Hanging basket | Davids Garden Diary

Merry Xmas to everyone who reads, follows or stumbles across my blog this weekend. It has been a couple of weeks since I posted anything, mainly because there wasn’t much to show or say. And there still isn’t! But I couldn’t let the Saturday before Christmas go by without a quick six. This hanging basket was instead of a wreath on the front door this year, just to be different. Hope you like it!

Just a little reminder of this time last year when we had 10 days of ultra low temperatures and the cell structure of many, usually hardy, plants was destroyed. We spent an agonising six months counting the cost of the losses, the precious plants that did not recover, the coastal New Zealand species we took for granted like Hebe, Pittosporum and Flax which turned out to be so vulnerable. The Penstemons, Hydrangeas and fleshy rooted Agapanthus which turned to mush. Some of my friends with plant nurseries and National Plant Collections will never recover.

But, on the other hand, many other plants benefited from the cold winter and warm spring. The roses were excellent and far less troubled with greenfly and rose sawfly, although blackspot was still a big problem here in my garden. June was a spectacular month and those plants which survived excelled in the warm Cotswold sunshine.

Among the plants I would single out for praise and which received good reaction from visitors this year was Veronica longifolia, kindly donated by my good friend and horticultural wizard, Yvonne Gregory. It is as tall as the Veronicastrum in the background but totally self supporting at over 5′ and adored by bees.

Not the best photograph because it is tall and gangly, but my outstanding plant of the year was undoubtedly Salvia uliginosa which flowered from May until I finally cut it back in mid November. There wasn’t a day go by when it wasn’t covered in bees and other pollinators. On warm sunny days it literally buzzed! I know of no other plant with such flower power and pollinator attraction. Especially outstanding because the bumble bees couldn’t get inside the tiny flowers, they had to pierce the base of the flower to get at the nectar, but this didn’t put them off one little bit!

I leave you for now with a rare picture of my juvenile Wisteria chinensis ‘Prolific’, not because the plant itself is rare but because it is an early flowerer and vulnerable to late April frosts which have killed the emerging flower buds for the last four years, but not this year! I finally got to see and smell the beautiful racemes of lavender blue flowers covering the patio fence and not the frosted, brown and withered buds I usually see!

A very Merry Christmas, I hope you have a wonderful time.

David

We were lucky that Storm Antoni came in like a lamb and went out like a lamb in Cheltenham last weekend, with a lot of rain but very little damage. Fortunately, the forecast high winds never materialised so the garden was relatively unscathed otherwise things like this Cosmos would have been devastated. The soil in the front border is too rich for them really so they produce too much foliage at the expense of flowers but they still put on a good show. It is a laborious task but carefully deadheading them keeps them flowering for longer. and keeps them looking good. I leave a few seedheads towards the end of the season to collect for next year.

It looks like storm damage but, in truth, it was just the sheer weight of fruit that brought down my rather old and flimsy support structure for the Merton Thornless blackberries. It’s a little more awkward now but I will pick the fruit and rebuild it in September to tie in the new canes.

The grapes are coming on nicely and should produce a huge crop this year. It is Vitis labrusca ‘Isabella’, the pink fox grape, the variety they use in the USA to make Grape Jelly which is often combined with peanut butter for a tasty snack. It is both a dessert grape and and a wine grape so I plan to start my own vineyard!

I am the only garden in my road to have a hanging basket this year! Maybe they are no longer fashionable, or perhaps it’s just the constant feeding and watering that people have found too much. They are a tie though, even if we go away for a weekend I have to ask my neighbour to water it each day. I cram so many plants into a 14″ basket that the thirst for water must be immense and now the pelleted feed has almost certainly been used up, it requires liquid tomato feed at every other watering. Mind you, I do love it and feel it is worth the effort. A miniature miracle!

Why do Hollyhocks insist on growing in the most awkward places! They seem intent on finding a tiny crevice against a wall or fence or, as in my case, up against the purple beech hedge. I hasten to add that I have never planted any myself, they have migrated from next door where they run riot against the house wall in dry, inhospitable conditions which would normally never support life of any kind; even the weeds die of malnutrition.

A plant I am often asked about in the garden is Catananche caerulea or Cupid’s Dart as it is commonly known. It is a short lived perennial but best treated as an annual or biennial. I have it in this blue/purple and white from a packet of seeds I received in a seed exchange several years ago. It forms a lovely papery flower bud which is very popular with flower arrangers and lasts for weeks. If it’s happy in your soil, it will self seed and you will have it forever, like Nigella or bittercress!

Have a great weekend.

David