Thoughtful Thursday - Images from Rajasthan

Just home from Rajasthan in India, where I was lucky enough to see the opium poppies in full flower, many wonderful birds and glorious faces. And now it's time to catch up with our English gardens - after the wettest winter in recorded history, I fear there's going to be more than mud out there!

Kew Gardens' 2014 Orchid Festival brings a ray of sunshine to flooded Britain

Undaunted by the appalling weather conditions around the UK, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew has surpassed itself yet again with its annual Orchid Festival in the Princess Diana Conservatory, which opened this weekend. The annual exhibition - open until 9 March - brings a ray of sunshine amid the relentless storms here in Britain and gives visitors the chance to enjoy a floral spectacle that will warm their hearts.

The Orchid Festival has become an annual event at Kew and offers visitors the opportunity to walk among thousands of colourful flowers, imported specially for the month-long show.The theme for this year's exhibition is "A Plant Hunter's Paradise", with emphasis on plant hunting expeditions of the early 20th century and featuring dug-out canoes, travelling chests and equipment from days gone by, in one of Kew's magnificent glasshouses.

The exhibition is open daily from 9.30 until 9th March. Admission charges are £14.50 for adults, children 16 and under go free when accompanied by an adult. Members of the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens in Hampshire go free on presentation of membership cards. 

Winter celebrations - January 19

The colour of springtime is in the flowers, the colour of 

winter is in the imagination.

Ward Elliot Hour

Winter celebrations - January 18

The poetry of the earth is never dead.

John Keats

Winter celebrations - January 17

In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.

Aaron Rose

Winter celebrations - January 16

Winter is the time for comfort - it is the time for home.

Edith Sitwell

Winter celebrations - January 15

Photograph taken at Sussex Prairies

Nature has undoubtedly mastered the art of winter gardening and even the most experienced gardener can learn from the unrestrained beauty around them.

Vincent Simeone