Just in case you were wondering, the new header picture for my blog is Chrysanthemum ‘Orange Allouise’ bought as a plug plant from Sarah Raven in April 2011 and propagated into 5 further new plants this March from basal cuttings. It is utterly gorgeous, like dripping creamy butter, and I hope to keep it going for many years to come. The header picture has been cropped a little so here is the full shot with water droplets after a shower of rain.
Lilium ‘Landini’
This Asiatic Lily is quite simply stunning. Photographs don’t do it justice. It is fully a metre tall with dark green glossy leaves and what are variously described as dark red, chocolate red, or burgundy red flowers. In differing light levels and aspects they can vary from a shade of very dark red to almost black. To me, they look good enough to eat, like dark bitter chocolate!
Two stems of Lily ‘Landini’
Unfortunately, like a lot of the most beautiful lilies, there is no scent to add to it’s credentials but it’s colour is enough to warrant inclusion alongside white and yellow forms to provide contrast and drama.
‘Landini’
I have to admit that I bought the bulbs at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show hoping that they would flower at the same time as the huge flowered white and pink Oriental Lilium longiflorum trumpet lily ‘Triumphator’ which I planted on the same day but, as is often the way with gardening, timing is everything and mine was off! Anyway, it will give another excuse for a separate post when the buds finally open next week. They are still in the greenhouse along with two pots of promising looking Turks Cap lilies, but colder nights may mean disappointing results. We’ll have to wait and see.
One of the many joys of gardening for me is picking our own soft fruit. We have strawberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries and autumn raspberries. Also, and new for this year, three blackberry bushes including ‘Bedford Giant’ which has put on 12 feet of growth in it’s first year! I have just tied in the thorny canes to a frame I made and have the scars to prove it! Judging from the little buds sitting in every leaf axil, there should be a bumper crop next year. 
Sadly, due to the cold wet weather in April and May, the apple blossom was not pollinated by bees and other insects and so we had just two apples this year off our little tree compared to our usual haul of at least 20 kilos plus the windfalls.
However, the stars of the show at the moment are the autumn raspberries. I started with just 12 bare roots of Autumn raspberry ‘Brice’ two years ago which I planted 600mm apart in a single row but now it is a ‘patch’ 8m long and 1.2m wide in which there must be at least 100 canes all cropping prolifically right now! This year I followed advice from the RHS and sprayed with Magnesium Sulphate (Epsom Salts) because the leaves were yellowing and streaky due to a local deficiency of Magnesium. The fruits are a dark red and taste divine.
At the peak of fruit production, usually weeks 3 to 6 in the cycle, we pick approx 2 kilos every other day and slightly less in the 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after. In total, fruit picking usually goes on for about 9 weeks from late August until the leaves eventually turn yellow and the fruits begin to lose their taste and then stop ripening at the end of October. Cropping started a bit later this year due to the lack of sunshine and warmth but they are certainly making up for it now.
Autumn Raspberry ‘Brice’
There are far too many for the two of us to eat but we have found they actually taste even better after they have been frozen and so most of them end up in our spare freezer in the garage. We have found the best method is to firstly immerse them in a bowl of cold water; this is not to wash them but any insects and grubs will float to the surface and can be easily removed. The water possibly reduces the flavour slightly but, unfortunately, the Raspberry Beetle lays it’s eggs on the flowers enabling the subsequent tiny caterpillar-like larvae to feed off the fruit. We are not totally organic, I just don’t use chemical insect sprays so we put up with it and deal with any we find. They are probably harmless but we don’t like the idea of eating them!
After freezing
Before vacuum sealing
They are then either popped into freezer bags, zip-lock bags or we use our new toy, a vacuum sealer, which removes all the air. They store better and take up less room but don’t try to vacuum seal fresh fruit, you will just end up with mush!
Vacuum sealed
The other advantage of freezing is that you can bag them up in just the right quantities so they should last even longer. They will keep for several months in the freezer and there is nothing quite like the taste of your own raspberries at Christmas or in the depths of a cold winter. In my opinion, freezing them seems to intensify the flavour as well. When they are defrosted, they are slightly softer but usually keep their shape well. And if not, there is always raspberry coulis!
When we were in Cornwall we went to the famous old fishing village of Clovelly on the north coast near Bideford, and I am really glad we did. Despite the obvious difficulties of the steep hill and the cobbled streets, it was a fascinating place to visit and well worth the effort. 
Why anybody in the 1850’s thought it was a good idea to build a village on a sheer rock face and with everything having to be transported on sleds and pulled by donkeys is a mystery, but they did and it is testament to their ingenuity and determination that they succeeded.
Anybody who has been right down to the Red Lion Inn on the harbour will know just how painful on the knees it can be! I managed to get down to the really steep last 100 feet of steps and gave up!
My wife, who is far fitter and more agile than me, made it all the way down and, more importantly, back up again!
As this is a gardening blog, I thought it had better have some horticultural content so here it is! On the way down the hill, in a little side street, I came across a Fuchsia tree! It was obviously very old judging from the stem which was gnarled and at least 70mm thick and it was growing against the house in very little soil. However, it was flowering well and looked very healthy. Has anyone any idea of the variety?
Breakwater Cottage
Left the garden in good hands for a week and driven down to one of our favourite spots in North Cornwall, Summerleaze Beach in Bude. We come down here mainly to give the dogs a holiday on the beach, they love it!
View from the Cottage
The place we rent is called Breakwater Cottage and is literally a stones throw from a beautiful, clean, dog friendly beach, the estuary of the tiny River Neet and the sea lock of the Bude Canal. A fascinating place with a lot of history, well restored and carefully managed. Lots of interesting walks on the coastal path above the breakwater and around the headland to Crooklets Beach. We look out onto the canal, the river and the sea and the sand dunes, which lead to an open air sea pool cleaned and refilled by every high tide.
Whilst I’m here I thought I would jot down a few notes about the garden because it is always interesting to reflect on other peoples gardens, particularly when it’s right next to the beach and exposed to salt laden winds.
Mind your own Business
The owner of the cottage lives in London but he obviously employs a keen gardener to look after things for him while he’s away. It is a challenging garden to tend being on a steep slope but the terracing and rock features help to hold the sandy soil back and plants have been chosen carefully to provide stability and coverage. Not for the faint hearted, the potentially invasive Soleirolia soleirolii, commonly called Mind your own Business, has been introduced and looks perfect clinging to the rocks and sheer faces of the granite walls. Fuchsias, hydrangeas and hardy geraniums love the improved but well drained soil and a Tamarisk tree is constantly swaying gently over the driveway. On the upper levels, hebes and hardy fuchsias form a tall hedge and phormiums, cordylines and santolinas bask in the sun. Outside in the road, glossy black tubs are filled with yellow anthemis and red begonias creating an attractive welcome to the cottage.
The other key feature of all the gardens and stone walls in the area is Red Valerian, Centranthus ruber, which grows out of every nook and cranny.
Common Fleabane, Erigeron karvinskianus, has obviously developed from one plant into many and now billows over the steps.
One of the clever things about the garden is the way the different levels provide differing views and the higher you go, the more you see. 
At the very top, perched alongside a tall Cordyline you can look over the cottage roof, over the estuary and out to sea.The air in Cornwall somehow seems to be cleaner, and the light is brighter and sharper. I’ve heard that’s why a lot of artists and photographers have moved here and I’m not surprised. The dogs love it too!
The pond has become a real source of pleasure to us and our friends. The sound of gently flowing water alongside the patio is restful and the fish and wildlife are a great time stealer and talking point. It adds another dimension to the garden and, although more difficult to get right than most people would think, there is nothing quite like it on a warm summers day. I love watching the Dragonflies and Damsel flies, the water boatmen and pond skaters.
This year the water lilies have covered the surface well keeping the algae and blanket weed down to a minimum, and the 3 water soldiers I put in last year have multiplied alarmingly; here must be 30 now and new ones appearing all the time. We also have a pretty vanilla scented Water Hawthorn with the impossible name of Aponogeton distachyos, striped Acorus and Equisetum hyemale grasses, a Marsh Marigold, Caltha palustris, and a rather beautiful purple Japanese Iris.
It is commonly thought that Koi are both predatory and omnivorous, eating anything green and small fish and snails as well. We have two Koi, 6 Shubunkins , 12 goldfish, 3 Orfe and 1 Golden Tench and although the Koi are voracious eaters, they only seem to eat the food we give them. They are also very tame, coming up and gliding through our hands if we gently tempt them with food sticks.
Unfortunately, we don’t know the sex of our fish but for some reason, we think that the bigger golden Koi is male and the smaller white Koi is female. There is absolutely no logic to that other than size and appetite!
Earlier this year we spotted tiny black fish which have grown into large black and orange fish! At least we now know for sure we have some males and some females although at this stage it could just be the goldfish. We live in hope that the Koi breed as well provided our assumption is right and they are indeed a male and a female. The pond is certainly big enough at 5000 litres and 90cm deep to support more fish but we prefer to keep the oxygen levels up and the fish waste down!
Aponogeton distachyos – Water Hawthorn
Just wanted to post a picture of my Grandad’s chrysanths, grown on each year from cuttings taken from his garden when he died 22 years ago. I have no idea of the variety and it doesn’t really matter. I just call them ‘George’. They seem to get better every year. Thanks George!
This is Geranium Yoshinoi, a low growing hardy geranium from Japan. An excellent plant for ground cover under trees, it forms a creeping mat of attractive, small marbled leaves and bears masses of insignificant 1cm bright mauve flowers veined with a deeper shade over a long period from summer into autumn when the leaves turn a glorious deep red.
I have it growing beneath a group of Silver Birches and it is evidently very happy there because it has spread from just three plants grown from seed a couple of years ago into a colony now 3 metres across.
Its spreading stolons root at intervals increasing it’s range and forming potential new plants but that is not what interests me most about this plant.
As I watched in the sun yesterday, small black seeds were hurtling in all directions thanks to an ingenious seed dispersal mechanism which catapults the seed capsule at great speed and great force.
I am not sure exactly how far the seeds travel but I have new self sown plants popping up all over the garden, some a great distance from the mother plant.
The seed is supposed to be quite rare and sought after but it is more likely that you can’t find it!
A hardy geranium worth growing as ground cover if you have dry areas beneath deciduous trees and would work well with hardy cyclamen and spring bulbs.
The last two weeks of good weather have helped the chillies ripen. I grew them from seed saved from just one fruit last year but this is where I have to admit to one of my failings; if I sow 10 seeds and they all germinate, I am determined to grow all 10 plants! What on earth was I thinking!
We now have dozens of big juicy chillies we don’t need and won’t use, so we have to think of ways to preserve them, dry them, pickle them, freeze them or……give them away! What a waste of effort, water, compost, plant food and greenhouse space!
Note to self, do not grow more than one chilli plant next year. Or maybe two. All right, a maximum of three!
All the Campanulas have finished flowering, had their seed collected and been cut down – except this one! Funny how some plants just won’t give in!
This Campanula latifolia was one of several grown from seed in March and planted out at the same time and yet is either flowering again or is at least 6 weeks behind the others. What a strange year it has been!
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