Sparkling Burgundy

Today's the day ............................... to get away from it all

There's only one place to go round here, as far as I am concerned, where you can forget that it is a cold, miserable and very wet August Bank Holiday - and that is Inglefield Speciality Plants at Staveley.

When you go in through the door, you enter another world. There are fully grown treeferns and palms, lemon trees, glorious bougainvilleas and all kinds of exotic and sweetly smelling plants from places all over the world. It's a family-run business and there's always someone that you can have a good chat with - who knows what you have to do to make sure that these plants will survive in your garden here. This fantastic flower spike is from a Eucomis 'Sparkling Burgundy' which apparently grows well in the Lake District and takes on a deep burgundy colour.

I always come away with lots of ideas - and usually a few seeds that I've been given to have a go with. It's a real haven for anyone with either slightly tinged or bright green fingers .....................................