Tradescantia seedlings | Davids Garden Diary

It would seem that Autumn is upon us already and the turning leaves of the Liquidambar styraciflua ‘Worplesdon’ are always the first to confirm it in my garden. Not really surprising as these acer relatives are primarily grown for their glorious autumn hues of red and orange.

The fruits of the dark leaved elder, Sambucus nigra ‘Black Lace’, are also a sign that the seasons are slowly changing. It won’t be long before the birds will pick them clean in preparation for whatever sort of winter we are going to have this year!

The red tips of the Photinia fraserii ‘Red Robin’ have appeared again just a few short weeks after their mid summer trim and in rude health after the disappointingly wet July & August. A final trim might be in order at the end of the month just to keep it tight and tidy for the winter.

One of the benefits of being the National Collection Holder of hardy Tradescantias is the potential for new cultivars from the hundreds of self sown seedlings I get each year. The Tradescantia Andersoniana Group is very promiscuous and hybrids are plentiful as in many species, and new varieties are often selected from the result of cross pollination. Very few are sufficiently different to be worthy of the work and cost required to progress them via micro-propagation but occasionally an unusual colour combination catches my eye as the one above did yesterday. I have provisionally called it ‘Lavender Blush’ and I will grow it on to see if the colours remain stable next year. Fingers crossed!

A month too early but the Hesperantha coccinea are beginning to flower, again probably due to the wet July & August mimicking the summer rains in their native South Africa. The pale pink and white varieties are yet to show but it surely won’t be long now.

Finally for this week, the little patch of Persicaria affinis under the Rowan tree has finally formed a beautiful mat of pink tufty bunny tail flowers which, for a pleasant change, is exactly what I planned and wanted! Six plants, well spaced out, have knitted together over the last three years to replace the dwindling Osteospermum jacundum and have now fully done so. I love it when a plan comes together which, in gardening, I find quite rare!

Have a great weekend

David

It’s Roses time!

I could easily fill this week’s blog with roses of all sizes shapes and colours but I will try to resist. Just a couple then! ‘Ghislaine de Feligonde’ is a short rambler which mingles on the trellis with Wisteria. Clusters of flowers open from deep apricot to almost white and are fully double. Not as thorny as some ramblers and easily contained. A good choice for a small garden I think.

The greeny, creamy Foxgloves mentioned last week turned out to be white! However, by a stroke of luck they are almost exactly the same colour as Rosa ‘The Pilgrim’ on the trellis behind.

The kind lady who follows my blog and offered to swap some of her violet Hesperis matronalis for some of my white ones arrived yesterday with a bucket of beauties! Thank you Gay, they are now planted and look amazing.

I collected over 800 self-sown Tradescantia seedlings from the Collection beds this year and, after many hours in the greenhouse and several bags of compost, they are all potted up. However, they grow very fast and in a few weeks they will all need potting on! Many of them will flower this year giving me the opportunity to select the best as potential new named hybrids.

The Sweet Peas are in full flower now and need picking every other day to keep them going. I love the old varieties like this ‘Painted Lady’, but the grandiflora types too. They all need a lot of watering and feeding to flower well but the rewards are definitely worth it. Their beauty and scent are the essence of a cottage garden in early summer.

And another rose to finish, I couldn’t resist! ‘Amber Queen’, one of my absolute favourites for the complexity and beauty of the flowers. It begins as orange/apricot becoming rich deep yellow when fully open. A Harkness rose, not David Austin, introduced in 1984 and possibly still the best of all the yellows.

Have a great weekend. We are off to Ashton-under-Hill village Open Gardens this afternoon if the weather holds. Thunderstorms are forecast for this evening and overnight but we do need the rain!

David