Jardin Exotique de Monaco

http://www.jardin-exotique.mc The Jardin Exotique de Monaco is just what it says on the tin.  Situated high above Monaco it looks down upon the City and the sea beyond…it is quite staggering and is singularly the most amazing garden I have ever visited… you walk down and down narrow precipitous paths which seem to be held

Val Rahmeh

Val Rahmeh is an exotic botanical garden facing the sea and protected from the winds by the mountains. the exotic botanical garden has a subtropical microclimate unique in France.  Experimental garden with greenhouse full of rare plants.. it houses beautiful collections of palm trees, bombs, citrus-fruit, edible tropical plants with altogether over 1500 species.  In 1905

Villa Hanbury Ventimiglia

Villa Hanbury Ventimiglia, Italy is yet another fabulous garden.  Plants from all over the world are able to acclimatise in the shelter afforded by the proximity of nearby mountains, and by the proximity to the sea.  Thomas Hanbury purchased the land, together with the ancient ruins of ‘Palazzo Orengo’ with a fortune acquired in china from

Villa Ephrussi Rothschild

http://www.villa-ephrussi.com/en  An exceptional villa and garden – quite extraordinary Béatrice was the daughter of the baron, Alphonse de Rothschild, a banker and renowned art collector. At the age of 19, she married Maurice Ephrussi, a Parisian banker of Russian origin, 15 years her senior, and a friend of her parents. The marriage quickly turned sour

Serre de la Madone garden, Menton

  http://www.serredelamadone.com This garden was designed by the same man that designed the garden at Hidcote Manor in England, Major Lawrence Johnson.  Between 1924 and 1939 he acquired seven hectares of land which he created into his ‘earthly paradise’ – a unique exotic landscaped garden (juxtaposition of different compartmental areas referred to as ‘green rooms’)

Great Dixter

I went to visit Great Dixter in May when the poppies were out, but you can guarantee that it is at it’s peak now.  It has stunning herbaceous borders, beautiful flower colour combinations and a lot of different ‘rooms’ of interest. Go and see it if you can.   Great Dixter  was the family home of

West Lavington Manor

West Lavington Manor is a 5 acre walled garden first established in C17 by John Danvers who brought Italianate gardens to the UK. There is a stunning herbaceous border,  a redeveloped beautiful Japanese garden with tea house, a new rose garden chockablock full of different varieties,  an orchard and an arboretum with some outstanding specimen

Chelsea orange and arid

The Chelsea Flower Show this year was dominated by an arid look.  Desert, gravelly, dry and hot.  Most of the gardens had pebbles, dry river beds, palms, grasses and succulents to give this effect and the colours were orange, white and some purple; the main colour was orange.  And the geum plant appeared in 5

Cottage gardening – not as easy as it looks

The whole essence of a cottage garden is its wild and natural look.  So natural that it seems as though it has been untouched by human hand..it has grown out of untended ground with little help from anyone but not so!!  Most cottage gardens take quite a lot of trouble.  Where do the plants come

West Dean flowers and gardens July 2015

Caroline Garland’s Chelsea…magentas, carmines, oranges and verbascums gone mad!

I had quite a rushed trip to the Chelsea Flower Show this year, and I think I could recommend this approach!  I had to concentrate my mind and find the essentials.  There were, without doubt, some beautiful gardens, clever ideas and stunning builds and anyway who am I to sit here at my computer and

The Isabella Plantation May 2015 – takes your breath away!