Hard work today - and all week!!

6 comments

First, I have to apologise for the poor quality of the photos in this blog. I didn’t finish planting until nearly 6 p.m. when it was really too dark to take photos, hence BAD pictures. Sorry!

I have really worked hard out there for several days. It’s pruning time for the late summer flowering shrubs and I have cut back my Perovskias, my Caryopteris (four of them!) the Lavatera, Buddleja and two of the Spirea japonica shrubs out of four.

I get the impression from the state of the Spireas that they have not been cut hard back for some years – well, they have now!
I have to admit that I only deadheaded them the first year we were here, and gave them a haircut last year – this year I dived in! I fed them with blood, fish and bone – catastrophe! the box had got wet and fell apart – they got REALLY well fed!

The very wide bed that faces east was looking flat and dull. I decided to give it a facelift and some structure for the winter months – a shopping expedition! What a good excuse! But first, a new trellis to grow nice things…

In front of it I have planted a Mahonia japonica. On the trellis there’s a selection of Clematis – an evergreen ‘Early Sensation’, a pink ‘’Scartho Gem’ and a ‘Guernsey Cream’. I also managed to track down a Pileostegia viburnoides to climb on the stone wall. What a problem I had finding one! Local Nurseries had never heard of it so I ended up in Devon!

I bought several shrubs and plants there including a Phormium ‘Maori Queen’. I realise that this one is a risk as it really prefers more sun – worth a try, though. I found a Skimmia confusa ‘Kew Green’ there, which has also gone in this border.

For a bit of brightness I put in this Choisya – ‘Sundance’ and also two Buxus varieties which I had not come across before – latifolia ‘Aurea’ (sorry about the picture)

And one with a very long name – Buxus sempervirens ‘Argenteo variegata’ – green and silver to you and me!

I planted several other shrubs and a Miscanthus for the summer, but the border definitely looks better – it was worth all the hard work preparing the ground and planting. I did enjoy the plant-hunt best, I have to admit!

There are still lots of gaps – more plant hunting? Probably.

• 23 Feb, 2008
• 1 like

More blog posts by spritzhenry