I definitely didn’t buy it so this beautiful Iris sibirica must have found its way here in a pot of something else as often happens. Delightful happy accident!
Neillia affinis, or Chinese ninebark, is a tough deciduous shrub for the mixed border, often overlooked, but it does well for me.. By no means a stunner like Abelia but I enjoy the late spring pink flowers and it’s relaxed habit.
This little rock garden plant sits in this pot year after year and does this in May and June when the sun shines. As soon as the sun goes in, the flowers close up tight. I have no idea what it is called but the ‘leaves’ look like a succulent. Lives outside all year round and seems to able to take everything life throws at it.
The Red Valerian, Centranthus ruber, is in full swing and I am pleased to have the various shades of pink as well as white growing wild in the garden. It seeds prolifically in the gravel paths and margins but pulls up easily so I don’t mind. It is one of those miracle plants that doesn’t seem to need any soil or nutrient to grow. You see it billowing out of limestone walls all over the Cotswolds at this time of year and, on closer inspection, it is thriving on absolutely nothing at all!
The Erysimum ‘Apricot Twist’ continues to astonish me with it’s flower power and persistence. Possibly the hardest working plant in the garden, it literally never stops flowering!
There is a danger in writing a gardening blog, that people believe all areas of your garden must be perfectly maintained at all times which, of course, is never true! There is always a neglected corner where nature runs riot. Out of view, away from prying eyes, this is mine! I call it my comfrey patch but in truth it is my compost corner, a jungle which I hack my way through every few days. I’m sure we all have one, don’t we?!
Have a great weekend
David
Davids Garden Diary 
I have admired the Neillia but have never grown it; A good plant!
Lovely six David. Like Paddy I have never grown Neillia, but I’m inspired to now! Lovely iris, a very lucky hitchhiker.
I think your little yellow rock plant might be a mesembryanthemum? There are certainly many indigenous South African plants that look similar. It’s interesting to know if it’s frost hardy, though if it is a mesem, it may have had to get used to freezing and dry temperatures in the Karoo. Just a thought. It could of course be a succulent from somewhere quite different.
And thank you for posting a pic of the comfrey patch. Most of my garden is a bit like that…
Hi Megan. No, I think it is a Delosperma. It seems to enjoy life in in the garden and just goes to sleep against the house wall in the winter. Glad you like the messy comfrey patch!
I think the yellow succulent is Delosperma cooperi; we bought a couple of different ones a few days ago. Cornwall doesn’t have limestone walls for Kentranthus to grow out of so it sprouts from solid concrete. Like Ox eye daisy it’s on every roadside and I’d be too scared to admit it to the garden.
Hi Jim. You could well be right about the Delosperma thanks. Tough and hardy little plant!
At least the Red Valerian is easy to pull up if it pops up in the wrong place.
Essential to have a wild part in the garden. Unfortunately my comfrey has long been forced out by nettles – I used to get far more from the comfrey!
Hi Ian. Mine is Russian Comfrey, Bocking 14 which is sterile so doesn’t seed about like the native sort. I cut it three times a year and try to make comfrey liquid to feed the tomatoes but it doesn’t always go according to plan! People tell me you should always have a nettle patch for the butterflies to lay their eggs and the resulting caterpillars to feed on. I take the view that there are enough next door!
Thanks for this blogg post