Doddington Place Gardens

Near Sittingbourne, Kent.

No Name Nursery

Posted: December 14th, 2022

To visit the intriguingly called ‘No Name Nursery ‘in East Kent is an exhilarating experience. In just three years Steve Edney and his partner Lou Dowle have established a veritable horticultural tour de force.  The scope of the enterprise is astonishing for both its vast range of plants and also for how well established the

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A visit to the national collection of geums

Posted: May 4th, 2022

‘I have 115 different varieties of geums’ says Sue Martin who holds the national collection. The irresistible crinkly papery flowers are available in a wide range of colours from subtle shades of dusky pink to bright orange. ‘They are such useful plants in late spring flowering from February until June and the seed heads are

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Enticing holiday lets in renowned gardens

Posted: March 14th, 2022

An attractive dilemma for garden lovers pondering where to go for a staycation is to choose between renting the Wayside Byre at the internationally renowned plant nursery, Marchants  run by Graham Gough and Lucy Goffin in Sussex,or the Potting Shed adjacent to celebrated topiarist Charlotte Molesworth’s magical garden in Kent. Both holiday lets are well

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The Glasshouse Botanic

Posted: December 17th, 2020

The Glasshouse Botanic Design is an inspiring new social enterprise initiative launched earlier this year, at East Sutton Park, an open women’s prison in Kent. The brainchild of social entrepreneur Melissa Murdoch, and Kali Hamerton-Stove, the Project Director, the idea is to utilise the abandoned glasshouses that these days are to be found languishing at

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Edibleculture

Posted: April 12th, 2019

Hurrah for the nursery Edibleculture, whose aim is ‘to never let a plastic pot leave the premises.’ As all gardeners know this an ambitious statement to make – don’t we all have large piles of old plastic plant pots? The advent of the POSIpot is set to revolutionize horticulture retailing. Resembling a noodle pot, the

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Irises of Sissinghurst

Posted: May 16th, 2018

Irises are all the rage, no doubt partly fuelled by the two current exhibitions devoted to Cedric Morris, the celebrated 20th-century painter of and breeder of irises (The Garden Museum and the Philip Mould Gallery). Did you know that it is possible to have an iris in flower virtually the whole year round? I suspect

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Arvensis, a new wholesale plant nursery.

Posted: November 13th, 2017

If you are an avid garden Instagrammer, you will have no doubt come across the striking crisp images posted by Arvensis, a new wholesale trade plant nursery. Intrigued to find out more, I set off for Bradford-on-Avon, eager to see if the nursery lives up to its online profile. I was not disappointed – rarely

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The Walled Nursery, Hawkhurst, Kent

Posted: September 20th, 2017

There is a fairy tale Sleeping Beauty element to the renaissance of the old walled garden of Tongswood (now St. Ronan’s School), near Hawkhurst, Kent. It is now the renowned Walled Nursery, a mecca for plant lovers. It is a story of a determined couple, both passionate horticulturalists, and a fairy godmother in the form

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Kentish Lavender

Posted: August 26th, 2016

‘Scents come in and out of fashion but lavender doesn’t,’ says Caroline Alexander of the Hop Shop at  Castle Farm in Kent, one of the largest English lavender growers. Anyone fortunate enough to visit Castle Farm during the few weeks when the 90 acres of lavender plants are in flower is in for a visual

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In The Pink – Scented Pinks

Posted: May 27th, 2016

Scented garden pinks are among the most beguiling of all flowers with their dainty little faces and delicious spicy clove scent. Allwoods nursery have been breeding and propagating pinks for over a hundred years. Allwoods have one of the largest collections of ‘Heritage Pinks’ including a few dating from the 1600s. To give a few

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