Tag Archives: Dahlias

The Tropical Border Revisited

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Back in April, I told you about the new tropical or hot border I was developing (see ‘Planning for the Tropical Border’).  And I promised to let you know how it turned out; unless, of course, it was a humiliating disaster in which case I most certainly would not.

Well, actually it hasn’t been too bad (despite the absence of a ‘topical’ summer) so here are a few shots taken over the last few weeks.

Various Cannas (including coccinea), Bishop of Llandaff dahlias, Fuchsia thalia and Lilium pardalinum have all flowered pretty well.  As did several self-sown, gaudy snapdragons that artfully filled gaps I’d purposefully left.  *Cough*

While foliage plants including Colocasia esculenta, Tetrapanax papyrifer ‘Rex’, Melianthus major and the bananas Musa basjoo and Ensete maurelii all put on good growth and should be more impressive still next year.

I’ve really enjoyed watching an entirely new bed fill out with unusual and exotic large plants, with the big leafy planting meshed together with Verbena bonariensis.

Not everything has been a resounding success.  The giant reed (Arundo donax – centre, rear) only threw up three or four canes and looks decidedly spindly; but it is a thug and I’m sure it will muscle itself to the fore next year (though I wish I’d followed Christopher Lloyd’s suggestion and bought the variegated form).  And also (sniffle) my Echium pininana didn’t flower (sob); I grew them from seed last year.

Here they are (right) just after they were planted out in May.  I  had banked on them carrying the whole border on their tall, stately, blue-flowered shoulders.  But no, they have let me down and must be transplanted back to the greenhouse to overwinter, in the hope that they will flower next year.

Easily said.  These are now hefty, prickly plants …

… and moving them is hard work.  And besides, I’m not convinced they will survive the process and another winter under glass.

Colocasia is easier to handle and barrow …

… to where I could pot it up in leaf mould.

I almost put my back out moving this fellow.  The red banana (Ensete maurelii) is instant impact when planted out in the spring.

Though I wonder how much longer I will be able to lift this particular specimen without help.

The hardy bananas (Musa basjoo) are not worth lifting.  They are young and didn’t grow much and so can stay put.  I don’t mind if they are killed back down to ground level – which is what will happen if I don’t protect their stems.  But over in what was an experimental ‘tropical border’ last year is a …

… larger specimen.  Last year I wrapped it in hessian to ward off frost.

But I obviously didn’t do it thick enough and the three-foot trunk turned to mush.   This year I intend to protect it properly.  I put a column of wire netting about the de-leafed banana …

… and then stuffed it with straw (knowing the local farmer is a real boon!).

Hmmm.  Not a thing of great beauty … but it should do the job and next year’s new growth will be given a three-foot head start.

I rather like this border.  It is a lot of work preparing it for winter but some of the plants like the dahlias and melianthus and tetrapanax can be mulched and left in situ.   Having seen how the various plants meld together, my spacing next year should be better and, if we actually get some decent sun, then this new bed should really get underway. And, who knows, my echiums might just flower!

A Priory Pause

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I’m about to toss my blogging beret (with ostrich feather) to one side; take off my blogging smoking-jacket (burgundy with faux-ermine trim), lay down my blogging cigarette-holder (fake ivory with diamante inlay) and flick-out my blogging monocle.

Yep.  Time for a break from the blogging treadmill.  At least for a while.  But before I go, I’ll leave you with some recent snapshots from the Priory.

The kidney beds with absurdly huge (and very stoutly staked) echinops – left, have put on a good showing this year.  Over on the right, behind the persicaria is …

… Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’.  This is a widely grown garden stalwart … and quite right too.  A gorgeous, and reliable, thing.

The long borders are looking neat and trim but I shall be giving them a major revamp over the coming months.  The cardoons for a start will be coming out – their enormous leaves take up a huge amount of space but then die back leaving unsightly gaps.

Here, in the rock border, is Lobelia cardinalis ‘Queen Victoria.‘  I’ve grown this in my garden before but this is its first year at the Priory.

You will have to do battle with slugs, to get it to flowering size.  Persevere – she’s worth it.

For these past four years, I’ve experimented with different climbers on this wooden post:  morning glory, passion flower, Spanish flag and this year black-eyed Susan (Thunbergia alata).  I can now announce my climber trial is over and we have a clear winner.  Of the four, I am most impressed with (…drumroll … bugle … more drumroll … a touch more bugle …) the Thunbergia.  It has won itself a permanent spot. *Applause, whistles and foot stomping*

I started clipping the box the other day – of which I’ve planted rather a lot.  This hedge is a free-form shape.  A sleigh?  A recumbent giant (waist down only)? A pair of racing caterpillars?  No idea.  It will become clearer in time, perhaps.  Or maybe I should run a competition?  You suggest it; I’ll clip it.

A view across the new path beds (planted with but not yet filled by Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’) to the new tropical border.

It hasn’t been a brilliant year for establishing a hot border.  But it is now, finally, beginning to plump up and have a romp.  Agonizingly, my Echium pininana are still only three-foot tall.  Will they flower this year?  I demand it but your guess is as good as mine.

Dahlia ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ adds spots of colour …

… as did Lilium pardalinum and …

… Canna coccinea; all three are new additions to the gardens.

And if you haven’t grown Eucomis bicolor before (like me) I would heartily recommend it.  The flowers are simply (insert superlative of choice here) and very long-lived indeed.  I do so like a hardworking plant.

I’ll finish with this shot of an only recently transplanted Verbascum olympicum.  As a ghostly specimen this particular plant takes some beating.  The silver, unblemished leaves; the symmetry, stature and slightly bashful nod; that promise of gold flower.  I shall be transplanting more of these from the Old Forge.

Right then.

That’s enough.

Break-time, already.

See you soon ….. Dave

Slug Feeder

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This cool, wet “summer” has been fabulous for our slug and snail chums.  And I’ve learnt that I’m really good at something.   (What a relief that is).  I’m simply brilliant at feeding slugs.

I can grow a constant supply of slug food;  my repeated sowings of radishes and salad leaves have been much appreciated …

… as have newly planted out sweet peas, runner beans, marigolds, heleniums, salvias …

… and cannas.  All have been nibbled, munched, shredded or have simply disappeared.  And, of course, …

… dahlias have proven particularly popular.

Though I skip about the gardens scattering (organic) pellets to my left and to my right, it makes little difference.   The following morning all the pellets will have disappeared and the devastation will have continued.

So no, this hasn’t been a great year for gardening; too little rain, too much rain; sloppy soil, baked-hard soil: buffeting winds and pro-longed periods of cold.  And those sluggy, snaily things.  One might even say it has been a rubbish gardening year.  So I shall.  It has been a rubbish gardening year.

Still, in the mostly slug-free greenhouse, …

… my four cucumber plants and eight tomatoes are coming along …

… and it won’t be long before we have our first cucumbers.

I’ve bought an irrigation system for these bed-grown plants and it seems to work fine; watering away over the weekends.

In the rock border, the foxgloves are showing off nicely.  Each year I dig up self-sown seedlings, pot them up and then dot them about, aiding their further colonisation of the gardens.  In addition, I grow white ones from seed.

Some dahlias did manage to survive successive slug mauling; this is Dahlia ‘Smarty.’  No two flowers …

…are the same and unlike some varieties I grow (‘Fire and Ice’ springs to mind) this is a  resilient, vigorous plant.  (Slugs often ‘go’ for weaker or poorly, less robust plants).

Also in the rock border, amongst the ferns,  I’ve discovered polemoniums.  Never seen it before; never grown it; never bought any seed.  Its seed must have lain dormant in the soil.  Waiting.  Just waiting.  Either that or there’s a  guerilla gardener about!

 

At the rock border’s far end, and increasing year on year, is a clump of yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata).  To the left of it is bergenia – which I moved here from another part of the garden.  Incidentally, I always cut off all the bergenia leaves in spring; this removes all the tatty, browned ones.

This was the bergenia de-frocked in April; looks a little startling but the new, fresh leaves soon emerge.

In one of the kidney beds, my Crambe cordifoila has flowered again.  Last year the stems collapsed, so this year I’ve given it a damn good staking – and it is holding up.  Oddly, the slugs don’t seem to bother it.

At the back of the kidney beds are Foxtail Lilies (Eremurus stenophyllus).  I’m hugely pleased with these  – the first I’ve ever grown.  But they were prone to slug attack too and from ten bulbs, only two or three have flowered.  Hopefully they will do better next year.

Also in one of the kidney beds is a lovely, understated plant: Gillenia trifoliata.  This pretty, little thing is one of the very few plants I took from my old garden when I moved house.  It doesn’t seem to be widely known or grown.  It ought to be both, I think.

On the west wall of the house is a marvellous (and huge) climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea petiolaris).  Last year all the flower bud was lost to frost.  This photo, taken a bit too late, doesn’t do it justice – the display this year was a good one.

At the back of the house, a very old rose (possibly ‘New Dawn’) fills the confined space with scent …

… and in the car-park, four Rosa ‘Ferdinand Pichard’ are getting established.  Planted bare-rooted a couple of years ago, they also have a superb scent.

On the rose tunnel, and flowering for the first time, is Rosa moyesii ‘Geranium.’  No scent but a beautiful, simple flower which later form large brilliant orange, flagon-shaped hips.  (Thanks to Francie for introducing me to it).

And finally, another plant which I haven’t grown before (put in a pot to protect it from slug-dom); the exotic looking Peruvian Daffodil, the Spider Lily or Ismene (Hymenocallis x festalis).  Rather lovely, don’t you think?

So, despite the best efforts of all those blasted gastropod molluscs, there is some flower in the Priory gardens.  With, I hope, lots more to come.

Planning for the Tropical Border

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In between mowing and planting and fretting, I’ve been cracking on with the tropical border and the two completely new beds (see – ‘Busy, Busy, Busy’).  I finally finished cutting the turf (on either side of the path) for the two new beds;  rock hard soil didn’t make this task any easier and yep, I’ve hurt my back.

Looking a little like an oil-tanker, it needs more work as I’m not happy with the shape – it needs to be ‘curvier’.  (Incidentally,  these beds don’t extend all the way along the path, as this is the only access to the east lawn for the ride-on mower and quad bike).

With the new beds cut, the next job was to transfer two or three inches of top soil from the tropical border to the new beds and begin preparing the former.

The new tropical border is close-by the path.

Next job?  Barrowing several loads of very well-rotted manure in from out on the drive.  Next job?  Barrowing several loads of compost in from the ‘bins.

I've been asked to leave the roses in situ - though if all goes to plan they will find themselves smothered by the new tenants. And also, looking at this photo, I'm thinking, "We're going to need a bigger bed!" It needs to be deeper.

And then?  Digging it all over – before it gets a final compost-mulch top-coat.  Thankfully, I still have loads of compost available.

With the hard work mostly done, I thought I had better make a start on getting some plants ready to go into this new tropical/exotic (call it what you will) border.

First up, were various dahlias that I dug up last autumn; dried, wrapped up in newspaper and squirrelled away.  I checked them twice during the winter (to remove any rot) and, on unwrapping the other day, found that they were in fine fettle and raring to go.

I also had my box of Precious Things; an order from Peter Nyssen and various other bits and bobs that I’ve picked up recently.

I’m particularly excited about these ten Lilium pardalinum which, with luck and a fair wind, should reach two metres in height.

Great to re-use some of the large number of old pots hanging about the place.

Quite a lot of time spent potting then and er, I might have overdone it on ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ dahlias.  I’m a bit embarrassed at how many I’ve got (though I can use them in other parts of the garden too).  I’ll say the number quickly and then we’ll move right on, OK?  OK.  Ready?  Here we go … 29.

I recently bought these rather lovely Melianthus major.  Not a plant I’ve grown before but I’ve been itching to get my sticky mitts on one (or two) for a while.

To augment dahlias, cannas and lilies, is my over-wintering collection of Echium pininana – grown from seed last year.  I lost one over the winter but these seven seem healthy enough and have continued to grow these past few months.  Indeed, every time I’ve moved them, I’ve had to prise their pots from the soil below.  In the above photo there is also red banana and a variegated ginger.  In addition to all these, I have some ‘Musa basjoo’ hardy bananas and …

… a colocasia.  I know the latter should probably have had a rest period over the winter but last September I dug it up, popped it in a large pot of leaf mould and put it in the (heated) greenhouse.  It’s a little tatty (hence the close up shot!) but it can go back out soon with a head-start.

A lot of plants then but this is a big new border – and the old tropical bed needs plants too.  I’ll let you know how it all turns out … unless, of course, it is an unmitigated disaster, in which case you will hear nothing more.  Zilch.  Nada.  Nowt.  Instead, I’ll concentrate happily on daisies in the lawn, dandelion seed-heads, frogs and back-lit oak leaves; the usual AG fare.  But my silence will speak volumes and you’ll know, you will know, that the new tropical border looks absolutely rubbish.