Bloom Magazine UK

Love-lies-bleeding is a common name given to red amaranth – so dramatically romantic, and so fitting. Crimson flower spikes drip from this large bushy annual like curtain tassels; it’s theatrical bordering on gaudy. Amaranthus species have foliage ra

Sunflowers Provence has rows of purple lavender, Japan has pink cherry blossom, and in the UK we’ve got sunflowers, whose cartoonish colours and playfully bobbing heads bring extra cheer to the countryside in summertime. From late August, swathes of

The resilience of nature is astonishing. Human activity has destroyed so many naturally occurring ponds, filling them in for arable land and abandoning others to a build-up of vegetation, meaning a loss of oxygen, light and, ultimately, wildlife. But

Evergreens and ferns are fantastic for shade, but look beyond those two treasures and a world of beautiful plants appears, from pollinator-friendly flowers to edibles. There are many types of shade, but almost all gardens and homes have some. The tri

They may look fancy – a chef’s final flourish – but microgreens are tasty and deceptively low maintenance. Essentially the seedling leaves of ordinary vegetables and herbs, they are harvested when the plant is still in the early stages of growth. The

Perennials are the backbone of a garden, the old reliables. Returning year after year, these plants re-emerge to greet us in spring, or provide colour and life in winter when all else is quiet. They can offer beautiful flowers, evergreen foliage, or

The natural world is constantly creating and using its own materials – nests are woven from leaf litter, wool and twigs; shells are formed under the sea; dams are raised, then eventually swept away to rot into the riverbank. It’s a continuous process

Not all flowers open and close, but those that do generally open their petals to allow pollinators in, and then close to protect their pollen the rest of the time. Most open ready for daylight, but some have evolved to open at night, taking advantage

When a cup of coffee is made, less than 1 per cent of the ground-bean mass actually ends up in the cup – and around two billion cups of coffee are drunk around the world every day. A fine brew is a truly wonderful thing, but the huge amount of waste

Wanderlust is a funny thing. At its heart, it’s about escaping everyday routines and finding fascination in the new and different. For most of us, satisfying that desire has depended on travelling to a faraway land, but as our scope for travel recent

Darren Little works in a garden on a rock. But not just any rock: St Michael’s Mount is a windswept and sun-beaten island surrounded by the Celtic Sea, steeped in history, myth and legend, a place where stories of mermaids, the patron saint of fisher

Take a look at your average public playground. Fenced off from grass and trees, it will likely be an arrangement of cold metal and smooth plastic with an asphalt floor. While parents’ eyes dart between their children and their phones, kids will navig

As a young, wide-eyed devotee of writer Virginia Woolf, my first visit to Monk’s House was an emotional one. Her East Sussex cottage, populated with tourists and well-meaning guides wielding laminated photos of the past, didn’t give away its secrets.

When we speak of our origins, that which made us, we speak of our roots. We acknowledge how our identities are intertwined with land, whether it’s the one we are standing on or another we lay claim to. I was born and grew up in the UK to parents born

Fay Godwin was not the first artist to be captivated by the British countryside, but few portrayed it with the same blend of majesty and mystery. Ever since the days of the early landscape painters, it has been largely idealised as a paradise of unto

Lawns are so much a part of gardens that you almost don’t notice them. Their exemplar is one clipped short with sharp edges, the ultimate symbol of the gardener’s desire to tame and reshape nature. A snooker table-like lawn in front of a house says:

The unnamed narrator in Claire-Louise Bennett’s fragmented story is in a constant state of uncertainty: she is struggling to decide whether to try to tame her natural surroundings, or abandon caution and let the outside come crashing in. Pond is a me

Perhaps I should start with a confession: I have a long and shameful history as a Tillandsia killer. After being seduced by their otherworldly, slightly alien looks, I’d make my purchase then take the unsuspecting and unfortunate air plant home, in d

This is a beautiful, delicate cordial, perfect for a warm summer’s afternoon. It’s particularly good served over ice with some fresh raspberries and, for a bit more colour and fragrance, some scrunched thyme stems. Fizzy water makes a marvellous mixe