This has to be Beth Chatto who is celebrated at a wonderful exhibiton opening today at the newly designed Musuem of Garden History in London. http://www.gardenmuseum.org.uk
This remarkable lady is 85 and yet she is still as inspirational as ever. She is a plants-woman, designer, author, 10-time gold-medal winner at Chelsea, holder of the Royal Horticultural [...]

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 [...]

Tags: agave

An amazing Morning Glory in the sunshine to welcome you back to my blog!
Thanks to everyone who has been posting encouraging messages about my Hampton Court and Eco Gardening Secrets from Africa stories - much appreciated. Comments from Dagny, Eric Bronson, Willem Von Cotthem and Intercontinental Gardener now up-loaded. Please do keep these [...]

Tags: Mediterranean plants, oleander

It is unlikely that we will ever grow mangos in the UK but, I have just had my first taste of exotic fruit gardening - Ruth presented me with 3 melon plants that she has grown from seed.
The plan is to plant them outside as, according to the RHS, rising average night temperatures in March [...]

Tags: citrus

This is perhaps the most popular flower in the world and well placed to adapt to climate change.
According to fossil evidence, the rose is over 35 million years old .The cultivation of roses began in Asia around 5000 years ago, and they have been a part of the human experience ever since, appearing in ancient [...]

Tags: roses

Kew Gardens planted The Mediterranean Garden last year to educate and encourage gardeners to think about the wide range of drought loving plants that will survive our hotter summers. The plants are well established despite the record summer rainfall of 2007. http://www.kew.org/medsummer/mediterranean/index.htm

Normally, the native wild plants of the Mediterranean like dry conditions .The garden [...]

Tags: lavender, Mediterranean plants

My first Mediterranean shrub was a beautiful pink oleander, inspired by wonderful holidays at a friend’s villa on the Portuguse Algave.Oleanders are wonderful evergreen plants with delicate flowers in shades of deep pink to white.

I bought this plant during the very hot 2006 summer when it flowered continually throughout the drought from June to September. [...]

Tags: oleander

The predicted high temperatures arrived today together with some brilliant sunshine - made me feel like I was back in Southern Italy. At 3pm the temperature gauge registered 23c, by 7pm it was still 15c and even at 10pm tonight it had only gone down to 10c which is a very mild evening.
The best thing [...]

Tags: agapanthus

May has arrived at last. I hope it brings higher temperatures and plenty more sun to the garden.
Looks like it is starting well - below is the scene I woke up to in Lewes this morning - sunshine really does make everywhere look extremely inviting. The bright mauve aliums are in full bloom - [...]

Here are just a few flower pictures from my trip to Calabria in Italy.
The pink messembryanthemum are particularly good for underplanting. In the right hand picture they are used beneath some impressive architectural Agave plants - the dramatic spiky green leaves of the Agave provide a sharp contrast to the bright flowers .This [...]

Tags: cycads, Mediterranean plants