My Garden

New plants. There are more and more of them accompanied by more and more hype. But we all like to see the latest varieties and to try those which look especially enticing in our own gardens. So here I'll be bringing you news of the latest introductions - some too new even to be in the very latest... Read more..

This is not the only place I'm writing about new plants. Last month I wrote a piece for the Daily Telegraph about the top ten new perennials this spring. You can read it here . And over the last year I’ve been posting on new plants over on my Transatlantic Plantsman blog. You can find them all here... Read more..

Many of the Chelsea exhibitors will have new plants on display this year, but what does "new" actually mean? There are three main types of "new" Chelsea plants. 1. Plants which have never have been seen on display anywhere in the country - or perhaps anywhere in the world - before... Read more..

In the last few years echinaceas have come a long way - in terms of new colours at least. So far these have all been raised in America and Antonia Fiander at Future Primitive Plants in Worcestershire has just emailed to say that she now has stock of the latest to hit these shores - ‘Tiki Torch'.... Read more..

As well as over eighty new plants at Chelsea, this year sees the arrival of a couple of old timers - one over a hundred years old. Cayeux Iris from France will have four impressive new introductions at the Show but also on display will be Iris ‘Ma Mie', originally introduced in 1906. Click on the... Read more..

Derek Jarman at Hayloft Plants just emailed to tell me about the newcomers in their latest catalogue. Salvia greggii ‘Icing Sugar’ looks one of the best. Recalling the bicoloured flowers of Salvia x jamensis ‘Hot Lips’, the two-tone purple flowers of ‘Icing Sugar’ are carried on bushy, twiggy plants... Read more..

Sweet peas are always a special feature at Chelsea, and both sweet pea exhibitors were awarded Gold Medals this year. But somehow, in the hurly-burly of the show, my news of their four new sweet pea introductions never made it on to the new plants pages on the RHS Chelsea website. So let me just run... Read more..

In the last couple of years, a number of perennial coreopsis with fluted petals have arrived at nurseries. The fluted petals are formed when individual rays of the daisy-like flowers roll inwards at the edges and join to form a tube. This feature is also seen in a number of other members of the daisy... Read more..

Last summer, while losing my mobile phone in the luxuriant dahlia trial (and finding it again the next day) I realised that some visitors, overwhelmed by the flamboyant exhibition types, may have missed some of the best new dahlias of recent years. The Happy Series. which includes the dramatic Happy... Read more..

Coleus are enjoying a dramatic resurgence. Favourites in Victorian times both for indoor use and as summer bedders, as interest in formal bedding declined and fewer people kept heated greenhouses… well, interest waned. Even when container growing became so popular it took a while for gardeners to realise... Read more..