Last week Chris in Canada featured six veggies and I all but promised him I’d do the same this week. Sorry Chris, I’ll do a separate blog on my veg plot, there’s too much going on here in the garden.
One.
Fuchsia of the week just had to be ‘Vera Garcia’. Sid Garcia used to bring his new varieties in to the nursery where I worked and we would propagate them up and get them on the catalogue. I don’t think we ever knew how many other nurseries he gave them to. We still have ‘Vera Garcia’ and ‘Chantelle Garcia’ though ‘Vera’ is doing rather better. I’m usually more of a fan of the slightly highbrow species and species crosses but this one is just so good, covered with flowers, no rust. I’m loving it.
Two.
Agapanthus ‘Northern Star’. In amongst it is a spike of Gladiolus papilio ‘Ruby’, a combination that I was pipped at the post on by Gill Heavens. Worth repeating though.
Three.
Geranium ‘Rozanne’. I was listening in on a couple of ladies talking when I was at Rosemoor the other day and one of them said to the other, talking of a Geranium in the border there; “Oh it’s only the common one, Rozanna”. And so it is, but it hasn’t really been around all that long and it’s just too good to be dismissive of, no matter how common. I was sitting watching honey bees working it yesterday, they just love it. It sprawls out over quite a big area but then gets cut back to almost nothing in the winter so the various bulbs around it get their chance.
Four.
Hydrangea macrophylla You and Me Together = ‘Youmefive’. This double flowered variety just goes on flowering from early summer until winter and the flowers stay in good condition, turning reddish. It’s in the root zone of a large conifer so I’ve had to water it every other day this summer and last. The tree is going, I look forward to this performing as it should.
Five.
The Dahlias are flowering; well about half of them are. It seems to have been an oddly all or nothing year with slugs, some plants were barely touched, grew away and are flowering freely. Others were browsed relentlessly and were very late to take off. Most of them at least now have bud on them. This one is ‘Red Velvet’ and it never lets me down. I’m not mad about pastel coloured Dahlias, this is what Dahlias do best.
Six.
Clematis viticella. Several decades ago, my parents lived in Redhill in Surrey and on a wire fence down the front drive they had a clematis. One year it set seed and I raised a few seedlings. I can’t remember where I was living at the time but somehow one of those seedlings is still with me. I don’t remember the parent plant either, but I like to think that this is fairly close to what wild Clematis viticella might look like. The flowers are an inch or so wide, never fully open. There isn’t a named variety grown that doesn’t have vastly more flower power but it reminds me of my mum and that’s worth far more. Shares her tenacity too. (The big leaves are Holboellia)
On which nostalgic note I will sign off for another week. Our local garden club are visiting us tomorrow. The forecast was for a possible shower but now it looks like it will be dry.
Actually, my mum would have been the last person I’d have wanted coming round my garden; she became quite the kleptomaniac in her dotage and you couldn’t go anywhere without her nicking cuttings or seeds. It must be where I get it from.
I don’t know what she’d have made of virtual gardening but there’s a lot of us doing it. Links to a lovely bunch of like minded souls are to be found on The Propagator’s blog, he being the ringmaster of this fine circus.
garden ruminations 
That’s a whopper of a fuscia! Love it on a pedestal. Your mother sounds like a fine woman to me. Anyone who steals plants & seeds is a hero in my book.
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That clematis is rad too even if seedling. The plants that I have from my ancestors’ gardens are actually the same plants. I have grown the same rhubarb from my great grandfather’s garden since before I was in kindergarten.
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That agapanthus certainly is bright blue. I had never purchased an agapanthus. There are some at work that need to be dug this winter. They will be moved to where we can use more. There is never any need to purchase any whey they can be taken for free from elsewhere in the landscape. I would like some white ones, but I know that eventually, a neighbor somewhere will want to get rid of some. Yours is tempting, but I would not feel right about purchasing one.
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Beautiful plants but that last clematis steals the show for elegance and memories. Lovely Six again.
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With so much beauty in the garden I can understand why the veggies are having to wait. A lovely display of agapanthus, they are among my favourite plants. I think you are right about dahlias, they are best in the stronger colours.
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I guess I’ll be patient as I wait to see some veggie shots! Your dahlia more than compensates!
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Jim that is a stunning looking Dahlia. I like Geranium Roxanne bit I think it can be to thuggish sometimes.
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The best Geranium Rozanne I’ve seen was on the corner of a quite high (1m) raised bed. It made a clump a couple of feet across om top of the bed then cascaded almost to ground level. I have one here that does something similar over a lower wall and the other goes across the path. I step over it or go another way. If it’s competing with other plants it tends to win.
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All healthy looking plants here Jim. Love the fuchsia – do you feed your fuchsias during the summer? I have been feeding mine and wonder if that’s why they have rust? Rozanne is lovely too and I think it is very nice to have plants that have family connections.
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I do feed the Fuchsias, though fairly sparingly. It’s easy to overfeed and get very lanky growth. The RHS say feed to boost health as part of cultural control of rust. I did spray for rust as it was getting quite bad.
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Lovely! I wish my agapanthus was flowering, and that is a beautiful fuchsia!
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It was nice to learn about the significance of the clematis. That Red Velvet dahlia is rather splendid. Most of my cheap Wilko mixed dahlias grown from tubers this year have turned out to be pastel pinks!
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I must do a blog about my adventures with seed raised Dahlias. I have half an allotment given over to them and I’d plant a field of them if I had a field.
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Just realised I commented twice. WordPress and I have been having issues of late.
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Great minds and all that, although mine was a complete fluke and not intentional design. I agree with you about Rozanne, it deserves it’s accolades. Have a good day tomorrow, I would search them on the way in for secateurs and paper bags, then again on the way out. Just to be sure 😉
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Love the Red Velvet dahlia and the story behind the clematis. My mixed pack of cheap dahlia tubers from Wilko have all turned out to be pastel colours so far!
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All the best for the visit tomorrow, I am sure everyone will enjoy choice plants grown well in a ‘real garden’. Is your fucshia hardy? It looks a beauty.
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The only real answer to whether Fuchsia ‘Vera Garcia’ is hardy is that we haven’t tried planting it and leaving it out. We keep getting surprised by things surviving that are not described as hardy. The trailers are a bit tricky in the garden.
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I do like the mix agapanthus and gladiolus this week. Must add gladiolus in the garden. ..
I hope the weather will be nice tomorrow but I’m sure your garden is ready!
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I think it’s a case of ready enough. Clearing the paths so we don’t trip up the old ladies is the main priority.
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