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.