Hydrangeas

It was quite difficult to choose the plant for this post. Eventually I decided to settle on Hydrangeas which are at their best at the moment.
A favourite is Hydrangea paniculata, which flowers on current season's wood. This means it can be easily pruned without sacrificing any flowers.

Hydrangea paniculata (unknown cultivar)

More on Roses

I mentioned Rosa 'Windrush' in my previous post and managed to take some nice pictures to illustrate the point. (The backdrop is Cornus controversa 'Variegata')


And some detail ....

Roses - Round II

This is the time of year when we get a good second flush of our many roses.
While some roses like Rosa 'Graham Thomas' and Rosa 'Emma Hamilton' go on producing flowers throughout the summer and autumn, some flower in flushes.

A notable cultivar is Rosa 'Windrush'
It has beautiful almost single white flowers, which are quite large, and are produced in flushes over a month or so. The first round this year was at the beginning of June. The second one is just starting. A hard prune after the first flush of flowers results in a second one that's almost as good.

One of my favorites, is a new rose I planted last year - A fairly new David Austin introduction, Rosa 'Lady of Shalott'. It has been slow to get going, probably because it's planted close to a mature Wisteria, but the flowers are lovely, specially when back lit by the evening sun.

White Lavender

One of our cats, Trixy, had a car accident and it was not clear if she would survive, so updating the blog was the least of my worries. She is now out of danger and I can resume following the garden more closely.

Trixy enjoying the garden

The plant that stood out most in the last week is the white lavender. I grow a few blue lavenders, mostly inherited with the garden, and they all finished flowering a few weeks ago.
I was not really aware of white lavenders until I saw them at Hampton Court Flower Show last year. I promptly bought a few from one of the show gardens selling them off.

I found it is not as tolerant of dry soil as the blue ones (I have to admit I have no idea which cultivar it is, though I suspect it is Lavandula angustifolia 'Alba'), but it remains in flower for much longer, the flowers opening slowly along the short spire


Unlike the blue lavenders where all the flowers open at once, more impressive perhaps, not so sure.

Clematis tangutica

This week's plant was not an easy choice, quite a few plants are showing off this week.
In the end I chose the nodding yellow flowers of Clematis tangutica, that will go on flowering well into autumn.


It's easily grown from seed, it's free of desease and it will cover an modest size arch in a season.
The arch I grow this over has a Laburnum vossii on one side and a Rosa 'Maigold' on the other. It is the rose, which is early flowering, and doesn't repeat, that shares the space with the clematis.


As the rose is winding down the clematis, which was pruned in February to about 30cm from the ground, is starting to take over. When the laburnum is starting to get tatty, which happens quite early, the clematis reaches the top of the arch and hides it in a mass of flowers.


As a bonus, the fluffy seed heads last to the end of winter, even in cold snowy ones like we had lately.

Lilies

It wasn't easy choosing this week's plant, quite a few plants were candidates, but in the end I chose two lilies.
My first attempts at growing lilies were not successful. I tried growing them in the ground, they would come up, and at around 20 cm high would be completely consumed. After a few years of trying I switched to pots, and this was great success. Most lilies have been living in their pots for a few years happily. The lily beatle is still a problem but picking them up regularly keeps them happy.

Most lilies finished flowering at the beginning of June but two are still holding on.
The first it Lily 'Avocado', an oriental trumpet hybrid, around 1m tall. It only just started opening.

Lily 'Avocado'

Another lily, which has been in flower for a few weeks is Lily 'Red County'. It has great colour, shades of red and orange. It grows it in full sun, it would be darker in colour if grown in semi-shade.

Lily 'Red County'

I put the pot among the wiry stems of Persicaria 'Red Dragon'. They make great companions.
Insects seem to like it too...

Returning

It's been a while since I wrote, life has taken over and got in the way somewhat.
We had a warm spring and the garden has been on steroids. It is not often that you find yourself deadheading roses in the middle of May. Nor did I ever see the Laburnum and Wisteria flowering at the same time.

While most roses have finished their first flush of flowers long before their expected time, one has been an exception. It is a standard rose I bought from a French man at Hampton Court flower show about 5 years ago, I lost the label and I don't know its name. It never failed to flower, always at the same time, whatever the weather.
This year as always, it is covered in flowers


This gave me an idea, writing every week, about the plant that is at it's best that week.
This unknown rose will be the first.

Spring is here to stay

Spring is definitely here, in fact last days were more like summer, and I had to remove the insulation from the greenhouse few weeks earlier then usual.
I have now taken full stock of winter casualties, and they have been much worse then previous years.
I lost most of my Euphorbias and the remaining ones are looking pretty sad and will have to be replaced. I also lost two large Phormiums growing in large pots that managed to survive two harsh winters, but are now only fit for the tip.
I was also surprised to lose one of my favorite Erysimums (Bowles Mauve). I was growing two on both sides of a path, one survived and one did not. Some cuttings I've been growing on the allotment survived as well so can't really explain this.

On the positive side here are a few of this spring's highlights:

Magnolia stellata

I planted this Camellia two years ago close to the deck behind the house. This is the first time it flowered and the display was excellent.

Camellia 'Jury's Yellow'

And finally one of my favorites the unfurling leaves of Larix kaempferi 'Diana'

Cleraing up

This weekend was the first since early November which had all the conditions of a good gardening day. The sun was shining, the temperatures were reasonable (9C measured in the garden at lunch time) and there was no wind.
Since there were no excuses I finally embarked of the traditional autumn clear up with some delay.

The nice thing about winter gardening is that you notice things that you wouldn't in spring and ssummer, when there is so much going on. The first thing I noticed is that some of the early Hellebore's are unfurling their flowers already.

But there is something completely different, and surprising I noticed. The intensity in the colour of one of my acers. This is a new acer, only planted last summer, when a large tub became available (after it's previous occupant was killed by the weather, cant' remember now what it was). It is called Acer palmatum 'Winter Flame', and it lives up to it's name. It is a dwarf form of well known Acer palmatum 'Sangukaku', which in my oppinion is not the best both in terms of form and bark colour.


Not sure why I was surprised, maybe becasue so often, the promise of a name is not fulfiled. It certainly is in this case. It also has bright green leaves in summer and a good form which I can still improve on by some light pruning next summer.

Winter Frost

This year winter caught me by surprise. Usually during November I would give the roses their first cut, but this year it was so cold I was not tempted to do it.

Coming home one day I was rewarded by this beautiful frosted rose (Rosa 'Compasion').

Happy New Year