We drove up to Marwood Hill Garden in North Devon today, then on to RHS Rosemoor. So many plants, so little space! Marwood have a National Collection of Astilbes and there are pots of most of them in their plant centre. To come away empty handed would be plain rude.
One. Is the box of plants we came back with; just three plants that we don’t have room for, commendable restraint by our standards. We actually got out of Rosemoor empty handed, a 25 year first. At Marwood we were seduced by the deep purple pink of Astilbe ‘Visions’ (“It’s tall, so it can go at the back, we’ll get rid of a bit of that Impatiens”) and the shorter, dark coloured foliage of Astilbe ‘Delft Lace’ (“short, so we’ll move that hosta at the front, the one the slugs keep chomping…”). And a Pelargonium.
Two. I don’t know if this one strictly belongs here, in that it is not in my garden but at Rosemoor. Better to illustrate the entry with a picture of a flower than a scribbled line in my wanted list though. Clematis ‘Rebecca’: what a colour! One day it will be in my garden. 
Three. Having been out all day I didn’t take any pictures until early evening, by which time it was drizzling. My Dahlias seem to have slow getting going this year but this red one, which I can’t find the label for, is in fiery form.
Four. A lot of our Fuchsias had got into very poor shape, so last year I tried to start again from cuttings of nearly all of them. There are lots of Fuchsia pictures coming down the line. This one is ‘Sophia’, which we bought last year and potted on.
Five. We used to have a fish pond but we filled it in. It’s now our bog garden and is where the aforementioned Astilbes are due to be shoe-horned in. As you can see, I have an eye for a subtle colour scheme.
Six. Hydrangea serrate ‘Tiara’, which can speak for itself.
So that’s this week’s six, my contribution to ThePropagator’s six on Saturday meme. Check it out.
garden ruminations 
Wondered where you’d got to! Not sure I could have kept it to 3 plants. All my astilbe, and I have a lot, is all going brown round the edges of the leaves still not sure why, too hot maybe. I have two rebeccas and have cuttings on the go, am hoping they’ll make it to a decent size. You’re right, it’s a good one. Cheers!
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