Category Archives: flowering bulbs

My Garden Journal 2018 – March

Posted on April 12, 2018 by greenbenchramblings

Into the third month of the year and we should now be seeing the cheerful signs of early spring. Spring should start the birds singing afresh. We should expect to see green returning to the garden as freshly-burst buds bring … Continue reading →

Posted in birds, flowering bulbs, garden wildlife, gardening, gardens, irises, natural pest control, spring bulbs, spring gardening, trees | Tagged Avocet garden, bird boxes, ferns, gardening, hebes, insect homes, iris, iris reticulata, spring, spring garden, winter garden | 2 Comments

The Dingle Garden in Welshpool – March

Posted on April 5, 2018 by greenbenchramblings

We returned to the Dingle Garden and Nurseries for the third time this year, hoping for signs of spring but having experienced such bad weather recently we were expecting few changes at all. We always enjoy a wander around the … Continue reading →

Posted in flowering bulbs, garden paths, garden photography, gardening, gardens, gardens open to the public, National Garden Scheme, nurseries, ornamental trees and shrubs, pathways, Powis, Powys, trees, Wales, Winter Gardening, winter gardens, woodland, woodlands, Yellow Book Gardens | Tagged bark colour, coloured stems, flower buds, gardens of Powys, gardens of Wales, leaf buds, Powis, Powys, shrubs in winter, texture, textured bark, The Dingle Nurseries, The Dingle Welshpool, winter, winter garden, winter gardening | 1 Comment

A Favourite Winter Garden – Dunham Massey

Posted on March 18, 2018 by greenbenchramblings

This will be our third visit to the relatively new winter garden at Dunham Massey, a National Trust property in Cheshire, our neighbouring county to the north of our home county, Shropshire. The leaflets concerning the garden refer to it … Continue reading →

Posted in flowering bulbs, garden design, garden photography, gardening, gardens, gardens open to the public, hardy perennials, irises, light quality, National Trust, ornamental grasses, ornamental trees and shrubs, shrubs, spring bulbs, The National Trust, trees, Winter Gardening, winter gardens | Tagged acers., bergenias, betula, birches, carex, cornus, dogwoods, ferns, flowering bulbs, groundcover, shrubs in winter, snowdrops, winter, winter garden, winter gardening, witch hazels | 3 Comments

A canal-side garden in winter – John’s Garden Part 1

Posted on March 12, 2018 by greenbenchramblings

We have visited “John’s Garden” before in the height of summer and really enjoyed it, so much so that we were determined to re-visit at different times of the year. We imagined it would be an effective all-year garden. Mid-February … Continue reading →

Posted in colours, flowering bulbs, garden design, garden furniture, garden photography, garden ponds, garden pools, garden seat, garden seating, gardening, gardens, gardens open to the public, grasses, hardy perennials, light, light quality, NGS, ornamental grasses, ornamental trees and shrubs, photography, sculpture, shrubs, spring bulbs, trees, water in the garden, Winter Gardening, winter gardens, Yellow Book Gardens | Tagged cloud pruning, conifers, creative pruning, deciduous trees, garden sculpture, hamamelis, outdoor sculpture, shrubs in winter, snowdrops, topiary., transparency pruning, winter, winter garden, winter gardening, winter gardens, witch hazels | 2 Comments

My Garden Journal 2018 – February

Posted on March 1, 2018 by greenbenchramblings

Part two of my 2018 Garden Journal sees us still freezing cold and struggling to get time in the garden. I opened my February entries by noting, “February is the month when we feel that the quality of the light … Continue reading →

Posted in colours, flowering bulbs, garden design, garden photography, gardening, gardens, grasses, hardy perennials, irises, light, light quality, ornamental grasses, ornamental trees and shrubs, roses, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, shrubs, South Shropshire, spring bulbs, Winter Gardening, winter gardens | Tagged arum, cornus, cornus mas, Cornus Midwinter Fire, dogwoods, fastigiate plants, flowering bulbs, grasses, iris, iris reticulata, ornamental grasses, shrubs in winter, spring bulbs, viburnum, winter, winter aconite, winter garden, winter gardening | 2 Comments

My Garden Journal 2018 – January

Posted on February 4, 2018 by greenbenchramblings

Welcome to another year of my garden journal. This first post is all about a very cold January, but we decided to defy the weather and garden anyway. So let’s see what is going on at Avocet and share with … Continue reading →

Posted in climbing plants, flowering bulbs, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, hardy perennials, shrubs, spring bulbs, Winter Gardening, winter gardens | Tagged beneficial insects, berries, daphne bholua, hamamelis, hedera, insect homes, insect hotels, insect shelters, ivies, shrubs in winter, winter, winter garden, winter gardening, witch hazels | 6 Comments

What’s in a name? Hesperantha or Schizostylis?

Posted on January 11, 2018 by greenbenchramblings

The beautiful Kaffir Lily doesn’t deserve the botanists playing around with its name. It is such a useful garden plant, graceful, colourful, easy, flexible and it even flowers at a time of year when few plants are doing so, from … Continue reading →