Tag Archives: Wisteria sinensis 'Prolific'

Six on Saturday

Posted on by
6

I want to start by thanking all those who helped me with my media storage issue last week. Deleting all the pre-2020 images in the WordPress media library has resulted in 2.4GB of free space, and by resizing images by 10-50%, the quality does not seem to be overly compromised and it means I can continue with the blog without additional storage costs. As many followers have said, realistically, how many people stumble across older posts anyway? My stats would suggest….not many!

The image of Wisteria sinensis ‘Prolific’ above has been reduced to 90% of it’s original size, but this has resulted in a massive drop from 4.3MB to 1.9mb without any discernible loss of quality. The Wisteria is already beginning to suffer from the cold nights and chilling wind we have experienced recently, so this is the last shot for this year. Can you smell the fragrance though?!

I suffer one or two clumps of ‘Spanish’ Bluebells where I think they have a positive effect, and these very dark ones add a splash of colour to an otherwise green scene at the moment. However, as soon as the flowers go over, up they come! As I mentioned to Jim a few weeks ago, these are not the true Spanish Bluebell, Hyacinthoides hispanica, but a hybrid called Hyacinthoides × massartiana which accounts for the huge disparity in colour forms. I even have white and pink ones! Apparently, there are now no true Spanish Bluebells in the UK, they have just left us their hybrid offspring. Of course, in Scotland, Bluebells are an entirely different thing!

A landscape image of the rear garden where I keep the Tradescantia National Collection and this was just to see what effect size reduction had on it. Not as clear and sharp as the original but an 75% saving in storage size from 4.3MB to 1.1MB, so well worth it.

The hardy Tradescantias all survived the relatively mild winter and have loved all the rain. I have been lifting and dividing them for plant sale donations, plus heirs & spares as insurance against losses. However, in 4 years, I have only lost one plant out of 55, so they are tough!

Philadelphus coronarius ‘Aureus’, the Mock Orange with brilliant yellow foliage, is looking splendid at the moment with lots of flower buds forming. However, it doesn’t do well in full sun with the leaves turning brown and ‘sunburnt’ later in the summer. I will chop this one back hard after flowering as it is outgrowing its spot. A great centrepiece at this time of year though, it positively shines.

My scruffy old lean-to red cedar greenhouse has been an essential part of my gardening for the past 15 years and was a good decision even though, as all the books tell you, it is never big enough! It has been my sanctuary on wet days, my excuse for not doing heavy work if I am feeling a bit low, and a great place to listen to the radio. My homemade propagator with its heating cable under a bed of sand whose thermostat broke years ago; the shelving brackets from Ikea holding slatted shelves made from old roofing battens, and the windows which now have to be propped open because the automatic openers died ten years ago; these are the things we just put up with. I wish I had kept a record of the thousands of plants grown from seeds & cuttings, brought on from mini-plugs, and overwintered as tender perennials and tubers. It has been a good friend, and now needs a good clean!

Finally, for anyone looking for a good dark tulip that comes back year after year, I can definitely recommend ‘Queen of Night’. These were planted 7 years ago after growing in a container for a year and have multiplied by at least 100%. Admittedly, they are in a bed in the back garden which gets baked hard in summer and never watered, which is what they get in their natural habitat, but they seem to thrive on that neglect.

Well, that’s my six for this week. Photos reduced in size and none the worse for it.

Thanks again to my fellow bloggers for their help and advice. It was much appreciated.

Have a great weekend

David

Six on Saturday

Posted on by
20

I went to upload new pictures into my WordPress media library this morning, to find I had reached the 6gb limit and have to upgrade my plan to be able to continue with my blog! That is going to be expensive and I have to judge whether it’s worth it. The alternative is to free up space by deleting dozens of photos in my media library, but if I do that the pics will disappear from the past posts in which they featured. Sneaky! So I have no choice but to select Six photos from this time last year while I decide what to do. If anyone has any bright ideas or hacks to increase my media library, do please get in touch asap.

Meanwhile, the Wisteria sinensis ‘Prolific’ is now in full flower and looks exactly like this pic from this time last year. The scent is overpowering and I am grateful to Mother Nature for keeping the late frosts away so I can enjoy the wonderful flowers and fragrance.

The Iberis sempervirens or Perennial Candytuft, is shining brightly in the sunshine and billowing over the low wall and down the steps as intended. This makes a pleasant change as most of my plants turn out to have different ideas to what was intended!

The hybrid bluebells are back! I thought I had managed to remove all the bulbs last year but obviously not. They are growing in the gravel margin up against the wall of the bungalow so there is no soil at all. I removed the gravel, sifted through and removed dozens of bulbs, but just as many have returned!

Clematis ‘Guernsey Cream’, a Group 2 variety, is now flowering with it’s unusually separated flower petals like a cartwheel. I find it a rather weak grower and nowhere near as abundant or vigorous as the Group 1 types I have, ‘Wisley Cream’ and C. cirrhosa ‘Freckles’, but it provides some colour in a dark corner while I am waiting for the roses to bloom.

I am pleased to say that all my dahlias survived their winter hibernation in the shed and are now romping away. The tubers were stored in Strulch, a lightweight, dry, mineralised straw which I use to dress the Tradescantia beds in the Spring, and it seems to have been an ideal product for the purpose. Now potted up again in JI No.3, watered and snuggled up in the greenhouse until mid-May when they will be put in the ground. I nip out the tops at this stage to keep them shorter and bushier. It holds the flowers back slightly but there are more of them eventually.

Finally, a warning about this grass, Milium effusum ‘Aureum’ or Bowles’s Golden Grass, which I first saw at one of the many NGS garden openings we have in Gloucestershire in May & June. The owner said it brightened up dark corners and “gently spread around”. On that basis, I purchased a small pot and placed it in a dark corner, from where it has decided to “gently spread” to every corner, crack and crevice in the garden! It is rather beautiful, and does brighten up dark corners but it also seeds like crazy, You have been warned!

I apologise that these are not photos from my garden this week as is the SoS protocol, but I am hoping normal service will be resumed next week. There is a lot of gardening photography coming up! If any of my followers are WordPress experts and can offer any advice on my current dilemma, I would be grateful to hear for them please.

Have a great weekend

David

Six on Saturday

Posted on by
2

The first Tree Peony came into flower this week. I don’t know the name but I have had it for many years and it is like an old reliable friend. It has light pink , red and yellow cousins who are always a bit later than the dark pink one. Big, blousy and in your face, I love it!

The Mexican Orange Blossom, Choysia ternata, also opened this week so things are definitely on the move.

Talking of which, the Wisteria sinensis ‘Prolific’ has survived a couple of low temperature nights and is rewarding me with the most wonderful sight along the fence bordering the patio. Not fully open as of today so forgive me if I post another picture next week when it is at its peak. The perfume is already wafting it’s way across the garden and attracting a lot of attention from pollinators, especially big fat bumbles.

From the spectacular to the diminutive. I have these common violets all over the garden, mostly in white or dark blue/purple. Then, quite by chance, and as nature often does, these pink ones appeared. Just one patch at the moment but likely to be more next year judging by how the others have spread. Sometimes, it doesn’t need to be big to be special.

The first Tradescantia to flower this year was ‘Little Doll’ on 16th April, 13 days earlier than last year, and a different cultivar. Lots of others in bud so the Collection is about to become very colourful again after six months of grassy leaves.

My green Beech hedge does this every year, opens in sections, at the same time and in the same manner. I have no idea why but it is still way ahead of the purple beech hedge in the front which is still in tight buds and not a single leaf open yet. Same species, different habits, just like people!

Have a great weekend

David

Six on Saturday

Posted on by
6

We are now at that inbetweeny stage in the Birch circle where the snowdrops have gone over, the early narcissus are flowering along with the Anemone blanda (when the sun shines!) Amazing to think that by June, all this foliage will be gone and there will just be 6 Geranium ‘Rozanne’ covering the composted bark.

Amongst them is Chionodoxa luciliae ‘Pink Giant’ which I rescued from the undergrowth during our first spring here back in 2009 and still going strong.

Gardening friends thought I was mad last year, for growing Camassias in pots, but I had dug them up from elsewhere in the garden and was undecided where to put them. It was a temporary solution but they did so well that I just left them in the pots and put them behind the shed with the gone over narcissus and tulips. Without any attention whatsoever, they survived and appear to have prospered. They are usually naturalised in damp grassland but they go very well next to late flowering yellow narcissus in pots! Rules are made to be broken!

Wild Primroses love the sticky clay in my garden and pop up everywhere. The couple of pink Primulas are not so gregarious and stay put. I had several more in various gaudy colours but they seem to have disappeared. I am never quite sure whether they are, in fact, a Polyanthus rather than a Primula. Perhaps some kind reader can help.

The fat buds of the pink flowered Tree Peony promise a good show in a few weeks time, along with the taller yellow Paeonia ludlowii which looks like it will be spectacular if a late frost doesn’t kill the buds. Definitely a potential SoS contender.

Erysimum ‘Red Jep’, a gift from a kind friend, will be flowering for many months, and will have another go after it has been trimmed back in mid-summer. Such good value plants.

Finally, barring a late frost which is likely to kill off the buds, the Wisteria sinensis ‘Prolific’ is showing signs of another fantastic display in April. Fingers firmly crossed!

Have a great weekend

David

Six on Saturday

Posted on by
12

All of a sudden, the garden has exploded into life and everywhere I look there is beauty and chaos in equal measure. Euphorbia palustris and Viburnum plicatum enjoying the first rays of early morning sunshine.

Originally, I had both the violet and white Hesperis matronalis but in recent years the violet disappeared. It now seems it may be making a slow comeback as this white is showing definite pink tendencies!

Neillia thibetica is a tough flowering shrub which should be in more gardens. Its pretty pink flowers are fleeting but the dense thicket of fresh green foliage provides a good way of hiding ugly fences, sheds or buildings. Not something to stand and admire, just useful.

The early flowering Wisteria sinensis ‘Prolific’ came through the spring frosts unscathed for a change and the air was laden with its sweet scent for a week or so. Still very immature but living up to its name!

The first Sweet Peas are flowering, this one being ‘Painted Lady’, one of the oldest varieties and still one of the prettiest in my opinion, understated in a simple two-tone pink and white.

Centaurea montana, pushing its way through the tangle of other foliage is a stalwart of the spring garden. Utterly reliable, wildflower which is a valuable source of early nectar and pollen for bees and other pollinators.

Finally for this week, the simple beauty of Paeonia lutea, the yellow tree peony, which will flower in succession for several weeks. Now 2m tall and covered in buds.

Off to Eckington Village Open Gardens today, I love seeing other people’s gardens!

Have a great weekend

David

Six on Saturday

Posted on by
7

It is still very wet and cold for late April but some plants carry on regardless such as Erysimum ‘Apricot Twist’ which seems intent on being the plant that never stops flowering. This is a cutting taken 2 years ago which has flowered periodically all winter and is now really getting into her stride. She will probably flower for 6 months or more before I replace her with a cutting taken last year. They literally flower themselves to death!

This is Erysimum ‘Red Jep’ kindly given to me by a dear friend from our gardening group. It has been in this pot all winter and took the worst of the weather, but look at it now!

Euphorbia cyparissias looking splendid at the front of the shrubbery again. It has spread significantly since last year and now occupies a swathe across the front of the taller shrubs and perennials. I just love the acid yellow against the emerging sea of green.

As an experiment, I lifted a huge clump of Camassias last year which were in the wrong place and overcrowded, dried off the bulbs over summer and planted them in big pots in the autumn. I am delighted with the results. They mix well with narcissus and some early tulips and I can move the pots in May to make way for the Agapanthus africanus.

Unless we have a late frost, which now looks unlikely according to the current weather forecast, the Wisteria sinensis ‘Prolific’ should look magnificent this year. After three years of frosted flower buds and no flowers, I might finally get the show I planned for. Fingers crossed!

I consider myself to be very lucky to have pink and white bluebells in the garden. They appeared by chance many years ago and come back every year. They have all the same characteristics of our native bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, and occur when the flower’s blue pigment is missing, making them ‘albino’ bluebells. It is believed a native white bluebell occurs only once in every 10,000 flowers.

Finally, the Hydropod cuttings propagator is going full blast to create lots of young plants for the coming season. This is Penstemon ‘Choir Boy’, a rare white cultivar which I am hoping to popularise again. It has only taken three weeks to get these roots which proves the value of the equipment. I have now probably produced over 300 cuttings in three years!

Have a great Bank Holiday weekend

David