More New plants and Garden Update

After a testing couple of months, we finally had a full day of rain yesterday.  Last week, I enjoyed going round the Rare Plant Fair at the Bishop's Palace in Wells, and spent my pocket money....

With two beds to plant up, I don't have the usual question as to what to dig out, but I have moved plants and set out plants grown from seed and cuttings from the 'nursery' positions.  One of the beds towards the center of the garden  is exposed to full sun all day long and is on a slope.  This is where most of the following have been planted up.  It looks a little sparse at the moment but I have left room for the plants to grow.  In the corner is a Prostrate Rosemary,  which I bought in July last year.  It spent the winter in a pot, and the last few months in a 'nursery' position in the garden.    Three good small Phlomis purpurea shrubs, sowed on 27 March this year with seed bought from Chiltern Seeds, will provide height and memories of previous gardens and plant spotting on Mediterranean Holidays.

Another plant which I have admired on several occasions, most recently at Lytes Cary Manor, is Ballota pseudoditamum.  The felted grey leaves with small pale pinkish mauve flowers emerge from the whorls growing from the the axil of the leaves.   I've planted this just by the seating area, so that I can admire it easily, and just behind it have placed a variagated sage: Salvia Tricolor, but I am wondering whether to swap this for a purple sage growing elsewhere which I raised from cuttings from an old scraggy bush found in the garden on our arrival.

Ballota pseudodictamnus

A little rock rose with pink flowers for Mr S who likes Helianthemums....

Helianthemum Rodanthe Carneum

Missing my Lysimachia left behind in my last garden, I succumbed to this new cultivar.  The leaves are larger and rounder and I'm told turn red in the Autumn...let's see.

 

 Lysimachia candela

Again I succumbed to the lovely textured leaves on this Nepeta. In general I prefer to buy smaller plants and let them grow good roots into the surrounding soil, building up through the autumn, to give a good show the following year.

Nepeta racemosa snowflake

These two have been planted in the bed by the Conservatory...

Only last week I had been asking the Herb lady at the Saturday Wells Market about decorative origanums.  Bees and other pollinators spend so much time on my golden marjoram, I thought some different ones would look good.  The long stems are dark and strong, and whole plant looks right in my 'Mediterranean Bed'.  

Origanum laevigatum  Herrenhausen

Bringing a zing to the garden this month, the Tithonia baking in the heat of the sun, just keep on flowering.  

In the next few weeks, we shall be working on the gravel garden section.  In essence the area where the washing line is will be 'unturfted' and the soil prepared ready to take a thick layer of stone.  A few thymes etc which won't mind being walked over planted through the stone..and maybe a few other choice lovers of grit.