THE MODERN MINT BLOG

Apr30

National Nurseries Week

From May 1st – May 7th we will be supporting Britain’s specialist nurseries. Why? Because it is National Nurseries Week!

For more information go to the British Plant and Nursery Guide and help celebrate the best independent, specialist nurseries Britain has. Look out though – you will probably come away with a plant or two…!

Some of our favourite nurseries…

1) Penwood Nurseries, Berkshire

2) Phoenix Perennial Plants, Hampshire

3) Marchants Hardy Plants

If you have anymore suggestions for your favourite nurseries, send us a tweet!

Recommended Reading (the Marina Christopher book a huge favourite of ours):

Late Summer Flowers

So You Want to Start a Nursery

Grow Your Own Garden: How to propagate all your own plants

Aug04

Box Hill – Novella by Adam Mars-Jones

I picked this book up back in 2020 because of the title – Box Hill – fabulous, I thought, a book about boxwood. I’ll peruse this for its respective thoughts on the plant I clip most when I make topiary. I didn’t read the blurb on the back. Didn’t know the author (although I knew the publisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions, as I love many of the essays they have published… so trusted the author would be worth spending time with.) By page 2 I realised this novel wasn’t quite what I had expected. I started the book at 10pm, after getting …

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Apr14

Topiary, The Art Garden at The Henderson

The Art Garden at The Henderson in Hong-Kong has now opened to the public. I joined the project last March, to work with Gillespies Landscape Architects on the topiary that had been designed for the Art Garden, which gives a calm, green space below the extraordinary Henderson skyscraper designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. The garden has been designed with butterflies in mind, so lots of nectar plants, and has other art projects and installations within its footprint. The history of the site is interesting too – it was originally the first cricket ground in Hong-Kong! So still a green space….! …

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