It’s been a week of contrasts. The first half of the week was glorious sunshine. The second half of the week has been hailstones, torrential rain and strong winds. This has put a halt to the building work. They made a good start but they can’t do the render until there are a few dry days together. The wind has crushed a few plants but hopefully most will recover alright.
1. Tulip pot
Alice bought her tulips last week but she wanted a really nice pot. She won a garden centre voucher back in May for National Children’s Gardening Week that we hadn’t spent yet. So, we went to the local garden centre and she chose this bee pot and we got the tulips planted last Sunday before the weather turned.
2. Wild about weeds competition
I also had some good news this week that I came 2nd place in a competition! I entered Jack Wallington’s wild about weeds competition. The aim of the competition was to show a weed within a plantings scheme. This was the photo I entered showing Asplenium within the front garden.
3. Sambucus racemosa
I planted this earlier in the year. It’s still only small but the lovely bright foliage is stunning right now. The foliage is working well against the darker dahlias foliage.
It is looking particularly nice against the Fuschia next to it.
4. Hanging basket
The hanging basket was replaced with a few fuschias I grew from cuttings. They’ve been slow to get going but they have finally realised I am growing them for their flowers.
5. Leptinella squalida and Acer palmatum ‘seiryu’
I have combined this Acer with Leptinella squalida ‘Platt’s black’.
‘Platt’s black seems to be getting marketed as black moss. It isn’t really a moss but it does act as a ground cover plant. The foliage is small and fern-like in appearance. It’s actually part of the Asteraceae family, the daisies. It does flower with small brown flowers. Hopefully, it will spread to fill the base of the pot.
I wanted to see if the finer filigree leaves hold up better to my drying sea winds. It will still need a sheltered spot. But in theory, small leaves of this nature should lose less water and be more tolerant of the winds though it will still need a sheltered spot.
6. The dry garden
I have volunteered to tidy several of the planters at work. They have got a bit worn over the last year and just need a bit of a spruce up. They are outside the nursery and have a compost mix of sand and soil in. They are in full sun and will not see much watering for periods. Currently, there are a few lavenders healthy enough and a few sempervivums, a broom and a patch of Festuca grass. So I figure it makes sense to plan for dry garden conditions. The existing plants are mainly silver as many drought-tolerant plants have silver foliage. I have started reading Beth Chatto’s book, “The dry garden” to gain better knowledge. I largely garden on clay and my favourite area to work is my shaded front garden. So these planters are pretty much the extreme opposite of what I normally work with. I grow a few alpines and succulents in pots. I think it would look nice to find the handful of darker options to contrast with the existing silver plants. I’ve got a few stonecrops and sempervivums that can be split to use. It does feel a bit ironic to be planning a dry garden during the wettest week in months.
We are planning a visit to Scampston Walled gardens tomorrow so hopefully, the weather will hold off long enough for us to have a nice day. The gardens include both Capability Brown designed areas and Piet Oudolf designed areas so a bit of a contrast. I’m sure I will end up reporting back on it if we do go. Enjoy your weekends whatever you are up to.
Pretty fuchsias ; I like this photo also for the reflection of the houses in the pot.
The photo of your garden for the wild about weeds competition is also very successful. Good luck !
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I took a lot of photos of individual weed plants but that wasn’t the focus of the competition. It wanted it within a design. Proud to be runner up as there were some great entries. Probably use my voucher for a few sensory plants I can use for school garden.
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Kids will love them !
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The sambucus is rather handsome, what a great pop of lime green, with great leaf shape.
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The sambucus foliage against the fuchsia is a very nice combination. It looks very similar to Golden Tower.
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It is. This is Sutherland’s gold while golden tower is a form of Nigra. Very similar in colour, slightly different growth habit. This being a bit bushier, though there is a tower form of this I think as well. It’s got a dark leaved evergreen clematis slowly establishing behind. Once that covers the fence it should really pop out.
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It’s a very pretty fushia in the hanging basket, and they look good against the dark glossy pot. The visit to Scampston sounds interesting. I’ve read about it in books, and it looks well worth visiting.
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Hopefully the weather will be alright tomorrow so we don’t spend the whole time sheltering from wind or rain.
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Scampston Walled gardens sound lovely, I have seen photos by another blogger and it is on my list if I ever get up to Yorkshire! I wish I’d known about the weed competition, I have lots of weed plants in my garden 😁 In fact I was about to pot up a couple of the Harts Tongue ferns that have self seeded (spored?) in my patio, when I noticed three different ferns have appeared in one of my Fuchsia pots! There is no stopping them…
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Hopefully we’ll make it out tomorrow. Very wet and windy today but meant to be a bit better tomorrow.
Found a wonderful new fern, Coniogramme emeiensis. Chinese native that will probably feature next week. A bit like a stripey holly fern.
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Ferns are fab! I’ll look that one up.
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Well done to you and Alice. I do like the 🐝 pot. I hope you manage your trip this week – I’m looking forward to hearing about it.
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Hopefully make it out. The pot is nice but she is stubbornly refusing to have any form of plant above the tulips so it’s going to look like and empty pot for half a year.
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Your daughter has chosen a perfect pot there. I’ve got a little leptinella in a shady bit of the rock garden. It’s not grown that much this year though.
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Yes, said it’s slow spreading so I may need another pot as it looks a bit odd with this circle of it around the Acer and then bare soil.
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What a cute pot Alice picked. I clicked to read about the weed contest. I guess it depends on what one considers a weed! If I pay money for them, they aren’t weeds in my garden! Congratulations on your win.
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I’ve been trying to grow ‘Platt’s Black’ for a couple of years but it hasn’t really grown at all. Maybe next year! The Sambucus/Fuchsia combination works well. Have a great day at Scampston
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Doesn’t bode well. You’re the second person to say that t hasn’t grown much. May need another pot to fill out the base of the pot. Then a few rocks around to fill the bare soil.
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we have a Phormium that may be ‘Platt’s Black’, so that’s two New Zealand plants presumably raised by Mr or Mrs Platt and they can’t think of a different name? We grew ‘Sutherland Gold’ for several years, cutting it hard back each year. It was a great plant but seemed to slowly run out of vigour. Perhaps they have a lifespan. Enjoy Scampston.
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There are a few tired similar sambucus locally so may be one for pruning hard and taking cuttings to replace. Quick enough growing I don’t mind if I do have to replace. Looking forward to seeing the Piet Oudoulf design at Sampston and seeing if it lives up the hype.
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excellent, good luck with your dry planters!
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