2025

We have had three days of quite persistent rain and everything in the garden has shot up. It seems to be getting drier at the moment plus the sun is back, albeit intermittently. There seems to be quite a bit of blue in the garden, so this week I’m having the blues.

Smaller in stature than ‘Crarae’, Meconopsis ‘Crewdson Hybrid’ has been around for some time. It is believed to be an opportunist cross between M. betonicifolia and M. grandis. The interesting thing about many meconopsis is that although the original cross was made between two fertile species and the resulting plants often produce viable seed, they eventually become sterile in later generations. This means that my plants were produced vegetatively.

Geranium ‘Orion’ is in fact not an interspecies cross but a seedling of “Brookside”. One of what I like to call the “Big Blues”

I don’t think you can beat Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue’ for strong growth and intense blue flowers. I find it can be rather a rampant grower and be a bit floppy, but I still wouldn’t be without it. As I am sure many of you have experienced geraniums, are notoriously promiscuous. This is an interspecies cross: G. himalayense x G. pratense. Another “Big Blue”!

Geranium ‘Brookside’ is officially violet/blue so I am including it. Another “Big Blue” this is an interspecies cross: G. clarkei ‘Kashmir Purple’ x G. pratense.

**Campanula portenschlagiana ‘Mrs Resholt’**

I bought this little bellflower, sometimes known as ‘Resholt’s Variety’, as an edging plant. I will probably move it as it doesn’t seem suited to where it is. The soil is very poor, and I managed to run over it with the recycling bin a few weeks ago! Unfortunately it isn’t in full flower yet but I am running out of blues!

No excuses! I couldn’t resist one last picture.

This meme is hosted by Jim Stevens who is to be found with all the details and links to plenty of other blogs to enjoy at Garden Ruminations.

Six on Saturday 17/05/2025

Weather-wise we have had a couple of light frosts at the beginning of the month and haven’t had any appreciable rainfall for weeks. We have had no rain in May, only 18mm in the whole of April, and the dry weather is set to continue for at least another week. It has been fascinating watching the weather radar, any rain clouds that did appear always veered away from our location! At least, now I have a small garden, it does make watering less of a task.

Inherited paeony of unknown origins. For some reason it thrives in a shaded dry spot but produces many flowers every year. Technically the photo’ is not good but I like the “silvering” and shade contrast.

**Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum ‘Mariesii’**

I am very appreciative of viburnums, I know they can have a problem with viburnum beetle which can badly affect the evergreen species, but, in my opinion, if this one was evergreen it would be perfect.

Wild garlic (Allium ursinum) can be a rampant spreader but having been offered a clump from a friend, and having several “difficult” areas in the garden I thought “why not”! It is relatively well contained although it has manged to appear in the joints of the adjacent flags. I do tend to go for many native and tough plants as much of my garden is on an old railway yard which I originally planted out with a pick and trenching tool which in fact I have used today!

The candelabra primulas are coming into flower at my favourite time of the year. My first specialisation as an amateur gardener was alpines, but after visits to Ness Botanical Gardens, Fletcher Moss University Gardens and Harlow Carr I graduated to the larger end of the alpine spectrum. I first started to grow primulas rapidly joined by meconopsis and, luckily, I have a small area in the current garden where they will grow and I can still enjoy them.

This seedling appears to be true to its adjacent parent Geranium var. pratense. f. albiflorum. ‘Galactic’. It is so nice to have a white one pop-up as most self seedlings are usually from the blue plants.

A couple of aquilegias to finish off. A.fragrans is from seed and seems to be wilting a bit unfortunately. It looks as if my policy of removing the seed heads from all standard deep blue A.vulgaris and leaving anything that was more interesting has paid off as I think that’s a rather nice seedling.

This meme is hosted by Jim Stevens who is to be found with all the details and links to plenty of other blogs to enjoy at Garden Ruminations.

Odds and Sods

Here are some photos of plants I missed earlier from the old garden and some from the new.

Dahlias

Everybody is familiar with dahlias, so no more needs writing. Probably the camera but the colour of ‘Mel’s Orange Marmalade’ looks decidedly off and ‘Cafe au Lait’ is looking definitely droopy. I used to raise ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ and his children from seed and they were the only dahlias I actually engaged with, dahlias are not really a favourite. My father used to love his dahlias as well as growing giant delphiniums, every year the tubers were lifted carefully, cleaned, dusted with sulphur and stored in the cellar in tomato boxes and every year half of them rotted off. I was hoping that one year everything would be perfect but it never was.

A couple of new Geraniums

**Geranium macrorrhizum ‘Ingwersen’s Variety’**

‘Ingwersen’s Variety’ was grown from seed last year whilst ‘Galactic’ has been in the garden for a few years now, but I lost the label and have only recently been able to re-identify it by chance.

Canna lilies from tropical America, have been in cultivation for many years and consequently there are many cultivars in a range of vibrant colours available. I grew several in pots for a couple of years but ceased when I decided to no longer have winter heat in my tunnel. Note the use of plastic containers, I had so many that it would have cost a fortune to do otherwise, plus the weight factor when moving them around, although I did buy a sack-truck in later years.

I have no recollection of taking this photograph, although Heptacodium miconioides is certainly a worthy subject. A vigorous tall shrub from China with peeling bark, its scented flowers appear late in the year lasting well into October, which makes it an ideal subject for the woodland garden. There is also the benefit that it sets plenty of seed. Sometimes known as ‘Seven son flower of Zhejiang’

**Hydrangea arborescens ‘Incrediball’ – Strong Annabelle**

I bought this when T&M were advertising this new ‘Incrediball’ hydrangea and it is still going strong in a very large container in my new garden. Flowers reliably every year although they are not attaining the size that they should which is probably down to me. I am going to hard prune it this winter to see what happens.

The shoo-fly plant or apple of Peru used to be quite widely grown for bedding schemes but seems to have gone out of favour. It is an extremely fast growing large annual rapidly attaining anything from 3 to 6 feet. The purple flowers die leaving a lantern shaped calyx which can be used in dried flower arrangements. It has a habit of appearing out of the blue, which is exactly what the pictured plant did.