2011 just goes on (2). To be continued
By scotsgran
14 comments
The weather has not been kind to us this year. Somehow the plants have ignored it and been wonderfully colourful to cheer up the cold wet days and wonderfully fragrant to draw us in to the garden on drier days.
October is traditionally harvest time and a time to tidy up and start putting the garden to bed for the winter. As I went about my chores I was delighted to find so many flowers still alive and kicking or just coming in to flower for the winter.
1. Lonicera japonica halliana
2. This Antirrhinum is a very pretty shade of yellow so I will allow it to self sow its seeds from those box like seed pods.
3. Campanula lactifolia has been battered by the wind but continues to produce its long pendulous bells.
4. Weigela Florida Variegata only has a few flowers but it has brilliant autumn foliage colour.
5. Weigela Bristol Ruby was developed at Bristol Nursery in 1941. It was a breakthrough because it was more upright than other Weigelas and amongst the hardiest available up to that time. It has decided to grow as a two tier plant in my garden with this prominent head but a circle of branches at the foot of the stem.
6. Solidago hybrida Golden Wings is a 6’ giant and fits in perfectly with the contrasting mauves of the Rosa Vichenblau, the Teucrium chamaedrys and the Digitalis
7. Viburnum davidii AGM is easily recognised by the 3 distinctive viens running the length of the leaf. There will be black berries to follow on the female plants if two are grown in close proximity. It should flower in Spring.
8. Viburnum Tinus Laurustinus, seen here with the brown buds of Viburnum Rhytodophyllum, is a great wind tolerant shrub approx 3m high when fully grown but can be trimmed back. The pink buds open into white lightly fragrant flowers usually from late winter through to spring but I find it an evergreen with year long flowers. There will be blue black berries much desired by birds.
9. Spirea Little Princess flowers all summer and is loved by butterfies as is Spirea Anthony Waterer, behind it, which has long pink fingers sitting above the foliage. Anthony Waterer is a wanderer and needs to be cut back ruthlessly to keep it to its alloted space.
10. Spirea Golden Princess is a show stopper with its lovely golden foliage.
11. Dahlias are a favourite of mine but i do not have much success with them. This orange beauty lifts my spirits every time I pass it by.
This red one is one of three still in flower. It will soon be time to lift them.
12. I love daisy type flowers and I think this is the annual marguerite. I think it self sowed from some we had last year.
13. Much smaller daisies but a big impact plant with golden foliage and lots of daisies is the Feverfew or Tanacetum parthenium
14. Brachyglottis greyii or as named when I bought it many moons ago Senecio greyii Laxifolius is one of the best performing shrubs in the garden.
15. Japanese Anemones are one of the best cut flowers.
16 Oct, 2011
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Comments
Nice blog
16 Oct, 2011
Those small daisies look alot like chamomile!!
16 Oct, 2011
I like your shrubs. You've got a nice lot there. It's pleasing to see them doing so well into the autumn.
17 Oct, 2011
Thank you everybody I am enjoying the last of my garden.
Grandmage dahlias in a pot sound great to me I might try that next year. I feel I disturb roots of other plants when I dig the dahlias up for the winter.
Lulu33, Ive checked out the chamomile and think the one I thought was marguerite (12) might be chamomile. (13) is definitely feverfew/Tanacetum parthenium to give it its Latin name.
Hywel, when I started my garden, and there was an awful lot to do on my 3rd of an acre, I chose to plant shrubs. I got a book and sat down and decided they had to be
1. Evergreen if possible,
2. Flowering
3. scented flowers or foliage and
4. fruit or autumn colour
5. If deciduous they had to have some interest eg coloured stems in winter.
6. If evergreen I had to have differing shades of green, blue or yellow.
With a house and family and a more than full time business to run it had to be easy to care for. That is why I have so many flowering shrubs in the garden. Since joining GOY I find I want to extend that to include Perennials and although we have always had bulbs I got interested in more unusual ones. Unfortunately I have not been so disciplined about choosing and thinking through the outcomes of having more time consuming plants in beds.
17 Oct, 2011
Talking about bulbs...last night, in the dark mistook an amaryllis bulb for an onion!!! luckily I spotted that it didn't smell at all onion like so put in in the compost bin!!
17 Oct, 2011
You had a long list of requirements then. They're still doing well for you. And it's nice that you want to grow different things aswell now.
17 Oct, 2011
Lulu that was an expensive mistake but well spotted.
Hywel I was very picky when I first started out because we were on a very tight budget 38 years ago and a friend advised me to be very specific about the plants I chose or I would be hood winked in to buying cheaper and not very good versions at the same price as I would pay for the genuine article. They have stood the test of time for which I will be forever grateful. I also took her advice and gave them all adequate space to grow, filling the blanks with cheap shrubs, hardy perennials and annuals until the chosen ones reached their potential.
I thought I had more time now I am retired but that is just another myths circulated by people who don't know any better. lol.
17 Oct, 2011
It was rather. The gardener here proudly showed me his new bulbs.............I stayed Stchoom!!
17 Oct, 2011
lol.
18 Oct, 2011
I have really enjoyed your blog and wonder when you find the time to fit it all in.Your garden seems to have shrugged off the bad weather..
23 Oct, 2011
I started the garden back in the late 1970's so some parts of it are quite mature. Thanks to my NFH I am trying to redesign the rest of the garden. The house work gets neglected every time we get a dry day which is not as often as we would like but probably as much as I can cope with. Old age doesn't come by itself lol.
23 Oct, 2011
Nice selelection Scotsgran, enjoyed having another look around your garden...
27 Oct, 2011
I've been plant shopping again Linclass and I got some lovely new reduced price plants today. I'm hoping they will look good together in my front bed.
27 Oct, 2011
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Lovely Scotg. and the colour goes on, even with the drop in temp. I saw on Gardeners world this week that they grow Dahlias in pots, three to a pot! I am going to try that next year, they looked wonderful, like yours.
16 Oct, 2011