Rosa 'Boscobel' | Davids Garden Diary

I don’t know about you, but it feels like summer has sneaked up on us and there is still so much to do! There was a cold north east wind all week here in the Cotswolds which made gardening a chore instead of the pleasure it usually is in late May. This Prostanthera cuneata, the Alpine mint bush, recommended by a good friend, has produced an amazing display of pure white flowers on mint scented foliage this year. Seems oblivious to anything the British climate can throw at it, despite its Australian origins.

These rather wayward Gladiolus byzantinus have found their way here from a big clump I dug up and split last year. I thought I had found them all, but apparently not. Despite their rather glamorous name, they have been a stalwart of the cottage garden for hundreds of years having been introduced from the eastern Mediterranean in the 1500’s.

This early flowering Allium amplectens ‘Graceful Beauty’ is a scruffy, grassy, spreading perennial which will take over a bed unless you are ruthless and selectively weed it out in early spring. However, for a few brief weeks in late May and early June it redeems itself with hundreds of pure white flowers which pollinators love.

This unusual rosy flowered garlic, Allium roseum, produces pretty pink scented flowers followed by tiny bulblets which will spread about and produce new plants if allowed. An edible Old World species of garlic which was apparently prized for its delicate flavour.

The first flowers of Rosa ‘Roald Dahl’ and ‘Boscobel’ accompanied by a froth of Nepeta faassenii ‘Kit Cat’. It’s going to be a good year for roses. The hard February pruning and a cold winter have produced strong new healthy growth which is being inspected daily by our resident Blue Tit family, picking off the aphids to feed their young.

Nature has kindly produced a greeny, creamy foxglove instead of the usual pink or white ones which are everywhere else in the garden. I rather like it and hope its offspring are the same colour next year, but I doubt it.

Finally, the smoke bush, Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’, is smothered in flowers at the moment meaning a lot of ‘smoke’ to come!

Have a great weekend

David

Everything is going bonkers! Weeds are outgrowing the plants, all the early flowerers have suddenly realised it’s mid-May and they had better get a shift on. The dry April has been replaced by ‘mixed’ weather conditions. Rain then sun then cloud then rain again, it just can’t make its mind up! This Cerinthe and the feverfew are fighting for position in the cottage garden border.

The Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus grown from seed a few years ago are delightfully scented and pack a real citrus yellow punch in late spring, way before the other taller varieties behind strut their stuff. I suppose it’s a survival of the fittest thing, get in early, do your thing, get out.

Have you ever seen anything more delicious than this?! Rosa ‘Boscobel’ is one of the best roses in my little collection and is one of the few David Austin roses that manage to hold their frilly heads up instead of drooping under the sheer weight of their flower power. Highly recommended if you are looking for a modern repeat flowering shrub rose with modest scent, healthy foliage and the most gorgeous flowers.

Nobody bothered to tell Clematis ‘Hagley Hybrid’ that it’s only mid-May and she shouldn’t be flowering just yet. She is starting subtly though, six inches off the ground so no-one can see!

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena) should come with a warning label which says “regardless of what you would prefer, this plant will decide on its own position and grow accordingly”. Last year it was sown in the narrow cottage garden border where it flowered prolifically, went to seed and decided it preferred the adjoining gravel path, which has a weed suppressing membrane beneath! It needs no goodness, just to be left alone.

My Tradescantias are coming into flower and I am busy recording interesting things about their habits, flowering dates and cultivation. This one is Tradescantia bracteata from the mid-west of the United States and one of the shorter, more well behaved species. Delicate foliage and lavender blue flowers are a beautiful combination in a grassy plant, or weed as my wife calls them! Ah well, they feed my obsession and make me happy in my old age!

Have a great weekend, I am off trout fishing near Chipping Norton today to see if the Mayflies are about. Wish me luck!

David