With its vertical accents of delphiniums, mounds of petunias and cascading alysum, overseen by a bejeweled pig and yellow lamp, this inner garden with the blue gate is Ron’s world. An artist himself and master florist, Ron paints with flowers, using his garden as a canvas, his pots and plants as brushstrokes and paint. His compositions are works in progress, adjusted daily by additions to pots amid the profusion of cycling blooms.

“If I were given a second life,” says Ron,”I’d like to have a cottage in the Cotswolds with spires of delphiniums by the front door.”