The Genus Garden

With summer planting in troughs and containers coming to an end I’m already looking forward to next year.  This involves propagating plants that will be required in relatively large numbers...

With summer planting in troughs and containers coming to an end, I’m already looking forward to next year.  This involves propagating plants that will be required in relatively large numbers...

The weather may have turned, our thick socks are on, and the waterproofs are constantly hanging up to dry, but it doesn’t mean that all signs of life have stopped...

I wrote a few weeks ago (see Mast years - time to fill the larder) about the exceptional year it’s been for fruit and nuts after the long dry hot...

It’s been confirmed.  I’m having babies next year.  Lots of them!  While recently cutting back some untidy looking plants I came across seed heads of Silybum marianum, the milk thistle. ...

Anybody with a garden or access to the countryside can’t have missed the abundance of fruit on trees and shrubs this autumn.  Blackberries, hawthorn, apples, sweet chestnuts, walnuts, and medlars...

We haven’t grown Black eyed Susan -Thunbergia alata - for a number of years but 2025 and its prolonged hot summer appeared to appeal to her adventurous nature.  Planted in...

It was time to celebrate this week after noticing that our quince tree planted 5 years ago has finally produced its first fruit.  Quince, known scientificically as Cydonia oblonga, are...

Carrying out some late summer pruning of the wisteria this week I came across several leaves with semi circular ‘bites’ removed by the Pac-man of the insect world.  These were...

This year's exceptional weather has just been crowned as the hottest on record for the UK and, as gardeners, we’re all seeing the results of the prolonged hot spell.  Brown...

For a plant with such tiny seeds it’s always a surprise when Amaranthus comes into flower with its bright tassels at head height.  We love it and have decided to...

I’ve gone for decades without seeing the giant yew hedge in Cirencester, Gloucestershire being clipped, but this year and last year I spotted the operation underway as I wandered through...

I’ve been adding to our stock of plants over the last week not because of careful planning but due to an unfortunate incident.  Several pots were blown over after a...

Buddleja globosa, sometimes called the orange-ball tree, is an underrated plant, perhaps because of its ubiquity and use in supermarket car parks and public planting schemes. But there's a reason...

We’ve written on several occasions about the joys of growing sweet peas, even mentioning and growing the wonderful Tutankhamun pea reportedly found by Howard Carter in Tutankhamun's tomb.  We’ve never...

Malva moschata, the musk  mallow, has been a favourite in my garden for a decade now.  A native plant in the U.K. it has beautiful pink flowers that are held...

Dutch elm disease, sudden oak death, box moth, and horse chestnut leaf mining moth are issues that we’ve become familiar with in recent years.  It seems another problem has recently...

It’s peak sea holly season at the moment.  The particularly warm weather has brought them on a little earlier than normal but the display is probably the best we’ve seen...

Cephalaria gigantea, the giant scabious, has been in the garden for at least a decade now.  Gently seeding around it has become a major feature of the mid-June garden.  Often...

At last!  Leaving a clump of nettles in the garden has always been recommended as a refuge and food source for insects and other invertebrates.  Results aren’t always immediate, in...

As gardeners we’re always looking for that one special plant.  Ideally a plant that is hardy, flowers for a long period, and is perennial, returning year after year to entertain...