Firelight in May

Other commitments have prevented me from spending time in the garden this weekend, so whilst rambling I have been mentally composing lists of what to tackle when the time is available – planting out half hardy annual seedlings from the greenhouse (cosmos, orlaya, zinnia) and weeding being at the top of the list. Young penstemon and phlox plants (the Hayloft offers) were planted out on Friday, having grown into healthy specimens in a relatively short time, thus adding to the number of newly bedded recruits that may need watering if we have a longer break from the rain.

Despite the brevity of the weekend’s rambles I could not fail to notice the stunning display on Rhododendron ’Firelight’, with upwards of 25 flower heads in various stages of growth. We had a handful of flowers on it last year, which was the first year of flowering other than when it first arrived in the garden, so it looked as if it was settling down then and this year gives an even clearer indication that it is happy with its lot. When I bought it I decided to overlook the peachy coloured flowers (preferring pinks and reds) because of the beautiful speckling and the ‘hose-in-hose’ feature (which sounds more poetic than the ‘prominent calyx giving an almost double flowered effect’ that describes it on one website). From the deep pinkness of the tight buds you would never in a month of Sundays envisage what finally emerges….

Potting On

Realising that it is the May Bank Holiday next weekend has reminded me that I usually have my baskets of trailing petunias for the front of the house planted up by now and probably already hanging: this is unlikely to be the case this year. Although my experiment with taking cuttings from plug plants has mostly been successful, I clearly need to start it much earlier next time. The cuttings (apart from petunias) I took at the end of March are well rooted and thriving as in the first picture, with flowers on two of the verbenas, and I have a second batch rooting in water in the second. The first batch of petunia cuttings rotted quickly, whilst the second lot are sitting happily in their polybags by the Aga, but still without roots, so this year I shall again be buying in plug plants for the baskets at the front.

A huge surprise on our return from Orkney were the contents of three graduated pots on the paved area, which hosted Fuchsia ‘Deep Purple’ and a dark purple verbena for many months last year – because amazingly the plants have survived the winter in all its forms and are sprouting happily (bottom right)! I had intended to bring the fuchsia inside to overwinter them but didn’t get round to it, and would never have imagined they could get through the delayed winter without protection. I had already included the fuchsia and the verbena in my rooted cutting collection, so it looks like there will be extra plants to pot up!

Feasting on a Frenzy of Friends’ Flowers

We had our first visit to a friend’s garden yesterday (thanks Friends, for tea and cake too!), having been put off until this time of year when the rhododendrons and azaleas would be in flower, and it was easy to see why. The garden was awash with the beauties, accompanied by an equally large troupe of camellias mostly past their best but not the exquisite ‘formal double’ example shown above. Even the more garish orange and yellow azaleas were toned down by the adjacent brilliantly cut acer and the space around them, the garden extending to about an acre in total.

Friend had never given any indication of the size of the plot, the only clue being an emailed picture of snowdrops adjacent to the drive, from which I suspected it was going to be an older property on a sizeable plot, which is exactly what it was. It has early Victorian origins but the best bit is that it was the house Friend grew up in, his father having bought it in the 1950s and developed the garden from an overgrown wilderness - so much of the established planting is 50 years old. Having become responsible for the house and garden only 5 years ago Friend admits to coming to gardening late, and is keen to expand his knowledge – and extend the season of the garden beyond this time of year, after which it reverts to ‘green’.  What would I do if it was mine, I was inevitably asked? The only definite would be just that – extend the season with herbaceous perennials and utilise neglected shady areas with trouble-free shade lovers.

Did I suffer from garden envy? No, because my heart and soul are in my garden here at home, and I guess Friend’s roots are equally deep and he will never live anywhere else, trusting the plot will always remain in the family. I don’t know what will happen to our plot when the Golfer and I have shuffled off, but our ashes will be strewn in the garden so there will always be at least part of us here.

Garden Bloggers Blooms Day: the Day After

I had an appointment with Snow White yesterday, so the monthly celebration of what’s blooming in the garden is a day late: pop over to Carol’s blog at May Dreams to see more timely posts from all over the world. As always I am grateful to Carol for hosting this opportunity to share my blooms with a wider audience.

Rather than revisit blooms I have featured recently, like the beauties waiting for me on our return from holiday, I am focussing on the newer delights but nevertheless holding fire on many others that are still in bud but desperate to break forth with shouts of joy. The woodland view above manages to show in one view Rhododendron ’Cheers’, the unnamed red rhododendron, wild garlic and bluebells. With the early sun and dappled light it gladdened my heart as I rambled this morning. Looking at the number of flowerheads on the wild garlic, though, I think I will have my work cut out to remove them all before they go to seed!

On the paved area, the bag of mixed dark red & purple tulips are doing a great job in the big round tub which is home to Rosa ’Munstead Wood’, hiding the as yet flowerless bush and suggesting that some annuals in a similar colour could successfully continue this ploy once the tulips are finished. The ‘Peach Blossom’ tulips in the five very weathered pots are now in full flow, but will be over and done with before the pink wallflowers pull their socks up and show some colour.

The Golfer commented on the Ajuga reptans ’Multicolor’ recently, asking what it was and bringing its understated colours to to my attention yesterday as it sprawls over the edge of the rockery. Also in the rockery is this dwarf Rhododendron impedium, poised, pretty and petite:

There were not many flowers on my usual spring clematis beauty ‘Constance’, due to its enforced move last year; these two, however, have no reason to hold back and Clematis montana ’Warwickshire Rose’ is champing at the bit throughout the magnolia, ready to follow on from the creamy pink with its own pink flowers and lovely bronze leaves. Through the bee-filled comfrey behind the blue & white borders the big buds of Clematis ‘Lord Neville’, a dark blue purple, are clearly visible. Rather than tie it into the tree stump it is planted next to I am wondering now whether to let it clamber at will.

In the herbaceous borders the various perennials are clumping up nicely with this astrantia being one of the first to flower – probably ‘Shaggy’. Two surviving ‘Prince Charles’ tulips are set off nicely by the heuchera and dicentra (or whatever it is now called!), giving further encouragement to my thoughts of planting even more tulips later in the year.

The woodland border still plays host to many hellebores, now in their muted and dryer attire, and disappearing gradually amongst the snowdrop leaves and various hardy geraniums. The pulmonaria, though, are coming into their own now, the established clumps in full flower and leaf, sitting nicely alongside the aforementioned geranium, this one being Geranium anglicum and the first to flower this year.

I wonder what will be blooming in a month’s time, in the middle of June…?

Wordless Wednesday: Hi Ho Hi Ho…

Jiggety Jig

…. home again,  home again …. aaaaah!

And all is well – all the seedlings brought into the house, all the newbies planted out, all the young veg plants under the net cloche. Not huge amounts of rain in our absence, but enough to tide the garden over and to start filling up the empty water butts again – and the surprises, the new recruits! Too many to photograph and write about today, as I just want to enjoy being back home and reacquainting myself with our patch; just a taster, therefore, for now  (left to right, top then bottom) in the form of Rhododendron ‘Firelight’, Chaenomeles ‘Madame Butterfly’, Geum ‘Tequila Sunrise’ and Tulip ‘Douglas Bader’

Blue for a Boy, Pink for a Girl?

We spent a few hours on the island of Rousay today, a half hour ferry crossing from the Orkney mainland where we visited Trumland House gardens, currently undergoing restoration, and several chambered burial cairns. Much of the garden must have fallen into disrepair during various changes of ownership, but the current team of gardeners seemed to be doing a great job of balancing maintenance and restoration whilst battling the elements at the same time.

The walled garden retained some elderly soft fruit at one end, whilst the borders are showing new growth on various fairly ‘ordinary’ herbaceous perennials which were a few weeks behind similar plants at home but will no doubt be full of colour by the summer.

A small but pleasant woodland valley at the edge of the property followed a small burn (stream),  sheltered sufficiently for the trees to survive, which is where we found the blue and pink bells, as well as a clump of unusual wood anemone – much smaller flowers than the common nemerosa, and prettily double, almost frilled. Not one I have come across before.

A chance encounter with a couple at the next table where we were eating tonight shed some light on the verges I showed yesterday. I guessed that the elderly gentleman just loved plants and colour and had run out of space in his own garden so was extending out onto the verges, which turned out to be largely true. The couple had been ‘wild camping’ (in Scotland you can camp in virtually any wild area without permission) in that area and had been approached by the gentleman that we spied pootling amongst the bulbs, who was just pleased to have someone to talk to. They had his life story, but also found out that he had built his own house, his brothers had built theirs next to his, and when he retired he spent much of his time gardening and was intensely proud of what he had achieved, telling the couple what plants would follow on from the tulips and daffodils and primula which were in flower now.

So it wasn’t really ‘guerrilla gardening’, but just something that gave an elderly gentleman a lot of pleasure, and many people who drove past the area too, I am sure, although I know what Pauline means in her comment about verges in rural areas. In our local town at home which is a fairly green and open place but nevertheless still essentially urban people do like to complain about verges not being cut, not caring about the wild flowers that might grow there instead, so daffodils in a completely rural place like Orkney do look pretty incongruous. Whilst talking to this couple, though, I had the out of the box thought that the large number of yellow verges might have resulted from planting in conjunction with ongoing water supply work across the island, with bulbs being planted as trenches were refilled…..maybe?