Monthly Archives: April 2011

James van Sweden, The Artful Garden

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Michael

I first met James van Sweden in 1995 when I was in America to take photographs for a book I was writing at the time on ornamental grasses. Not only was he the perfect host, introducing me to his office … Continue reading →

Posted in Gardening Books | 1 Comment

Blue Tulips

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Michael

My recent post on red tulips was intended to make a serious design point about using tulips as complementary plants in perennial meadow planting schemes; what follows is more of a celebration of what this incredible flower has to offer. … Continue reading →

Posted in Bulbs for the Garden | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Shady Perennial Meadows – a new e-Book

Posted on April 7, 2011 by Michael

Today, the final book in the Perennial Meadows series has been added to the  Design & Plant library – perennial meadow planting schemes for shade. By adopting the approach used to design the planting schemes in the other books in … Continue reading →

Posted in eBooks | Comments Off

Have ephemeral perennials a use?

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Michael

Well actually, yes, but it all depends on what we mean by an ephemeral perennial. Ephemeral things (from the Greek, ephemeros – literally, lasting only one day) exist only briefly, such plants may be short lived or flower only briefly. … Continue reading →

Posted in Meadows 101 | 1 Comment

The Queen pays my garden a visit

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Michael

Garden visiting is fraught with problems as I recently talked about in my guest post at Gardening Gone Wild. Last week Prince Willem-Alexander opened this year’s bulb festival at the Keukenhof in Lisse, South Holland; the theme had something to … Continue reading →

Posted in Art in the garden | Tagged , | 2 Comments