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2 weeks ago | 
sussexliving.com | Flo Whitaker
There’s a group of plants that’s often overlooked – annual climbers. These fast-growing characters are easy to propagate from seed. Give them a sunny, sheltered spot and they’ll perform all summer long, says Flo Whitaker Cobea scandens bears large, exotic-looking flowers in lilac and mauve. Its common name, ‘Cathedral Bells’ is apt, as the long stamens give the blooms a distinctive bell-like quality. The pale form, C. alba, offers white/cream flowers with green-ish highlights.
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1 month ago | 
sussexliving.com | Flo Whitaker
This month, Flo Whitaker addresses the hell of clothes shoppingThey say that first impressions count. If you met me, I reckon your initial thought would be, “Blimey! There’s someone who doesn’t shell out for manicures and dry cleaning”. When it comes to low maintenance, I plumb the depths. I slightly resent the 20 minutes a year spent getting my annual haircut and would happily live my entire life in pyjamas if I could get away with it.
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1 month ago | 
sussexexpress.co.uk | Flo Whitaker
Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565Visit Shots! nowOn Saturday 29th March, Burgess Hill Horticultural Society are staging their Spring Show in the Cyprus Hall, 1:30pm - 3:45pm. Come and enjoy some glorious springtime scents and colours, along with refreshments, homemade cakes, tombola and plant and produce stalls. Continue Reading
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1 month ago | 
sussexliving.com | Flo Whitaker
Camellias make wonderful garden plants – and a delicious cuppa too. Flo Whitaker unpacks the curious tale of teaTea is an ancient drink that has been consumed for thousandsof years. It is produced by harvesting the young shoots of Camellia sinensis; a shrubby evergreen plant indigenous to Asia. Variants of sinensis have since been introduced across the world – there are tea-growers in Cornwall and Scotland! When unpruned, C. sinensis produces dainty white flowers.
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2 months ago | 
sussexliving.com | Flo Whitaker
An ‘entrepreneur’ with a steaming pile of asphalt in his flat-bed truck, rang the doorbell recently, and asked if I wanted my driveway resurfaced. “No, thanks” I said, “But you can fill in those potholes if you like”.
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2 months ago | 
iwbeacon.com | Flo Whitaker
Although native to many regions of mainland Europe, snowdrops are recent arrivals in our gardens. Some claim the Romans or French monks bought snowdrops to these shores, but there is no evidence for this. Examine any medieval text or decorative artwork, and you’ll find familiar flowers referenced everywhere – but snowdrops are glaringly absent. Perhaps the answer to this puzzle is that excavated snowdrop bulbs rapidly, and often fatally, dry out?
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2 months ago | 
sussexliving.com | Flo Whitaker
Although native to many regions of mainland Europe, snowdrops are recent arrivals in our gardens. Some claim the Romans or French monks bought snowdrops to these shores, but there is no evidence for this. Examine any medieval text or decorative artwork, and you’ll find familiar flowers referenced everywhere – but snowdrops are glaringly absent. Perhaps the answer to this puzzle is that excavated snowdrop bulbs rapidly, and often fatally, dry out?
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Jan 25, 2025 | 
sussexliving.com | Flo Whitaker
I’m sitting at my kitchen table, (all revolutions should start in a kitchen or a pub) plotting my New World Order. Care to join me? Here are a few salient points from my manifesto:Art: The standard of most community/public art in this country is atrocious. I shall introduce clear guidelines to improve matters. From now on, in order to qualify for funding, an installation must be able to utilise a traffic cone. If you can’t balance a cone on it – it’s not public art.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
sussexliving.com | Flo Whitaker
Cultivated pansies are descended from wild violets, (Violas) who mostly inhabit damp, bosky places and shady hedgerows. If your garden pansies soon become tired and miserable- looking, dryness at the roots is probably the cause. We frequently cram summer annuals into hot, confined spaces – and they mostly forgive us, but pansies are different characters that crave deep soil and cool roots.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
sussexexpress.co.uk | Flo Whitaker
Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565Visit Shots! nowOn Wednesday 5th February, Richard Ramsey from Withypitts Dahlias will be giving a talk in the Cyprus Hall. Working from the family-run plant nursery in Sussex, Richard truly has “Dahlias in the Blood”, as he followed his grandfather and father into the horticultural trade.
