I love Canna Lilies, They are tough given water, tropical looking and a great vertical accent plant. Shame that so many people used them so badly over the years in huge undiluted blobs (you know who you are!). A friend from Queensland, Frank Hogan, has been selecting new forms and protecting heritage clones for years …
Grasses have become something of a fashion statement in gardening around the world and rightly so as no other group of plants can give the textural look one can get from grasses (although I have to say when seen with other strappy leafed plants in many modern gardens to the exclusion of all else it …
I love any plant with the elegance of Solomon’s Seal and this Chinese woodlander is very like an evergreen version. It grows to as much as 60cms. tall with arching stems and in my form soft lemon bells in spring hanging below the elegant stems. Unlike Solomon’s Seal it is evergreen and the stems branch …
This shade loving woodland perennial from Taiwan is from a Genus only just making some impact in horticulture. It is evergreen and grows to about 20cms. tall and is related to Polygonatum (Solomon’s Seal) and looks very like a small evergreen version. Its arching stems produce nodding white bells in spring with an almost black …
This North American woodlander has become one of my favourite ground cover plants for moist shade. Its lovely kidney shaped leaves cover the ground with a weed suppressing mat year round and in only a couple of years it has covered about 2 square metres. It grows to about 30cms. tall and falling leaves drop …
Yes there is a plant named after me!! Wait till Canna ‘Stephen Ryan’ hits the market. In the mean time for the record this plant (and the Canna) were named after me not by me! My Dahlia is type cast, it is simple,single, virginal white, self supporting and slightly scented! It flowers for ages and …
I truly think that edibles can and should be part of the ornamental aspect of a garden, not that I’m advocating one of those flower filled vegie gardens which you feel you can’t pick a lettuce leaf for fear of ruining the show. If I can however find a pretty form of something that is …
I first met this plant at Crug Farm Nursery in Wales and even without flowers or even any idea into what family it belonged I was smitten. It is an Asian woodlander and I still find it hard to believe that it is a daisy! the leaves when they first erupt from the ground look …
This dainty little woodland perennial from North America is surprisingly hardy in a slightly shaded aspect,coping with some dry in summer and in my garden it will burn off and come again when the soil is remoistened if I inadvertently miss watering it, not that I recommend such slack behaviour! It has pale green foliage …
Until just a few moments ago when I was about to blog this plant I would have done so under the name Scilla greilhuberi but such is the flux in plant nomenclature that it doesn’t pay to assume anything! What ever this rarely grown Iranian Blue Bells botanical name is it is a great garden plant. …