It is perhaps too ordinary to appeal to the real connoisseur- a form of snobbishness I always find hard to understand in gardeners... -Vita Sackville-West January 1st, 1950 I've often thought Vita wouldn't approve of my growing pussy toes. After all, they're just an ordinary wildflower. But then I read the above passage. Of course … Continue reading Toxic Beauty
Tag: roses
Magic Mornings
That he was both censorious and pious I quickly discovered from the first page of the introduction, for after a reference to 'this rude lumpe and confused heape'... 'wherein Wickedness superabounds and as it were forceth God to withhold the rain, to send the Mildew, the Caterpillar, and other his inferiour officers to correct us.' … Continue reading Magic Mornings
The Living Dead…
I must start with a warning not to despair about plants apparently killed by the frosts, ice-rain, east winds, and other afflictions they have had to suffer. They may look dead now, but their powers of revival are astonishing. You may have to cut some shrubs down to ground level, but my recommendation would be … Continue reading The Living Dead…
The Inspiring Vita Sackville-West
A year ago, in the dead of winter, I was suffering from severe anxiety attacks as a result of my parent's divorce. They would come over me mostly at night. I needed to fall asleep to make them go away but I was afraid to sleep. I was afraid that while I slept I would loose control … Continue reading The Inspiring Vita Sackville-West




