Temptation

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I saw an article in a Gardening Magazine last week about a shrub new to me, that flowers in the winter. It’s called a ‘Correa’ and there are several differently coloured varieties. To my surprise and pleasure, one of the suppliers was a small Nursery only a few miles from here. When I rang, she had some – she was surprised at being mentioned in the magazine, as nobody had contacted her first!

I haven’t taken a photo of it yet, it has buds on it and I’ll wait until it’s flowered.

While I was there,I had a look round…Bad mistake for my bank balance! The first thing that caught my eye was a pretty little shrub with small cerise bells on it. It turned out to be a winter-flowering fuchsia – I didn’t know there were such plants!

Then I started to consider where I should be planting my new purchases, and thought about my corner bed (where the Photinia is). This bed has not satisfied me since the garden room was built. It has tall plants too near the front and smaller ones hidden behind them. I had already dug out some of the Shasta daisies – so I mentally planned it – and fell to temptation with some other beautiful plants.

The Leptospermum is evergreen, well, eversilver, so that would tuck nicely at the back in the corner, as it’s a tad tender.

And this gorgeous Coprosma with its glowing foliage would contrast well. Now something architectural for the middle – I’d previously bought a Libertia at this Nursery, a pale blue variety, so I asked for a double white one…Libertia formosa. Photo to follow when it flowers next year!

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For the front of the bed, I chose Hebe pimeloides – another silver plant, violet flowers next year I hope!

And I fell for the beautiful colours of this Euphorbia’s foliage. I forgot to ask what variety it is, I was too busy wondering who Helena was and why she blushed!

My last purchase was two Ceratostigmas – I already have the willmottiana variety, but the plumbaginoides may keep their leaves over the winter, and should spread to make ground cover.

While we’d been chatting, I mentioned my recent visit to Beth Chatto’s garden when I came across Sternbergia lutea for the first time. Lo and behold, the lovely lady had been given a number of them for her own garden, and she gave me some ‘to make a decent clump’!

Back home, I managed to complete the planting with a few fill-ins from elsewhere in my garden, and feel much more satisfied with the newly planted corner and its potential.

As Holly has kindly mentioned my ‘system’, I filed the photos of the new plants to remind myself of when they went in and how they do. I will try to post ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures of the bed if the weather allows it! Oh well, I’m glad I went for the Correa and was tempted.

• 18 Nov, 2007
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