Summer’s end

The swifts have left which always seems like the end of summer but the garden is still full of colour and will be for a month or more. Our NGS open days are next weekend 2nd and 3rd September. We chose this late time because we think the garden looks lovely at this...

Whan that April with his shoures soote …

April has certainly lived up to Chaucer’s expectations this year. Showers have been heavy and unpredictable. I have been drenched more than once even though we can often see the rain approaching from our vantage point here high above the weald. Despite, or...

The last of the snowdrops

It has been a wonderful snowdrop year. Why? Perhaps last year’s hot summer baked the dormant bulbs as is normal in their natural habitats in Greece, Turkey and eastern Europe. Rain came in abundance in the autumn when they would have been putting down roots. So...

Countdown to NGS open days

Despite endless rain followed by bitter cold and freezing ground the snowdrops keep appearing and Oh they are so good to see! The very earliest, Donald Sims, Mrs Macnamara and Three Ships, are over. But now we are seeing more and more of the most ravishing varieties....

The beginning of the snowdrop idyll

How my heart lifts to see the first snowdrops and they have appeared on time which was a relief after the extraordinary weather in 2022. I don’t really count the autumn flowerers as they come too early to spark optimism but Donald Sims began to flower at the end...