Astilbe chinensis 'Purpurlanze'

lovely close-up

I love Astilbes and this will look gorgeous there Spritz.

This is a nice one.

It is also TALL!! And makes a nice splash of colour, instead of the dreaded Comfrey... :-)

A total replacement contrast!!
I bet you get a bit of comfrey popping up next year though ;-)

It'll be before that, Dawn - it doesn't give up that easily. :-(

Nevermind, there soon wont be any gaps for it to pop up into :-)

i love this astilbe. the flowers last such a long time.

Good!

Dawn, I am going to have problems filling this area, due to the poplar tree roots just under the soil! I've planted some Ajuga and hope it can cope and will spread as ground cover.

Do you like the Poplars Spritz - or do you just tolerate them. I do love trees but sometimes they can be problematic, cant they?

There's a farm next door, and the Poplars hide some very ugly farm buildings with corrugated iron roofs. I think they are also wind breaks.

They are certainly causing problems, though - not only to me in the border. The roots appear in the lawn, and my husband has had to use his chain saw to grind down the tops, so that he can mow!

I see Spritz - I have the same problem with a piece of wasteland next door to us. It was a beautiful orchard until a builder got hold of it :-(((((( He flattened all the fruit trees about 5 years ago and its all overgrown now and we dont know what's happening. We're praying he wont get planning permission as the land is behind other houses. We have the dreaded conifers as a screen which I would love to pull out but too scared to and like you, we have to live with the consequences - roots, dry ground, goodness being sapped ....

If we had the trees felled, we'd still have the problem of the roots, so they might just as well stay. They do serve their purpose, after all - like your conifers!

We can't have it all, can we

No - I am making the most of a bad job - I do hope the next section of Comfrey isn't as difficult to remove as I suspect, though!

What a nuisance that Comfrey is. So frustrating isnt it - like weeds, when they snap off rather than the root comes out, you know they will re-appear in the future.