Country Life Magazine (May 14, 2024): The latest issue features…

The year of the tree

This year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show is poised to celebrate the unfolding freshness and energy of deciduous woods in May, as Kathryn Bradley-Hole discovers

Beneath the boughs

Garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith is returning to Chelsea’s Main Avenue for the first time in 14 years for the National Garden Scheme, reveals Joanna Fortnam

‘When the ass begins to bray, surely rain will come that day’

It’s raining ancient folklore and proverbs as John Lewis-Stempel relies on jumping trout, croaking frogs and chirping crickets to predict the great British weather

My art is in the garden

Carla Passino examines how the brushstrokes of Monet, Turner, Klimt and Canaletto are providing colour and inspiration at Chelsea

All I need is the air that I breathe

Cathryn Spence airs the story of how—250 years ago—Joseph Priestley ‘discovered’ oxygen at Bowood House in Wiltshire

Cindy Sughrue’s favourite painting

The director of London’s Charles Dickens Museum picks a classic snapshot of the capital’s skyline

The legacy

Bess of Hardwick was the first of many influential Chatsworth women, as Kate Green learns

A timeless view

George Plumptre admires the simple beauty of the gardens at Pusey House in Oxfordshire

Seating plans

What makes a comfortable garden seat, asks Tiffany Daneff

Sitting pretty

Amelia Thorpe seeks out crafted benches to suit every garden

The cutting-garden diaries

In the final part of her series, Anna Brown is focused on harvesting

A lily among weeds

Clive Aslet lauds the enduring influence of the prolific Victorian architect George Edmund Street

Slugging it out

Marianne Taylor is captivated by the curious beauty of molluscs

Mane stay

Deborah Nash visits the last British firm creating horsehair fabric

Out and About

The Royal Countryside Fund reception at Fortnum & Mason

Interiors

Amelia Thorpe takes a look at six of the best WOW!house creations

A brush with sparkles

Hetty Lintell is wowed by jewels celebrating the National Gallery

Kitchen garden cook

The arrival of new-season carrots is applauded by Melanie Johnson

Native herbs

John Wright is playing with fire as he investigates horseradish

Sweet chamomile, good times never seemed so good

Deborah Nicholls-Lee dreams of dainty white flowers and a fragrant lawn that never needs mowing

Falstaff reimagined

Sir Ian McKellen lends a ‘silvering dignity’ to Shakespeare’s famed roisterer, finds Michael Billington