The Bride

It’s not very often that I champion a plant but today I feel this needs a star. Verbascum Chaixii ‘The Bride’ isn’t the sort of flower where you would go ‘WOW’, it’s the plant that is there as a filler quite unassuming, it’s just there. On closer inspection though it is quite lovely.

I love the reverse of these flowers, after opening from deep pink buds they keep a trace of the pink ,looking like strawberry ripple ice cream. The centres are also the same shade as the buds.Growing to around 90 cms tall, easily grown from seed, hardy and is still flowering now. Grown en masse they are making a welcome addition to my rose bed alongside asters, astrantia and verbena bonariensis.

Enjoy your garden before the frosts get hold….

Advertisement

Autumn and a Makeover

As the nights draw in, the heating goes on and the winter clothes start creeping back into the wardrobe I look around my garden and I’m always amazed at how much is still flowering and berrying up. Some plants don’t even start coming into their glory ’til now.

All the asters are looking like jewels in the sunshine, vibrant colours and pale blue skies. Dahlia still push their huge blooms forward and Cimicifuga fills it’s corner of the garden with beautiful perfume. This year has been a great year for our apple trees and berries, all the Sorbus are well covered this year and it won’t be long before the Blackbirds and Redwings start having their fill. Apple pies and crumbles are filling the freezer.

A trip to Norwell Nurseries at the weekend saw me buying two more plants to add to my burgeoning collection. Chrysanthemum Dr Tom Parr and Saxifraga Black Ruby have now found permanent homes.

Chrysanthemum Dr Tom Parr.

I may have said that I won’t be opening next year already but it’s a decision not taken lightly, the garden is in desperate need of an overhaul. The trees are getting out of hand, shading too many of the borders. Several shrubs are well past their sell by date and will be removed and replaced with new plants, making way for more perennials. The wooden arbour holding up the Wisteria is leaning rather badly and decisions will be made once all the leaves have dropped.

The ponds and rill seem to have a slow leak which we think we have now traced so this is yet another quite large project to sort out once all the pond plants have died off. I couldn’t imagine my garden without a pond, it’s fantastic for wildlife especially the birds. Our G/daughters also love pond dipping and when we do open, visitors seem to gravitate to the pond, almost like at parties when everyone ends up in the kitchen…..

I’m really looking forward to all this upheaval because I know that come the spring the garden will have had it’s work done and I will be able to reap the rewards with better light and more space. What more could an obsessive gardener want.