Six on Saturday

Posted on November 4, 2023 by davidsgardendiary

Another week, another storm. This time it was Ciaran’s turn to rip through the garden on Thursday, drenching the already saturated soil and knocking the patio furniture about. Fortunately, once again, no permanent damage was done, just a few pots to make upright and one or two leggy plants to prop up with my homemade rusty steel girdles. Not that the storm bothered my tall hardy Fuchsia ‘Whiteknights Pearl’ one little bit. Standing proudly erect and still flowering its pretty little head off.

I know I mentioned this last week and received a few comments, but I just wanted to show how quickly the autumn sown Sweet Peas grow. These are now ready for the growing tips to be pinched out to encourage side shoots to grow. In another couple of weeks I will select the best ones and pot them up separately. They don’t blink at having their roots disturbed at this stage.

As well as ‘Bretforton Road’ featured last week, my other favourite hardy Chrysanthemum at this time of year is ‘Royal Command’. This one has been with me for many years and is a real survivor. Tough and resilient, I just love its dark red quilled petals and bright yellow centre on tall stems. Not sold by many nurseries these days as there just so many more popular ones on offer, but sometimes the old ones are the best!

This diminutive Pieris ‘Little Heath’ was bought as a 9cm pot for my winter hanging basket last November and has grown into a handsome little shrub. About to flower too! Currently in a clay pot where it has been happy all summer, I think it is time to find a place in the garden where it can get its feet down and mature alongside its bigger cousins.

And so to this week’s ‘What am I?’ quiz round. If you can identify this without resorting to a plant app or other external source you are truly a very clever plant person indeed. It took me quite a while to realise what it was, and then only by accident. Give up? It is Guizotia abyssinica, more commonly called Niger or Nyjer, the source of the tiny black seeds adored by Goldfinches. It took quite a while to realise that these unusual plants which were popping up all around the Nyjer seed feeder were, in fact, Nyjer plants! I kept pulling them up thinking they were a weed which, as I didn’t plant them, they were. But one escaped my notice and sneakily grew within the cover of a Pittosporum and has now popped it’s head out of the top and is about to flower!.As they originate in Ethiopia, I doubt if they will take any frost but we will see. I hope to post a photo of the flower very soon!

The Hesperantha coccinea are adding a touch of glamour to the front border at the moment with their tall stems of crimson flowers. I took advice from the National Collection Holder who told me to never walk past them in the summer without chucking some water over them! Apparently, the reason they often flower reluctantly is a lack of water in the dry summer months. In their native South Africa they grow in moist soil along the banks of rivers and streams or in low lying areas which retain water most of the year. They hate being dry at the roots.

Finally, just to say the Salvia uliginosa is STILL flowering and attracting bumble bees on dry days. It just never stops! What a success, my outstanding Plant of the Year!

Have a great weekend. I am off to learn all there is to know about Hardy Geraniums from an expert at our Gardening Group.

David

Six on Saturday

Posted on September 2, 2023 by davidsgardendiary

It would seem that Autumn is upon us already and the turning leaves of the Liquidambar styraciflua ‘Worplesdon’ are always the first to confirm it in my garden. Not really surprising as these acer relatives are primarily grown for their glorious autumn hues of red and orange.

The fruits of the dark leaved elder, Sambucus nigra ‘Black Lace’, are also a sign that the seasons are slowly changing. It won’t be long before the birds will pick them clean in preparation for whatever sort of winter we are going to have this year!

The red tips of the Photinia fraserii ‘Red Robin’ have appeared again just a few short weeks after their mid summer trim and in rude health after the disappointingly wet July & August. A final trim might be in order at the end of the month just to keep it tight and tidy for the winter.

One of the benefits of being the National Collection Holder of hardy Tradescantias is the potential for new cultivars from the hundreds of self sown seedlings I get each year. The Tradescantia Andersoniana Group is very promiscuous and hybrids are plentiful as in many species, and new varieties are often selected from the result of cross pollination. Very few are sufficiently different to be worthy of the work and cost required to progress them via micro-propagation but occasionally an unusual colour combination catches my eye as the one above did yesterday. I have provisionally called it ‘Lavender Blush’ and I will grow it on to see if the colours remain stable next year. Fingers crossed!

A month too early but the Hesperantha coccinea are beginning to flower, again probably due to the wet July & August mimicking the summer rains in their native South Africa. The pale pink and white varieties are yet to show but it surely won’t be long now.

Finally for this week, the little patch of Persicaria affinis under the Rowan tree has finally formed a beautiful mat of pink tufty bunny tail flowers which, for a pleasant change, is exactly what I planned and wanted! Six plants, well spaced out, have knitted together over the last three years to replace the dwindling Osteospermum jacundum and have now fully done so. I love it when a plan comes together which, in gardening, I find quite rare!

Have a great weekend

David

Six on Saturday

Posted on October 1, 2022 by davidsgardendiary

A rather quick six this morning as I have to prepare for our gardening group meeting this afternoon. We are hosting a talk and demonstration by Harriet Rycroft, formerly the Head Gardener at Whichford Pottery. In the meantime, I thought you might enjoy the scarlet flowers of Hesperantha coccinea which are just beginning to flower alongside the Alstroemerias. Talking of which…..

The Alstroemerias are much happier in the ground and in the only bit of ‘moist but well drained’ soil in my garden. They were not happy in pots but have since recovered well and are flowering away merrily now. I have Indian Summer, Summer Break, and Summer Sky.

Not a great picture due to the low sun this morning but cheerful happy faces of Viola and Cyclamen welcoming visitors by the front door.

The narcissus are planted up in their terracotta pots and topped with horticultural grit to deter the rodents and cats. It also prevents the compost splashing up the render! The pots sit on the gravel margin so they have good natural drainage.

The clumps of perennial garlic chives, Allium tuberosum, are brightening up the cottage garden border. We never use the leaves, far too strong for our taste, but I grow them for their wonderful pure white flowers which go on for weeks in late summer. Although they produce masses of seed, they never seem to spread like a lot of alliums do.

Salvia greggii ‘Red Bumble’ still going strong and will flower up to the first frosts. I love these shrubby salvias and have found the best way to prune them is in two stages, like roses. I cut them back by a third in December and down to fresh growth in April, roughly two thirds in all. It seems a bit brutal at the time but it keeps them tight and a good shape, and they flower better for longer.

Finally, an extra pic of Dahlia ‘Star Wars’ in the foreground. A new one this year chosen by my son-in-law for its dark, almost black foliage, and eye-popping flowers with dark centres.

Have a great weekend

David

Six on Saturday

Posted on March 5, 2022 by davidsgardendiary

Euphorbia characias, nowhere near as tall as last year but with plenty of flowers to enjoy. Considering it is native to the hot and dry Mediterranean, it is a plant which has become well adapted to our wet winters. It it is happy enough to self seed everywhere too!

My congested bed of Hesperantha coccinea did not produce many flowers last year which was probably due to a lack of timely watering and exhausted soil. The RHS recommended lifting, dividing and replanting into soil with added compost so up they came! A bag of rich mushroom compost with added manure and a few fistfuls of Growmore should help them perform better.

Something I haven’t witnessed before is stripy Carex ‘flowering’ in my winter hanging basket. I just hope I don’t end up with seedlings popping up everywhere!

This week, I launched my new website to support my National Collection of Tradescantias. I have called it Spiderwort because that is the common name for the hardy species in North America. I would love you to have a look and let me know what you think of it so far!

The link is https://thespiderwortcollection.wordpress.com/

It is early days and I have a lot more information to upload, but any early thoughts would be welcome. The plan is to post updates at least weekly throughout the main growing season, April to August, and to record plant performance, pests and diseases, flower power and individual traits which die-hard enthusiasts should find interesting. However, I fully acknowledge that die-hard enthusiasts for this species are few and far between and I won’t be offended if you decide not to follow my Tradescantia journey of discovery!

Erysimum ‘Parrish’s’ continues to flower as it has done all winter long. I marvel at their stamina and flower power. She currently has darker flower colours than they will be in summer when the brick red and light purple will be added to the mauve. Unlike most Erysimums, this one enjoys being cut back hard in April to encourage new shoots.

I love the fresh new shoots of Roses. I also breathe a sigh of relief that I didn’t kill them with my drastic pruning. Fingers crossed for no more hard frosts! I am a bit old fashioned when it comes to pruning roses; as well as taking out any diseased, dead, spindly and crossing stems, I like to have an open centre, varying heights and pruned to an outward facing bud. Many theories abound including the use of hedge trimmers and just a quick haircut, but I find pleasure and satisfaction in giving this job a bit more thought and care.

Finally, half a clump of Sanguisorba ‘Pink Tanna’ on it’s way to a friend’s garden in exchange for Geranium ‘Ann Folkard’ already received and planted. Gardeners are such a generous bunch!

Have a great weekend

David

Six on Saturday

Posted on September 5, 2020 by davidsgardendiary

Here in the Cotswolds we are still blessed with good weather and after the recent rains we now have warm sunshine which is promoting new growth and repeat flowering.

Most of the perennial wallflowers have finished and been cut back but Apricot Twist just keeps going. Difficult to place and a bit sprawly in habit but delicious nevertheless.

The first of the Kaffir lilies are appearing and will continue right up to December if it stays mild. It’s the strong winds they don’t like and soon become tatty. I have acquired two more varieties this year, the pure white ‘Snow Maiden’ and ‘Pink Princess’ which I am hoping will flower this year.

This shrubby Salvia is one of my favourites and has been going strong for many years in the well drained sunny border. It is cut back hard each spring and responds with 18″ of new growth and months of pale cream petals from pink blushed buds and a dark, sometimes almost black calyx.

No, not mustard and cress, but thousands of white Foxglove seedlings in the ground beneath the mother plant. This has happened all over the garden this year but, sadly, they will have to be reduced considerably leaving just a few to mature. For some odd reason which I cannot fathom, white Foxgloves do better here than pink ones and although some do hybridise, I always have patches of pure white ones.

This purple Honesty was given to me by a friend this year as I wanted to establish some in the wilder parts of the front garden near the road. It was spectacular in flower and is now hopefully seeding itself around to give me lots more in the future.

This Nine Bark is rewarding me with more lovely new red growth despite having been moved twice this year! It went from small pot to big pot to garden but didn’t lose its stride. A good ‘doer’ as they say.

One more for luck. This Dahlia has been an absolute bee magnet since early July and shows no sign of slowing down. Moist rich soil has produced six feet of growth and dead-heading produces non-stop flowering.

That’s all for this week. I hope you enjoyed my Six this Saturday. I will enjoy reading what others are up to.

Good gardening

David

First Frost

Posted on October 15, 2012 by davidsgardendiary

First Frosty Morning

The weather forecast said there might be a frost on Saturday night but just in exposed rural areas….they were wrong! We awoke to a hard frost and the tell-tale signs of tender plants grimacing in the early morning mist. Gradually, as the sun rose and the mist cleared, I realised this was the day to start the annual clearance.

It is an inevitable part of gardening with annuals and tender perennials that, sooner or later, they need to be lifted and either potted up, stored or composted. Most people seem to think that makes a garden ‘high maintenance’ but I just see it as part of the programme. If you want a colourful scented garden throughout the year, it comes at a small price. However, the payback is lots of wonderful composting material!

Even after so many years, I am still reluctant to dispose of plants which are still flowering like Cosmos, Nicotianas, China asters and bedding dahlias but if I wait I will just be clearing away a soggy mushy mess instead. So, out I went, wheelbarrow, border fork and spade in hand and had a really good day. The weather was warm under a cloudless sky.

Schizostylis coccinea (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I feel better for it, the borders look fresh and ready for the next chapter and I now have somewhere to plant out the 50 Alliums I bought at Malvern, the Echinaceas and rudbeckias bursting out of their 5 litre pots, the Hesperis matronalis, Sweet Williams and Foxgloves grown from seed, the Delphiniums and Penstemons bought as plugs, and the various perennials I have collected from plant sales but had nowhere to plant them. Heliopsis ‘Summer Nights’, Schizostylis coccinea, two bargain half price Phormiums, shrubby Salvias ‘Hot Lips’ and ‘Royal Bumble’, Kniphofia ‘Percy’s Pride’ and last, but by no means least, Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’

Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tomorrow is another day. Retirement has the benefit that I can spread tasks out a bit, they don’t all have to be done at the weekend, so now it is time to think, reflect, have a glass of wine and plan ahead. I might get the seed boxes out of the fridge and dream of next year’s promise, all those wonderful treats to come!