snails | Davids Garden Diary

Definitely NOT what you want in your prized white Allium ‘Mount Everest’. I am plagued with snails this year. I have looked in all the usual hiding spots to clear them away, but still they appear.This chap obviously thought he would be safe here!

First Sweet Pea flower of the year. A pretty pink one, which is amazing because I only sowed white and blue ones! They were supposed to be a mixture of creamy white ‘Cathy’ and blue flaked ‘Betty Maiden’. No matter, they are all gorgeous.

This little plant hardly ever gets a mention, maybe because the leaves look very similar to Wood Avens, and gets weeded out earlier in the year. Tellima grandiflora or Fringe Cups, is a western North American wildflower which is now a common sight along British hedgerows and in deciduous woodland in spring. It has tiny yellow or red flowers and soft felty leaves..

Not in my garden (obviously!) but an ocean of wild garlic along the banks of a stream in Painswick this week. I found it interesting that the flowers were more prevalent on the sunny side of the stream.

A veritable forest of perennial sunflowers, Helianthus ‘Miss Mellish’, which are due for the ‘Chelsea Chop’ next week. I try to tier them by chopping them shorter at the front and leaving some untouched in the middle. That way I get more flowers over a longer period.

Just emerging is Clematis integrifolia, which would normally sprawl over other shrubs but I keep it contained within a grow-through ‘lobster pot’ to get it to grow vertically and so I can appreciate the beautiful mauve flowers en-masse. It works well with roses and the background of Trachelospermum jasminoides which will hopefully be in flower next week if this beautiful weather continues.

Have a great weekend

David

Sometimes, the fresh new growth of trees and shrubs is just as beautiful as colourful flowers. Our purple beech hedge is amazing at this time of year as the tightly curled leaves emerge from the tight bud.

I rained last night and the drops of water made the new soft leaves look even more stunning.

I love the flowers of alliums but hate the leaves because I have a garden plagued with slugs and snails. The damp foliage attracts them like a magnet and this is the inevitable result. I visited an open garden near Malvern last weekend and a lady with 50 hostas told me she has no molluscs or slugs in her garden. I am not sure I believe her!

The autumn sown Sweet Peas are doing well and the first flowers are already forming. These will probably not be viable as the nights are still too cold but by the end of the month this obelisk should be covered with beautiful blue, white and pink flowers which will be picked every other day for the vase.

Geum ‘Banana Daiquiri’ given to me by a friend last year and loving its new home in the sunny border. One of the shorter geums which is ideal for placing beneath taller, later flowering perennials.

Viburnum Plicatum ‘Mariesii’ looking spectacular in the shrubbery this morning alongside the acid yellow of Euphorbia palustris and the backdrop of Photinia ‘Red Robin’

Finally for this week, I could fill a whole blog post with the myriad colours and forms of Aquilegia in my garden, most of which I did not plant. Some of them started off life as the ‘Barlow’ series many years ago but have morphed into all sorts of things now. More Ken & Deirdre Barlow than Nora Barlow!

Ah well, that’s my six for this Saturday. Off to take the granddaughter to Cotswold Wildlife Park in Burford for the day. Gardening will have to wait until tomorrow!

Bye for now.

David