Six on Saturday - 7 August 2021

 For those who know me in person, if they were asked what my favourite colours is, they may very likely say green.

1. This colour might stand out in the garden, but could also fade quite nicely.  In any case it will do very nicely for wrapping up presents or posies of flowers from the garden. I'd rather use something biodegradable in the garden and then everything can safely put into the compost bin or green recycling. I have a bit of a thing for string, I also like raffia! But how long is a bit of string? This piece is 110 metres.

2. Its been a strange week weather wise with lots of grey skies and rain, and wind, but it doesn't half make the greens shine out!  Jim will probably know the name for this fern.  It just grew itself on the edge of a pot when we were up in Warwickshire, and I planted it up, and brought it with me.

3. On my patio area, I have various plants in pots.  Sometimes they are newer plants that are kept close to admire, or assembled to make a little seasonable tableau.  I like evergreens so I have pots with conifers, and a twisted bay.  As to colour: new this year are the apricots and oranges. Cuphea cyanea: they just bring a smile to my face with their cute tubular flowers, and again the colour orange seems to pop in the garden at this time of the year, and particularly in the wet greyness. Luckily my friend Sally Gregson, the very knowledgeable plants person, gave me two of these plants, so there is one each side of the area. I'll try very hard to carry these half hardy shrubby perennials over to the next season.. I'll look into taking cuttings and moving some into the garden.  

4. They go very nicely with a mix of other plants such as the wonderful floriferous tub of begonias plants under the young Fatsia, and of course last week you got to see Dahlia David Howard with its rich orange blooms and deep purplish bronze leaves.

5. I first saw Clematis Arabella at the Tatton Park Show back in 2016, and the name must have stuck with me.  If I go to Morrisons, which for our non UK SOSs is mainly a food supermarket, I always look over their plants and sometimes take a punt on them. For a couple of quid I bought a small specimen, and have taken good care of it and potted it on twice.  This is what Clematis Arabella looked like one pot up from the small supermarket one, a few weeks ago...

up another pot size it now has sixteen blooms all  a bit soggy in the rain, but a nice pop of colour non the less to contrast with the the first Cuphea.

Only lately in Issue 301 of Gardens Illustrated I read tha tArabella is a 'non-climbing' Clematis, and this will do very nicely in a pot until it finds a space in the garden, maybe for two or three years yet. In the ground at the current size it would succumb to the ever rampaging slugs as did the 'full price' specialist grown Clematis Justa only a year after it was planted.

6.  Another plant whose blooms are adding that little pop of colour are the 'Coat Pocket' Bidens. The plants are not yet exactly smothered in flowers, but I like them with their nicely spaced blooms against the ferny foliage.  I have one plant in the gravel garden, which has fewer leaves but more flowers, and four other plants with  an assortment of structure in their growth,  in my' new this year' terracotta large half pan from Whichford Pottery, which is in the middle of the sitting circle table. One expects uniformity from F1s but  one ought to expect a bit of a mixture from 'open pollinated' plants.

6b. Not everything is 'bright and sunny' or tickety boo. Yesterday as I looked over the garden I noticed that the Foxtail Rosemary is looking decidedly sick, with its fur on its tails dropping down, with a bit of mange setting in.  Has it been too wet?  Most probably the cause is at root level ie beneath the gravel. This is the third rosemary I have lost in the last year. Still if it has to go, that makes more room for something new.  I still have a large Rosemary backing the gravel area that seems to be OK.  I was going to dig it up and replace it with some rooted cutting taken early this year, but I think it will stay a little longer, as rosemary is a herb I use several times a week. Maybe my gravel garden has become a 'sump' for all the rain and the rosemary is slowly drowning.

The big question for the coming week is: will it survive.....Find out in next week's sequel. 

I've been glued to 'The Killing' on iplayer, and watched the last two of twenty episodes last night!

Sometimes I get down about the garden as when I have to 'despatch' plants or cut them back because they are outgrowing their space, but one only has to look on the 'bright side' and look for the silver lining! All of us hopefuls or disillusioned gardeners who are up to writing about six(ish) things can link up with the Prop, and commiserate, copy, and compare this week. 

In a Vase on Monday - First one for August 2021

 After heat and sunshine, rain and comfortable temperatures offer a welcome contrast.  

Gentle muted shadows in natural light help to give this arrangement a contemplative feel. 

Scabiosa caucasica 'Perfecta Alba' whose flowers dance on the end of very long stems, so long that when I had to cut them, I added them to the vase to add a strong vertical effect again the one fern leaf.  

The fern leaf is from Polypodium vulgare, a native fern, growing on the ground in a shady corner in the garden. I bought this plant when I lived in the Midlands, little knowing then that I would move to a part of the country where they grow wild often on trees in valley bottoms where the humidity is high.

The third element is made up of a few stems of a dwarf alpine species brought back from the Himalayan region by the reknown gardener and collector Edward Needham.  Jim who is one of our Six on Saturday contributors kindly sent me seed. Persicaria runcinata Needham's Form died down during the winter, and grew back well this spring. The shape of the lobed leaves and its red stems, with the tiniest of pink flowers makes a pretty ground cover in a shady area.

As usual I'm joining in with Cathy as she posts a vase from her garden. 

Six on Saturday - End of July 2021

 Another month has whizzed by and still 'he' is asking if there are any gardens open in the locality this weekend, all those years of training are paying off!  In the meantime this morning he shall no doubt pass a constructive comment as we look out of the conservatory window as we enjoy our leisurely breakfast. We have undertaken a top to bottom clean of the conservatory this week, and although we sweep up loads on insects each day, there were still some in hidden corners.  He is even adept at catching butterflies in his butterfly net.

1. No lack of all manner of flying insects in this garden, including bumble bees, hover flies etc.  It is not surprising as we have so many plants with the just the right sort of shaped flower for them. Although a little 'dark' in the middle of the bed, the long spires of tiny flowers on the Teucrium hircanicum are humming with the sound of wings. I would be exhausted if I were to join in with any bumble bee watch.

It will probably get moved and having just looked up Teucrium hiranicum on Beth Chatto's site, I have an idea to place a few seedlings amongst the silver plants in the front garden.  Again with so many of my plants, I find the leaves very attractive.

2. The Eryngiums this week have been the bee magnets par excellence. Here the stand of Eryngium Silver Ghost stand sentinel on the edge of the gravel garden. 

Each little flower on the cone is visited

3. On the other side of the sitting circle Eryngium Planum Tetre Petra has had the blue rinse treatment, without even having to bend its head over any basin.

Eryngium Planum Tetre Petra

4. As for the little eryngium Bourgatii, she will shortly pale into insignificance as others around start to shine, so this is her moment: though with its silver and white patterned leaves, it is usually admired by me, at least, as soon as her leaves emerge.

Eryngium Bourgatii

5. Erigeron karvinskianus 'Lavender Lady' is enjoying its new sunnier position.  Since getting her last September at the Bishop's Palace plant fair, this little plant has been moved, and is now getting on with putting on a great show.  When I first grew the pink/white erigeron, I found that it did not seed that freely, and found that it grew pretty well from cuttings which I just placed in the garden soil not far away.  This coming week, I'll be doing the same with Lavender Lady, and see how successful that will be, at least, compared with growing from seed,  and waiting to see what its flowers are like, I shall have the same coloured flowers within a few weeks.

6. You could be lulled into thinking that it is all grey and silvers, wake up put on your sunglasses, Storm Evert is past, the cucumber plants have been picked off the floor, plants stakes will be straightened this morning. I have Dahlia David Howard growing in a pot close to the house, the safest place away from slugs....

I read "‘David Howard’ is a miniature dahlia, with mid-orange flowers set off to perfection by the intense bronze foliage. It’s an ideal variety for a large pot or container." It was just love at first sight for me, when I first saw it, many years ago.

I mentioned this to my friend Alison, and she said that as she had some she would save me a tuber. I was delighted to receive this one a few weeks back.  It works well with some other plants close by the house, and those may well be the topic for next week's SOS.

Some of the SOSs that link with each week with the Prop have very large gardens, and can't be doing with moving things around, or have enough space to grow most of the plants they are currently interested in.  I always love to read posts and pick up tips or just admire or commiserate. The Prop is on holiday this week, but has still set up the buoy, marking the space around which we can set up our regatta.

In a Vase on Monday - last in July

Another months skips by, time seems to be speeding up.  Again we have had a week that has been too hot.  We close windows and curtains not as in winter to keep the cold and dark out, but to keep the heat out and the sun from shining in.  However this is on one side of the house, and one o'clock marks the change, and we open windows and curtains on one side, and shut them on the other.

Yesterday evening I spent some time before dinner clipping back a few plants.  The geraniums had grown as far as I wanted, in fact further, they are now cut back, and a few flowers form Geranium Rozanne started off  today's vase. 

I think this is the first time I have used English Mace (Achillea ageratum), that is the stem at four o'clock.  I bought it for its name and now read it is quite a useful culinary herb, so I shall try and use some and report back. I've found a recipe for Chicken and this will be our main meat dish this week.

Another herb which I don't think is a culinary one is the double flowered Chamomile: Chamamelum nobile 'Flore Pleno'.  However it must rate as one of my favourite plants on account of the smell it gives off when the leaves are crushed. If only I could bottle that scent.

Another non culinary herb:  Marjoram Bristol Cross.  It has yet to grow the long watch chain flowering bits which extend as more and more flowers open.  

Finally just one of the white Scabious: Scabiosa caucasica 'Perfecta Alba'.  I noticed that I had broken one stem in bud as I was dead heading the roses, and this morning it has opened.  Last year when a rather poorly performing plant was moved, I thought the petals were rather thin, and had expected to be disappointed this year, with the plant despatched, but the flowers are growing strongly with more robust petals. 

I'm joining in with Cathy to see what her ramble through her garden has come up with. As I read her post I realise how different the weather can be within a hundred miles or so, here we have had thunder and lighting and rain one nice, poor Cathy must be having to water still. Today we are having wall to wall sunshine again!

Silver Street Farm

 In the afternoon of our HPS tour of two gardens, we drove to Silver Street Farm, Uffculme in Devon. From the road the fine yellow lime washed house at first glance, could be any farmhouse, but step closer and you will soon become aware that this can only be a garden, belonging to a family, where design, plant choice, and maintenance is excellent

The inner garden beyond the front door, which has two fine Rosa Mutabilis each side, is bordered by  listed railings.  These encloses an area of very interesting planting. 

Eryngium agavifolium

Beyond the railings and spilling  into the drive, a dry grit garden has been achieved with  a range of plants such as this Crambe maritima: sea kale and further along a fine Ballota Pseudodicta.

The listed railings have been cleverly used as a feature through which Rosa Albertine has been woven,  with other roses and clematis. Large planted pots offer interesting planting up at eye level, and shaped shrubs would offer great winter structure.

Large pots of many types are used both in the front and the back gardens.

Here the broad-leaved glaucous Euphorbia myrsinites revels in the sun and good drainage.

The red rose climbing up the corner drew my eye, with its small deep red flowers, it was perfectly chosen to offer a colour contrast with the painted render. Red Rosa Chevy Chase and Climbing Lady Hillingdon, invite you to the far corner and beyond into the back garden.

Large areas of lawn close to the house offer open areas and views to the beds beyond.

The back of the house and barns offer excellent verticals against which to plant roses.

Bordered on one side by a shallow but fast running stream, the are various directions you could choose to walk it, we walked across the grass and took the path through the long border.  I've seen this way of giving in effect three long edges along which plants can be viewed rather than the one if just one very wide border was in place.

There was still much to come in full bloom, however meanwhile, tall pale yellow flowered Cephalaria gigantea and the scalet heads of Lychnis chalcedonica were repeated along the beds, with blue and purple colours from hardy geraniums and salvias.

Over to one side  a tranquil seat backed by a bed of grasses had a mound of chamomile so enticing, had it been my garden, I would want to lie out on it.

The veggie growing area is tucked behind the hedge beyond the long border and in a corner high up is the  tree house, from which I am sure the children will have a full view of the house and gardens.

I have not covered every border or crook or cranny, and there is much more to explore, and this is a garden for all seasons. In the large yard, close to the house, even the children's pony has a fine rose growing above its stable.

This is Alasdair Camron's family home where he has showcased how  paddocks and farm land can be laid out and planted to offer a wonderful environment.  Alasdair built up and heads a successful London Based Internationally acclaimed team that designs, builds and maintains high-end commercial garden spaces, as well as domestic and public settings.

Silver Street Farm is Open twice a year under the NGS