29th March

alpina ‘Blue Dancer’ looking good. Clematis alpina ‘Blue Dancer’ Clematis alpina ‘Blue Dancer’ Clematis alpina ‘Francis Rivis’ just coming out which is much darker in colour. Clematis alpina ‘Francis Rivis’…

18th December

…ivy berries in similar clusters. Schefflera alpina Schefflera alpina Schefflera alpina Schefflera alpina Some schefflera species flowered in late summer and some in mid autumn but the seeds are all…

6th April

…away in a glade but doing quite well. Does not look that ‘alpina’ to me! Schefflera alpina Schefflera alpina FJW’s cross of Rhododendron moorii x Rhododendron euchates just out by…

12th February

…head gardener at Mount Congreve originally in 2007. Phyllocladus trichomanoides var. alpina Phyllocladus trichomanoides var. alpina I was wrong yesterday. Rhododendron ‘Bo Peep’ (pink form) is full out above the…

5th July

…Clematis alpina ‘Frances Rivis’ Clematis alpina ‘Frances Rivis’ A leaky hose watering system. A leaky hose watering system Trachelospermum jasminoides and Rosa ‘Madame Alfred Carrière’. Trachelospermum jasminoides Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’…

16th July

…and is already 12ft tall. The new growth is oddly ‘umbrella-like’ and more attractive than I had thought. Schefflera alpina Schefflera alpina 2015 – CHW So another hunt for some…

6th July

…yet but there was last year. The side shoots have emerged as the plant now has more light following the pollarding of a nearby yew. Schefflera alpina Schefflera alpina The…

7th July

…brown or nearly black new growth. I have never seen this before. Schefflera alpina Schefflera alpina Another dead mature magnolia! This time Magnolia x brooklynensis ‘Woodsman’. No obvious cause. Magnolia…

23rd August

alpina Persicaria alpina Last week in Yorkshire I was photographing knapweed (Centaurea nigra). Here, in the nursery, is a cultivated form but still easily recognisable by flower and leaf shape…

27th August

…S. pauciflora. Schefflera alpina Schefflera alpina An elderly Rhododendron hookeri with attractive peeling bark which I had not taken in before. There are hairs on the leaf veins and at…

3rd November

…Again I missed the flowers despite looking through the summer. Schefflera alpina Schefflera alpina I suspect a cold winter will put paid to the current fad for these Taiwanese exotica…

17th April

…website and an old favourite or two as well: Clematis alpina ‘Broughton Bride’ Clematis alpina ‘Broughton Bride’ Polemonium ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Polemonium ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Pittosporum undulatum Pittosporum undulatum Isopogon…

8th July

…South African plant with rosemary-like leaves and rather better flowers. Gomphostigma virgatum Persicaria alpina is another new entry for the catalogue. Persicaria alpina Magnolia potting week in the nursery. Magnolia…

8th April

alpina is lovely. Mrs Butler x at its best. R fargesii at its very best. R lutescens going back. The Auklandii x Arboreum white and red come on well. A…

April 2024 Ireland Trip (Day 2)

…‘Pendula’) Despite looking like a Crataegus this is in fact the very rare and dwarfish Fraxinus xanthoxyloides var. dumosa. Fraxinus xanthoxyloides var. dumosa Nothofagus procera (alpina as it is now…

8th January 1897- 2020

…about 15 to 20 feet in height. They are surface and shallow rooted trees. Probably a Nothofagus alpina. small Nothofagus Camellia ‘Mary Costa’ is well out by the big Acer…