STEM GINGER

On Saturday morning I made a spur of the moment decision to re-decorate the dining room. For logistical reasons, our much-anticipated building work is a bit further off than hoped and I was so sick of living with the grubby, scuffed and tired magnolia walls we inherited in almost every room of the house. The dining room is where I do most of my floral arranging and I wanted a more enjoyable environment to work in. I’d be lying if I said my choice of colour for the feature wal

May, the month of fresh, verdant greens, hedgerows of cowparsley and foxgloves, and in the garden the short-but-sweet season of the peony, is up there as a contender for my favourite month of the year. The full list of what's included is as follows: Peony, roses (large climber and smaller-flowered scrambler), aquilegia, foxgloves, sweet peas, pinky-white allium, white armeria, cow parsley, pittosporum, box, fern and grasses. With this bouquet I wanted to reflect the freshness

I have never grown a Hellebore to the point of flowering, and I am much the worse off for it. Three years ago, my mother in law gave me some self-hybridised garden seedlings which I planted under a small plum tree alongside spring bulbs. But of course Hellebores take a few years to flower, so I will never get to see the garden ‘sports’ she had produced because last year we moved house. I did take a lot of plants with me but I couldn’t take everything… For me Hellebores are an