One of the joys of my job has to be when clients let me loose with the pencil, colouring pencils and Shoots excellent plant directory to redesign gardens, borders or indeed just add plants and colour to the garden. I love to choose plants that not only look good but also help to encourage more…
Author: thomashort
I am a professional gardener who has a love of plants and gardens. I grew up and worked at Mottisfont Abbey Gardens, with a spell at Sir Harold Hillier Gardens and managering two gardens in Hampshire and West Sussex as Head Gardener. I am now freelance and spend my time gardening, pruning, planting design, consultanting, speaking and blogging about plants and gardens. I love all forms of gardening but have a soft spot for roses, Geraniums, alpines and Topiary. That said, I love it all!
Plant of the week-Magnolia campbellii
This weeks plant of the week is a personally favourite of mine, I can remember as a young man of 20/21 going on a study tour of the gardens of Cornwall, arranged by the head gardener at Sir Harold Hillier Gardens. We went to some stunning gardens, looking around Heligan before it was near full…
Job of the week- Pruning Buddleja
My job of the week this week is back to the job I love most pruning, there is nothing much nicer pruning and shaping a plant knowing that it will look good and encourage better plants for it. Pruning buddlejas is a pretty simple job, all you need is a pair of really sharp secateurs,…
Plant of the week- Magnolia x loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’
As a young boy growing up in the grounds of Mottisfont Abbey Gardens, I would always look forward to the start of spring, picking daffodils and pussy willows for my mums Mother’s Day bouquet and also the start of the few magnolias that grow in the garden, there was only a few but they were…
Product review- Men’s Genus Trousers
Trousers, we all wear them for most of the time, well ok there’s a couple of months when sometimes the sun and the warmth gets enough for the ‘legs’ to come up, much to the public horror and outcry. So for the rest of the year I have to wear long trousers, for me as…
Plant of the week- Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’
Spring wouldn’t be spring without the intoxicating scent of Daphnes wafting though the garden, spreading its perfume far and wide from the small but very prolific flowers. Although at home in our gardens, it’s not the natural home for this plant, it was grown from a seedling of ‘Gurkha’. Gurkha was collected by Major Tom…
Job of the week-dividing mat forming perennials
One of my favourite jobs is my Job of the week this week, making more plants from the plants we already have in the garden. This job is ideal to carry out now, the ground is warming up and is nice and moist. The soil being like this will help the plants settle in again…
Plant of the week- Edgeworthia chrysantha
If there’s one one that’s benefited from the upsurge of interest in winter gardens, it is Edgeworthia. It’s a plant that’s always been out but never really has ever hit the lime light like it’s richly deserved. Edgeworthia is a small group of plants of 4 speices, closely related to Daphnes. They are mainly a…
Madder than a March hare
Well that describes Februaries weather to a T, a month of complete oppersites, a pretty cold spell followed by the warmest February day on record, then in steps storm Doris, flicking her windy locks though the trees, homes and gardens. March is the moth that’s supposed to come in like a loin and out with…
Job of the week- pruning clematis
The next couple of weeks is really the last window to prune the summer flowering clematis. There’s a lot of confusion on how and when to prune the various types of clematis. They are divided into three groups to aid pruning methods. Group 1 are the winter and spring flowering group,…
Thomas Stone MCI Hort MPGCA 