Looking good this week

The top image is my homage to Diarmuid Gavin's 'Lollipop' garden at Chelsea 2004. I managed to pick up the coloured 'saucers' for a fiver each. They are underplanted with Matteuccia struthiopteris, which struggle in the dry conditions (this area is under the canopy of a horse chestnut). To the left is an Acer palmatum, bought last autumn from B & Q for £8 (it's a great time to buy them, when the leaves have fallen and they are trying to get rid of old stock). The leaves look good with the afternoon sun on them.

In the foreground is Euphorbia mellifera (honey scented flowers in May). It's meant to be placed in full sun, but it's coping well in this sheltered spot.

The second image is my Dicksonia antarctica. I could only afford a small one with hardly any trunk, but it's doing well and looking good against an old brick wall next to Hydrangea petiolaris. I read somewhere that watering the wall helps the Hydrangea 's pads to 'stick' and this seems to be doing the trick. The other plant is Ficus benjaminans which has been with me for over ten years and is outside for it's summer holiday. The plaited stem is a bit naff, but I can't bring myself to get rid of it.

Dickie

Project

Just completed, from a design I did at the backend of last year before college took over (and with a few changes)!

Dickie

Success at last

I bought this Agapanthus orientalis sp. from Homebase several years ago. It was in full bloom and looked great. I cosseted it, kept it in a pot, brought it inside for winter but had scant success - no blooms for the first couple of years. In desperation it was planted directly beneath a south facing fence - still no luck. Finally (and it was in danger of being discarded) I fed it regularly with 'Tomorite' and I've been rewarded with three flower heads, so it can stay (despite looking dreadful in winter). It's hidden from view in winter by the Lonicera nitita 'Nana'? ball and it's working well with the Melianthus major in the background.

I'm pleased with the Canna Tropicana (although they seem to be flowering very early?)
The light looks good shining through the leaves. In the foreground is a stunted Stipa gigantea (I have problems growing this - maybe the soil is too wet in winter?). In the background is Miscanthus s. 'Zebrinus'. Each year I think it has reverted a plain old Miscanthus as I always forget that the banding that gives it it's name does not appear until mid summer.

Dickie

Out today

Anemone x hybrida and Canna 'Tropicana'. The combination of pink petals and orange stamens of the Anemone and orange flowers and pink buds of the Canna suggest that these two may look good planted together.

Dickie

Details

Armed with my new skills, here are some details from a project.

Hope the client likes it!

Dickie

More stuff

Complementary leaf shapes, Stachys byzantina 'Big Ears' with Salvia officinalis 'Purpurascens' and Nicotiana 'Lime Green'.

Nigella damascena growing through Euphorbia rigida.

Tulbaghia sp. an onion relative coming into flower. Flowers borne from now until autumn.

Dickie

Elsewhere in the garden

The Echinacea's are beginning to colour, lovely against a backdrop of Lychnis coronaria.

Fan trained peaches (var. Duke of York) are ripening.

Pulmonaria sp. foliage looking good with Asplenium scolopendrium and Lysimachia nummularia.

Dickie

Water Wise

I've been trying to conserve water, only irrigating Cannas & Dahlias plus any vegetables that seem to be suffering.

I have a large population of frogs that often find their way into the watering can. Usually this isn't a problem. As I fill the can, I can hear them splashing around inside and they emerge unharmed from the spout as I water. Sadly, this chap was a little large and got stuck. I managed to push him back and he eventually hopped away unscathed.

Dickie

Good Combination

I'm sure it's been done a million times before but......

Phlomis russeliana behind Sedum sp. The colour and form at this time of year combine really well. (I've edited out all the other plants by putting a piece of black card behind the two species). Imagine a black rendered wall as a backdrop to a mass planting of the same.

Dickie

Mixed up plants!

I wanted a record of when different species come into flower, but I'm being thwarted by mother nature! All the books say that Digitalis flower in June, but this one (that I grew from seed last year), is just blooming now (looking good with the Acanthus behind it). I guess that by planting it in a shady spot, the flower production has been delayed. I have further plants
in deep shade that haven't flowered at all - I guess I'll have to wait until next year to enjoy them. It seems that Digitalis do better with a bit of sun on their backs after all.

I also grew some white forget-me-not's (that I wasn't too keen on), which flowered in March/April. They seem to have crossed with the existing blue ones and already (again at the wrong time) they are flowering (in a horrible pale blue hue). I appear to have 'diluted' the pure blue type I had by adding the white ones, and will now have to weed out all the 'crosses' and start again from scratch.

Elsewhere, Echinacea (from seed last year) are just beginning to flower (I hope that the colour will get stronger). Whilst I've got loads of plants, only three have sent up flower heads (and they are frustratingly slow to open!)

The last image is of one of my two Echium wildpretii x E. pininana hybrids (started from seed in February). Chiltern Seed Catalogue describes them thus "These are spectacular plants, eventually producing a noble and spectacular stem up to 14 ft. in length with the thickness at its base of a man's leg, and bearing countless thousands of pale Wedgewood-blue flowers" - Who wouldn't want to try to grow it? Can't wait until next year!


Dickie

Loquat's are ripening!

All over London, the fruits of Eriobotrya japonica (Loquat/Japanese Medlar) are ripening. This doesn't happen every year (it depends on the weather) but it looks as though we are going to have a bumper crop.

I can't describe the taste (it's like no other fruit I've eaten). They need to be peeled and the flesh is like a lychee, but I can remember that they taste really good if eaten ripe (when the fruit is orange).

I think there may have been a trend for planting them in the 1970's?, (maybe a John Brookes thing?) as the trees all seem to be about the same age (I guess tree ferns will have the same 'date stamp' in history in years to come).

Anyway, if you see them, go scrumping! Plant the seeds too - they are easy to grow.


Dickie

Definition of 'scrumping' - Nicking fruit and windfalls from a garden that is not your own.

Flowers out

This week the Lilium regale have opened (although personally I prefer them in bud). The
Agapanthus are also beginning to show.

Visited Beth Chatto's Garden near Colchester at the weekend and then drove on to Walberswick on the Suffolk Coast, a lovely unspoit village, just two and a half hours from London. Perfect day to go, the roads completely empty because of the World Cup.

Dickie