The Blooming Garden

Six on Saturday. From the Sublime to the Ridiculous.

Posted on July 15, 2023 by Chloris

I have three honeysuckles which waft their sublime perfume round the garden in summer. They are all varieties of our native honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum. Titania’s bower in Misummer Nights Dream was ‘ quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine‘ so the Queen of the Fairies must have loved the delicious fragrance too. What a pity that woodbine, the old name for honeysuckle is now associated with cheap cigarettes. My first honeysuckle is Lonicera periclymenum ‘Graham Thomas’ which was found in a Warwickshire hedgerow in 1960 and named after the famous horticulturalist, Graham Thomas. Actually, this is not such an incredible find, because as I cycle round the lanes in Suffolk I often come across really beautiful and floriferous forms of the common honeysuckle. ‘Graham Thomas’ has grown very quickly and filled the whole trellis but it has not many blooms. I am much more excited by Lonicera periclymenum ‘Rhubarb and Custard’ which has a silly name, but the two- tone orange and pink flowers are the colour of rhubarb and custard and they have a gorgeous perfume. It seems to be quite a compact form, so far anyway.

*Lonicera periclymenum* Rhubarb and Custard’

Lonicera periclymenum ‘Scentsation’ proved its worth in my previous garden with its masses of yellow and white flowers and wonderful fragrance so I have it here too and it is looking lovely. It is highly perfumed as its name suggests.

My third choice today is neither sublime or ridiculous but it is very pretty and it is new to me. It is a catmint with lovely large flowers with spotty throats and I don’t know whether it is a new cultivar or just one that has passed me by. It is Nepeta subsessilis ‘Blue Prelude’ and it is just as attractive to pollinators as Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ which I used to grow, but it is a much neater plant. I grow it in front of Orlaya grandiflora.

And now for the ridiculous. My last three plants are marmite plants which some people love and some loathe. I have a friend who hates this next one. Albuca nelsonii has ridiculously huge onion-like bulbs which protrude from the soil.

.Its common name is Slime Lily which doesn’t add to its charm. It is called this because of the mucilaginous sap contained in the sap and leaves. This might sound rather off-putting, but I love the white and green- striped flowers, My friend says the stems are too long, but they would probably be good for flower arrangements. And anyway, I like the 60 cm long stems; such an enormous bulb would look silly with short stems and the upward facing ivory and green flowers are quite showy. I just went out to take a photograph and I find the flowers have closed up as it has been raining all day, I didn’t realise they did this. It looks set to be rainy all weekend, The Pianist is convinced that it is my fault as I have been wishing for rain too hard. I keep telling him that I don’t have that much influence but he doesn’t believe me. This plant bulks up quickly from offsets so you have to try to find friends who don’t hate it to take some on. It is not hardy so needs to be kept in the greenhouse in winter. It is becoming rare in its native South Africa. It is toxic to eat, although an infusion of the these bulbs and kniphofia are used for a protection against sorcery. But I wouldn’t recommend it, you might poison yourself rather than any passing sorcerers.

I also have Albuca shawii with pretty nodding yellow flowers which smell of almonds, but this is for another day as it is not in bloom yet. My second ridiculous plant is also an albuca. It was given to me by a lovely lady who had read my blog and saw that I like albucas. Every time I look at it I can’t help smiling as it looks endearingly weird. It is called Albuca spiralis but is known as the Frizzle Sizzle Plant. As you can see, it is quite bonkers.

I can’t make up my mind about my last plant. I bought it recently because it is curious and I have never seen it before and I love plants with unusual foliage. It is called Farfugium ‘Wavy Gravy’ and it looks a bit like kale. But the crinkled leaves are edged with silver and pink which is quite an attractive look. Apparently, the plant has bright yellow flowers in autumn. But it is the foliage which is interesting- I think, I’m still not sure about it.. Maybe you think it is ridiculous. I haven’t shown it to my Slime Lily hating friend yet, I can’t face her scorn.

So there we have my Six on Saturday on this rainy July day. For more seasonal plants from different parts of the world go and visit Jim of Garden Ruminations. He always has interesting plants to see and so do his many followers.

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Six on Saturday. Lazy Summer Days.

Posted on July 8, 2023 by Chloris

It’s been a hammock sort of day today, it was very hot and the promised thunder storm never arrived. But I’m not complaining, the hammock is a wonderful hot July day treat. A pity the pond is too small for a quick plunge.

I will start my six this week with my favourite lily, Lilium regale. I grew this from seed and it is the easiest and quickest lily to grow from seed. The seeds germinate like mustard and cress and you can get flowers in as little as two years; I don’t know any other lily which comes on so quickly. It has sumptuous white trumpets backed with pink and an intoxicating fragrance. In the wild this grows in an incredibly restricted area in the mountains of Sichuan in China. It was collected by E.H .Wilson in 1903 and it has since become the most popular lily in the world and with good reason; it is divine. He first collected 18,2007 bulbs, most of which rotted because they weren’t packed properly. He went back in 1910 and 6000 more bulbs were collected, which seems awful vandalism. It was on this occasion that Wilson broke a leg in two places when a landslide fell down on his party on a narrow path. He nearly had to have it amputated as it became infected and he walked with what he called his lily limp forever afterwards. Lilium regale is the parent of many of the modern trumpet lilies.

I love fragrance and the sweet-smelling Heliotropum arborescens ‘Cherry Pie’ is wonderful in a pot. Victorian gardeners were keen on it and used it for bedding or greenhouse culture. Sometimes they trained it as a standard and I think I might try that one year. It has clusters of violet flowers and crinkly leaves. It is popular for the delicious fragrance which is supposed to be a cross between cherry pie and vanilla. I can’t quite detect cherry pie but it does smell delicious which is a bit misleading, as it is toxic. So don’t eat it. The plant will look good all summer as long as you remember to deadhead and keep pinching it out to stop it getting straggly. My grandmother used to grow this although she always claimed the modern cultivars had lost much of the delicious fragrance. The scent takes me straight back to my childhood and spending time with my grandmother who was a fanatical gardener.

Begonia ‘Tiger Paws’ seems to be enjoying its summer holiday in a shady part of the garden. This is a house plant really, it likes shade and high humidity. It would have got neglected in my old garden, but here I have time to cater for the needs of even the fussiest prima donna. I love the chocolate brown leaves with lime green spots and each one is edged with hairs. Now it is flowering with little pink flowers, but it is grown for its fabulous foliage rather than the flowers..

Nearby, is another spotty plant, Podophyllum versipelle ‘Spotty Dotty’. It’s one I loved and lost in my previous garden. It needs plenty of moisture and probably needs feeding too. This time I hope to keep it happy. It has large, crazy, spotty, parasol- like leaves. I love it. It has red flowers too but I don’t care if it never flowers as long as it keeps producing those wonderful leaves.

Habranthus robustus is in bloom now. It lives in a pot in the greenhouse in the winter and I forget about it each year until suddenly the pink buds appear. Actually, I think this is another case of a name change and it is now called Zephyranthes robusta. The bulbs need to be kept dry and then the flowers emerge in summer after a soaking. Hence the name Pink Rain Lily I suppose. I think I might try a few bulbs in the gravel garden to test their hardiness. They are members of the Amaryllis family and very beautiful. I would probably value them more if they weren’t so easy.

I have had Calceolaria integrifolia ‘ Kentish Hero’ in a pot for years. It is very easy from cuttings if you need a new one. I love its red pouches which become more orange as they go on. They look like smiley mouths and chins to me, you can even see the tonsils. It blooms all summer long if you deadhead it and I think it looks dramatic in a pot.

So there we have it, a quick six today because I need to get back to the hammock. It’s evening now but still very hot. Do visit Jim at Garden Ruminations to have a look at other gardeners’ July treats.

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The Garden.

Posted on July 6, 2023 by Chloris

I promised to show the garden that I have made here. I’ll start with the back which measures 48′ x 60′, so I haven’t much space. When we came there were several tall conifers and unsightly stumps and misshapen trees so we started with the tree removal and the removal of the huge clump of the invasive bamboo, Phyllostachys, which I suspected might become the bane of my life. I can’t believe they still sell this stuff in garden centres.

The tree surgeon used a stump grinder on the bamboo and I sieved the soil. He warned me that I haven’t seen the last of it and of course he was right. The first job every day is to seek out the dreaded shoots and then to dig and what I can’t dig out, the Pianist has to wield the pick axe. I think he wonders why he ever complained about mowing the grass on a ride- on mower. But I’m not going to let it defeat me.

Anyway, we will start the tour by going in the gate and down the side of the house. Rosa ‘Maigold’ growing against the wall delighted me in May, particularly as this garden had hardly anything growing in it and what there was has been mostly removed. Further along is a rather undistinguished rose growing with an Escallonia. I would never have planted this but as the bees are crazy about it, I will allow it to stay for now. On the side of the path there is a bed where I have planted shade-loving plants. The wicker laundry basket on the right has salad leaves growing in it.

If we carry on down here we come to the start of the deck which is no longer as big as it was. I left the trunk of the big conifer you can see to grow Holboellia latifolia up. The far side of it has Schizophragma hydrangeoides growing up it. I need as much vertical space as possible so as to grow more plants.

Down a step from here is a pond and I have put gravel down over a membrane. I had to leave my lovely wrought iron spider gate behind but I brought the benches with me, the other one is in the front garden. I have plants in pots all round the pond to keep the heron out and also for somewhere to put them as I seem to have rather a lot.

The pond and rope bridge were here and I had a small pond dug out the other side so that there was a point to the bridge.

There are fish in the larger pond but newts have already colonised the new one. I seem to be turning into Gussie Fink-Nottle as I find them endlessly fascinating to watch. The bridge is handy place for my succulent collection to live in summer. You can see why we had to keep a tree trunk on the deck, we can’t do without our hammocks. I have my citrus collection in front of the house next to a trough for herbs which is handy for the chef; he never used them when he had to walk down the garden to get them.

Looking down from the deck I have roses growing up wrought iron arches along the path leading to the shed.

If we carry on past the wrought iron bench we come to my spring garden. This is the first bit I planted round a large Magnolia stellata. I covered the grass up with cardboard and then gravel. I planted a primrose path under the arches for spring. The Irish yew is one of the few trees I left, along with the two magnolias and a conifer which I think is a Cryptomeria. And I also kept the ancient apple tree which has survived a savage butchering at some time in its life. The soil round here is where I have to keep watching out for bamboo.

Here is the view looking up from the spring garden. There is not much of interest here now but I had lots of treasures here in April.

My Forest Pansy, Cercis canadensis has managed to survive its year in a pot.

But let’s go down the path under the rose arches. Here on the right I hope to have a little woodland area under the multi-stemmed Betula jacquemontii. which I bought on impulse because it was only £10. It is quite shady here because of the shed and the apple tree.

There are two entrances into my secret garden. I have the lovely rambling rose ‘Phyllis Bide’ growing up both. The trellis has roses, honeysuckle, jasmine and clematis. I have brought plants out of the conservatory for a summer holiday and planted sunflowers for picking and to provide seeds for the birds.

Looking back up the garden from here is the lovely old apple tree; now it is in leaf you can’t see its poor amputated limbs. I have planted Rosa ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’ to climb up it.

I don’t like decking as it is slippery when it is wet and makes a cosy home for rats, but it would be expensive to replace it all and we need somewhere for our table tennis and for eating outside. But I did have a lot of the massive deck taken up and I replaced it with a large gravel garden. This was in April and you can see the Magnolia stellata which looked lovely and my new Magnolia ‘Leonard Messel’ was in bloom. You can also see how the lawn had nearly disappeared by now and by April I had my secret garden in place and my rose arches.

Here is the gravel garden now.

The lawn had to go; it is a waste of space in a small garden. I covered it up with a cheap membrane and wood chippings which were in plentiful supply after the tree surgeon had finished.

Now the grass has died off I am gradually removing the membrane. I wrote about all the shrubs and trees I would like to plant in my first post in this garden. Of course, I hardly have room for any of them. But I did make room for Magnolia sieboldii, an Acer palmatum ‘Chitoseyama’ which is quite a compact form with with brilliant red autumn colour and Cornus controversa, the Wedding Cake Tree, all of which I brought with me. I also brought a very pretty weeping Larch, Larix kaempferi with me which I have planted by the pond. I bought Magnolia ‘Leonard Messel’ but I think I shall eventually have to prune it hard as I haven’t really got enough room. I really wanted a Cerdiciphyllum japonicum for autumn colour and the delicious scent of toffee apples in autumn, but they grow far too tall for my garden. I managed to find quite a rare one that doesn’t grow too big called ‘Boyd’s Dwarf’. I also really wanted a smoke bush but they sprawl about and take up a lot of room so I bought one called Cotinus cogyggria ‘Smoky Joe’ which stays quite small and compact. It has pink smoke and scarlet and red leaves in autumn. I really wanted a flowering cornus so I bought a pink one called ‘Cornus ‘Cherokee Chief’. I also bought a dwarfish Crab apple, Malus ‘Laura’ which has quite a fastigate habit, but I can’t really fit it in the garden so it is in a pot. In the gravel I planted a weeping Indigofera pendula and in the spring garden I have Prunus kursur and that is it, I mustn’t buy any more trees or shrubs for the back garden. Ever.

The other job was to have the rabbit hutch and run removed to make room for a small greenhouse.

There was grass running down from the rabbit run to the large Magnolia soulangeana and a tree house with a slide and a large dead tree trunk and even a large dead rat when we moved in. It all looked quite revolting.

I made a border running down from the greenhouse to the big magnolia tree and killed the grass off with membrane which I removed as soon as the grass was dead.

Now I am really pleased with this bed which I grandly call my herbaceous border. There are roses all along to clothe the fence eventually when they have grown. I got carried away ordering roses and I have lots grown from cuttings too, so it is a good thing that I have plenty of walls and fences. Even so, I really haven’t room for more than 40 roses; I think quite a few will have to stay in pots or be given away. The greenhouse fits in nicely, it is quite small but I have a large conservatory now so I don’t need such a big one.

Here is the view looking down from the greenhouse.

The poor pear tree was apparently chopped back because the pears attracted wasps. I have kept it as a climbing frame for the Clematis ”Madame Julie Correvon’ a Clematis texensis ‘Princess Kate’ which is my only success for a clematis from a cutting and a rose’ James Galway’ also grown from a cutting. I know that the poor butchered pear tree doesn’t look very nice now but it should look good when it is decently clothed with climbers.

So that is what I have been doing for the last five or six months. I will show you my winter garden in the front another time. My garden is tiny but it is quite a novelty having such a small space and the time to pamper each plant. And of course when we eventually get to France it should look after itself quite well apart from the watering and I have found someone to do that.

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Six on Saturday. Hello July!

Posted on July 1, 2023 by Chloris

I can’t believe it is July already, how did that happen?

I have spent days trying to remember the name of this unusual bulb. As with so many plants I brought with me when I moved, it had no label and there appeared to be nothing in the pot. I was just about to throw it away when I noticed some little grassy shoots. And now I remember its name. I went to a barbecue recently and had a eureka moment when I was talking to a Brazilian friend about the bossa nova. Because this little beauty come from Brazil too. It grows in grasslands in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. It is called Cypella herbertii and it produces its intriguing flowers for weeks. Each one only lasts a day or so, but there are plenty to more to come, dancing the bossa nova all summer long on their slender stems.

We move to the southern hemisphere for my next plant, Prostanthera cuneata which is a neat little shrub from mountainous parts of south-eastern Australia. Its common name is Alpine Mint bush but this is confusing for Europeans as it does not come from our alpine regions and although it belongs to the mint family, Lamiaceae, it does not look or smell like a mint. It has glossy wedge-shaped leaves; ‘cuneata’ means wedge-shaped, so the clue is in the name. It is aromatic and has quite a strong smell when you crush the leaves, but my advice is don’t crush the leaves; it smells horrible in an aromatic sort of way. This little shrub lives in a pot, I am not sure how hardy it is as it stays in the greenhouse in winter. It has cute little pale flowers with lilac speckled centres.

Bottle brushes. Also from Australia I have Callistemon pityoides growing in a pot. I believe this is one of the hardiest of the callistemons, but I think it must stay in its pot because of lack of room. I believe it grows in bogs and swamps so I do try to keep it damp. Actually, I think Bottle brushes are no longer callistemons, they now belong to the Melaleuca family, but I can’t keep up with this so maybe on this occasion, and on this occasion only, I’ll stick with Bottle Brushes. I’m too old to start thinking of them as melaleucas.

I have a red bottle brush too which is perhaps more spectacular, I think it is Callistemon citrinus ‘Splendens’ but I cannot be sure as I have had it for a few years now. I love the way the tips of the flowers look as if they have been dipped in gold.

Red Bottle Brush. Callistemon citrinus ‘Splendens’ ?

Fragrance is a very important part of my garden, I aim to have something that smells nice in a every corner. My climber Dregea sinensis smells gorgeous. It comes from China as the word ‘sinensis’ tells us. I used to grow this plant years ago when it rejoiced in the rather startling name of ‘Wattakaka’. I lost it in a cold winter, but after seeing it flourishing in a sheltered part of a friend’s garden I thought I would try again. It is certainly worth growing if you can find the right spot for it. It looks a bit like a hoya with clusters of starry flowers, speckled inside, but the leaves are felty and hairy underneath, unlike the hoya’s shiny leaves. But it is the glorious scent that you grow this plant for.

For my next bulb we move to Mexico and fortunately I didn’t have to meet a Mexican friend to remember its name, because I have grown it for years as a pot plant. Sprekelia formosissima is a member of the Amaryllis family named after the Danish lawyer, Johann Heinrich von Spreckelsen who was a friend of Linnaeus. Formosissima means most beautiful and its bright red flowers are indeed very beautiful. I know its common name is Aztec lily, but come on, this is not a lily at all. Let’s give a bit of respect to Herr Johann Heinrich von Spreckelsen and allow him his claim to fame. With a name like that, he deserves a bit of respect. This year I have planted it out in my gravel garden where I think it looks very good and it is enjoying the sunny spot. Of course, it will have to go into the greenhouse for the winter.

Also in my gravel garden, these ladies in red are not what it said on the tin. I thought they were going to be Gladiolus primulinus ‘ Laura Jay’ but they are clearly something different as they are so red and I think ‘Laura Jay’ should be pink. Maybe these are a form of Gladiolus nanus. Never mind, they are pretty, I love all these small gladdies as they are so much daintier and more refined than the ungainly Dame Edna types.

I know I promised to show you my new garden to give you an idea of what it looks like. I keep meaning to, but every time I go out to take photos I get distracted. This week I will get down to it. In the meantime here is a photo of the gravel where the last two red flowers are spending the summer. It was part of the huge deck which we have reduced in size so we just have room for hammocks, table and chairs and table tennis.

The popular meme, Six on Saturday is now brought to you courtesy of Jim from Garden Ruminations. Do go and see what he and other SOSers are enjoying in their July gardens.

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Edelweiss.

Posted on June 18, 2023 by Chloris

I bought a Leontopodium alpinum the other day for my gravel garden and burst into the famous song from The Sound of Music as I was planting it. I keep forgetting that I have close neighbours now and I shouldn’t burst into song, declaim poetry loudly, dance naked round the lawn, or argue loudly with the Pianist whilst playing ping pong, about who is the best player and which uncoordinated idiot keeps hitting the ball into the pond. Actually, I made it up about naked dancing, but I could have done if I wanted to in my previous garden, But not now; I’ve done away with the lawn.. Here, we have to try to remember to do things quietly. But now and then I forget and burst into song. And how can you plant Edelweiss without a musical accompaniment? This small garden malarkey has unforeseen drawbacks. But I digress, I was not only singing, but wondering why such an insignificant little flower should have such iconic status. The cult of the Edelweiss seemed to take off in the eighteenth century and indeed it became part of the Swiss identity. It became so popular that it was the first plant to be protected by law as early as 1787, because visitors dug it up to take a bit of Switzerland home. Of course, plant collectors throughout the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth century felt no shame in going abroad and digging up and stealing plants from all round the world. But at least the edelweiss was protected. Mark Twain didn’t think much of it though. He said: ‘the fuzzy blossom is the colour of bad cigar ashes.‘ You can sort of see what he meant, if you look at the flower close up.

I have been rereading Reginald Farrer and his description of Edelweiss made me chuckle, so I am going to quote it at length.

‘And now we come to the arch- imposter of the garden- the Flannel flower of the Alps, so ridiculously sought after and marvelled at. The man who first called it ‘Edelweiss’ was a master of humour; the plant is neither noble or white. I am far from denying the strange, wonderful beauty of the thing- the hoary leaves and hoary star- flowers are marvellously fascinating. It is the monstrous claims of the plant that I protest against. Many people regard it as the typical plant of high, perilous peaks; many people yearly topple off precipices in their attempts to find it; and the first question that all strangers put on entering a rock garden is the reverent whisper, ‘Do you grow the Edelweiss?’ Now, so far from being the typical Alpine plant, the Edelweiss is not even an alpine plant at all. It is a desert plant from the great Siberian wastes…. in the second place, far from being a peak plant, what Edelweiss really enjoys is a scrubby, stony, flat lawn, where it grows like a daisy amongst chips and sparse herbiage…, only by accident does the Leontopodium ever appear on cliffs and pinnacles…. There is no sort of horticultural merit or glory about growing the Edelweiss. A more robust weed doesn’t exist. Any dryish treatment suits it, and the only way in which you can ever hope to lose a clump is to plant it so low that it gets too much wet in winter… This lovely Siberian interloper has no shadow of a right to any of the claims that are so absurdly made about it…. The thing is a pretender all round; even his flowers are not really flowers, but only a bundle of leaves gone mad…. we find ourselves bound to denounce him as a flannelette fraud, composed entirely of deception, without and within, a bunch of whitened leaves masquerading as a blossom, and an easy- going sand- loving parvenu…’

I have abridged the rant somewhat as Farrer does not cut a long story short. But you get the idea; there are native plants more worthy of the iconic status of flower of the alps than this ‘ flannelette fraud’. It is a good thing that Farrer did not live long enough to see all the tatty kitsch sold in gift shops, with Edelweiss emblazoned on everything from car stickers to cuckoo clocks.

But finding out that Edelweiss is actually a native of Siberia is not my only disappointment today. I now learn that Christopher Plummer did not sing Edelweiss in The Sound of Music; he was dubbed. I’ll never feel the same way about him.

But noble and white, or not, I think my Edelweiss has great charm. And it does look happy to see me.

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Six on Saturday. Drum Roll Please…

Posted on June 17, 2023 by Chloris

For the fabulous big fat bud on my Magnolia sieboldii. I hoped it would be open for today; I have been gloating over this thickening bud for days and now it is just about to pop open and reveal all its magnificence. When it opens fully I shall probably be inviting passers-by in, or stopping cars to show people. All this beauty and it is fragrant too. Admittedly, it smells a little like bubble gum, but it is certainly scented.

I bought this magnolia a few years ago and planted it far too close to a daphne. I can’t remember whether this was out of wilfulness or in an absent minded moment. It bothered me for a year and then I decided that one of them would have to move. Magnolias hate root disturbance but for a daphne it means almost certain death, so the magnolia went into a pot. And there it sat whilst I searched for the perfect spot, which I never seemed to find. Now it is growing happily in my new garden, although this is not the perfect spot. This shrub or small tree grows as wide as it is tall and I haven’t really got enough room for it to grow too big. But any problems it will cause are in the future and for now I am glorying in its very first nearly open bloom. I am surprised how pinkish it is; I thought it would be pure white. I had another summer- flowering magnolia years ago called Magnolia wilsonii and it had pure white flowers and a delicious fragrance. This one has pink tinged buds and smells of bubblegum. But I saw it growing at Highgrove and if it is good enough for His Majesty, then it’s good enough for me.

Years ago I read Vita Sackville West’s first garden book and I followed her advice to grow the annual Phacelia campanulata. She suggested sowing it in regular waves throughout the summer but I can’t be bothered to do this. But most years I sow it directly into a nice pot. It looks much too pretty to be a simple annual as the flowers are the deepest blue with white stamens and I think it rivals the best gentian.

For years I felt sad that I didn’t have the right conditions to grow Kalmia latifolia. It needs acid soil, a canopy of trees and plenty of moisture. But two years ago I saw Kalmia latifolia ‘Kaleidoscope’ in a nursery and it was love at first sight. It occured to me that I could keep it in a pot and try to give it what it likes and needs. Actually, I only just realised that it doesn’t like full sun and the leaves don’t look too great but I think it will be fine now I have moved it into the shade. I have enjoyed watching the dark red, pointed flower buds expand. They are ribbed and like little turrets.

And when they open, the clusters of cup- shaped flowers are delightful; they are raspberry-red with white edges. I shall do my best to keep this beauty happy, even though it will have to spend the rest of its life in a pot. I believe its leaves are poisonous, but that’s OK, I wasn’t planning on eating them. But I have just been reading Reginald Farrer’s book, The Rock Garden and he says honey made from Kalmia is poisonous. I looked it up and apparently the pollen contains chemicals called grayanotoxins which are not poisonous to bees but the honey is poisonous to humans. But I think it is safe as long as the bees have access to a wide range of other flowers. I hope so anyway, as my neighbours keep bees.

Next I have a lupin or lupine as they are called over the pond. I saw a lupin for sale at a garden centre recently for the eye- watering price of £19. £19 for a lupin?! Needless to say I didn’t buy it. I bought mine for quite a modest sum in April, at the market in Bury St. Edmunds. It is called Lupinus ‘Manhattan Lights’ and it is quite dramatic. This hybrid was bred at a nursery in Devonshire and it is much showier and more eye-catching than any I have seen before. It has five tall spires of yellow and purple, fragrant flowers which are supposed to suggest the lights of skyscrapers on the Manhattan skyline. I don’t usually go for bigger, fussier hybrids, but I am rather taken with this beauty. The photograph was taken last week when it wasn’t fully out. It looks quite spectacular now it is all in full bloom and the spires have lengthened, but my recent photo is a bit out of focus and I can’t be bothered to take another one, so you have to use your imagination to see those illuminated tower blocks.

I showed my son’s wonderful grass, Hakonechloa macra two weeks ago, but this week I will show you another plant which he couldn’t fit into his hand luggage when he moved to France. It is the most enormous hosta called ‘ Sum and Substance’. This is always quite a large plant, but my son’s specimen is like a hosta on steroids, even after a couple of years of my care which bordered on negligence sometimes. ‘Sum and Substance’ has large chartreuse, crinkly leaves which are not quite as susceptible to molluscs as some hostas. Having said this, I have had no slug problem here at all. I don’t know whether this is because we had a dry May and June so far, or because there were no plants here when I came so they haven’t discovered the garden, but it is wonderful. Next year, I expect the news will get out that there are lots of delicious plants here and the molluscs will be partying and having orgies. But for now I am enjoying perfect hostas. This hosta can grow happily in full sun, unlike many others and it has pretty lilac flowers later in the summer.

I’ll finish with a hardy cactus which I bought on a whim a couple of years ago. I love succulents but I can’t get excited by a cactus. I only bought it because I was intrigued by the idea of a hardy cactus. I put it in the greenhouse for the winter beause even if it is cold hardy, I should think it would succumb to winter wet. Anyway, it is looking quite jolly with its shiny, bright red flowers. It is called Chamelobivia which sounds more like an STI than a plant. It is a hybrid of the Echinopsis family. It is known as the Peanut cactus which I have to admit is easier to remember and pronounce, so even a pedant like me has to use the common name on this occasion only.

So there we have my Six on Saturday. Thanks to Jim at Garden Ruminations who now hosts SoS. Do go and see what other people are enjoying in their gardens at the moment. In my next post I will show some shots of the garden now that I finished making it.

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Six on Saturday. Spoilt for Choice.

Posted on June 10, 2023 by Chloris

If a gardener doesn’t have beautiful blooms in June then he should be doing something else. In June we have the richest, most opulent flowers of the whole year here in the UK. Nothing that goes before or comes after can rival this glorious month for colour, perfume and luxurious texture. Even in a new garden like mine there are plenty of beauties vying for attention. And today, summer has arrived properly. So lets forget about the lack of rain and possibly months of watering and just enjoy the moment, because this is as good as it gets.

I have lots of dianthus or Pinks as we call them even though they are not all pink. They all smell gorgeous but the perfume of the one I want to feature today travels over a distance and is quite deliciously different. It is not the usual clovey scent you expect from Pinks. It is called Dianthus monspessulanus and I grew it from seed several years ago. It lives in a pot where it has formed a mat. The flowers are fringed and untidy; they are white with a green centre. There are prettier pinks, but none with such an amazing fragrance. I believe you can get it in pink too. Next year I shall grow more because I’d like this wonderful fragrance all over the garden.

My number two is also fragrant as it is a daphne. It has lived in a pot for a couple of years, but now I have planted it out in its permanent home. Daphne gemmata ‘Royal Crown’ comes from China. It makes a neat, compact shrub with shiny green leaves and clusters of yellow flowers. I do like it, but it is not as strongly scented as winter and spring varieties. In fact to be honest, I just went out to sniff it and I can hardly detect any fragrance at all. But still, it is pretty.

I grow this little daphne with golden variegated Hosta ‘Great Expectations’. Behind it I have planted my tree fern which I am glad to say survived the winter encased in old pillows.

*Daphne gemmata ‘*Royal Crown’, *Hosta ‘*Great Expectations’

Number three is also fragrant. In a smaller garden you have to make use of all available space and vertical gardening ensures that no fence, wall or tree is wasted. Against the house, I have planted a twining climber from China and Tibet. It is called Schisandra grandiflora and it has pretty, dangling, creamy flowers which are cup-shaped and deliciously fragrant. It is sometimes known as Large Flowered Magnolia Vine, but not by me, as it is no relation to the magnolia and it doesn’t have large flowers. Anyway, I believe that gardeners should call plants by their proper names. Apparently, this plant produces spectacular long, pendant heads of bright red berries. Unfortunately, I won’t get to see these as the plants are dioecious which means you need both male and female plants to get fruit. There is a red flowered form of this called Schisandra rubrifolia which I have never seen. My poor plant got cut back a bit by being exposed to winter frosts while it waited for its new home in a pot for months. But now it has the protection of a west wall I hope it will be happy.

Number four is a pretty white-flowered shrub with no perfume. It is a deutzia and although they are quite pretty, I have never been mad on them. But then a few years ago I saw Deutzia multiradiata growing in the rose garden at Sissinghurst and I fell for it. Looking back I find that is was nine years ago that I saw it there. I remember that I fell in love with the lovely white Dianthus ‘Charles Musgrave’ on the same visit. I am still looking for that one. Anyway, this deutzia comes from China and has glossy green leaves and masses of starry white flowers. Mine doesn’t look as good as the one at Sissinghurst yet, but give it time.

I will finish with a couple of South African bulbs which I grow in pots.

The first one is a tiny, delicate form of tulbaghia which an alpine-enthusiast friend of mine gave me a few years ago. He told me to keep it in a pot in the greenhouse as it is not hardy. The pot is now full of little bulbs and when they have died down I shall split them or put them in a larger pot. Unfortunately, like many of my plants, including my many snowdrop bulbs, the pot lost its label in the move and I cannot remember which it is. I wonder if anyone can help me? I used to grow Tulbaghia violacea ‘Silver Lace’ in my gravel garden, but this is much smaller and more delicate.

I’ll finish with a very easy bulb which soon fills its pot. I don’t know whether it could survive outside in the gravel garden, but I think these dinky plants show up better in a pot. It is called Ledebouria cooperi and it is so pretty with striped leaves and clusters of pink scilla-like flowers.

Right, that’s my six for today and now I am going to lie in my hammock and see what the happy band of SOSers have to show on this glorious June day. As I now have quite a small garden, for the first time in my gardening life, I can sit back and say there is nothing that needs doing in the garden. It is a novel experience and to be honest I don’t quite like it.

Thanks to Jim at Garden Ruminations, Six on Saturday – 10/6/2023 for hosting; do go and see, there are always interesting things to see in Jim’s garden.

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Six on Saturday. June Beauties.

Posted on June 3, 2023 by Chloris

I have rather lost the habit of blogging, particularly as I have been too busy creating a garden the last few months to think about much else. But now it is glorious June and I find that after all my efforts (and an enormous amount of money which I prefer not to dwell on,) I actually have a garden and there are exciting things coming into bloom. So here are the six beauties making my heart beat faster this week.

You have to have irises in June, so I’ll start by unveiling a new iris which is blooming for the first time. I grew it from the seed from one of my Cedric Morris irises so it is special and quite topical as the Sarah Price garden at Chelsea which won everyone’s hearts featured these beauties. I left mine behind when I moved but I have quite a few seedlings to look forward to; all children of Cedric. Irises are easy from seed, I have lots of seedlings of Iris siberica too; each one is unique and it is so exciting waiting for them to bloom.

I brought my hardy orchids with me and they are none the worse for spending a year in pots. One of the Lady’s Slipper orchids is already over but this one, Cypripedium ‘Kentucky Pink’ is looking fabulous. I hope it will like its new home.

Peonies are essential for the June garden and I have bought a couple. I am still mourning my glorious tree peonies which I left behind. But never mind I brought these two lovelies with me and they are very happy to be in the ground after spending many months in pots. The first is my Itoh peony’ ‘Julia Rose’ which has semi-double silky flowers which are an unusual shape and a lovely shade of pink. As they mature they become apricot and cream. Itoh peonies are intersectional; they are hybrids between tree peonies and herbaceous peonies. If I had room I would like lots more of these beauties.

The second peony in bloom is ‘Coral Sunset’, which is a glowing coral colour and lights up this corner of the garden. It is slightly fragrant too. At the moment it has no near neighbours and I don’t know what I can grow next to it as the luminous colour is quite difficult to match. I think she needs to be surrounded by green so maybe I will use ferns.

And of course, June is rose time and I have bought quite a few new ones. I have also brought some of my favourites which I grew from cuttings. ‘Drinkstone Apricot’ started life in a previous garden which had belonged to a nurseryman. I am so glad that the cutting a friend gave me a couple of years ago is doing so well. It is an early flowering rose which has apricot buds although the open flowers are more yellow

I will finish with a grass which is looking rather splendid. It is not actually mine; readers of my blog might remember my son’s jetty garden which I wrote about several times on this blog. When he moved to France a couple of years ago he took most of his plants with him, but he left the ones he couldn’t fit into the removal van here. This fabulous grass, Hackonechloa macra ‘Aureola’ is one he left behind. This year I have taken it out of its plastic bucket, put it into a nice pot and told it to make itself at home. My son is most indignant as he seems to entertain fantasies of secreting it into his hand luggage on a budget flight which even begrudges you a seat to sit in. But I don’t feel sorry for him as this was one of two and the other one sat outside his house in France last summer where passing tourists stopped to stroke it and have their photos taken in front of it. It is very tactile and I’m grateful to my son for growing something so magnificent.

I am glad that there were no plants here when we came as I have never had the chance to start a garden from scratch before and it is such fun to do. I have enjoyed myself and spent a fortune but I had a year to take cuttings and grow plants from seed so I was able to bring plenty of plants with me too. In fact all my six today are plants I brought with me. My only worry now is that as the garden is small, I will soon have nothing to do. But then before long we are going to France and I will have a new garden to make, although I won’t be able to plant it in high summer which will be frustrating.

Anyway, it is nice to be back joining in with the popular Saturday meme, Six on Saturday which I gather is now hosted by Jim at Garden Ruminations. It is wonderful to have plants that I can share with you at last. Soon I will show you what I have been doing here. It is a small garden but I am beginning to fall in love with it now that I am surrounded by many of my old favourites.

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New Plants for New Places.

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Chloris

Here we are at last in our new home with a new garden which certainly isn’t blooming. It is weird to have to buy flowers as there was never a single moment in the blooming garden when there was nothing to pick. And here there is nothing at all, not even a bit of nice foliage.

I have a relatively small space here so I have had to think long and hard about which trees and shrubs I simply have to squeeze in somehow. Obviously in a small garden you must have only the choicest and the best. The front garden is compacted gravel at the moment with room to park eight cars. I don’t know why anyone would need parking for eight cars, but I am going to hire a mini digger to loosen it all and then get some top soil delivered. This will be my winter garden. I like the idea of having a winter garden at the front which is overlooked by the conservatory. The conservatory is an exciting bonus of this house and I will show it to you in another post.

I have already bought a few essential trees and shrubs for the winter garden. The first one I bought is the very fragrant Daphne bhloua ‘Jaqueline Postill’. This is my desert island plant, the one I can’t do without. Here it is in my previous garden.

Almost just as important for me is the Japanese Apricot, Prunus mume ‘Beni-chi-dori’. The dark pink blossom comes out in February. The one in the photo sadly died in last summer’s drought.

Beautiful bark is just as important as flowers in winter so I have bought a multi-stemmed Prunus serrula which will have shiny mahogany bark which peels off in tatters. I hope I can find a Muehlenbeckia astonii to put in front of it as I did before.

The slow -growing Acer griseum has cinnamon- coloured, peeling bark and is also a must-have. I have a small one waiting to be planted. It will take a while to look as good as this one.

I have to have a birch and I particularly wanted to buy Betula albosinensis ‘Pink Champagne’ which is a small to medium-size birch with beautiful pinkish peeling bark. But I couldn’t find it at any of the nurseries I visited, so I bought a multi -stemmed, chalk white Betula jacquemontii which was reduced to £15 and I can’t resist a bargain. I haven’t bought any plants for over a year as I knew I was going to move and I can’t believe how expensive they are now. I know Betula jacquemontii will grow too tall but I will worry about that later. The photograph shows Betula ‘Pink Champagne’ with Abies koreana behind it.

I have also bought a corkscrew hazel which looks wonderful in winter, specially coated in snow, although I don’t like it so much in summer. I just looked up why this is known as Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick. It was named after a Scottish entertainer who was popular in the early years of last century. His trademark was a crooked walking stick. People were easily amused in those days.

So these are my maids- in -waiting for the winter garden. I shall also buy one or two dwarf conifers and my queen of all firs, Abies koreana which is so elegant, compact and slow-growing and has candle-like cones. Abies koreana ‘Silberloche’ has silvery curving needles.

I hope I have room for one or two witch hazels, a chimonanthus, a winter flowering honeysuckle, plenty of cornus for coloured stems and a skimmia. I had better stop now and move into the back garden as I have a horrible feeling that I don’t have the room for all the plants I consider indispensable for a winter garden.

The back garden has benefitted from the attention of the tree surgeon.

At great expense I have got rid of three huge conifers, several dead trunks and a variety of dismal trees, a tree house, a rabbit hutch and run, a plastic slide and a huge clump of running bamboo; a phyllostachys variety. The bamboo has had its roots grubbed out with a stump grinder but I am sure it is just biding its time to make a come-back.

There is a little pond and I have planted a little weeping larch, Larix kaempferi at its side. I have one or two acers in pots to sit round it and by the bench down here I have planted one of my essential trees, the fabulous Cercis canadensis ‘ Forest Pansy’. It has velvety deep reddish-purple leaves which turn golden and purple in autumn. In the photo it is shown growing by the pond in my old garden with the wonderful Cornus alternifolia with silvery-white, variegated leaves. The blue poppies didn’t last, of course. If you buy blue poppies in Suffolk you have to treat them as an annual.

There are a few trees in the garden here which have been spared by the wood chopper. One is a huge magnolia which I think will turn out to be Magnolia soulangeana and there is a good specimen of Magnolia stellata. I am crazy about magnolias so I have also bought ‘Leonard Messel’ which tends not to be so susceptible to frost and I love its tattered flowers so I had to have one, and I managed to find one that was a decent size and didn’t break the bank.

There is an upright Irish yew which I have spared and a large ancient apple which has been disfigured by brutal pruning at some time, but I shall grow a Paul’s Himalayan Musk rose up it.

There is a pear which has also suffered from some cruel pruning but I am saving it to use as a climbing frame for a clematis. The only other tree I spared is a conifer, I think it is a cryptomeria which lent itself to being pruned into a lollipop shape.

It is hard not to have room for lots of blossom trees but I have bought Prunus ‘Kursar’ which is quite compact and I love it for its dark pink flowers which appear in March just as we are feeling that we have had enough of winter. It has good autumn colour too. The one in the picture is only a few years old so mine should soon look like that.

Every garden can find room for a little Fuji cherry. I love Prunus incisa ‘Kojo-no-mai’ for its delicate pale pink flowers in spring. It looks good in winter with its zig zag branches and it has red and copper leaves in autumn, so it is a good all year-rounder. It is very slow growing.

If I feel that I can’t manage without any frothy pink blossom I will try to find Prunus ‘Little Pink Perfection’. ‘Pink Perfection’ is one of the showiest cherries with long-lasting rose-pink blossom flowering into early May. It has a good autumn colour too. I haven’t got room for ‘Pink Perfection’ but ‘Little Pink Perfection’ is a naturally dwarf form and grows to about half its size and would grow in a tub.

I feel sad that I can’t grow lots of crab apple trees because I love them. I have bought one little tree because it had lost its label and was very cheap. Let’s hope it doesn’t turn out to be a large one. There are a couple of smaller growing varieties and I hope I have room for one of them. One is Malus ‘Coralburst’ which is a naturally dwarf variety with coral pink buds opening to deep rose pink flowers followed by bronze fruit. The other is a very small variety with a lovely habit and white flowers followed by cherry- like fruit. It is called Malus ‘Tina’.

In May, my last must-have magnolia comes into bloom. It has cream, fragrant flowers bursting from brown suede-like buds and evergreen leaves. It is Magnolia ‘Gail’s Favourite’ and it is mine too and I must find room for it.

For summer, I have to have a small philadelphus for wonderful fragrance. I love P.’Snowbelle’ with gleaming white double flowers but I don’t find it as strongly fragrant as some others. This is the one in the picture below. I think I might go for ‘Belle Etoile’ this time. It has fragrant flowers stained with wine red at the centres.

I love white flowers so I must have a white-flowered cornus which should look good against the black shed. I think the best white flowered one is Cornus ‘Eddie’s White Wonder’. Another cornus which I hope I have room for is Cornus alternifolia which was much admired in my previous garden where I grew it by the pond. It has small variegated leaves and and a layered habit a bit like its big sister Cornus contraversa, the Wedding Cake tree. I hope the Cornus ‘Eddie’s White Wonder’ in the picture is still alive, it is yet another shrub which suffered from last year’s drought.

For summer, I shall grow a mallow, Abutilon vitifolium as I love its large single violet flowers. The one in my last garden died in the very cold spell in early winter. The variety I like is ‘Veronica Tennant’ but you can get a white one too. My plant never produced seedlings but I have a friend who has plenty of babies so I can grow one on. They are quick growing.

Another plant which was much admired in my previous garden is the lovely Indigofera pendula. This has dainty pinnate leaves and racemes of violet pink flowers. The weeping form is difficult to find so I hope I can track one down.

I have to grow something for autumn colour and I particularly love liquidamber. I know it grows big but there is an upright form. It is called Liquidamber styraciflua ‘Slender Silhouette’ and as it has a fastigate habit it will be fine at the bottom of the garden and nearby I will plant another autumn must- have which is the Katsura tree which has beautiful coloured autumn foliage which smells of toffee apples. Cercidiphyllum japonicum grows very big and is fast growing, but there is a smaller weeping form which I used to grow and I hope I can find it again. It is Cercidiphyllum japonicum ‘Pendulum’.

I haven’t mentioned roses and of course I must have lots as they are my passion. Fortunately I have lots of walls and fences and I have bought some arches. I have bought quite a few bare-root roses which are just heeled in at the moment and I will talk about them another day. I am still reeling at how much I spent on them.

I have no idea whether I have room for all these shrubs and trees that seem so essential to my happiness. And I am sure as I think some more and the season goes on, I will come up with others that I can’t live without. Obviously this is going to be a problem. I’d be interested to hear about other people’s must have trees and shrubs.

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And Now For Something Completely Different.

Posted on December 24, 2022 by Chloris

Big changes are taking place here in the blooming garden and difficult decisions have had to be made. I haven’t blogged for a long time as I haven’t had the heart to write about the garden knowing that we will be leaving it and as each new bloom opened I knew I was seeing it for the last time. So I found it painful to write about it.

Readers of my blog will remember my son, Bertie’s jetty garden at Pin Mill. Bertie and his lovely Beatrice moved to a beautiful part of south west France two years ago. We visited them and fell in love with the place too. So we have bought an ancient medieval house there – well, to be accurate, we have bought a medieval ruin which has caused family and friends to think we are mad. Perhaps we are. We are Francophiles and have always dreamed of having a home in France and now having our loved ones there is the time to do it. Throwing myself into this project distracted me from the implications for the garden here. After three weeks away during a drought this summer it looked terrible, so leaving it for weeks or more at a time is unthinkable. So I have had to do all the mental and emotional gymnastics required to bring myself to the place where I can leave our lovely home and garden. I never thought this would happen. But the new owners are enthusiastic about the garden so it will continue to be well loved.

Looking for somewhere new in the UK, was disheartening. Throughout the summer here, house prices spiralled and there was a bidding war for any desirable properties. The whole buying and selling process has been long drawn- out and stressful as these things tend to be. But eventually, we were lucky enough to find and secure a house that we think will suit us very well. The garden is quite small and it needs a lot of work to get it as I want it; but that’s OK, I love a project. The front garden will be my winter garden; at the moment it is just gravel. The back garden has just a big, misshapen magnolia, a few ugly conifers and a big clump of Phyllostachys, the invasive sort of bamboo which worries me rather. I love bamboo, but only the nice, well-behaved, clump-forming ones. And there is a Leylandii hedge. And there is a large expanse of decking. So all in all, pretty awful. I will show you photos when we move and all suggestions will be welcome.

So in January we will be leaving here. I shall eventually carry on with my blog. Although the garden we have bought in France and the one we are buying here are not blooming at all, of course, in time they will. It will be different because I have an acre at the moment and I grow loads from seeds and cuttings and I buy whatever takes my fancy, as I have plenty of space. Readers of my blog will know that the garden here is crammed full of plants so that I have gorgeous blooms all year round. I haven’t bought any plants for nearly a year so I have withdrawal symptoms. Prowling round nurseries is my favourite occupation, so I am looking forward to choosing plants for my new garden. I may have to ask for advice, as I have never gardened in a small space before. I suppose you have to be very disciplined and only grow the choicest and the best. Anyway, I shall show you both my new gardens when the time comes, or the spaces where my gardens will be, and will welcome suggestions. I might even give you a peep into my new houses.

In the meantime I am busy as there is so much to see to and endless sorting out and throwing away. I got held up for some weeks because I broke my ankle by cycling too fast down a narrow lane and ending up in a ditch. So instead of packing I have been reclining on a sofa asking the Pianist to peel me grapes. It took him a week to clear out the loft in between grape peeling. Tackling the shed crammed full of a mountain of plant pots was a nightmare, I wrote about the shed here. I have no idea why I thought I might ever need thousands and thousands of plant pots. We had to get a skip for them and all the other mountains of rubbish we seem to have accumulated. And the garage was a horror story too. But getting rid of all your junk is very liberating, I have thrown away clothes that I haven’t worn for twenty years and I am baffled as to why I kept them so long. Piles of greeting cards from loved ones have been ruthlessly discarded. Theatre programmes from long forgotten performances, gardening magazines going back thirty years; it’s endless the stuff I have hoarded. Getting rid of so much ballast is good for the soul, but it takes ages. Packing now takes up all our time and Christmas here is going to be spent walled in by boxes and boxes. We are having endless discussions about each other’s ridiculous hoarding habits. I question his suitcases full of cables and CDs that he cannot play because he has nothing to play them on. He wants to know why I have nearly 400 gardening books and four big boxes of jugs. Between you and me I am a bit puzzled about all those jugs myself. And then I have a serious succulent addiction; the house is disappearing under seas of succulents as it is too cold for them outside. And then I have nightmares about all the plants in the greenhouse; I have no idea how I am going to move all these plants.

Anyway, I will see you all on the other side in my new gardens. Have a wonderful Christmas and a joyful New Year and I am looking forward to catching up with you all once the move has happened.

In the meantime, here are just a few of the wonderful plants that I am very sad to say goodbye to.