My first Carnations, Garvineas and Alstroemerias from the new cutting garden. Delighted!

The autumn clear-up has begun today with the obelisk of sweet peas being removed from the front garden. It has been fabulous this year with several hundred flowers picked from just 6 plants. They are old fashioned strongly scented Grandifloras from saved seed and are always very prolific in pink, purple, red and blue.  Strangely, no white ones appeared this year so I guess the seed must still be in the packet! This year we mixed them in the vase with Ammi majus flowers and Thalictrum foliage (a bit like Maidenhair Fern) and it set them off a treat.

My friend Bob Lawson has kindly given me two seedlings of Lothospermum scandens sometimes called Asarina. The common name is ‘climbing foxglove’ and that is exactly what it looks like. A twining climber reaching about 8 ft in a single season and covered top to bottom in shell pink foxglove shaped flowers in mid summer. It self seeds everywhere. Bob has them coming up in his tomato pots! I have kept one and given one to my friend Paddy who has a huge heated Hartley Botanic greenhouse so we will see who has the best plant next year. I love a bit of competition!