Plants in Season

Holly is strongly associated with Christmas. The blood red berries and spines gave the plant religious significance to early Christians but even earlier the Celts held the oak and holly […]

Autumn colours are the result of chemical reactions that occur as the leaves of deciduous trees begin to die. In summer, leaves produce food from sunlight through green chlorophyll.  As […]

With so many autumn bulbs in flower at the moment, we thought you might a look back at Stan da Prato’s blog post from November 2020. Many bulbs come from […]

Following the excellent talk by Jim Jermyn last night on plants for a woodland garden, Stan has sent in this wee blog featuring some of his favourite woodland saxifrages.  Those […]

The bright yellow flowers of oilseed rape have become a familiar sight in early summer. The plant is a brassica (cabbage family) and its name, rape, comes from the Latin […]

Gorse The bright yellow of gorse, Ulex europaeus, is now prominent in the countryside. This plant’s habit of flowering on and off throughout the year led to the saying that […]

Aquilegia belong to the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) and are at their best from the end of May into mid/late June. There are approximately 70 species of Aquilegia but the most […]

As the daffodils fade, tulips take over. Most tulips do not naturalise as well as daffodils as they originate in areas such as central Asia which do not have our […]

Daffodils, often in large plantings, are now brightening many parks and gardens. The more vigorous types such as the trumpets or large cupped are the most often seen.   Yellow is […]

Crocus are now brightening up many public open spaces.  They  like well-drained soil and sun. But do watch for mice as they like crocus corms. Unlike snowdrops crocus come in […]