…scabra Azalea indica colours near the Top Lodge. At least half a dozen different plants. Most are sparse flowerers but one or two are covered. Two great banks of plants….

…has fared a little worse but has survived. Nearer the top of the banks above the greenhouse and in full sun. Cercidiphyllum japonicum ‘Strawberry’ A young Sorbus hedlundii (ex Roundabarrow)…

…six turned up). Sad news that Lawrence Banks of Hergest Croft garden has just died. One of the RHS titans of the woody plant world and a family friend for…

…a westerly gale is promised. The banks were only cut yesterday after all the wild flowers had seeded. If left any longer it would mean cutting the autumn cyclamen flowers….

…grants. How remarkably petty and spiteful (but typical) of them! Their chief medical officer’s performance rather sums it up.I attach a communication from Lawrence Banks with photographs. We had been…

…this is Umbilicus rupestris (pennywort or navelwort). I have mistakenly called it liverwort in the past. It grows on damp banks and on old shady trees where it is extremely…

…Knapweed, is really why we have decided not to cut the grassy banks outside the front door. The clumps are only just starting to flower but covered in butterflies, bees…

…Myrtus communis subsp tarrentina – just the odd single flower out now. Not much sign of myrtles yesterday at Osborne house despite their love of hot dry banks and self…

…what one would have expected in a meadow hedgerow.On the banks outside the front door we revisited the knapweeds. There are two recognised species of common knapweed, Centaurea, and the…

…where some 25 mature Dicksonia antarctica nestle in the quarry well protected from most winds and happily self ‘seeding’ up the banks. One tree fern is simply attached to the…