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The man who made daffodils the flower of spring in BritainAs the last few daffodils die back across the country, Tiffany Daneff pays tribute to the Reverend George Engleheart, the man who did more to spread the word about these gorgeous flowers than any other gardener in history.
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Mount Congreve: The exquisite Irish garden on an unimaginable scaleEven superlatives are dwarfed by the scale and quality of the garden of Mount Congreve, in Co Waterford, Ireland. Charles Quest-Ritson traces its story. Photographs by Jonathan Hession.
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Alan Titchmarsh: The thrill of raising a plant from a speck of dust or a green leaf can only be learned first-handTheory and study is grand, says Alan Titchmarsh — but it'll never take the place of learning practical skills at the hands of an expert. A new initiative is about to make doing so much easier.
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‘I have no concept of anyone who's like me. Now, that's either because I'm such an egomaniac that I am sort of completely self obsessed, or … because I haven’t watched enough films’: Monty Don’s consuming passionsMonty Don swerves questions with the abundant charisma that made him a ‘Gardener’s World’ darling.
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Pretty little things: How the double primrose continues to hold us in its thrallCharles Quest-Ritson looks into the history and the origins of these delightful flowers.
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'People are astounded that such a biodiverse haven exists here': The garden squares that are the hidden lungs of LondonAs spring unlocks the beauty of London’s garden squares, Jack Watkins speaks to the devotees who work to keep those patches alive. Photographs by Richard Cannon.
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'It's not nature being a pain; all of the problems we have with pests and diseases are because of us': The trailblazing gardener who's creating a 'food forest' in DevonFormer head gardener Josh Sparkes’s pioneering methods of growing fruit and vegetables at Birch Farm in Devon are achieving excellent results. Kendra Wilson went there to find out more. Photographs by Jason Ingram.
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'Ugly, pointless and potentially lethal': Why dead hedges are a gardening fad too farCharles Quest-Ritson takes aim at the phenomenon of the 'dead hedge'.
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The Italians think it's a laxative and the Germans say it leeches your bones, but rhubarb is a true British wonder. Here's how to do it justiceRhubarb is one of the easiest and most generous plants to grow. Charles Quest-Ritson digs into its history and recommends the best kinds; photographs by Jonathan Buckley.
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I pitted AI against a much-loved 1963 gardening book to see what to do with my little corner of Ireland — here's what happenedOur columnist Jonathan Self has relied on his old gardening books for decades. Can a newcomer in the form of Claude AI take their place?
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Where was Guy Ritchie's Young Sherlock series filmed? In a historic Welsh home that first appeared in Country Life a century agoLlanvihangel Court has a Spanish Armada-era avenue of trees and may have been visited by Charles I. To celebrate its star turn in Guy Ritchie's new Amazon Prime television series, 'Young Sherlock', we're revisiting our feature and photographs on the house that first appeared in the magazine in 1916.
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Ancient time-telling devices — turned garden ornaments — from the Country Life ArchiveMan has been consumed by time and how to tell it for millennia. Sundials are an important part of this history and there are plenty of pictures of them — in some of Britain's most beautiful gardens — hiding in the Country Life Archive.
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Alan Titchmarsh: I'm planting a brand new garden — here's what's going in, what I'm trying out, and the plant that's sending me in search of my axeMoving to a new house means getting stuck in to a new garden — and even in his seventies that's still a huge thrill for Alan Titchmarsh.
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'There was the land, the money and the desire to show off both': The incomparable skill and immaculate timing of Capability BrownTiffany Daneff pays tribute to Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, the great landscape gardener who re-shaped huge swathes of Britain.
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I'm a tulip in a bottle, baby: A very British botanical beauty contest is gaining fans of all agesLaunched by Matthew Rice to publicise his local gardening club, the annual Tulip in a Bottle contest is popular with everyone, finds Tiffany Daneff.
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Sarah Raven: ‘I find nature very inspiring and reassuring, when things are feeling a bit dire in the world and we have world wars’The gardener and writer on her love of Cretan wild flowers, why she quit her job as a doctor, her husband’s grandmother Vita Sackville-West — and her consuming passions.
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Growing leeks: What to plant, when to to it, and how to make them thriveOur grow-your-own expert Mark Diacono shares his favourite leeks.
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A cheat's guide to bulbous irises and top tips for growing themIsabel Bannerman is bewitched and bewildered by bulbous irises.
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Colour photographs of Gertrude Jekyll’s garden, rediscovered in the Country Life Archive, offer a rare glimpse of what it looked like at the peak of her fameIn 1997, Country Life published a set of chromatic photographs of Gertrude Jekyll’s Munstead Wood garden that had lain undisturbed in our archive for nearly a century. We have reproduced the pictures, corresponding feature and captions here.
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A dream built in glass, for herbs, flowers and 'lots of fancy tomatoes'Gentle curves ensure that this greenhouse fits seamlessly into the corner of an Oxfordshire garden, finds Tiffany Daneff. Photography by Clive Nichols.
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No garden should be without a winter-flowering daphne, so we've picked the bestThere is no such thing as a disappointing daphne, Charles Quest-Ritson
