Outside the back door are a number of newly acquired plants, awaiting an opportunity to be planted out in the garden: sadly, this task is probably at the bottom of my list, if I was working to a list, which I am not! With days away at my Mum’s, a night in the campervan between two days of garden visiting, weekly Grannie Days plus my other regular doings there seems to have been little time to do any gardening, quite apart from writing any lists. My priority has been keeping up with deadheading and cutting back, and it is a pleasure to see many of the roses providing another welcome flush of blooms. I did, however, make a start today on taking cuttings of salvia, penstemon and the like, until rain made forays between greenhouse and parent plants increasingly damp; the rain also ensured my Six on Saturday contribution was limited to the back door vista above.
The end of month views I share with you have shown that there is still work to be done on the blue and white borders in particular, with parts of the bold and main borders still having gaps to fill too, so recent purchases will go a little way towards improving any deficiencies. The first purchase, Veronica ‘First Love’, is not technically a purchase at all, but a replacement for a purchase made nearly 12 months ago which turned out to be an imposter; I was well-chuffed at the size of the replacement, as the original came in a 9m pot:
Another veronica, this time V ‘White Lady’:
A white agastache, A foeniculum ‘Alabaster’ still looks striking as the flowers fade to green seedheads, although I noted from the label (after purchase) that it needs to be protected from frost. I have overwintered agastache before, but rarely have they survived, and I would welcome suggestions from anyone who regularly keeps them going from year to year. I find all this type of agastache really attractive, and the fragrance provided by their leaves is an added bonus, so I would dearly love to grow them successfully.
I was lucky with this Salvia nemerosa ‘Caradonna Pink’ as all the other specimens of it had been cut right back – it may look a bit wayward, but what pretty blooms it has and what a shame it would be to cut them all off:
Another contender for the blue & white border is Nepeta ‘Blue Dragon’
And finally, three car boot purchases, two phlox and a tradescantia, between them costing less than one of most of the above plants:
Also outside the back door is the wisteria, now desperately needing its summer prune, the kitchen windows all now framed by trailing tendrils, a task which will of necessity take priority over planting any of these new treasures.
If you have time between your own seasonal garden tasks, please head over to our SoS host, Jon the Propagator, to view his six and those of many other contributors across the globe.
Rambling in the Garden 
That’s quite a haul to have accumulated! That nepeta has surprisingly large flowers. I must check it out. I had to laugh that your replacement veronica came in a slightly small pot (than 9m 😉 )
No, no! 😉 The replacement is much bigger and in a 2 litre pot 😁
A lovely selection waiting by your back door, I envy you getting out and about so much. I’m sure they will all add lovely colour from next year and will look gorgeous!
Thanks Pauline – I want to take everything out of some of the borders and have a rehash before some of these are planted 😁
My wisteria needs trimming too, all the rain has made it grow like crazy!
Gee, I can prune just about anything, but wisteria STILL baffles me. I had been fortunate that mine had plenty of room to grow like a weed, and then get pruned once in winter. Yet, that was a chore also, since it got so tangled without summer pruning. Cutting them back without ruining all the bloom is not easy. I tend to prune too aggressively, like for fruit trees. Most people do not prune aggressively enough.
I try to be as severe as possible with mine!
Yes, I remember. It gets pruned about as aggressively as I would prune it.
A lovely assortment of new plants there Cathy. I really should pop out to a nursery or the garden centre and see what’s in store. Though I really don’t need any more plants!
Ha, well, do I need more plants?! Hmm…😁
I know. I have just placed no less than three orders for spring bulbs. I justify the expense since we have rarely eaten out this year!
And I certainly don’t spend on much else… Just one bulb order here, but I shall supplement it with tulips from Aldi when they have them in
That ‘Blue Dragon’ is interesting – never seen a Nepeta like it.
There was another one with big flowers like this growing at Bridgewater, but this was the only type available in the plant sales. The flowers are really striking