After the snowdrops - celandines

by David Andrews

In about a month’s time, the snowdrop season will be drawing to a close - white blobs to some, to others their subtle variations a source of endless fascination. But a new season will then begin for the connoisseurs of the lesser celandine who eagerly inspect their seedlings Read more

Winter into Spring

by Tim Ingram

Winter turning into spring is one of the most evocative and wonderful times in the garden. Some of the earliest flowers are the hellebores which begin to grow through milder spells in the height of winter, and can be had in flower from December right through to April or even May. Read more

Snowdrop mania - a very modern phenomenon

Snowdrop mania - healthy obsession or madness?

Leucoium bulbosum praecox minus - Timely flouring bulbous Violet

“The first of these bulbous Violets riseth out of the ground, with two small leaves flat and crested, of an overworne greene colour, betweene the which riseth up a small and tender stalke of two hands high; Read more

Confessions of a snowdrop addict

by Sue Clayton

‘The secret of being happy is being obsessed by something’ - David Bellamy Read more

Bulbs from seed

by Gill Regan

In the third article based on the talks given at the Seedling Swap in April 2006, Gill Regan shares with us the hard-won secrets of growing bulbs from seed. The many striking photographs that accompanied her talk showed that, after early setbacks, she has clearly discovered a successful formula. Read more

Trees and shrubs from seed

by Jeremy Spon

The second talk given at our first Seedling Swap in April 2006 dealt with the pleasures and principles – and the few pitfalls – of growing trees and shrubs from seed. Jeremy Spon’s infectious enthusiasm comes across in print, just as it did in his talk.

In my talk at the Seedling Swap, I tried to address two main questions: how to grow trees and shrubs from seed? And why? Of the two, I think the second is in a way more important. Read more

‘Some grasses grown from seed’

by Virginia Oakes

In April 2006 we had our first ever Seedling Swap. It was a great success and much enjoyed by everyone who attended. Three members gave presentations on different aspects of growing from seed and over the next three issues of the newsletter there will be a transcript of each one. Hopefully they will show all those members who didn’t manage to attend just what they missed and encourage them to join in next year.
Here then is the first one, ‘Some grasses grown from seed’ by Virginia Oakes. Read more

‘A Purple Patch’

- a period of success or good fortune

by Virginia Oakes

What better way can there be to spend a bleak mid-winter afternoon than mulling over last years gardening successes - and failures - and looking forward in anticipation to what might be achieved in the coming year? It was on just such an occasion that I came across these shots and remembered how much pleasure these two plants had given and what a lot of comment they had attracted from everyone who visited us – but for somewhat different reasons. Read more