My ‘Lockdown One’ project of creating a new cottage garden during April and May 2020 has certainly paid dividends this year. Everything has established and, with some slight alterations, is now how I want it.
This pretty pink Linaria ‘Canon Went’ was planted many years ago in a different part of the garden but is now obviously at home with its darker brother and the Verbena. It is a prolific self-seeder and ‘perfect for pollinators’.
I managed to rid the garden of the horrendous magenta Lychnis coronaria and now just have the white version which is easier to place and coordinates with almost everything. It has colonised an area of dry clay in the hottest part of the garden and its offspring are already preparing themselves for next year’s show.
My favourite shrubby Salvia ‘Trelissick’, named after the National Trust garden in Cornwall. I just love the dark calyx with emerging pink bud and creamy white flowers, a stunning combination.
Lychnis chalcedonica, more commonly called Maltese Cross, is another ‘in your face’ sort of plant for a hot border or scheme. Here backed up by the dark Pittosporum tenuifolium. Needs some support otherwise it will flop in the slightest breeze. Dramatic and much admired by quizzical passers-by.
Yet another Thompson & Morgan disaster! These begonia tubers were supposed to be ‘Apricot Shades Improved’ but have turned out to be plain red! So annoying when you nurture something into life in the cold days of February, carefully bring it on in the greenhouse in April, plant it up in the basket in May only to find it wasn’t what you had bought and expected.
Hey ho!
Have a great weekend
David
Davids Garden Diary 
That first photograph is a stunner; a great project which has worked so perfectly well. Re Lychnis chalcedonica – when we started the garden and used grow herbaceous perennials from seed as it was the most cost effective way of doing so, we one year planted over 200 plants of Lychnis chalcedonica – can you imagine the glare! We thinned out year by year as we added other plants and don’t have any left now, thankfully!
Your long borders are really lovely wonderful and just shows what can be accomplished in a short time. I bought my begonias shown this week, £1 each from a retired farm worker down the road who grew them from seed. I reckon I had the better outcome, plus I have a nice old chap I can wave to when I pass his house. The White Lychnis is looking good too.
Looking splendid! Always a disappointment when a plant doesn’t turn out to be what you were promised, still it looks nice in the basket. Are you going to bother to tell them?
Love your projects! My daughter is a beginner gardener and we just had the conversation about plants being mislabeled!
Hey Lou. It seems to be happening more and more. I recently discovered that some of the Tradescantia virginiana I bought from nurseries here and in France last year are the wrong colours!
Looks really good David, we’ll done. Picking up the lychnis theme, I seem to be overrun with the white one and was just thinking a few of the pink ones would make a change! Meanwhile, enjoying the higher rainfall rather than the near desert conditions here in deepest Surrey. But I guess I’ve just jinxed it and the heat will return….
Hi Ian. I think the heat is about to return this weekend! I just can’t take to the magenta Lychnis, it just looks wrong! Grey leaved plants should have white flowers!
The same thing happen to me. I ordered the Apricot Shades and they turned out bright red. They were horrendous. I complained and received the correct ones the following year.
Your cottage garden looks amazing.
Hi Mary. This is the second Thompson & Morgan problem I have had this year. They sent me a half dead rose in a broken box with no protection which turned out to be the wrong colour! I keep complaining but they don’t improve their service. This is definitely their last order from me!