Salvia 'Trelissick' | Davids Garden Diary

It is getting more and more difficult to find six interesting things for the blog but some things, like this Rose ‘Camille Pissarro’ continue to surprise me. Flowering as strongly in November as he was in June and no sign of giving up any time soon.

This unnamed wallflower, not a perennial just one of the annual cheiri types, is still here after three years and producing lots of self sown seedlings. I left it because I like the flower colour, less gaudy than most and unobtrusive at any time of the year.

Earlier this year I resolved to link my seven old water butts together to try and capture as much rainwater as possible. However, I am not patient enough to stand while a watering can slowly fills from the tap. I am a dipper. I plunge my can in the open water butt at the top instead! The problem is that some of my butts are old juice barrels with no lid. So, I experimented with joining them all together at the bottom by their taps or outlets whereby they all empty at the same rate. This means my open dipping butt never seems to go down! Every time it rains, the water from my 18′ x 8′ shed and greenhouse fills 2 of the barrels which in turn fill the other 5. This gives me a constant 1500 litres of water all year round. The manifold of old hose pipe and ‘T’ pieces was a bit of a faff but it all works beautifully!

A few Saturdays ago I mentioned the self sown cosmos seedlings and wondered whether they would survive the winter. Well, I needn’t have worried because they have all flowered! Never had this happen before and I think it must have been the hot summer and mild autumn which promoted germination and flowering in just a few short weeks.

The shrubby salvias, like this ‘Trelissick’ are still going strong with lots more flower buds and fresh growth at the base. I tend to cut the top third off about now to avoid wind rock, but I can’t bring myself to do it just yet!

And finally, let’s end on Hardy Geranium ‘Orion’ which has been flowering non-stop since May and is a real stunner. One of the sterile hybrids like ‘Patricia’ and ‘Rozanne’, she keeps flowering in the vain hope that pollination will occur, and seeds will form, but they never do.

Have a great weekend

David

My ‘Lockdown One’ project of creating a new cottage garden during April and May 2020 has certainly paid dividends this year. Everything has established and, with some slight alterations, is now how I want it.

This pretty pink Linaria ‘Canon Went’ was planted many years ago in a different part of the garden but is now obviously at home with its darker brother and the Verbena. It is a prolific self-seeder and ‘perfect for pollinators’.

I managed to rid the garden of the horrendous magenta Lychnis coronaria and now just have the white version which is easier to place and coordinates with almost everything. It has colonised an area of dry clay in the hottest part of the garden and its offspring are already preparing themselves for next year’s show.

My favourite shrubby Salvia ‘Trelissick’, named after the National Trust garden in Cornwall. I just love the dark calyx with emerging pink bud and creamy white flowers, a stunning combination.

Lychnis chalcedonica, more commonly called Maltese Cross, is another ‘in your face’ sort of plant for a hot border or scheme. Here backed up by the dark Pittosporum tenuifolium. Needs some support otherwise it will flop in the slightest breeze. Dramatic and much admired by quizzical passers-by.

Yet another Thompson & Morgan disaster! These begonia tubers were supposed to be ‘Apricot Shades Improved’ but have turned out to be plain red! So annoying when you nurture something into life in the cold days of February, carefully bring it on in the greenhouse in April, plant it up in the basket in May only to find it wasn’t what you had bought and expected.

Hey ho!

Have a great weekend

David