Author: thepleasuregardener

It’s nearly time for term to start, and the gardening group is getting in early.  Here are Six on Saturday from my students.

1  A brand new potting area for this gardener, and she’s confessed to catching the propagating bug.  Looks like she’ll need a plant sale soon!

2  The group took a trip to Felley Priory.  If you’ve never been there, what are you waiting for?  Lovely gardens, a nice tea room, and loads of plants for sale at very reasonable prices.  Here are a couple of images from one of our gardeners.

3  The same gardener, who has recently joined the group, sent these images of her garden, which has been getting  bit of a makeover,  The pond is a new addition, and spot the Melianthus major, doing well.

4  A shot of this morning’s garden from one of our gardening couples.  Love that white gladiolus.

5  For some reason, this image from another of our gardeners got left behind last year.  I’ve just spotted it this morning, so it qualifies!  It’s his mother’s garden, which he tends, and what a lovely clematis.

6  That’s it for student contributions this week – well done, guys,  on getting stuck in early.  So, I’ll finish with one of mine.  This is Rudbeckia laciniata ‘Herbstsonne’, lounging horizontally rather than vertically, with the last flowers of the fabulous Crocosmia ‘Hellfire’.

The Six on Saturday meme is the brainchild of thepropagator, and the guidelines are here:

https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/

 

 

I like plants with a story. With history. Plants that stand the test of time. And this is one of them.

Sometime before 1895, Max Leichtlin (he for whom Camassia leichtlinii and others are named) was hybridizing Crocosmia at Baden Baden. Crocosmia paniculata x Crocosmia aurea produced Crocosmia x crocosmoides seedlings (not to be confused with Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora, the much-maligned Montbretia).

Apparently only 5 of Leichtlin’s hybrids survive, and this is one of them, Crocosmia x crocosmoides ‘Castle Ward Late’. I believe that another one is ‘Vulcan’, a red-flowered hybrid introduced in 1897. If anyone knows the identity of the others, please do share.

‘Castle Ward Late’ is a soft burnt orange that makes a real statement in the autumn border. It has elegant, spidery flowers on tall, strong, dark stems with lovely pleated leaves. I haven’t had the measuring rod out, but this clump must be 40 inches tall. It’s been flowering for at least three weeks now, and should keep going until October.

It’s a survivor in more ways than one. This summer has been one of record-shattering heatwaves, interspersed with deluges of biblical proportions. This ‘Castle Ward Late’ isn’t staked in any way and most of it is still perpendicular, unlike much of the border around it. Hopefully, I’ll get round to treating it better next year.

Which brings me to its naughty side. It’s robust. A good do’er. Slightly assertive. This clump was a rather skinny potful only two years ago. Looks to me like there will be a bit of digging out later this autumn, so there will be giveaways to any of my students who like the look of this historic treasure.

Today belongs to my students.  They’re a pretty varied bunch of lovely people who have come together because of their love of gardening.  And a reasonable number, like me, are resistant to technology.  So, it’s very heartening to have been inundated this week with pictures for the blog.  Far too many for a single entry.  So, there will be more entries this week to illustrate their plants, their gardens, and their travels.  Watch this space!

So, to begin, we’ve got images here from five gardeners.

We’re all getting worried about the falling numbers of hedgehogs, so it’s heartening to see this one caught on camera in the garden.  Awwww….

From the same gardener, such a pretty little viola.  No name, grown from saved seed, but what a cutie!

Don’t you just love the tissue paper flowers of cistus.  It looks like the sort of flower you should stick behind your ear when off for cocktails!

From the same gardener as the cistus is the striking foxglove ‘Pam’s Choice’, complete with attendant bumble bees!

From our third gardener we have a picture taken today, but which somehow looks as though it should be in the snowy depths of winter.  But it isn’t.  It’s Aruncus sylvestris, with Carex brownii in the pot.

And from the same gardener, this lovely blue penstemon, in front of Hakonechloa macra alboaurea.  Well, the penstemon was mine, grown from seed, and it’s all my fault that the label is long lost and the identity forgotten.  My own plants, too, are long gone.  They clearly didn’t like my garden, but they love it here.

And I’ve just realised I can’t count – again – but I’m going to add a seventh, because it’s very timely this week.

From our fourth gardener, orchids in a handbag, from the RHS flower show at Chatsworth.  Who’d’ve thought it?

And finally (because I can), from our fifth gardener:

A hot display of Kniphofia!  What a scorcher!

That’s it for today, but I have a wealth of images to follow up with, including the odd one or two of my own.

Whoops!  Forgot to add this:

There’s my six for this week.  If you want to join in (and why wouldn’t you?) go here and check it out:

https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/

You can see links to all the other Six on Saturday participants!

 

 

 

 

A mixed bag this week, some from the students and some from me.

1  The first is from one of the students.  She moved to this house only recently, and has done a lot of work in the garden.  Here it is:

2  The second image is from another student, a picture of some gorgeous ferns unfurling themselves in the gardens of Mount Grace Priory:

That’s my store of images from the gardening groups exhausted, so the rest of this Saturday’s pick are from my garden.

3  This is Siberian Iris ‘Pink Parfait’.  This is its first time of flowering, and I love it.

4  Another one flowering for the first time – Oriental Poppy ‘Harlem’.  Must remember to stake it next year – it’s giving the neighbouring penstemon a hard time.

5  A beautiful, fragrant peony next to Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’.  The peony was a gift, and the giver thought it might be ‘Sarah Bernhardt’.

6  And finally, a problem.  Last week I posted a picture of one of the big fat buds of Oriental Poppy ‘Snow Goose’.  This is what happened when that bud opened.  Also, there are long, dark brown streaks on the stem, underneath the base of each leaf.  As the other buds start to open, there is some brown staining on the petal edges, but not as bad as this.  One of my students, with a similar problem, consulted the RHS, who diagnosed it as Pedicel Necrosis.  Any information, anyone?  I’m tempted to dig it up and throw it away, but the stems are strong and the flowers are enormous.  They would be very beautiful without this problem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another week, another Saturday…

We’ve had some rain, which has helped all this bosky new growth.  The orchard is exciting.  It’s gone from a neatly mown expanse of green, with blue pools of forget-me-nots to a jungle that needs to be explored with elephant guns and tiger traps.  Oh well, the insects will love it.

My six for this week are a little on the wild side – well, some of them are.

1  Ragged Robin, or Lychnis flos-cuculi.

I have Lychnis ‘Petite Jenny’ in the border, a dwarf, very double version of Ragged Robin.  Because it’s so double, it’s sterile and doesn’t produce seed.  Um.  This plant popped up a couple of feet from ‘Petite Jenny’, so I don’t think its mum has read the books.

2  Fringed campion, or Silene fimbriata

This was given to me by one of my students.  It has an amazing capacity to thrive in deep, dark, dry shade.

3  Siberian Iris ‘Rikugi-Sakura’

I got this last autumn for my new border, so I was pleased to see a flowering stem already.

4  How about them apples?

A very muscular bud, one of several, on another new plant last autumn, Oriental Poppy ‘Snow Goose’.  I can’t wait to see the flower when it opens.

5  Heuchera ‘Pinot Gris’ underneath Hydrangea ‘Sabrina’

The hydrangea languished in a pot for a couple of years, surviving an attack by the dreaded vine weevil, but it’s recovering at last.  The heuchera has really good variable colour all year.

6a  Before

When they start to go pink, you know that your Viburnum opulus ‘Roseum’ is going to finish up like this:

6b  After

Someone said what good confetti it would make, and I can’t but agree.

There’s my six for this week.  If you want to join in (and why wouldn’t you?) go here and check it out:

https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/