Splashes of white…

07/07/2018flowers, plantsJackie Elwin

to add highlights in the garden. At the moment there are a few white plants in flower just now like the Astrantia that I was given by a friend but I don’t know the variety. (it might be major) I love the subtle pink centers that go really well with the backdrop of the purple Cotinus foliage. The Camassia leithtlinii white has just gone over so I have tidied away their messy leaves. The Serastium tomentosum (snow in summer) has beautiful silver foliage along with very pretty white flowers and the rose Munsteadwood looks great above it. The only trouble with that combo is that the dark purple petals fall over the silver folliage and look very messy. The Philadelphus is looking ok but the image here was taken a few years ago when I let it grow however it wanted to, but nowadays I keep it cut back a little. The perfume is fabulous. The delicate Campanula rotundifolia (harebells) come up usually in blue , but now and again a white one pops up. I just leave them there as they look quite natural. I can’t believe that my pale blue Aquilegia is still in flower. I might buy a few more white plants to brighten the very green garden up and maybe a few pale yellows too. Actually, the Primula sikkimensis (Himalayan cowslip) is looking great just now so I can divide them later on in the year. I did get out during week to buy a few Gillenia trifoliata (bowmans root) plants which have nice, delicate white starry flowers on reddish stems, which will go well with the red Astilbe , and the red rose (whenever it decides to flower). We still have very hot and dry weather with no sign of rain in the next week or so. We are not used to this in Scotland – normally we have a couple of nice days followed by a few days of wind and rain. On the plus side two months of no rain mains we have enjoyed the roses without the petals turning to mush or drying out like paper mache so that they can’t open. Also the slugs don’t like it dry. On the down side I have had an awful lot of watering to do and the dreaded mildew has appeared on many plants. I can’t sit outside and enjoy the garden as it is just too hot for me so I wait until the shade comes. My dog loves to lie in the sunshine but I have to keep him inside mostly as he would overheat very quickly. This heat also makes sleeping quite a trial. Doing a wee rain dance and wishing for slightly cooler weather.

Astrantia major

Astrantia and Cotinus

Philadelphus

Harebells

Gillenia trifoliata and Astilbe Fanal red

Camassia leichtlinii white

Serastium tomentosum and Munstead wood rose

Primula sikkimensis

Just smell those roses…

29/06/2018flowers, plants, rosesJackie Elwin

they all come out at slightly different times and they all have different perfumes too. My newest rose (bought this year) is Jubilee Celebration which has a very fruity almost grapefruit like fragrance so it is on the patio in a large pot so I can enjoy the scent whilst having a cuppa. Next to flower was Munstead Wood with it’s fabulous deep crimson flowers and gorgeous Old rose scent. Then came the climbing rose Zephirine Drouhin. It isn’t doing as well as it could because it really needs to be in full sun and I have planted it towards the back of the garden, which is plunged into shade in the afternoon courtesy of the golf course trees. I have made quite a few mistakes in the garden and that is just one of them. But it still flowers and I just need to give it more TLC than some of the others. It smells divine. William Lobb the moss rose is a lovely dark crimson when it first opens then it fades to a pale greyish violet. It also smells fab. They used to be tied up along wires between 3 tall posts but when we did away with the green house we also took out the posts. They can be a bit sprawly in habit but I am trying to keep them pruned into a more bush like form. That way it keeps the flowers where I can both see and smell them. I have a mini pink rambler in a large pot (along with the Parahebe) which scrambles up an old clothes post. It does quite well and I would like to train it along the fence too. I am not sure if I should have planted the Rosa Rugosa as it is just so unruly. It seams to just flower sporadically and they are all on the very top of the bush. Should I have gone for a dog rose instead? It is in the stumpery/woodland area which can get very shady too but I thought they could cope with almost any condition. I will feed it with rose or tomato feed as just see if that helps this year. At the back of the garden I have newly planted The Generous Gardener. It should be able to cope with some shade so I just hope it can make do with the few hours of sunshine it does get. The flowers are a very feminine, delicate pink and have a beautiful Old rose scent. I do hope I can nurture them enough to cover the arch. The last one to flower is Erotica ( or Eroica – I think that is what it is called – it never had a tag and I bought it over 20 years ago). It has deep red, highly scented flowers and is quite a tall upright bush. The foliage is quite purple/red during spring turning green later. It is always the last one to flower but then that might be due to the way I prune it. I will add a photograph when it finally decides to flower.

Jubilee Celebration

Munstead Wood

Zephirine Drouhin

William Lobb

Mini pink rambler

Rosa Rugosa

The Generous Gardener

And it finally flowers on the 10th July! Well worth waiting for as it is a colour, has a gorgeous scent and has nice long, upright stems so makes a great cut flower.

Erotica

Everywhere you look…

12/06/2018flowers, plants, seed-headsJackie Elwin

another plant is blooming – yeah! Today is lovely and warm in the sunshine but in a couple of days (just when the roses come out) we are due heavy rain. Just our luck, but we haven’t had much rain at all so the garden really needs it. But for now there are lots of plants enjoying this weather. The Honesty is a lovely bright purple, but the slugs are having a good go at them. The chives are looking lovely. My Parahebe Porlock is a great do-er and is in a pot alongside a little pink rambling rose. I just trim it back every year and it keeps coming back. I wish I had planted my Syringa in front of the Viburnum in the raised bed so that I could see the whole shrub as it is covered in scented flowers but the Viburnum is blocking the view – hey ho. The Thyme in the raised looks great under the purple Acer and next to the Saxifraga umbrosa. I do have a few Geraniums (forgotten the name of a few) which have started to flowers now, including the wild ones. The blue one is looking a bit flat. The tiny Geranium dissectum looks cute with it’s tiny flowers and hairy stems but I bet it will be a thug if I leave it to seed, so, I keep taking the seed heads off. The same goes for the herb-robert (Geranium robertianum). The Hebe is covered in tiny pink flowers and the bees adore these. The ragged robin is looking, well, ragged but pretty. The Pasque flower has gone over and I didn’t get a chance to photograph it this year but the seed heads are very pretty.

Lunaria annua purple honesty

Allium shoenoprasum chives)

Parahebe ‘Porlock’

Syringa Josiflexa Belleicent

Hebe ‘Pink paradise’

Lychnis flos-cuculi (ragged robin)

thyme, acer and saxafrage

geranium double violet/pink?

geranium blue?

geranium pink?

geranium wargrave pink

geranium cantabrigiense Biokova white promo

geranium dissectum (tiny)

gersnium robertianum (herb-robert)

Pulsatilla vulgaris (Pasque flower) seed-head

raised bed end-on

Feeling blue…

09/06/2018flowers, garden, plants, raised bed, stumperyJackie Elwin

what a week! Suffice to say we have had the builders here for a few days and the less said the better!! Scaffolders grrrrrrrr!!
I don’t have that much in the way of blue in the garden but I may add a few more blues over the next few years. The brunneras are still going strong, as are the veronicas, but the forget-me-nots are looking a bit straggly so I have been pulling some of them out. They will have self seeded and will pop up all over the place next year. My mecanopsis Willie Duncan and Susan’s Reward are doing fine now. The slugs really went for them when they were first planted last year (or was that 2 years ago?) but they are now looking good. I moved the blue iris (Jane Phillips) from the middle bed to a sunnier spot last year, having only had them a year, and although they appear much happier the slugs got them too! The centauria blue is flowering away but it looks like something has sat in the middle of it, it is just not able to hold it’s own weight. (the white one got eaten by the pigeons!!). The pale blue aquilegia is still flowering away. My proper blue bells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) that I have in little pots didn’t flower again this year so that has been 2 years now with no flowers. There are a few blooms on the blue geranium but maybe I should thin it out a little as it is spreading just a bit too much and is coming up through other plants now. I had to cut back the Jacob’s ladder as it was being used as a slug nursery and was being completely decimated. That was right next to the fennel (which was also decimated by slugs) so, now that I have dealt with the slugs they might get a chance to grow. This time last year the fennel was over a meter high! There has hardly been any rain over the last 6 or 7 weeks and I have had to keep on top of the watering which takes ages. And the poor pond too needs topping up, and with no rain water about, I have to spray tap water into it. The tadpoles don’t seam to mind. Anyway the garden on the whole is looking ok and the wee sparrows and tits have started to fledge so there is a lot of cheerful chirping about.

Aquilegia pale blue

Centauria blue

Iris ‘Jane Phillips’

Mecanopsis ‘Susan’s Reward’

Mecanopsis ‘Willie Duncan’

Raised bed

garden from patio

stumpery right side

stumpery left side

‘Sedges have edges,..

26/05/2018grasses, plantsJackie Elwin

…rushes are round, and grasses have knees that bend down to the ground.’ There are other versions of this wee ditty that I was reminded of the other day and as usual there are the odd exceptions to that rule. It may not have been the best day to take photographs of my garden grasses as it was a bit breezy. Hey ho. Grasses can really tie a garden together and make it all look very natural and can soften areas. Eve the lightest breeze brings movement and gentle sound to the garden. I can’t identify half the grasses I have but I try to take care to chop off the seed heads before they spread over the rest of the garden. Especially the ones covering the logs in my woodland area. The Briza media (quaking grass) is on the patio and the flowers turn a lovely straw colour and gently nod in the slightest breeze. The Carex pendula I have in pots in various places, some shady and some sunny and it copes well everywhere. There is a variety of grasses in and around the pond. In the chimney pot in the background is a Carex comans Bronze which will hang down over the edges of the pot. There is some kind of Juncus (rush) on the right hand side of the pond in the run-off boggy area, spouting up in the middle of the Acorus Ogori (Golden Japanese rush. In the pond is Eleocharis (hair grass) and Eriophorum Angustifolium – may also be know as Scirpus I think (cotton grass or bog cotton). And I have no idea what the grasses are on the log.

Briza media (quaking grass)

Carex pendula (sedge)

grasses and rush

grassy log

Who needs flowers…

23/05/2018foliage, plantsJackie Elwin

when you can have fabulous colour from foliage? Young leaves especially can be quite bright, but don’t forget the stem colours and buds too. My little Acer shirasawanum ‘Auereum’ has fabulous pink and green colouration when the leaves first burst through, which turn bright golden/lime green later, and the dark green nettles behind provides a good contrast. The Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum Garnet’ has beautifully dark garnet foliage, and when planted next to Thymus lanuginosus (which has lovely deep pink bud and tiny hairy leaves), Saxifraga umbrosa (with it’s succulent bright green leaves, pink stems and pale pink flowers) that not only contrasts the colours but also the textures and leaf shapes. The golden oregano is looking splendid just now and the leaves of the Pieris Japonica ‘Forest flame’ have now faded from bright orange/red to golden. The young foliage on some roses can look very pretty too. ‘The Generous gardener’ has very bright young red/bronze leaves, while the red flowered rose (could be ‘Erotica’) has deep purple leaves. Astilbe ‘Fanal’ red has bright red stems, some green leaves and some bronze/purple leaves just before the red flower spikes appear. The Hebe’Pink paradise’ picks up the purple colour of the Heuchera (Rachel) in it’s stems and the pinks buds go well with it too. Another combination that I love for both colour and texture is in the corner by my ramp: The huge bronze leaves of the Rogersia podophylla along with young bronze of it’s neighbour, Osmunda regalis ‘Purpurascens’, and the green of the Polygonataum multiflorum. The pond too has a variety of leaf colours and forms. I would have liked to show you my Cotinus ‘Royal purple’ and Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack frost’ but they have only just been planted and they don’t look great yet. I would have loved to show you the ferny bronze foliage of my Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’ (bronze fennel, but something has been eating it!! I have never had this problem before but this year the fronds have not been allowed to grow bigger than an inch or two (showing my age now). Snails, slugs, mice, I don’t know but I have been getting rid of all slugs that I find on my morning slug patrols, and the black birds and thrushes are dealing with the snails. Do mice like fennel?

Acer in bud

Acer in leaf

Golden oregano

Pieris faded

Garnet acer with thyme and saxifrage (and self seeded aquilegia)

Astilbe Fanal

The Generous gardener young leaves

Rose unknown young leaves

Hebe and heuchera

water hawthorn and lily leaves (and others)

Rogersia, fern and polygonatum

poor old bronze fennel

In flower now..

21/05/2018flowers, plantsJackie Elwin

are a few more of the late spring, early summer flowers. The Veronica gentionoides ‘Blue streak’, the speedwell (another veronica species), Erica arborea (the tree heath), Galium odoratum (sweet woodruff), Circium rivulare Atropurpureum, Silene dioica (red campion) and a few others. Some you really do have to look for, like the Arisarum proboscideum (mouse plant) as the funny little flowers (that look like mice with long tails) are hidden under the leaves.

Circium rivulare atropurpureum

Erica arborea

Galium odoratum

peony (unknown)

Silene dioica

speedwell on a mossy log

Veronica gentionoides Blue streak

Arisarum proboscideum

Aquilegias …

20/05/2018Aquilegia, flowers, plantsJackie Elwin

everywhere. I adore Aquilegias (columbines or granny’s bonnets). They are so pretty and quite a feminine looking plant with tall slender stalks and dainty flowers. Even the buds look pretty. I did buy certain named types years ago but I just let them self seed where they wish. I have just posted the photos under their colours in case I name they incorrectly. Some are just in bud whilst others are in full flower. I do have other colours: pink, purple, pink and white, and a lovely pale blue pom pom type so I will update this page when I get some reasonable photos of them. I recently read an article about Aquilegia downy mildew here and I really hope I don’t get it here. The article is a few years old now, so far so good.

Aquilegia ruby

Aquilegia in bud

Aquilegia dark purple

Aquilegia deep maroon

Aquilegia pale peach

Aquilegia purple and white

Aquilegia white

Aquilegia white and lilac

Fabulous ferns…

16/05/2018ferns, plantsJackie Elwin

unfurling throughout the garden. I have ferns for a variety of sites in the garden as some like it cool and damp whereas others may prefer shady and dry etc. and at this time of year I love seeing the fronds uncurling. I chop back the deciduous ferns in winter, and do the same with the evergreen ones in the spring if they look a bit manky and bedraggled. The trouble is, I have got my labels all muddled up and I am now finding it very difficult to identify some of them. Over the years I have split some and planted the bit somewhere else or I have moved them from one position to another if they weren’t looking happy. Here is a list of what I think I have in the garden, conservatory and patio:

Adiantum aleuticum
‘Japonicum’

Adiantum fragrans

Adiantum pedatum
Adiantum venustum
Asplenium scolop. ‘Cristata’
Asplenium trichomanes

Blechnum spicant

Davallia canariensis
Hare’s foot fern
Didymochlaena
Dicksonia antartica in conservatory

Didymochlaena cloak fern

Dryopteris crispa congesta

Dryopteris erythrosa
Japanese Rosy Buckler fern

Dryopteris filixmas
‘Linearis’
Matteuccia struthiopteris Ostrich feather fern

Osmunda regalis Royal fern

Osmunda regalis
‘Purpurascens’

Pellaea rotundifolia
Button fern

Phyllitis scolopendrium Hart’tongue
fern
Pteris tricolor was in conservatory may have died

Polypodium mantoniae
cornubiense

Polypodium vulgare ‘Bifido
grandiceps’
Polystichum braunii

Polystichum polyblepharum
Polystichum setiferum ‘Plumoso multilobum’
Polystichum vulgare ‘Bitido-grandiceps’

And a few photos (I won’t photograph each one but here are my favorites). I have tried my best to identify them but I may be wrong.

Adiantum venustum (creeping maidenhair)

Asplenium scolopendrium cristata

Asplenium trichomanes (maidenhair spleenwort)

Osmunda regalis Purpurascens (Royal fern purple)

Polypodium vulgare ?

Polystichum setiferum ‘cristato Pinnulum’

Polystichum setiferum plumoso multilobum (densum?)

rhyzomes of a polypodum? creeping along the wall of raised bed

Dicksonia antartica (tree fern)

Pellaea rotundifolia (button fern)

Davallia canariensis (Hare’s foot fern)

Poor old clematis…

12/05/2018flowers, plants, wildlifeJackie Elwin

has had to go. I loved my Clematis montana alba, especially when it was over-grown and would hang down over the door in the back wall where it made it look like there was a secret garden behind the wall. Trouble was that nobody could get through the doorway easily so I had to keep it a little clipped. Sadly, it succumbed to some bacterial or fungal infection and died. Possibly clematis slime flux? no idea but it didn’t look good so I whipped it out, added some new soil and planted a pink climbing rose (Generous gardener) which I hope will be able to cope with the conditions. It will get some sunshine for a few hours per day, but it is in dry shade so I will have to keep it well fed and watered.
My cherry tree (Prunus Shirotae Mount Fugi) is in a half barrel on the patio and it has had gorgeous blooms over the years but has started to die back and is therefore shrinking in size so this autumn it will have to come out and have it’s roots trimmed, then get re-potted into a slightly bigger half barrel and hopefully recover to bloom for a few more years.

Clematis montana alba

Clematis slime flux?

Prunus Shirotae Mount Fugi

Prunus and bee

Cardesque Garden

Gardening from an ageing, paraplegic perspective.