Stuck between a rock and a hard place!

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Hi all – this is my first blog in quite a while but thought I’d write about my small rockery and the plants in it, old and new.

Firstly, having been persuaded by my husband to buy a clematis integrifolia because he really liked it, but not really having anywhere to put it, I decided despite some excellent advice on GOY to go ahead and plant it in the rockery, which gets a lot of sun. The label did say that it likes a sunny spot, but I know clematis like cool roots, so I planted it close to the wall, and put an extra rock at its base, along with some pebbles, and then planted some nasturtuims nearby as well. I’m hoping it scrambles up the ivy – it’s only supposed to reach 75cm x 75cm, so I’m hoping it will do okay. It has blue, bell-shaped flowers in mid summer. Fingers crossed!

Next, this is one of two perennial dianthus in the rockery, which I absolutely love. It has loads of buds as you can see and I can’t wait for it to open!

Now I’m not really a fan of diascia to be honest, but I fell in love with this little one – Little Maiden – in my local farm shop, and ended up buying half a dozen of them. It’s difficult to see on the photo but it has a lovely pinky peachy flower. I might put the rest into baskets but thought I’d try one here.

Some of you may remember me giving the two hypericums in my rockery a haircut last year and not being too sure if I’d done the right thing. Well, ta dah! Look at this! What a lot of buds, and I’m dying to see them all open, should be a lovely bright yellow display when they do. There is one at each end of the rockery.

I’m not too sure how to spell this one. It’s a type of geranium, I think, planted by my dad in the very early days of the rockery. He told me it’s a Max Fray – not too sure about the spelling! It dies right back but comes back every spring and as you can see it’s just started to flower. Another week or so and it should be covered. It makes a lovely centre piece and is very pretty and reliable.

I’ve never planted nasturtiums before! Last year I went out to a works do, and we were sitting outside a country pub in the sun having our drinks, and I saw loads of nastirtiums which were absolutely beautiful. I spotted these – Tip Top Apricot – being a dwarf variety and decided to have a go. I hope they do me proud.

Ah, nemetia! I really love this little plant. This is called Nuvo Lavender. I used to have a perennial nemetia in my back border which came back more beautiful every year, but after about five years it suddenly died. I couldn’t remember the name and have struggled to find another one. But this is a lovely little annual – I think!

I’d forgotten I had this in the rockery. I planted it last year – in fact I planted two, but this is the only one that came back. I was delighted to see its sunny little flowers this year. I love yellow.

A few petunias to fill in some spaces …

And this is a saxifrage that’s been in flower for ages and is still looking very pretty. I’ve had to cut the dead flowers completely from a couple of others but this is still going strong.

Well this is the rockery as a whole. Not very big but I’m looking forward to everything coming into bloom – maybe I’ll post another blog when it does!

Hope you’ve enjoyed a peek around my rockery … looks like it’s going to be a lovely day so I’m off now to do a bit of actual gardening!

• 2 Jun, 2010
• 6 likes

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