Ophiopogon | Davids Garden Diary

Back in the day, my Mum & Dad raved about Rosa ‘Blue Moon’ and so when I heard about Rosa ‘Twice in a Blue Moon’ I thought it must be pretty special. What a let down! Pale, floppy, untidy and uninteresting muddy purple flowers following a perfect pink rose bud. Just goes to show, don’t believe the hype!

The Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’ are providing some much needed interest and colour in the herbaceous border and cover the greenery of earlier plants which have finished for the year. Lovely pops of yellow dazzle and crave attention.

I just love bright red Geraniums (actually Pelargoniums but everyone calls them Geraniums!) these beauties were 79p each in modules of six from the forecourt at Lidl and such great value for months of colour. They are forgiving if you forget to water them for a week, need hardly any feeding and keep flowering until the frosts cut them down in November. They add a touch of glamour to the steps too!

The Silphium perfoliatum, or Cup Plant, is a tall perennial daisy from the prairies of North America and a reliable hardy addition to the shrubbery where it provides height and late colour. I grew it from seed several years ago and it now self-seeds freely which provides me with spare plants to offer in plant sales and to exchange for things I want. Very attractive to bees, bulletproof and a great alternative or addition to perennial sunflowers, Rudbeckia and other yellow daisies…..if you like yellow daisies….which I do!

I wonder if anyone can help me identify this plant please? I have a suspicion it might be a variegated form of Ophiopogon but it could equally be a Carex, Liriope or similar grassy plant. A kind friend gave it to me without a label, because she didn’t know what it was either! It is short, 30cm, hasn’t flowered (yet) and seems to spread by underground runners (like Ophiopogon). I look forward to suggestions please!

Finally for this week, Astrantia major which is having a second flush of ‘Hattie’s Pincushion’ flowers, probably thanks to the warm and wet July and August. It is usually over for the season by now, just another oddity in an odd year for the garden.

Have a great weekend

David

Another very cold and frosty morning in Cheltenham. Not a lot of activity at the moment other than rose pruning when the day warms up and assessing jobs to be done when February comes around. February is my weed/feed/mulch month and I am itching to get started.

These Chaenomeles japonica fruits are hanging on before they finally wither and drop off. In my garden, nothing seems to eat them. I have tried putting them out on the lawn for blackbirds, pigeons and other fruit eating birds but they are always ignored. Strange when you consider they are perfectly edible and apparently make good quince jelly.

Lots of fat buds on the Photinia fraserii ‘Red Robin’ bushes promising a good flush of red tips in April

The purple Honesty has almost shed all it’s mother of pearl seed discs, just leaving their ghostly outline. I am hoping for a good show next year if they decide to germinate. It is one of those plants that only seems happy if it decides where to grow itself. This one arrived by chance from the adjoining hedgerow where it revels in the poor soil and total lack of maintenance.