Ranunculus ‘Brazen Hussey’
Another lovely weekend and this time a three-day one as I had some time due to me. I started clearing the slope on Friday although the rain stopped play after an hour. I am moving the asters and grasses and a few other bits from the slope to the Big Border. I want to plant up the slope with hardy exotics aiming for a jungley sort of look. I have the overall effect in my head but am still working on the possible plants to include plus we
Saturday was the monthly HPS meeting. Always a good day and despite my initial reservations when I first joined at spending a whole day of my precious weekend at the meeting I really enjoy it and rarely don’t stay for the whole day. This month’s talk was on cut and come again perennials which was interesting. Our speaker, a local nursery woman, showcases a whole range of perennials which I would never have thought of cutting including solomons seal as well as old favorite such as asters and aquilegia. The morning discussion or show
Muscari latifolium
and tell featured a collection of heritage daffodils, various alpines, a Melianthus major flower and to the amazement of everyone an Aeonium Schwarzkopf in flower – I really should have taken my camera. Needless to say I came home with some plants a veratrum for the woodland border and also two small aeoniums which are destined for the succulent border in the front garden.
Today I was outside at 9 setting to. I started off with finishing off re-potting some alpines, mainly primulas, which I am hoping might be up to showing in the novice section of an Alpine Garden Society over the next month. Then I relocated some plants to the cottage border and also the woodland border which really is beginning to have the right feel about it finally – its only taken 3 years.
The next big job was to finish clearing the plants I wanted from the edge of the slope as we want to push the wall back to make way for the bench. This involved relocated a number of Camassia to the Big Border. Hardly, the ideal time of year to do this but I had to do the same last year but with different Camassia and they did OK. As you can see the Big
Border is filling up and I am hopeful that the image I have in my mind will come to fruition. Aside from the shrubs and a couple of structural perennials such as the
Corydalis solida
Melianthus the main plants are asters and Calamgrostis overdam which I am hoping will link the Stipa gigantea in to the border. I have spread the Camassia through the border in between the perennials as I read or heard somewhere recently that tall late summer perennials were a good way of hiding the dying Camassia foliage.
Having completed the required plant moving I started to dig out the dry stone wall. I have to admit that I was running out of steam by this time but thankfully my eldest son came to my rescue. Any excuse to wield his pickaxe. The stones making up the wall were soon removed and he has dug quite a way back into the slope ready for the wall to be rebuilt and a seating area made. As we worked I could start to see how the planting on the slope could work to create a good jungley effect. I am going plant buying at the end of the week with some friends to Pan Global Plants and Cotswold Garden Flowers so I think this will give me the opportunity to get the main structural components I want.
Oh and we also moved the sink trough into the succulent border in the front garden but I will save that for the End of Month View post tomorrow.
Narcissus ‘Sophies Choice’
