Garden Designer Jackie Currie and Plant Heritage won a Gold Medal for their ‘National Plant Collections Everywhere!’ exhibit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021! This stunning exhibit showcased plants from National Plant Collections grown inside living rooms, glasshouses, gardens, and allotments, across the UK.
One of the stars of the exhibit was the Salvia caymanensis, grown by John and Linsey Pink who hold a National Collection of Salvias.
For one year only, the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show 2021 has moved to September! How has the change of date affected this event? Moving from a late spring show to an early autumn spectacle has opened Chelsea’s door to allow new VIP (very important plant) access for late summer flowering perennials, berries, seed heads, dahlias, pumpkins, tomatoes, and vegetables!
Welcome to my Autumn & Winter Snowdrop Gardens, Talks, Events, and Open Days Calendar! I want to help you discover the most beautiful and magnificent snowdrop gardens. These gardens open to allow visitors the chance to experience the joy of visiting their snowdrop collections. However, it’s not just garden openings in this calendar, you’ll also find details of snowdrop talks, lectures, webinars, virtual and online events, and any other lovely snowdrop events happening this autumn, winter, and spring!
At this time of year, foxglove flowers pulsate with the relaxing, soothing sound of summer, as bees hum happily whilst they disappear in and out of the tubular flowers.
Foxgloves are superb plants for bees; they’re fantastic plants for gardeners, too! These obliging plants are self-supporting and rarely need any assistance. Water your seedlings in dry weather until they’ve settled in; once they’re established, foxgloves are fairly drought tolerant and slug resistant.
Here’s my calendar with the dates and details of plant sales, festivals, and other super opportunities to buy wonderful, locally grown plants! Great quality, rare, hard to find, unusual, choice plants and old favourites can all be found at the specialist plant fairs, plant sales, plant and seed swaps, and other events that I have listed for you below.
This is Aerangis citrata, a miniature orchid species, that’s endemic to Madagascar.
Aerangis citrata namingThe genus ‘Aerangis’ gets its name from the Greek words aer (air) and angos (vessel or container), as plants grow in the air (epiphytically) using aerial roots, and the flowers each feature a nectar filled spur. The second part of the name, (the specific epithet) ‘citrata’, refers to this orchid’s flowers, which are sometimes pale lemon in colour, when they first open.
If you’re looking for a superb day out this springtime, I’ve got plenty of ideas for you! Here are some cheerful daffodil gardens where you can take an uplifting walk among the glowing daffodil flowers, in the spring sunshine! Some of these gardens, like Winkworth Arboretum, are planted with early flowering daffodils that bloom in December, January, and February.
To see my 2022 calendar of Specialist Plant Fairs, Festivals, Sales, and Swaps, please click here.
Happy new year! Happy new plants! Here are the dates and details of plant sales, plant festivals, plant swaps, seed swaps, and other super opportunities to buy wonderful, locally grown plants at fantastic prices; as well as details of events where you can swap plants or seeds for free!
An annual event, held every year in September, the Heritage Open Days allow visitors to experience local history, culture, and architecture. The Heritage Open Days provide a rather wonderful opportunity to visit interesting, historic, beautiful, and important places, which are normally closed to the public. These special events also give visitors an opportunity to enjoy free entry to some rather lovely places that usually charge an admission fee.
I find that a little sparkle is especially welcome at this time of year. With this in mind, I’ve produced animations of some of the orchids I’ve grown that produce crystalline flowers, to hopefully bring some sparkle and plant related joy to your Christmas!
These absolutely fabulous orchids, produce flowers that naturally have a little hint of a sparkle within their petals – their flowers glisten in the light.
Welcome to the twelfth part of my Madagascar BiOrbAir Terrarium Trial – growing epiphytic orchids, which are endemic to Madagascar, inside the BiOrbAir terrarium. In this update, I am excited to share the delight of the snowy white, newly opened flowers of Aerangis citrata with you! Since my last update, I’ve introduced a few new orchids to this Madagascar BiOrbAir Terrarium and I’ve recently replaced the moss, to add a verdant green carpet to enhance the plants inside this special terrarium.
I always look forward to seeing Jonathan Hogarth and his beautiful displays of miniature Hostas at the RHS Chelsea and Hampton Court Flower Shows, so it was especially nice to have a chance to have a proper catch up with Jonathan this week; Jonathan has given me special permission to share his very best, tried and tested, Hosta growing tips with you!
Plant Heritage are a plant conservation charity, based in Guildford, that encourage horticulturists, botanists, and gardeners to grow, propagate, share, and conserve a wide range of plants to protect and safeguard the variety of plants we have available to grow and enjoy. This year, Plant Heritage are celebrating their 40th anniversary, so to mark the occasion they asked garden designer Jackie Currie to create an exhibit for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018, to publicise the value of Plant Heritage’s work.
I love to visit the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, for me this is the most prestigious and exciting event of the horticultural calendar! I enjoy seeing Chelsea’s show gardens of every size and style, I am always interested to discover the latest gardening products, and I really look forward to finding new favourite plants, whilst being reminded of old favourites. I so enjoy visiting Chelsea’s Grand Pavilion, which is filled with over one hundred exhibits created by expert growers, from nurseries that seem to specialise in growing almost every kind of plant.
This weekend, I have been admiring the beauty and grace of some of my orchids that are in flower. I am very fortunate to have been able to gather my orchid collection together; I don’t want to keep these orchids away from prying eyes, far from it – I’d love to share their flowers with you!
I love to visit the Grand Pavilion at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show! This vast arena, which extends to almost three acres in size, is filled with super exhibits created by around one hundred specialist nurseries during the week of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. It’s such a joy to visit! If you’re looking for some new plants, and you don’t have a particular variety or species in mind, visiting specialist nurseries, or enjoying a day out at a specialist plant fair, or a flower show, such as the RHS Chelsea Flower Show or the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, can help to connect you with your new favourite plant or plants!
It may surprise you to know that in the garden, as well as on the catwalk, fashions change and evolve, often quicker than we expect. A plant that’s regarded as a ‘must have’ plant one minute, can soon be taken for granted and neglected, before being cast aside to make way for the latest modern plant introductions, when the superseded ‘must have’ plant is then at risk of being forgotten, often within a shorter time period than you might anticipate.
When I was a child, it was my aim that by the time I became an adult I would have saved up sufficient funds to purchase, and forever after protect a beautiful woodland or forest, and at least one meadow! I haven’t succeeded in my aim – I sadly have been unable to protect any of our woodlands, forests, or meadows, but I still feel just as passionately about plant conservation.
I love our planet, I love plants and nature. I want to protect our environment. I want to live more sustainably. Sustainability is not a new desire for me, it is something that I have always aspired to. Firstly though I must tell you that I am far from perfect, I make mistakes and I am always learning. I want to improve, I want to make changes to live more sustainably and to live ethically.
Daffodils are such cheerful flowers, heralding the start of springtime, they are a joy to behold. There are many different varieties of daffodils, so consequently you can find daffodils flowering from as early as December until late May, and beyond in cooler areas of the country. Which is wonderful, as it provides us with plenty of time to enjoy and appreciate the daffodil’s beauty!
