Autumn Glory at Great Dixter

If you want to make me cry, just tell me you spotted bindweed in my garden.My grandma paid me by the hour when I was

Although I say it myself, the garden is looking pretty glorious at the moment and there is a lot of standing and staring being done; in the overall scheme of things, however, I have but a small part to play, as the roses, the clematis, the annuals, the dahlias and all the other plants in the garden go about their business more or less independently. Despite a floriferous fortnight or so and a massive thunderstorm last Sunday, the roses are still looking wonderful and should still be on top form next Sunday, when we open the garden for the NGS. Their impact is augmented by a gradual  injection of colour from the viticella clematis, which are just coming into bloom, as in the above picture where ‘Lady Emma Hamilton’ (lower left), ‘Crimson Glory’ (pergola) and ‘Rural England’ (a mass of pink froth in the apple trees) are boosted by Clematis ‘Margot Koster’ and ‘Madame Julia Correvon’.

Sedum Spectabile Autumn Joy brings great colour to the border when so many other perennials have gone over.

We planted the Hebe Autumn Glory in our front garden four years ago.

Morning glories are vigorous vines that can grow ten feet tall or larger, producing attractive funnel-shaped blooms through the summer.In order to maximize the quantity of bl

Morning glories are the radish of the flowering vine family, easy to grow and fast, to boot.Most of the types of common morning glory, or Ipomoea p

If you want to adorn your garden with some stunning blooms, then we have the best Types of Morning Glory Flowers that you can grow!

Paths of Glory   In my rambly scrambly hillside garden there are some very pleasing planting combinations, but the hard paving is another matter entirely. It survives from a period in the mid 20th century when the house was a wing of a very small (12 pupils!) girls’ boarding school.

Spring Plant Fair at Great Dixter I have been in horticultural heaven this week with plenty of gardening at home, the visit to Sissinghurst and a day at the Spring Fair at Great Dixter. It really is the most wonderful event – masterminded by Fergus Garrett – and I found myself thinking that had Christo been there, he would have been predictably grumpy at first, but ultimately thrilled that his protégé had devised an event so entirely in keeping with the spirit of Great Dixter.

For the second year running this fair snuck up on me, but at least this time I knew before rather than after the event.  It was an absolutely glorious hot autumnal day with many wonderful plants, bulbs and seeds for sale.  I resisted most because of the building work creating chaos in the garden – but I did succumb to a purple leaved Silk Tree Albizia ‘Summer Chocolate’ which will go in the bed which is due to be totally replanted.  

I went to an event at Dixter on a decidedly wet and blustery day – and braved the weather for long enough to see how the garden was looking ‘off-season’. The answer, unsurprisingly, is that even on a miserable winter’s day it looked remarkably good. The shrubs and trees give the borders structure that sustains them with their many textures and shapes. Even the tropical g

Autumn Sown, Well Grown I know I do bang on about it, but autumn sowing of hardy annuals in a greenhouse or coldframe really does make all the difference. At a time when the light levels are low and leaf growth slows right down, the young plants are able to put most of their energy into growing a substantial root system which will get them off to a flying start when they are planted out in the spring.