Six on Saturday

Posted on March 30, 2024 by davidsgardendiary

Despite the dreadful weather lately, the garden has flourished and plants are growing before my very eyes. Each day now there is something new, better, bigger or beautiful to look at. Today it was the the Amelanchier lamarckii against a clear blue sky.

As soon as the sun comes out, the Anemone blanda open and is an arresting sight alongside the naturalised narcissus and primroses.

Why are the tulips out so early this year? Is it the variety? The fact that they are in pots (the ones in the ground are not open yet, though already in bud), or maybe just the warm, wet Spring has brought them on quicker. I don’t know.

This large clump of Purple Honesty, Lunaria annua, decided to make its home at the front of the drive border, peeping out from the permanent shrubs, which seems to be its preferred habitat.

Last Autumn, I split a huge clump of Penstemon digitalis ‘Dark Towers’ into quarters and potted them up in 10 litre pots. Two have found new homes and two are now waiting for me to make up my mind where to put them. I now know they need a lot of room, at least a metre due to the volume of foliage they produce, and that is a metre I don’t currently have!

At least the rain gave me chance to get in the greenhouse and transplant the Cosmos seedlings and a few of the Which? Gardening trial seeds I am growing this year, including, for the first time, Amaranthus paniculatus ‘Foxtail’, a variety of the old fashioned favourite Love-Lies-Bleeding. They sent me 50 seeds but only half germinated. Not a great start!

Have a great Easter Weekend

David

Six on Saturday

Posted on March 16, 2024 by davidsgardendiary

My Six on Saturday blogs have recently been interrupted by illness and holidays (in that order!) and on my return I was laser focused on getting the rose garden in shape. I foolishly (as it turned out) spread my own compost over the beds last year, and paid the price in millions of weeds. I also succumbed to my tendency to overplant, and stuffed every available space with herbaceous perennials, summer flowering bulbs and any spare plants looking for a home. I soon discovered that roses don’t like that. They like and need space and airflow around them, otherwise they sulk and whole stems die off! So, 13 old compost bags full of plants, weeds and detritus have gone to the recycling centre, beds are now weed free, fed and mulched, and looking all the better for it.

There is not much colour in the garden yet, but these little Anemone blanda have spread themselves around and pop up everywhere to compete nicely with the unwanted, and impossible to eradicate, Ficaria verna commonly known as the hated lesser celandine.

The other stalwart of the early Spring garden is the common flowering redcurrant, Ribes sanguineum. This one grows as a ‘full stop’ at the end of a beech hedge and gets a hard prune in August, which as every gardener knows, is far too late, But somehow, it has adapted to to this and rewards me with a good show every February and March. When I walk past, it is buzzing with bumble bees which always brings a smile.

Last October, a kind friend gave me some seeds of Lunaria annua ‘Chedglow’, a rather choice variety of Purple Honesty which begins life with blotchy leaves before they turn a dark shade of purple topped with dark purple flowers. I look forward to seeing it in all its glory next Spring.

The mild winter seems to have confused some of my November planted Tulips! These are not a dwarf variety, nor are they an early variety. They are supposed to be up to 40cm tall and flowering in May!

As usual, I seem to have sown far too many Cosmos in the mistaken belief that, because they are last years seed, the germination rate would be far less. Cosmos, as we all know, does not follow the rules, hasn’t read the packet, and will grow regardless of age!

Right, back to the pressure washing!

Have a great weekend

David

Six on Saturday

Posted on August 5, 2023 by davidsgardendiary

There are some plants in the garden that I rarely look at, much less talk about. They are just there, lurking in the background, unexciting, marking time. Then, one day, they do something which gets my attention and I take notice. This Echinops ritro is such a plant. Ugly and untidy, just spiky leaves for most of the year before a sudden explosion of colourful azure blue flower balls appear accompanied by the almost constant buzzing of honeybees.

Allium ‘Millenium’, a bargain from the forecourt at Lidl a few weeks ago, is now showing what makes her one of the best late summer flowering ornamental onions for the front of a sunny border. Another great bee favourite, and will multiply over time to make a decent clump.

As some of you will know, I am a ‘Plant Guardian’ for a number of rare or unusual plants which have either lost favour with gardeners and nurseries or were literally lost to cultivation due to war, disease or such other catastrophe. This Dahlia ‘Winston Churchill’ came to me in this year’s Plant Heritage Plant Exchange as one such plant, or tuber to be precise! It is such a pretty flower and strong grower, I am surprised it isn’t grown more. However, with thousands of alternatives on offer, it is a crowded market!

Another plant I often walk past without noticing is this pineapple lily, Eucomis bicolor, which has been in the same big pot for thirteen years and enjoys the partial shade of the corner by the side gate. I donk a bit of water and feed on it when I think about it but then feel guilty when the beautiful flower spikes appear in July and August. A record 21 this year! It does get shoved under the greenhouse staging for the winter where it stays completely dry for several months before being put out again in May when the new fat red shoots appear.

The Rudbeckia laciniata was divided and replanted earlier in the year which may explain why it is not quite so tall this summer, although it may have been the very dry June, it did flop quite a bit! Normally around 7 feet tall, it is barely 5 feet this year. Still one of my favourites though and seeds itself around a lot so I always have loads of young plantlets to share.

I have finally got a colony of Purple Honesty, Lunaria annua, to grow in my garden after years of trying to coax it in from the adjacent hedgerow. It is such a fickle plant, only growing where it likes, and it has chosen a shady spot under the Photina hedge facing north, which is just fine by me.

Finally, this is my apple tree! Now fully clothed in Clematis ‘Alba Luxurians’, the one with the rather odd white flowers splashed with green tips. In truth, it is an old and decrepit apple tree which produces tasteless fruit and is only useful to hang the bird feeders on so this was a good decision. The clematis needs a bit of a hand to get going so the trunk is wrapped in green square mesh for the petioles (leaf stems) to twist around, although the rough bark of the tree trunk and branches do offer some support. It will get chopped back to 18″ in December and I will then no doubt spend hours unpicking the dead bits out of the wire mesh! Hey ho!

Have a great weekend

David

Six on Saturday

Posted on January 21, 2023 by davidsgardendiary

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.