Joe Swift

4 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Joe Swift

I’ve inherited the most wonderful Cornus ‘Norman Hadden’ with my new garden. It is multi-stemmed, about 3m tall and right now has creamy yellow white flower-like bracts on it that will turn a pure white then a soft pink. That’s not all — in autumn the foliage turns a lovely burnt orange and the plant carries ornamental round red fruit at the same time. Talk about value! Because they are bracts (modified leaves), rather than flowers, they last much longer.

1 month ago | thetimes.com | Joe Swift

1 month ago | thetimes.com | Joe Swift

1 month ago | thetimes.com | Joe Swift

Last May I was filming in the floral marquee at the Malvern flower show. The aim was to surprise the nurseryman and grower Roger Proud, of the Cumbria-based East of Eden nurseries, and talk to him about his fab range of geums. I did the classic surprise walk-up from a distance … he would suspect nothing … but he wasn’t there! He’d nipped off to grab a cup of coffee. There was a decent queue of people holding plants and waiting to pay.

1 month ago | thetimes.com | Joe Swift