digitalis | Davids Garden Diary

It’s Roses time!

I could easily fill this week’s blog with roses of all sizes shapes and colours but I will try to resist. Just a couple then! ‘Ghislaine de Feligonde’ is a short rambler which mingles on the trellis with Wisteria. Clusters of flowers open from deep apricot to almost white and are fully double. Not as thorny as some ramblers and easily contained. A good choice for a small garden I think.

The greeny, creamy Foxgloves mentioned last week turned out to be white! However, by a stroke of luck they are almost exactly the same colour as Rosa ‘The Pilgrim’ on the trellis behind.

The kind lady who follows my blog and offered to swap some of her violet Hesperis matronalis for some of my white ones arrived yesterday with a bucket of beauties! Thank you Gay, they are now planted and look amazing.

I collected over 800 self-sown Tradescantia seedlings from the Collection beds this year and, after many hours in the greenhouse and several bags of compost, they are all potted up. However, they grow very fast and in a few weeks they will all need potting on! Many of them will flower this year giving me the opportunity to select the best as potential new named hybrids.

The Sweet Peas are in full flower now and need picking every other day to keep them going. I love the old varieties like this ‘Painted Lady’, but the grandiflora types too. They all need a lot of watering and feeding to flower well but the rewards are definitely worth it. Their beauty and scent are the essence of a cottage garden in early summer.

And another rose to finish, I couldn’t resist! ‘Amber Queen’, one of my absolute favourites for the complexity and beauty of the flowers. It begins as orange/apricot becoming rich deep yellow when fully open. A Harkness rose, not David Austin, introduced in 1984 and possibly still the best of all the yellows.

Have a great weekend. We are off to Ashton-under-Hill village Open Gardens this afternoon if the weather holds. Thunderstorms are forecast for this evening and overnight but we do need the rain!

David

Osteospermum ‘Cannington Roy’, remarkably hardy and has overwintered for two years successfully in the gravel margin between the path and house wall. Incredibly floriferous and will keep on going until November if it is deadheaded continuously.

Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’ against Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’, a fetching combination and lucky accident! A good ‘doer’ compared to a lot of others; strong, tall and has clumped up well in poor dry soil in full sun.

Astrantia major with pink and blue hardy geraniums, a perfect combination. This Astrantia pops up in various places where it is happy so I leave it and let it flourish. It seems to like the company of other ground cover plants which probably keep the soil cool and moist.

A scented leaf pelargonium with an exquisite scarlet colour, almost fluorescent.

I have no idea what this Iris sibirica is called but it is simply beautiful. The seamless blend of white, cream and yellow is perfect in every detail.

Yes I know it’s only a daisy but this Erigeron karvinskianus has my respect and admiration for it’s sheer tenacity and determination to succeed in the face of adversity. It manages to get it’s seed into every crack and crevice and is slowly but surely colonising the four corners of my garden.

This remarkable bi-coloured Foxglove, Digitalis grandiflora, opens creamy yellow and gradually turns light pink creating this lovely two colour effect. I will collect seed from it but I doubt if it will come true again.