One plant that has coped well with the heavy rain and muggy atmospehere interspresed with some all to brief sunny moments is the wonderful ELEPHANT’S EARS or , if you prefer the Latin name - Colocasia Esculenta

This is an absolutely fabulous exotic with enormous leaves up to 30cm across by 90cm long. The leaves are [...]

Tags: elephants ears

House prices may be going down but there is one way you can make your house more attractive to buyers:
INSTALL A RAIN-WATER HARVESTING SYSTEM
According to a UK survey, sponsored by Save the Rain a significant proportion of homeowners (1 in 3) would be more likely to buy a house if a rainwater harvesting system was [...]

Tags: rainwater harvesting

It appears that the current wet conditions in the UK have created a new horticultural condition -
GREEN FINGERED GRIEF?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/aug/18/gardens.gardeningadvice
The RHS reports that half of all callers to its plant advisory service are currently expressing concern about their damaged plants. It appears that many gardeners feel personally connected to their plants as they have often [...]

Here is a very amazed lady called Mrs Hermione Morrison looking at an enormous flowering Agave which towers 25ft over her home in Helston, Cornwall. Mrs Morrison, 70, planted this in her garden in 1982 after bringing it back as a tiny seedling from a holiday in Gibraltar.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1043993/Pictured-The-rare-plant-towers-owners-house-Britains-barmy-weather-causes-grow-25ft-weeks.htmlAgave,
Large Agave plants like [...]

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Thanks to both and Nancy and Karen for their lovely comments on yesterday’s blog. Great coincidence that Karen should mention Hibiscus Red Heart as I read her comment just after I had taken the pics for this next blog.
The idea came to me when I saw the sun streaming through my kitchen window for just [...]

Tags: hibiscus

My garden experienced every type of weather today - spectacular sunshine at 9am, gale force winds at midday, monsoon showers this afternoon and then, at 6pm, a rainbow cast its magical shape over Lewes Castle.

Not what you expect on this special day, known as the Glorious Twelfth since it marks the opening of the [...]

The Guardian ran a story today about Professor Bob Watson, Defra’s Chief Advisor, warning that we should be prepared to adapt to a global temperature rise of 4c.

The most interesting piece of this article for me is that the Guardian decided to lead with a picture and caption that sums up exactly what Global [...]

The 3 melon plants that Ruth gave me earlier this summer are now down to one. The other two withered and died when I was away for a few days which was a shame but completely my fault.
This remaining plant is thriving on my south-facing patio and I am keeping a very close eye [...]

I visited Kerala in Southern India during 2005 and witnessed for myself the wonderful plants that grow abundantly in “God’s own Country”.This experience was the seed for Global Gardening. Could rising temperatures in the future mean that a few of these tropical and exotic delights might survive in my UK garden?
Kerala [...]

Will Giles did not win the Channel 5 Garden Award even though the judges praised his Exotic Garden for its originality and strong visual impact.
The winner was a cottage garden that captures the traditonal feel that some gardeners still favour.
The chances are that, within a few weeks, this style of herbacous planting will [...]

Tags: Exotics