Chloris of The Blooming Garden hosts a monthly meme encouraging us to share our top ten blooms each month, and she posted hers yesterday. I deliberately haven’t peeked at her November treasures yet, so I could roam my own garden without any preconceived ideas of what I might find. As it turns out I have found very little, most of which are stray apologies for past glories, but there are some seasonal pretties and winter promises amongst them. In recent years, she and I have both been introducing plants for winter interest, confident in the knowledge that there will always be plants flowering in our gardens; for now, however, it is more likely to be late autumn colour gracing our November posts.
I know she too will be featuring nerines this month, and although I am a mere nerine novice I have four varieties in flower, sadly no more than one or two out in each pot of five bulbs, but it’s a start! Above, clockwise from bottom left are the more usual Nerine bowdenii, then N bowdenii ‘Mr John’, ‘Alba’ and ‘Isabel’; all have been flowering for a number of weeks. The nerines are in the Coop, as is the striking fantasy Chrysanthemum ‘Salhouse Joy’ which featured in last week’s IAVOM, and Pelargonium ‘Lavender Lindy’, one of many scented varieties I have there. I shall shortly defoliate all the pelargoniums and cut them back, as recommended by specialists Fibrex Nurseries.
Behind the Coop in the partially shady border is Skimmia confusa ‘Kew Green’, added early this year along with ‘Kew White’ which, being female and having a male friend nearby, should produce white berries in due course:
Also on the green and creamy white spectrum is the ubiquitous ivy, very much at home in the wilder and sometimes less wild parts of our garden, which at this time of year graces us with its sputnik like flowers, invaluable for late nectar seekers, followed by the green and blackish fruits. A close-up picture might have been better, but on a time poor day, this is all we have:
Amongst soggy rose buds and fading blooms of hardy chrysanthemums, there are some flashes of freshness, like the Bellis perennis beginning to provide colour in the many pots planted with tulips, and one of my two new autumn flowering snowdrops, this one Galanthus reginae-olgae ‘Cambridge’. Until now I have resisted any of these very early snowdrops as I felt there was nowhere they would be noticed amongst residual foliage; the new Fig Border, however, largely shrub filled, now provides an appropriate home for the newcomers which no doubt will be joined by a few more seasonal snowdrops in due course as my collection expands, which it undoubtedly will within the next few months.
That may well be my 10 for this month but I shall just throw in the promise of blooms to come, from one of my witch hazels, in this case Hamamelis ‘Rochester’, my newest one, which had just finished flowering when it arrived early this year so I am especially looking forward to a timely display in due course. In the meantime, do visit Chloris’ blog to see her and others’ November blooms.
Ah so you grow nerines in pots – I have tried them in the garden with no success. I didn’t know about the varieties of colour. Did you get them by Mail Order?
Just love that fantasy Xmum.
Not sure how I feel about snowdrops in November – a bit like daffodils in December, it doesn’t seem right!
Yes, some of them were from Peter Nyssen, others from Avon Bulbs perhaps?
I absolutely adore that chrysanthemum – what a beauty. I am in awe of anyone who can grow nerines, I usually manage a nice pot full of green leaves – note to self must try harder😳
Sharon
The chrysanthemum is indeed amazing, Sharon – and my pots of nerines are mostly leaves too!
Thank you for sharing your November blooms Cathy. My nerines are getting over now apart from N. undulata which is always the last. I will send you a bit when I repot it in the spring. Salhouse Joy is fabulous, I am looking forward to a display like that. I haven’t come across H. Rochester, what colour is it?
Ooh, thanks for the promise of N undulata – I wasn’t fishing, honest! The flowers on Rochester were just over when it arrived last year but they are meant to be reddish orange and fragrant – hope they are!
I do like to see Ivy at this time of year, it is as you say so valuable to the wildlife. I am gradually introducing more variegated varieties.
I let it run wild in some parts but a winter task is to remove it from a wall instead of just trimming it back
I love the Nerines just like the Chrysanthemum “Salhouse Joy”. I like it a lot. Seeing the first Galanthus so early is rare, but the flower is divine and I love seeing it in your garden. It is so beautiful to have flowers for the winter. Enjoy them. Greetings from Margarita.
I agree, it is a good plan to have plants of winter interest
That mum is fabulous! I’m not sure I like Nerines. They just seem to be the wrong colour. Or perhaps what I mean is that they are the right colour in the wrong time. Do you know what I mean?
Yes, pink seems too warm and gentle a colour for grey November days (but I will still give them greenhouse room!)
Absolutely
Hamamelis was a crop that we grew briefly in the 1990s, until we found how limited the marketability for it was. No one here knows what it is. Besides, there are so many other flowers to bloom through winter, and fall color is underappreciated. I sort of miss it. It still grows in the arboretum.