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Alan Titchmarsh: The easily overlooked factor that's the difference between a beautiful garden and wasting thousands on plants doomed to diePlanting pot-grown trees and shrubs is a quick way to create a mature-looking garden — but unless you get planting depth right, it won't last long, explains Alan Titchmarsh.
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'He arrived with three bunches of flowers and told me to shut my eyes': From curation to creation, the story of the garden at Holme Hale HallOne of the great garden designers of his generation created a masterpiece at Holme Hale Hall near Swaffham in Norfolk — but what happens when the great man moves on? Tilly Ware spoke to the owners, Delia and Simon Broke, to find out. Photography by Richard Bloom.
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The Vita Sackville-West garden that 'numbed generations of gardeners into a state of hopelessness' has finally been completed, 64 years after her deathThe Greek-inspired Delos garden at Sissinghurst has at last been created, with Dan Pearson and the National Trust working alongside the team at this magical Kent house. Julie Harding reports.
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Amy Merrick: No self-respecting flower-lover would fill their vases with imported stems. We want seasonal British-grown flowers and foliageAhead of British Flowers Week, Amy Merrick meets the floral growers and designers showing at the Garden Museum's exhibition.
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'The garden has run away and found its soul... It’s like being on a horse that’s ever so slightly out of control': Ferne Park's magical journey from dereliction to maturityThe transformation of Ferne Park, Wiltshire — home of Lord and Lady Rothermere — from derelict estate into a mature garden with surrounding parkland is nothing short of miraculous. Tiffany Daneff tells its story; photography by Jonathan Buckley.
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Charles Quest-Ritson: The 'Sir David Beckham' rose is so good that one day he'll be better remembered as a flower than a footballerFrom spectacular South African blooms to a home-grown marvel, Charles Quest-Ritson shares his favourite plants from the 2026 RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
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Music, dancing and jellied eels all round: The 'colourful world of plenty' in the iconic garden at the Festival of Britain75 years ago, the Festival of Britain turned austere, post-war London into a fairytale of lights, sounds, colour and celebration — and at the heart of it all were the pleasure gardens at Battersea. Kathryn Ferry looks back on those gardens — an outdoor space that may have been the last of its kind.
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The ancient trees that laugh in the face of climate change and dinosaur-killing asteroidsCharles Quest-Ritson meets the 'living fossil' trees that survived mass extinctions.
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The hedge can be a Queen of Puddings, a veritable pie, which could have its uses in all sorts of placesIsabel Bannerman needed to hide some solar panels, so decided that the best way to do it was by planting a hedge full of bountiful fruits.
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Has ‘gravel gardening’ ever been as perfectly presented? What we really thought about the 2026 RHS Chelsea Flower ShowRomantic planting, running water and an abundance of trees in all their glorious forms reigned supreme in SW3 this year, reports Kathryn Bradley-Hole.
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These rarely-seen photographs of the Prince’s Palace of Monaco were taken by a world-renowned photographer and rediscovered in the Country Life ArchiveCountry Life contributor Geoffrey Roland Ballance died too young, but some of his finest work lives on in our Archive, finds Melanie Bryan.
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Forget a message in a bottle, how about a whole ecosystem? A five-minute guide to terrariums and their nasty historyThe solution to garden-less gardening began as a happy accident, has its roots in Victorian society and, also, the colonisers of Africa. The result, terrariums, are now beloved by hipsters everywhere, writes Lotte Brundle.
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Famous faces and moments you might've missed at the Chelsea Flower Show so farWe're halfway through the 2026 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, so it's probably as good a time as any for a recap.
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Art underfoot: How Artorius Faber brought to life the stone floor of Country Life's stand at the RHS Chelsea Flower ShowPresented by Artorius Faber
George Saumarez Smith’s design for the floor of Country Life's stand at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show has been brought to life by Artorius Faber.
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What not to miss at the Chelsea Flower Show: Clive Nichols and Kathryn Bradley-Hole on the Country Life PodcastClive Nichols and Kathryn Bradley-Hole join the Country Life Podcast live from the Chelsea Flower Show.
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'It would be very odd to be in a room without a plant, wouldn't it?': How to decorate with houseplants, inspired by our Chelsea Flower Show standAmy Merricks talks to Jane Kennerley about the importance and nostalgia of bringing the garden inside.
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Country Life at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show: Highlights from day two of the nation's favourite flower showCountry Life reported live from the second day of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London — here are the highlights of everything that happened at the world's most famous horticultural event.
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Mother Earth carved from a fallen tree, a dry-stone arch and plants sourced from fly-tipped garden waste: The story of the RHS Chelsea Garden of the YearThe Campaign to Protect Rural England Garden: ‘On the Edge’, designed by Sarah Eberle, has been named RHS Garden of the Year at the 2026 Chelsea Flower Show.
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See all the medallists from the 2026 RHS Chelsea Flower ShowThe judges have judged, the awards have been awarded — and these are the gardens that won the prizes at this year's Chelsea Flower Show.
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Country Life at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show: The highlights of the opening day at SW3Country Life is reporting live from RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London. Join us for all the goings on at the world's most famous horticultural event.
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'Growing is in our DNA, what we're designed to do. It helps us make sense of things': Waiting for an allotment in BelfastIt may be years before Alexander Poots gets his own allotment, but maybe the waiting is part of the journey.
