I need more of…

these Verbascums. I was promised (years ago now) that the the plants I bought would flower at the same time: Cirsium rivulare Atropurpureum, Papaverorientale ‘Patty’s plum’ and Verbascum chaxii album. But in fact, in my garden, the Cirsium come up first and flower for a good while, then the poppies and now the Verbascum. The poppies are over and have been chopped back as they were straggly and the Cirsium are going over and have only a few flowers left. The Verbascum is now looking a bit lonely. This year I will take root cuttings and hopefully get a few more and make a good clump. The Verbascum ‘Raspberry ripple’ is flowering a bit strangely this year. In previous years, the flowers at the base opened first the the gradually the others would open from base to the top. This year some are open at the base, some open half way up and some at the top. I do have a space to fill beside them so I would like to take root cuttings of these ones too.
We have had a couple of visitors at the base of the red rose Erotica under the bird feeder: brown rats. At first I saw a large rat on the tray feeder but now I have seen two young ones, bold as brass, getting the fallen seed and running behind the pond. I don’t need more of them!