Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - July 2011

A few contributions for this month's world wide display.  I've picked a dozen of my most interesting blooms for July.  Thanks to Carol at http://www.maydreamsgardens.com/ for hosting this.

Dianthus 'Devon Magic' - one of the few pinks I grow

Dahlia 'Procyon'

Phalaenopsis orchid - included because I've succeeded in reblooming it in the house

 

Roscoea purpurea - a gorgeous little hardy ginger

Phygelius 'Salmon Leap' - rather gangly plant that prefers to grow through a supporting shrub

Fuchsia splendens 'Karl Hartweg' - not hardy - so how does it survive my winters?  It's early this year.

Hydrangea aspera ssp sargentiana - fleeting flowers but lovely dark plush leaves

Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens' - black leaves and pretty little flowers

Clematis cirrhosa 'Freckles' - flowers nearly all year with me

Hydrangea 'Madame Emile Mouillere' - a mophead that flowers on new wood so has a very long season

Geranium 'Salome' weaving its way through Pieris 'Flaming Silver'

Ceratostigma willmottianum - gorgeous, hardy, blue flowered shrub

 

Some views of the garden - Part 2

Following on from my views of that part of the rear garden that's fit to illustrate here's some shots of the front garden.  This space is quite small - about 9 x 6 metres - 30 ft x 18ft, bounded by a garden wall and a retaining wall to prevent the slope sliding into the house.  It's shaded by the high house wall and various trees and shrubs - including Acer 'Bloodgood', Camellia 'St Ewe' and Magnolia 'Raspberry Ice'.  I've terraced it using breeze blocks and log roll to provide a set of planting areas in which I can grow a good many smaller shade lovers.  Over the years it's grown ever more lush and it's a constant battle to keep things within bounds.  My biggest thugs are three plants that a lot of exotic gardeners would love to have survive in their own gardens, never mind thrive.  Adiantum venustum, the hardy maidenhair fern, is slowly but inexorably producing quite a substantial patch.  Begonia grandis ssp evansiana is absolutely hardy with me.  The pink flowered form spreads itself around by the small bulbils produced in the autumn and is now taking up too much of the bed.  Because it doesn't sprout till late spring it can safely occupy the ground where I've got various bulbs - erythroniums, snowdrops and others - but it's starting to encroach on other plantings and needs controlling.  Saxifraga stolonifera - normally seen as the houseplant 'Mother of Thousands' - creeps around all over the bed and, again, needs controlling. 

Enough verbiage.  Here's some pictures.  Click for larger images:

The purple flowered plant in  the last two pictures is a hardy ginger, Roscoea purpurea.  I'll be illustrating this for the garden blogger's bloom day on Friday.  The beautiful variegated shrub is Pieris 'Flaming Silver', gorgeous all year but especially beautiful in April when the bright red new leaves flush.  This is about twelve years old now - they are slow growing!  Variegated Phormium tenax can be seen on the left of the final picture - with 'Lucifer' in front.  It does get everywhere.

Some views of the garden - part 1

A famous gardener was once asked, "When will your garden be finished?"  The answer came back, "Never, I hope."

I suspect a lot of us feel that way.  My garden has had a rough three years.  Neglect from me and two bad winters have killed a lot of plants.  I lost my greenhouse from winter storm damage.  But, following my redundancy / semi retirement in March this year I've time to do something about refurbishing my little plot.  May I never be finished.

So, where am I now?

Well, here's a few views of the area I do have almost back to scratch.  There are gaps - particularly on and below the south facing house wall where a lot of really tender stuff was concentrated - but I feel I'm making progress.  It helps that I've got some good, mature plants to provide a framework.

This view is, basically, the view from the living room window.  Yucca gloriosa 'Variegata' is prominent to the right, Phormium 'Evening Glow' provides red foliage in the centre, while my largest patch of Crocosmia 'Lucifer' is just peeping in from the right.  Missing is a big Phoenix canariensis which decided it didn't like -8C for two winters in succession.  In the background is my mid plot screen which hides the pool and (before it was devastated) my more tropical garden.  Cordyline 'Coffee Cream' and the clumping bamboo Chusquea coulou are prominent in there.  The big tree is Prunus 'Amanogawa'.

Looking south  westward across the garden from the rear entrance gate you get a better view of the mid garden screen.  There's a bed of annuals in the foreground to replace some other winter losses.

Looking across the garden to the west border there are Chaemerops humilis, the European fan palm, Acca sellowiana giving height to the left and Phyllostachys nigra giving  height to the centre of the shot.  There is way too much Crocosmia 'Lucifer' in there - a problem I intend to rectify.

Ignore the gap on the right - winter losses have still not been replaced.  Though I do have a reasonable grouping alongside the bamboo.  Fuchsia 'Genii' and Ceratostigma willmottianum grow at the base of yellow flowered winter jasmine, Jasminium nudiflorum.  I've added Clematis texensis 'Princess of Wales' for additional hardy (hardier than my previous climbers) interest this year.

Click the pictures to get a larger view.

I'll try and give you an idea of the shaded front garden in the next post.  It's a small, walled area with a steep slope.  I terraced it years ago and it houses my collection of shade lovers.  Again, I've had a lot of losses from winter frosts and my own neglect - but I'll build it back up again.