I am lucky enough to have a small communal garden where I can see the type of flowers that grow and feel inspired. Here is what I see this month.

A lot of people do not realise that plants are not just for the summer. Although different in nature, winter colour in the garden can be just as unique and beautiful.

When creating a bespoke planting design for a garden it is crucial to think about seasonality and how time will influence its look and feel, especially during autumn and winter months.

planting design in urban environments, sustainability, plants in cities

The impressionist garden was a pleasant place, a place, which envisioned a better world: peaceful, bursting with colours and filtered by the sunshine, where the shadows patched the richly painted petals of geraniums, oleanders and roses, often showing how the sun travelled during the day, how the colours changed.

Hellebore is one of the most beautiful of all winter flowers.

Over the years Hellebore niger has been given many names: Christmas Rose, Lanten Rose, Holy Night Rose, The Little Flower of Winter or the Christmas Bloom. Many of these names refer to the time when the plant is in bloom.

Plants have the immense ability to convey the emotions associated with home and familiarity.

In a garden, ornamental grasses can play a key role in dividing the space, creating semi-permanent screens, they add height to the planting, repetition, and punctuations, as well as a hazy, see-through effect.

When designing a planting for a garden, we often select plants that are able to survive prolonged periods of drought- these are called drought tolerant plants. By using this approach, we work with drought, not against it.

Dandelion is a British native plant, usually found on the side of the roads, in verges and between paving slabs. In garden situations it is usually found growing in lawns. Dandelion plants are worth keeping in gardens because they are beneficial for insects, especially in the early spring months, when there are not that many other flowering plants on which insects could feed.

Looking at gardens we often perceive certain plants as out of place and out of time, plants that weren’t purposely planted, yet somehow, they found a way to self-seed and grow. Commonly we call these plants “weeds”.

Today we want to draw attention to one particular plant - Hyacinthus orientalis, a well known spring flowering bulb.

In Greek mythology Hyacinth is a symbol of rebirth and the renewed plant growth in spring.

We design for all seasons and encourage our clients to be brave and accept this more soft and gentle approach to gardening. It may not be easy to accept untidy, messy, spent and decaying garden, but let’s try, be more attentive, curious and look for that hidden, subtle, quiet beauty in imperfection.

ha means leaf in Japanese

about leaves