My Garden

The Hampton Court Palace Flower Show presents the perfect combination of temptation and availability! At Chelsea some wondrous plants, brand new introductions as well as old friends, are on display - but you can't buy them and take them home; you have to place your order and wait for them to be delivered... Read more..

As the exhibitors put the final touches to their floral displays in preparation for this afternoon's judging - in the welcome shelter of the marquees as the rain pelts down outside - I spotted some treats on the exhibit being staged by Rosy Hardy of Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants . Rosy always... Read more..

Every year since 1982, rose experts have chosen a Rose of the Year . ‘Mountbatten' was the first, and the 2009 winner was launched at yesterday's press preview of the show - ‘Lucky', bred by Gareth Fryer . A gorgeous Floribunda (cluster-flowered) rose with an old-fashioned air, ‘Lucky'... Read more..

Sandra Bond has been coming to Hampton Court for many years with hostas from her Suffolk nursery, Goldbrook Plants . She always features mature specimens grown in large pots on her exhibits and a couple of new introductions caught my eye. ‘Rise and Shine’ makes a neat plant, the rounded leaves with their... Read more..

This week I'm at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, dodging the downpours by taking shelter in the floral pavilions and hunting out the interesting plants. I'm blogging about them from the show every day until Sunday when it closes. You can find my posts here . Highlights so far? Spectacular... Read more..

All this week the multicoloured exhibit of lilies from Wilford Bulbs has brought sunshine to a very soggy show and now the rain has passed us by for a change it still gleams brightly. But I was struck by something unexpected: there were very few familiar varieties on show. A quick check in the RHS Plant... Read more..

For some people – men, mostly, it has to be said – it’s how hot chilli peppers are that counts. But for Perry and Ali Drew-Cook of Cookoo Box Chillies there’s far more too it. They’ve been growing chillies for twenty years so they’ve seen enthusiasm grow, especially in the last five or six years. “Chillies... Read more..

There’s nothing so flamboyant as a dahlia. But the Gold Medal winning exhibit from The National Dahlia Collection held in Cornwall by Winchester Growers, featuring both traditional varieties and some too new to have been seen before, proves that they can also be subtle and refined. And what a range.... Read more..

In recent years what seems like floods of heucheras have appeared in nurseries. These fine foliage plants for the front of the border and for containers provide colour in a wide range of unique shades. Many are good, a few, it has to be said are, not good at all - and a few are simply superb. After the... Read more..

The Hampton Court show is over… the work begins on restoring the turf to its natural state. I’ve been hunting out interesting plants all week and all through the floral marquees there are plants to catch the eye. Many never feature in the TV coverage or in other write-ups so now let’s round up some more... Read more..