Sunday 7 August 2011

third time lucky?

For the past couple of days I've been clearing up the mess in the island bed in the back garden.  This is a well-drained, open, sunny border, which for many years was covered in Cistus, Stipa gigantea and Verbena borariensis, all of which gently self-seeded.  I stuck in some pink dwarf beared iris and pink dwarf Cytisus for spring interest, and some asters for autumn, which did pretty well given the dry conditions.  A few Eremurus (foxtail lilies), low tulips and other bits and bobs, and it was fairly low maintenance.  There is a Judas tree in there, Cercis siliquastrum, which at the current rate of progress should be making a good show at about the time that we are ready to downshift to a smaller property.  I don't know if they are always slow, but mine is.

A couple of years ago the Cistus were getting a bit long in the tooth, with increasing amounts of dead in them, and I decided it was time for a revamp.  That winter was a cold one (2009-10) and I lost most of my autumn planted shrubs.  The creeping sorrel and weed grasses revelled in the lack of competition, and grew mightily.  I cleared them up and replanted again.  The next winter (2010-11) was even colder.  Dead things I have unearthed so far are as follows:

One interesting yellow flowered Buddleia, bought at Hampton Court Flower Show.  I might try one again in a pot, if I see one, though I'm running out of space to overwinter pots, but not outside.

One new Cistus.  Not really surprising.

Several Melianthus major, raised from cuttings.  This is the second time I've tried them in the open ground and lost them, and I'm getting disillusioned with the attempt.

One Caryopteris of a new variety with particularly silver leaves.  An established gold leafed one survived, and they are fairly easy from cuttings, so that might be worth trying again.

One Grevillea that died after the first winter.  No more of those planned.

One Callistemon that made faint attempts to recover after the first bad winter but none after the second.  Not replacing that.

A red Alstromeria.  Established ones from the Princess series survived so that might be worth replacing.  I like Alstromeria.

A red shrubby salvia.  I think my soil is too mere for them anyway.  They never look remotely as good as the ones in the border at work.

A Clerodendron trichotomum.  I think an established plant would have been OK, as a huge one in the garden at work survived, so that's worth giving another go.  They have scented flowers in late summer, and unusual blue fruit.

A Clerodendron bungei.  They have exotic red flowers and leaves that smell rather unpleasant.  This is my second failure and I think our garden is too dry for them.  Not sure I'll replace that, unless with a potted one to stand with the dahlias.  The stinky leaves are a drawback.

Coronilla glauca, the form with pale yellow flowers.  Not the first plant I've lost and in the absence of a nice warm bed next to a wall I'm getting frankly pissed off with it.

Survivors include:

One Rosa glauca, now called R. rubrifolia, or maybe it is the other way round.  It has little bright pink flowers and good hips.  I've tried them elsewhere in the garden without success, but I don't know if that was due to too much shade or too much competition from the roots of the hedge, so this spot was intended to eliminate both.

A blue lupin that is practically tree-like, but bushier than L. arboreus and seemingly longer lived and hardier.  It has made a splendid huge mound, the only problem being I put it right at the front not expecting it to grow that large, and it is in completely the wrong place.  I grew it from seed, and must try and work out what it is as it did set seed but I think I've left it too late to harvest and it's already dropped.  Some more plants would be useful, in a different place.

A blue hibiscus, currently enveloped by the lupin.  Maybe the protection of the lupin saved it.

Romneya coulteri, which is notoriously difficult to establish in the garden, and this is my third attempt.  That survival was unexpected.  If and when it gets going it should run about and produce white poppy-like flowers.  At the moment it has one stem 30cm tall and no flowers, but that is still considerably better than my earlier efforts.

One Koelreuteria grown from seed.  I already have one elsewhere in the garden, also from seed, that doesn't look too happy with life, so I was trying again on slightly better soil as an insurance policy.  And because I hated to waste the plant and couldn't persuade any of my friends that they wanted it.

A rosemary.  I think I grew it on from a tiny plant that was being half-priced at work at the end of the herb season.  I'm surprised that coped, though with some of these tender things young plants did manage better than old woody ones.

A Potentilla fruticosa.  I'm not surprised that survived, given they are popular in Scandinavian gardens.

If you count up the ratio of losses it isn't a good picture.  Let's hope we hear a bit less in future in gardening magazines about how the changing climate means we can grow many more interesting southern hemisphere and mediterranean climate plants in our gardens.  For replacements I'm thinking along the lines of roses and berberis.  I don't want to end up with a planting scheme that could have come straight out of a municipal car park, but I would like the plants to live this time.

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