Return to Free Spirit to see old friends, buy new plants
It’s been ages since I last saw my friends Lambert and Marjanne Vrijmoed, owners of Free Spirit Nursery on 32nd Avenue in Langley.
I’m not sure why we haven’t seen more of each other over the past few years. I guess other things have been pressing in and we were away when they were here and they were away when...
This hummingbird was worth waiting for
When I got this fabulous echeveria Blue Rose hanging basket the other day from WIG nursery in Burnaby, Alfred Kwan, the owner, advised me to cut off the flower stalks.
"The beauty is in the colour and shape of the echeveria rosettes,” he insisted. “The flowers are a bit of a distraction.”
The red flowers with their yellow tips are not...
Back in the garden and lots of morning glory to pull
Back in my garden today after five weeks away, leading garden tours in England, Wales and Ireland, and I already see how much work I need to do.
There is so much morning glory. It has grown everywhere. How has it managed to get a hold so fast in such a short time.
Jet-lag meant I woke early this morning and was...
Putting the garden to bed for winter and I need help
Oh my, time once again to put the garden to bed for winter.
Kew has mighty forklifts to place heavy citrus box planters into storage. But I have my own heavy-lifting apparatus - my son, Peter, who comes, without complaining every October, to help me lift heavy pots of tender plants into their winter quarters where they will be protected...
Two new pillars lift my garden to new heights
Well, it certainly looks as if the obsession with honeysuckle pillars that I caught at Powis Castle Garden in North Wales earlier this month has already taken hold in my garden.
At the weekend, I installed a large 6-by-6 timber post and planted two Goldflame honeysuckles at opposite corners.
I first saw these pillars used in an attractive, repetitive design at...
Garden Tour Reunion Party was a blast with lots of fun memories
The Garden Tours Reunion Party on Sept 2 - a celebration of the 22 garden tours I have led over the past nine years - was a big success.
Eight-two people attended the event at the Shadbolt Centre at Deer Lake in Burnaby, next door to one of the nicest gardens in the Lower Mainland, Century Garden.
The Cory Weeds Trio...
Amazing art of stone balancing but is it garden sculpture?
Not sure what this has to do with gardening, except that I saw this demonstration at the Chelsea Flower Show in May and was quite amazed.
Here you see artist Adrian Grey balancing a very large, heavy stone at an impossibly acute angle on another large boulder.
At first, I thought he was just pretending to be a living sculpture, holding...
2018: What a glorious time to be alive despite the darkness
What did Darwin, Dickens, Monet, Bronte and Van Gogh all have in common?
Well, they all had the chance to listen to the music of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven and see a play by Shakespeare and see a painting by Rembrandt.
I feel even luckier to have been born this end of history’s timeline when we have antibiotics, classics at our...
Clever way to create an elegant privacy screen
Pleaching is a clever technique that involves twining together the branches of a row of closely planted trees to create a stylish, formal hedge-on-stilts.
It’s not something you see here in Canada or even in the U.S. much. But in Holland, and especially in France, you see it everywhere.
Some of the best examples I’ve seen include rows of pleached chestnuts in...
Want to buy this house . . . and save a beautiful garden?
It’s not at all unusual for gardeners to grow old and discover they are unable to take care of their garden as well as they would like.
It’s a sad but common eventuality. And what often happens is that such gardens - even very beautiful ones that have taken years and years...
COMING SOON: THE GRAND CIRCLE TOUR OF IRELAND
In 2017, I visited Ireland with friends, after being in England’s Lake District and North Wales.From Dublin, we went down the east coast to Wexford and Waterford, seeing some fabulous gardens on the way.It was a glorious adventure. The gardens of Ireland are simply fantastic, far better than I ever imagined. I am still talking today about how wonderful...
It’s Italy in spring 2025 for a classic tour of timeless destinations
My next garden tour will be a wonderful 12-day trip to Northern Italy from April 27 to May 9, 2025.
Milan's Galleria.
The tour is designed with lavish three day stays in four great cities in Northern Italy. We will start in Milan before going on to Verona and Parma and ending in Genoa. The plan is to visit other destinations...
Here’s a taste of what we can expect at Chelsea in May
In May, I will be in London with a tour group, visiting the Chelsea Flower Show, which this year runs from May 21 to 25 in its usual spot on the grounds of the Chelsea Hospital by the Thames.
This is always an exciting event. Chelsea is the world’s premier show. There...
Come with us to Ireland on this exciting 15-day Grand Circle Tour
Today, I am delighted to announced the official launch of my 15-day Ireland Grand Circle Tour.It will start in Dublin on Oct. 1 and circle around the picturesque south coast and along the sensational west coast and up to Northern Ireland, Derry, Belfast and out to the Giant’s Causeway before returning to Dublin. We will be staying in excellent hotels including a...
Our next adventure: a thrilling, quirky trip from the north to the south
Today, I am delighted to announce the official launch of my next tour, the quirkiest, most eclectic adventure of them all, a 15-day exclusive Top to Bottom Tour, from Sept. 22 to Oct. 6, from Edinburgh, Scotland, to London, England.
Lake District to Stratford, Liverpool to Oxford and more: Tour will be a party from start to finish
On the way,...
Lessons learned from walks to paradise gardens
Laskett, the garden of Sir Roy Strong
The decision to visit a garden is an important one. It's a commitment that starts deep in the soul, I believe, and it's a decision that is then manifested by the eventual physical walk to the garden.
The process of getting...
Exercise your right to an easy morning work out
I know exercise is important. These days I'm content to walk the dog or go for a swim or a bike ride. That's about it.
My days of jogging and playing soccer are over. Not that I lack energy, but I know I don't have the same muscle strength to support knees and ankles and hips from being injured from...
Beautiful Cities Tour starts with days of delight in Berlin
The Beautiful Cities Tour got off to a great start this week with all of us arriving in Berlin for the start of a fabulous trip that will take us to Prague and Vienna and Bratislava.In Berlin, we toured all the top sites from the Brandenburg Gate to the Reichstag and the Berlin Wall as well as key war...
Italy 2025 was an exploration of new places and favourite destinations
Our 12-day tour to Italy was a trip of discovery into new and exciting new destinations as well as a chance to get re-acquainted with some all-time favourite place.
The group in Sermione on Lake Garda
Twenty-three of us gathered in Milan for the start of the adventure. This was a chance to discover new parts of the city such as...
Beaty Museum is full of treasures and wonders
Some years ago, I was invited to see the Beaty Museum of Biodiversity on the University of B.C. campus. I never got there, but I always regretted not making more of an effort.
This week, Spring Break, I decided to remedy that and visit the museum with my grandchildren, Maya and Banks.
