Is it June already? I’m running way behind on planting. And finding, almost daily now, that I’ve double ordered something else. Not just bedding but large perennials too. Next week, a few more square metres of lawn will disappear into borders. The local Yodel delivery chap doesn’t say “Goodbye” now but “See you tomorrow.” The local UK Mail chap and I are now on first name terms. As with DPD, APC, Hermes, UPS and Parcelforce. I’ll have to invite them in for tea and cake soon!
But it’s time for a pause to catch my breath, to locate my sanity and to compile another Six on Saturday. One of the great things (or not) about Six on Saturday is getting persuaded by fellow Sixers to part with cash in return for additions to my garden. And so I start with …
1 Plants Introduced by Other Sixers
It’s not cheating to sub-divide a Six or two. Our glorious leader, Mr Propagator, regularly does it so it must be within the rules. My first sub-division is Stachyurus praecox, which I seem to have acquired thanks to Thomas Stone (I could put a couple of sixes together with just the plants he’s persuaded my to add to my little collection here). This may not be quite the variety he intended but it’s the one with the best chance of living a long an happy life in the conditions I can devote to it.
I’ve planted some Calliope Pelargoniums around it to keep it company through the summer. These are the latest Pelargonium must have and come in a variety of colours as long as they’re dark red. Thanks to Thomas and Jim (for the Camellia suggestions) I can look forward to a succession of flowering shrubs in the front garden from autumn through to spring, when the alpines in Edifice 2 will take over.
Then I have Nick from the USA to thank for Melittis melissophyllum ‘Royal Velvet Distinction’, which has taken up residence in the back garden. I thought this might be a but unusual in the garden but it seems the aforementioned Jim has loads of it growing wild near his home.
2 The Standard Edifice 2 Photo
The perennial section of Edifice 2 is now romping away. A hellebore which came home with me from Gill Heavens Land is still flowering, a Potentilla is starting to open and Byzantine Gladioli and Hesperis matronalis are in full swing.
3 Roses
Another sub-division as Wild Edric has now been joined by other roses.
4 Lupins
I don’t know where the blue ones have gone but the pink and red ones are putting on a good show. To get an idea of how they’ve grown this year, the fence behind them is six feet tall and I’m holding the camera high so the shot is almost level!
5 Pond Iris
The first of the pond Iris has forced its way through the duckweed to add a splash of my favourite colour (purple) in the pond greenery.
6 Pyracantha and Monarda
I’ve featured the Clematis Montana and Pyracantha before as one of my “two in a hole” plantings. As the Clematis goes over, the Pyracantha is now clothed in a cloud of white.
So there we are. A simple and straightforward six. If you meander over to Mr P’s blog, you will find lots of links to other sixes, some of which may be less simple and straightforward. Meanwhile I’m off to get re-inoculated against plantaholicism.
See you next week. Until then enjoy your garden and your gardening.
I am happy to witness your addiction John! You have quite a plant collection Edifice 2 is fairly sprinting. Looking forward to your next updates.
I’m sorry to report there is no known cure for your (our) affliction. Happily there is a support group which convenes mainly on Saturdays. There are Six steps each week on the path to sobriety. Oh wait. Sobriety is not the goal! The mantra is of course “there’s no such thing as too many plants”. On that subject I must get some lupins, i do like them, just don’t have any. If I can 5 or 6 feet out of them I’ll be even happier.
I thought that support groups were intended to help to overcome the addiction, not make it worse! Once upon a time (that time being in excess of a year ago) I was happily just duplicating plant orders for bedding plants. Now I’m duplicating orders for herbaceous perennials, climbers, shrubs …….. I’m not quite ready to reduce the lawn to half its current size. The grass area here is already down to a third of the original mowing area. And shrinking gently.
A well supplied garden (or soon) with all these deliveries and it’s diversified, considering the origins of plants that you grow.
Your lupins are gorgeous, the last photo also and when there will be orange berries it will be great!
Except that it’s significantly smaller than yours and I’m running (more accurately, have run) out of space. I may end up with a nice looking garden that I can’t actually get into! The orange berries will be fleeting once the first blackbird sees one!
Damned blackbirds! Here I have space but Mrs F wants to keep the lawn while I regularly remove it for new beds created and plants. I must slow down the pace to calm those who see no other interest in the garden than a place of rest and a path to go from home to the car (I exaggerate…)
You may have a worse case of plantaholicism than me. If you find a cure, please pass it on.
I’ve found this year that my addiction has been somewhat limited by making a list and then refusing to consider buying anything that is not on that list (accidental duplicate orders being the unintentional exception). What I have yet to discover, though, is a foolproof way of preventing any further additions to that list.
I replied a minute ago and it all went a bit Pete Tong so I will attempt to reproduce it word for word. If by any chance it didn’t disappear into the ether, then you can test my powers of recollection.
The melittus has caught my eye before, I will let you test it out for me, please give me a full report of how you get on. I will also jump on the lupin bandwagon, although I haven’t had any success of growing them myself. Or unsuccess. Perhaps I should give them a go. Westcountry Nurseries, not far from here, have a national collection so there is no excuse except laziness. It is driving me crazy(er) that I can’t see the labels in your new plants, share them soon. Please. Go on. Don’t tease. That is almost a poem.
I’ve only seen one version of your comment; maybe whatever hit me yesterday has hit you today. Ah, sweet mystery of life….
Nick and I are a bit bemused by the planting instructions that came with my plants. On the nursery’s web site it said they needed the dappled shade of woodland but when I read the leaflet (after planting, of course, as one does), that said full sun. Tough. They’re in dappled shade. Until the latest lot, I’d always failed with lupins. Even buying plants in big pots didn’t work – they don’t seem to like heavy soil. But they’ve taken off like triffids in an area from which I removed everything down to bedrock and replaced with a tonne of new loamy topsoil.
I will photograph plant labels for next week’s six.
Ha I know what you mean about first name terms with the delivery drivers. Nice blog as always John.
Thanks. And the Yodel guy did see me today with more plants! His wife was in the car with him today – he joked that she was getting suspicious.
We have a similar theme – temptation and I too ‘blame’ thomas stone! I’m doing some reading this morning but I have some plant ordering to do to!! I do like Melittis melissophyllum ‘Royal Velvet Distinction’. Why do you and Jim have such catchy names for your plants? (Not) !!
If only Thomas was the only one! There are too many temptations in this meme. As to names, perhaps it’s because Jim and I tend towards using the botanical names of things. I must get hold of catalogues from Bakker and You Garden, which often use more friendly names (though they may be meaningless when you try to look a plant up on the web).
Those lupins..sigh…I’ve not managed to keep any for more than one season either, and certainly none that looked as majestic as those.
I’m putting it down to the soil – mine is naturally heavy clay but here and there I’ve dug a big hole and imported new loamy soil. In other places I’ve built up, covering the ground with a foot or two of whatever soil I fill a raised bed with, separated from the ground underneath with a few layers of landscape fabric which stops the worms mixing things together.
Strange as it sounds, I’ve never come across Pond Iris before – that’s making me wish our garden was suitable to add a pond into!
They’re not called “Pond Iris” officially, I call them that because they’re in the pond. I’ll see if, somewhere in my records, I have a note of the variety (varieties) I’ve got and get back to you.
OK, second reply with results of ploughing through my notes. The iris in the photograph is Iris versicolour. This should be (and is) planted with no more than 2″ of water over the crown. I also have Iris pseudacorus, aka yellow flag iris, which can take up to 8″ of water over the crown, and Iris laevigata, or Japanese Iris, which can take 4″ of water over the crown. All can be planted in bog gardens/pomd margins as well. Hope that helps.
Those lupins are beautiful! I haven’t grown any in the last 20 years since one lot didn’t germinate – I tend to sulk and go on to more obliging seeds.
It’s taken me twenty years to get a clump of lupins to live for more than the year in which I plant them out. They seem to do much better in the lighter soil they’re now in than in my more normal heavy clay. They also seem to self-seed quite happily now.