A new bursary report from Selina Tan and Zoe Roberts from Kew Gardens reports on their trip to Bhutan, partly funded by the HPS. They describe the trip as: The project will involve a 5-day working week at the Royal Botanical Garden, Serbithang, where we will help with the installation…

As I finished last month talking of bees on beans, here is a shot of the flowers of my Runner Beans this year – showing, I think why they were originally introduced as ornamentals here:- The white flowers are “Moonlight” and the red are “Best of All”. I try and…

It’s that time of year to re think the perennial borders. I like to leave as much interest as possible on display, even if it’s the various structure of foliage until the frost takes them, in addition to that I leave dried seed heads and stems of various perennials through…

This month:- compost experiments; some fruit and vegetable progress; thoughts on pollination techniques.  But first following on from last month’s article, I am just going to finish the path clearing jobs with a shot of the wiggly stakes I use for pushing geraniums, back, and their effect:- Hopefully you can…

Helleborus – Orientalis It’s just not easy to spot an entire Hellebore plant at this time of year that doesn’t display the fungal signs of black spot on the leaves. Helleborus orientalis the Lenten rose seems particularly susceptible as with  the caulescent species of Hellebores. Hellebores do of course display…

Posted on 02.03.2023 | Updated on 03.03.2023 | Added in Sheila May’s Blog Snowdrops  It is two years since I talked about snowdrops and the famous snowdrop gardens that inspired my love of the little plants, so I thought I would write about some more gardens and plants that we…

Galanthus nivalisThere are about  20 species of the common snowdrop Galanthus nivalis, but as a genus it is far more widespread, comprising approximately 1,500 cultivars ! Snowdrops were introduced into this country in the late 16 century from europe. Unfortunately the current  Conservation Status of Galanthus is near threatened !…

Posted on 10.02.2023 | Added in Sheila May’s Blog Drought this summer – Hardy Plant Seeds winners and losers in our garden 1. Let’s start with a stalwart February star plant – Crocus tommasinianus – here flowering under the plum trees in our orchard:- These flowers are a vital source…

Posted on 07.01.2023 | Added in Sheila May’s Blog Drought this summer – a giant winner, and how the vegetable garden coped Happy New Year.  Let’s start with a giant winner from the heat and drought of this summer.  You would expect Yucca filamentosa to have coped well with that…

Posted on 05.12.2022 | Added in Sheila May’s Blog Drought this summer – winners and losers in our garden (2) Continuing on with my review of winners and losers in our decorative garden this year of drought and heat. As you all know, we have almost no topsoil to speak…

Posted on 29.11.2022 | Added in Tales From My Wildlife Allotment We have had a very mild autumn with only one frosty night so far. Leaves are still hanging on many of the trees and some plants are still flowering. It is quite unusual that plants which normally flower at…

Posted on 11.11.2022 | Added in Sheila May’s Blog Drought this summer – winners and losers in our garden (1)   I shall start with a current star plant that began flowering in September and was still going strong til the end of October – Cyclamen hederifolium ‘Album’ – growing under…

Posted on 01.11.2022 | Added in Tales From My Wildlife Allotment After a cold start to October with one frosty night with -2C it has since then turned quite mild with temperatures reaching 20C during the day and night temperatures around 10C. Some plants have started growing again and the…

Posted on 14.10.2022 | Added in Eco Plant Whisperer Salvia x jamensis ‘Hot Lips’ Salvias comprise approximately 1000 species of annuals & perennials that belong to the family ( Lamiaceae) from South America. At the Lakeside Garden we have been propagating and increasing on a collection of various Salvia species…

Posted on 04.10.2022 | Added in Sheila May’s Blog Variations in my self sown Aquilegias In May I mentioned that I have a lot of Aquilegia vulgaris in the garden and that I leave their seedheads so they can self-seed and hybridize, just removing the dirty pale pink ones that…

Posted on 30.09.2022 | Added in Tales From My Wildlife Allotment The little bit of rain we had earlier this month unfortunately did not last long and everything is now quite dry again. At least the grass has turned green again and started growing so I had to get the…

Added in Sheila May’s Blog Variations in my self sown Common Spotted Orchids You may recall when I wrote a series of articles regarding letting the grass grow, and seeing what comes up in it and I told you about my great delight in finding Common Spotted Orchids (Dactylorhiza fuchsii)…

At the beginning of the year I decided to treat myself to a sculpture for the garden. The difficulty being that I didn’t know what I wanted! I knew what I didn’t want, so at least that was a start. The next stage was to make a list of ‘wants…

Do all gardeners go through plant phases? Is it a collecting bug, similar to collecting fine china or antiques? Over the years I have just had to have as many Kniphofias, Crocosmias, Celmisias, Daphnes, Geraniums. Clematis and Erodiums as I could lay my hands on. Have I got room for…

Late last summer, while visiting Ron and Susan McBeaths garden (ex curator of Edinburgh Botanic Gardens) in Lamberton, Berwickshire, with a friend, I was chatting, as you do, to another visitor, who my friend knew very well, as he was the person responsible for Scottish Rock Gardening Club seed packing.…

Pyracantha For many years I have bought plants purely because I have liked them, seen them in other gardens, on photographs or in nurseries. Got them home and basically plonked them in the garden wherever I could find a space -in my book this is called haphazard cottage gardening. It…

Coming back from this year’s bus trip, I was asked how I managed to get Dieramas to flower. My response was that not only do they flower for me but that they were a nuisance in that they seed themselves everywhere and that I constantly had to weed them out.…

12 Pot Theatre We’ve all been there! Having to collect all the plants of a certain genus, then growing tired of them, turfing out some but keeping your favourites. So far, for me it has been Geranium, Kniphofia, Crocosmia and Celmisia. Daphne, Scutellaria, Clematis, Anemone and Erodiums are still in…

Over the years I have purchased dozens of Trilliums. As one of my ‘must have’plants, for quite some time now, I have purchased many different varieties. Trillium albidum I get them home, plant them in the garden, admire them for a while, and then they disappear without trace. Suddenly, one…