Uncategorized – Pots&Paws

22nd Aug 202022nd Aug 2020

Happy, neglected plants on the roof terrace

I have never featured the roof terrace on this blog. It is my husband”s favourite place, a sun trap in the evening with a view of the spinnaker tower and glimpse of the sea. The pots up here are lucky if they are watered twice a year but for all my neglect they are happy.

Blue pots with succulents and cordylines (and Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot image and quote)

A very happy echeveria flowering like crazy.

A cordyline and his spiky friend bought from Denman Garden. No label and no idea what he is.

Agave Americana, grows like a weed in our favourite part of Corfu

You’ve had the pots so here’s the paws. Our furry boys enjoying the roof terrace. Great photo taken by my husband.

1st Aug 20201st Aug 2020

Eucomis stealing the show… SonS

The agapanthus and cannas are still going strong but they have passed their peak of absolute perfection. Stepping into the limelight are the eucomis. I am addicted and need more. My bulb shopping list has just grown to include octopus, vandermerwei and montana if I can find them.

This should be sparkling burgundy but the leaves which were burgundy in the spring are now very green. Also much smaller flower heads this year so will feed after flowering and repot in the spring giving it a bit more space and some manure in the compost mix

These bulbs were new last autumn but I didn’t make a note of the variety – doh!

Just for some relief from my eucomis fixation, the brilliant balloon plant, new to me this year but will never be without it. Loving the purple and orange combo.

Do join in with Six on Saturday by following the Propagator https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/

25th Jul 202025th Jul 2020

For the love of orange

I have always had a very strict colour code in the garden – mainly green with flowers in white, blue and purple maybe the occasional pale pink or lilac. Never red, yellow or orange.

However my preferences have changed. For the last year I have been drawn to orange.

Geum Totally Tangerine was my first toe in the water last year

Followed by the bold decision to paint two walls orange

Now I have fallen in love with orange cannas, so beautiful.

With trailing bergonias and crocosmia from my Mum’s garden, I am starting to layer up the orange

Even better when you have the contrast of the purple agapanthus

The only orange I don’t want to see is the Spanish slug. Possibly found one in the garden this week and hoping it arrived on a pot alone!

Only six weeks to the rescheduled Stansted Garden Show, my wish list will be full of orange flowers with some cadbury chocolate purple ones for contrast. Hoping to find those copper orange crocus and more crocosmia. My order for 100 orange tulips has already been placed. It is official, I love orange flowers.

18th Jul 202018th Jul 2020

Agapanthus!

Today it is a simple post from me celebrating agapanthus. They are flowering profusely and are glorious this year. I thought it was due to my focused autumn feed and watering regime but turns out everyone is having a good year so it is maybe just the weather.

That is only five, can I have seven next week 🙂

20th Jun 202020th Jun 2020

Flowers – SonS

This is very out of character for me as I garden mainly for interesting foliage but this week I do have several beautiful flowers.

The most beautiful flower in the garden right now. Can’t remember the name of the plant and it lost it’s label when I repotted it.

Beautiful foxgloves. Hopefully dozens next year

My geum tangerine is only just starting to flower

This jasmine is flowering it’s heart out and filling the garden with scent particularly in the evening. I am planting more varieties to hopefully extend the “scent show” next year.

Coming soon…. I have more agathanthus buds then ever before. Feeding and watering after flowering maybe helped or maybe it is just the amazing sunshine we have had

Why not join in the fun and post your Six on Saturday. For more details you can read the brief participant guide.

13th Jun 202013th Jun 2020

Staging a plant theatre SonS

My walled garden has large areas of paving so two keys areas of display are entirely made up of pots. This is the perfect opportunity to curate a changing picture depending on what is looking best in any given month. This week I completely stripped back the display around the seating, repotting several key plants and giving each specimen room so the variations in folliage can really be appreciated.

This is the before photo. Really pleased with the brave choice of the terracotta wall but the plants are congested and lacking flow.

I thought this would take a couple of hours but five hours in, I just seem to have created chaos. Obviously a two day job!

At the end of day two it is looking so much better with good height from the yucca and the olive. The palms have more space so you can really see their structure.

A closer view of the section just outside the kitchen door. Orange wall looks much better without the trellis, the passion flower was not thriving and is already springing to life in it’s new location.

At nose level behind the seating there is rosemary, orange blossom and two scented geraniums, one mint, one rose.

Inspired by success, today I reworked the plant staging that can be seen from the kitchen window.

Whilst rearranging over 100 pots I collected together my saxifraga fortunei. I have Rubrifolia, backberry & apple pie and my newest purchse black ruby. Not sure what the other one is, might be a second rubrifolia but one does seem to have a much lighter leaf colour. Maybe our national collection holder will see this and help me out.

6th Jun 20206th Jun 2020

Unboxed – Beth Chatto Nursery delivery SonS

Part of my job involves a museum, sadly closed right now. We have a huge collection of artefects including the third largest collection of historic clothing in England. We have a project called Unboxed where we film or photograph the opening of boxes that have been in storage, sometimes for over 20 years. These then become really popular posts on social media.

My mind turned to this when I received an exciting delivery from the Beth Chatto Nursery this week, my own mini Unboxed.

Beautiful plants, in great condition and really well packed

Saxifrage Southside Seedling Group

Dicentra spectabilis x2

Viola rivinìana purpurea

Primula denticlata alba x3

Epimedium pubigerum

Primula bulleyana

Athyrium niponicum pictum red beauty

What a lovely stash, feeling very lucky. But wait a minute, didn’t I go alittle crazy on this order? Shouldn’t there be more plants? Then ratta tat tat on the front door and…

A second box! Apologies from the delivery man

Saxifrage black ruby

Dodecatheon meadia

Gillenia trifoliata

Maianthemum stellatum

Valeriana montana

Now I agree the two boxes held enough plants to make any gardener do a little dance of joy but I have to confess to picking up these two geraniums from a plant sale next door to my Mum’s house. There are worse addictions to have and my three weeks furlough will be so much better spent finding the perfect spot for each and every new arrival.

23rd May 2020

Bird song – SonS

The garden has never had so much feathered activity! We have a blackbird nest with the noisiest, most demanding babies and a nest of baby wrens who are much better behaved. I also suspect we have Great Tits nesting in the top of the 24 ft palm. It is a joy, I don’t even mind being dive bombed when I walk past the nests.

Here is one of the babies waiting to be fed

Fabulous new growth on the Fatsia Polycarpa Needham

A couple of months ago I had eleven flower buds on my peony but they stayed very small and when I took a closer look, a creature had made holes in most of them and eaten them from the inside out. At least I have one beautiful flower and the possibility of three more still to open

Viburnum Plicatum f. Tomentosum **Kilimanjaro** is one of the best plants in the garden. It deserved the title of plant of the year in 2016

I have really enjoyed the camassias this year and will definitely buy lots more to plant this autumn. Also a big fan of the Geranium Maderense Alba with its beautiful foliage. I have grown them from seed for a couple of years and would do so even if they never flowered.

Double the delight. Having a walled garden is wonderful- hardly any frost, hardly any weeds, lots of privacy but the 18ft north facing wall can be very dark. I have solved this with a dozen mirrors of different sizes and shapes. Even better when the reflect a favourite plant like this *Thalictrum*

2nd May 20202nd May 2020

The shade bed – SonS

After a day of prep last weekend, this weekend I have planted out my shade bed that runs along the bottom of a north facing wall.

This is the before, almost everything in mismatched pots that are stacked up, some plants in carrier bags waiting for their new home. Certainly no sense of display and many of the ferns struggling.

My delivery of mostly shade loving plants ordered online from the Beth Chatto nursery. Plants arrived promptly and in beautiful condition. Includes: heuchera sanguinea white cloud, Polystichum polyblepharum, brunnera macrophylla and delphinium bellamosum (but that is for a sunny spot)

Particularly delighted with saxifrage dentata with leaves that look like they have been trimed with pinking shears. This will be planted in a spot that gets alittle evening sun

Tiarella, you can never have too many of these

The finished bed using interesting pieces of wood from around the garden and just a couple of feature pots. Hard to spot but there are 40 foxgloves dotted through which should be beautiful next year.

Continuing round the corner. Plants need to fill out and cover more of the soil and the large euphobia might not survive the move at this time of year, we shall see, the rain has helped.

18th Apr 202018th Apr 2020

Thank goodness for the garden SonS

I work in a theatre which is currently closed. We are focused on keeping in touch with our audiences and this week it was my turn to share, in our weekly email to twenty thousand people, what I am doing to get through the shutdown. I shared how happy my garden makes me and a link to The Propergator blog. I wonder if anyone reading this joined the Six on Saturday gang through Worthing Theatres?