fashion – EDP Newspaper Sept 27th 2008
In the mid 19th century, a craze had begun for planting exotics outside as well as in. Fabulous displays were created in the larger cities, with massed beds of flamboyantly coloured plants laid out in intricate, often geometric patterns.
One of the earliest Victorian proponents of the new style of bedding was John Gibson, who produced [...]
Fit for changing climes – EDP Newspaper Sept 13th 2008
Since you’re all probably sick to death of the weather, let’s forget it and focus on a desirable family of plants that can take almost everything our changing climate can throw at it without getting covered in mildew or rotting or falling over. The specie is Pseudopanax, a name I’m sure we will be hearing [...]
A dazzling late show – EDP Newspaper – Sept 6th 2008
Only last week I was writing about it being the wettest August for 100 years and now it’s been revealed that it was also one of the most dismally overcast on record! But we Norfolk people are a tenacious lot, tackling whatever the heavens throw at us in our stride.
Now September is here and the [...]
Feathery friends – EDP Newspaper – Aug 23rd 2008
When I moved into my house way back in 1982, apart from the large amount of borage, brambles and couch grass, there were several old clumps of the common Male fern Dryopteris filix-mas and some of those ancient clumps are still in the garden today.
Along with bracken this is the commonest British fern, found in [...]
Exotic giants with a history – EDP Newspaper Aug 16th 2008
Until the latter part of the 20th century prehistoric tree ferns were rare in the British Isles, apart from some of the well-known stands in Cornwall and other southerly parts of England and of course ‘Inverewe Gardens’ in Scotland where they are bathed in the winter by warmth from the Gulf stream and where I [...]
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