Dahlias and Japanese anemones are definitely flowers of the second half of summer. I'm impatient for them to start flowering, then depressed when they do. One. Dahlia 'Orange Cushion'. There is not the remotest possibility of this dahlia ever being mistaken for nearly red or nearly yellow. It's a bang down the middle orange. I've…
Composting.
When something in gardening is agreed by absolutely everyone to be a good thing it seems perverse to ask the question “why?”. I tend to the view that that is when it most needs to be asked. Composting and the multiple benefits of compost are among of the great untouchable sacred cows of gardening, especially…
End of month view – July 2017
Every month, for a day or two leading up to making this regular posting, I muse on what I am going to say. Mostly I am thinking about the garden overall, rather than about specific plants, but overall is the sum total of what key plants are doing, so there's overlap. This month I had…
Six on Saturday – 29/7/2017
I am very much enjoying this weekly glimpse into other people's gardens. This week I have included one item that is not a flower or plant, trying to put myself in the position of visiting a garden open for the NGS and wanting to look at everything. Don't worry, it's not my shed; if I…
Helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’
Helenium 'Sahin's Early Flowerer' was discovered as a seedling growing in the Sahin trial grounds in Zeeland, Holland. It was selected in 1996 for its long flowering season. For me it starts flowering around mid July and has a main flowering period of four to six weeks, then produces a trickle of blooms into the…
Six on Saturday – 22/7/2014
It's the height of summer, there are flowers everywhere. Come winter, it'll be hard to keep this meme going as there'll be so much less going on. At least there'll be the foliage plants to fall back on. When I worked on a nursery customers would come in wanting to know what a plant they'd…
Six on Saturday – 15-7-2017
One. So much in flower, picking six becomes difficult. OK, a bit of lumping together: Dahlias, I grow a few, but then again... Such flamboyance, such joie de vivre. Dahlias, especially en masse, have an unrivalled capacity for putting smiles on peoples faces, even mine. Some I leave in, some I lift, then put back…
The modern world.
On 14 June I was down at Glendurgan Garden and saw a plant which I didn’t recognise and which didn’t have a label. I photographed it and posted a tweet asking Glendurgan what it was. They came back with Aristea major as a name. I Googled that, found a seed supplier who had it and…
On not digging.
In a few days time I shall be 65. Digging is either good exercise or hard work, depending on your perspective. Mine is that it is hard work and getting harder, so it seems to me that if I can get results as good without digging as with, why would I dig. Like many people,…
Six on Saturday – 8-7-2017
I had the bright idea of doing six plants that were self-sowing volunteers in the garden but quickly realised that I have four or five times that number, some more welcome than others. I'll mention a couple. One. Papaver atlanticum pops up where it pleases, producing a flat rosette of grey leaves then putting up…
garden ruminations 