Veronica longifolia | Davids Garden Diary

Merry Xmas to everyone who reads, follows or stumbles across my blog this weekend. It has been a couple of weeks since I posted anything, mainly because there wasn’t much to show or say. And there still isn’t! But I couldn’t let the Saturday before Christmas go by without a quick six. This hanging basket was instead of a wreath on the front door this year, just to be different. Hope you like it!

Just a little reminder of this time last year when we had 10 days of ultra low temperatures and the cell structure of many, usually hardy, plants was destroyed. We spent an agonising six months counting the cost of the losses, the precious plants that did not recover, the coastal New Zealand species we took for granted like Hebe, Pittosporum and Flax which turned out to be so vulnerable. The Penstemons, Hydrangeas and fleshy rooted Agapanthus which turned to mush. Some of my friends with plant nurseries and National Plant Collections will never recover.

But, on the other hand, many other plants benefited from the cold winter and warm spring. The roses were excellent and far less troubled with greenfly and rose sawfly, although blackspot was still a big problem here in my garden. June was a spectacular month and those plants which survived excelled in the warm Cotswold sunshine.

Among the plants I would single out for praise and which received good reaction from visitors this year was Veronica longifolia, kindly donated by my good friend and horticultural wizard, Yvonne Gregory. It is as tall as the Veronicastrum in the background but totally self supporting at over 5′ and adored by bees.

Not the best photograph because it is tall and gangly, but my outstanding plant of the year was undoubtedly Salvia uliginosa which flowered from May until I finally cut it back in mid November. There wasn’t a day go by when it wasn’t covered in bees and other pollinators. On warm sunny days it literally buzzed! I know of no other plant with such flower power and pollinator attraction. Especially outstanding because the bumble bees couldn’t get inside the tiny flowers, they had to pierce the base of the flower to get at the nectar, but this didn’t put them off one little bit!

I leave you for now with a rare picture of my juvenile Wisteria chinensis ‘Prolific’, not because the plant itself is rare but because it is an early flowerer and vulnerable to late April frosts which have killed the emerging flower buds for the last four years, but not this year! I finally got to see and smell the beautiful racemes of lavender blue flowers covering the patio fence and not the frosted, brown and withered buds I usually see!

A very Merry Christmas, I hope you have a wonderful time.

David

It’s the height of summer and everything in the garden is jostling for position, pushing and pulling or reaching for the skies like this Veronicastrum ‘Lavendelturm’ which is peaking over Veronica longifolia at the back of the border.

The same border is fronted by this tall Lysimachia ephemerum which always causes a stir when visitors see it. Firstly, they can’t believe it is a Lysimachia, and secondly because of its elegance and beauty. It is tall, 150cm or more, with glaucus foliage and spikes of pure white florets which, despite the name, go on for several weeks.

This unusual and diminutive Persicaria microcephala arrived with a health warning as it has a reputation for spreading uncontrollably under the right conditions. Fortunately, I don’t have the ‘right conditions’ which is a moist fertile soil. My dry clay soil should slow its progress outwards and instead, form a nice mound of pointy foliage topped with pretty white flowers.

My ‘go to’ downpipe concealer is this climbing foxglove, Lophospermum erubescens, which a kind friend gave me many years ago and which, owing to its propensity to drop seeds everywhere, has stayed with me ever since. I have given up trying to overwinter the mother plant as it never seems to do as well in subsequent years so instead, I simply dig up one of the myriad seedlings it kindly provides and overwinter that instead. This is one I dug up in October and is now 8′ tall. It produces hundreds of pretty pink foxglove shaped flowers and felty, heart shaped leaves which go on for months. Highly recommended.

Alstroemeria ‘Summer Break’ found last winter tough going and has only just produced its first flowers which is much later than its companion ‘Indian Summer’ which has been flowering for several weeks already. However, the flowers are so exquisite that she is forgiven for her tardiness.

Very tricky to photograph, this Verbena officinalis ‘Bampton’ sits in a dark corner of the rose garden next to a path which is where it seems to enjoy life with its feet under the paving, rather like V. bonariensis does. I have given lots of volunteer seedlings away this year to people who either don’t know it or can’t grow it, which I find astonishing. It is now officially classified as a weed in my garden! Contrary to its hot, arid origins, this plant prefers to be in the shade and needs quite a moist soil, perhaps because it was found in Bampton in Devon!