Get ready to light up your front walkway with a unique and charming DIY lamp post! If you're looking for a creative project that will add a classic touch to your home, this is it.
23.06.2023 - 10:25 / houseandgarden.co.uk
A thoroughly satisfying job when in the right mood, pruning roses has a methodical enjoyment to it, not to mention the cathartic, ruthless thrill cutting out the old. As well as tidying the garden, pruning helps to prevent pests and sickness and stimulates the rose's flower power and vigour, ensuring a joyous summer mass of scent and colour.
Most roses can be pruned in late winter. February is the traditional month, but January and March are fine. Ramblers that don't produce hips and climbers that only have one flush of summer flowers are the exception, and – if necessary – these can be given a light haircut after flowering, in late summer or autumn.
Most shrub roses only require a light annual prune, but some (such as Hybrid Teas and Floribundas) enjoy a harder yearly cut. First, remove all diseased and dead stems, and then prune by around one third, creating a rounded shape; if the rose is too big or if it's a Hybrid Tea or Floribunda, cut it back by a half to two-thirds. To create attractive heaps in the border, copy the method used at Sissinghurst, in which the shrub's just-pruned stems are bent and tied onto four hoops of hazel that enclose the rose, creating a pleasing mound.
Stand back and have a good look at the plant; identify the main stems that you're going to keep: some of these will be sturdy established stems and others will have grown in the previous year. You want to create an open framework with no crossing stems; remove diseased and dead stems and unwanted stems. Then prune the stems you have decided to keep: trim their side shoots back to 2 to 5 centimetres from the main stem, and then tie the stems in to your trellis or wire frame: gently bend them so they are horizontal (or thereabouts) because
Get ready to light up your front walkway with a unique and charming DIY lamp post! If you're looking for a creative project that will add a classic touch to your home, this is it.
Garden obelisks are tall structures with pyramid tops used as garden decor and plant supports. They can create a dynamic arrangement in a seating area or courtyard garden, and they are perfect if you want to define the entrance to your garden. Obelisks can be used as a frame for climbing plants such as old fashioned roses, clematis, jasmine or honeysuckle. Want to learn how to build a garden obelisk?
No matter the time of year, freshly cut flowers will always bring a sense of joy and natural beauty into any room. Fresh bouquets in water — whether grown ourselves or gifted — are normally at their best for a couple of weeks, but blooms will be fleeting and are usually thrown away once they start to lose their colour and wilt. So, a question that I’m asked a lot is simply — ‘How can I make my flowers last longer?’ The answer lies in the art of drying flowers — a craft that I’ve been immersed in for the past seven years. Dried floral arrangements will bring a different aesthetic to interiors compared to fresh — they are not for everyone — but if you like the look, you can very easily prolong the beauty of your flowers by months — even years — by creating striking arrangements that celebrate floral structures and will add interest to mantelpieces, dining tables, sideboards — you name it — throughout the seasons.
With so many different plants to choose from, how on earth are you supposed to determine which green friends are best for your space (or a client’s)? That’s where the pros come in to help out. We’ve called on a series of experts to weigh in with their top picks for underrated yet totally fantastic houseplants that deserve a little extra love. In addition to looking chic, plants offer plenty of health- and wellness-related benefits—from air purification to encouraging lower levels of stress and anxiety. You certainly don’t have to feel guilty about stocking up on several, whether you choose to do so at your local nursery or hardware store or via online resources including The Sill, Bloomscape, and more. Read on for our list of the most underrated houseplants, according to designers, professional green thumbs, and more.
Iris ‘Benton Olive’ in Sarah Price's garden
10 stems of foliage cut from your garden, foraged or purchased from your local florist
Harry's Chelsea garden, The School Food Matters Garden
A garden with a restrained planting palette can be so exciting and atmospheric. Nowhere is this more true than in the case of the white garden. The limitations of choosing plants of a single colour means you can focus your attention; in fact there are so many plants out there that if you don’t have some sort of guiding principles when you set about designing your garden, you will soon be lost and overwhelmed with options.
Ina Garten at her East Hampton home.
The gardens at Great Dixter.
In the well-to-do town of Bedford, New York, there are a few givens: there are apple orchards and quaint bed and breakfasts, cute bakeries and amazing antiques shops and, of course, many grand estates complete with rolling green lawns and well-hedged gardens. Perhaps most impressive of the latter belongs to the doyenne of the domestic, Martha Stewart.
Set back on an 11-acre property in Surrey is the faded-brick Arts and Crafts house that once belonged to the influential British horticulturalist, garden designer and writer, Gertrude Jekyll VMH, Munstead Wood. Gertude was the first woman to be awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Victoria Medal of Honour – the most prominent of awards for British horticulturalists – following an illustrious career during which she “transformed horticultural practice and inspired others to become gardeners through her books and more than 1,000 articles,” says the National Trust. Designed by her frequent collaborator Sir Edward Lutyens, the house is a charming emblem of classic English Arts and Crafts design and, thanks to Gertrude's own talents in gardening and floriculture, the house's garden is a “horticultural gem.”