I have been getting some of my new plants by post into the ground. Nowadays I've learnt to make a note of where things on order are supposed to go, so that when the parcel arrives, days, weeks or in the case of bulbs months later, I'm not left scratching my head over how drought tolerant Phyteuma scheuchzeri is, and what I meant to do with it in the first place. The answer in the case of the Phyteuma turned out to be fairly, and it was meant to go outside the Systems Administrator's blue hut, and not in the gravel by the entrance. It has blue, spiky looking flowers and will pick up on the seaside vibe, though it is not a coastal species.
Antennaria dioica has proved itself to be good on very light soil, spreading to form reasonably dense though not entirely weed proof mats, and I added some more of those. I did get a packet of seeds to germinate, but killed them through over watering. The bought plants are all of named varieties, which are presumably slightly more floriferous or impressive than the straight species I'd have ended up with if I'd managed to grow my own. It has greyish foliage, and small pink flowers having something faintly whiskery about them that gives away the fact that it is a member of the daisy family. I'll probably try again with a packet of seeds in due course, or try to save some home collected ones, since it's spreading more than most of the ground cover in the railway garden, and I should like the ground to be covered. Life isn't long enough to spend too much of it pulling weeds out of gravel.
Armeria juniperifolia, the juniper leaved thrift, has proved to be another reasonably good doer in the circumstances, though slower and smaller in all its parts than the Armeria maritima that seeds itself cheerfully about the turning circle. I did once try to germinate a bought packet of seed of A. juniperifolia, with absolutely no success whatsoever, not a glimmer of germination to give me any seedlings to kill afterwards. The 'Bevan's Variety' in the gravel doesn't show any signs of self seeding, unfortunately, and I bought three more. It's a slow spreader, though, and I reckon I could cover the entire area of the railway in Axminster for the cost of clothing it in Armeria juniperifolia.
Two Rhodohypoxis were destined for the gravel by the entrance, where one I planted out last year is sending up leaves and has spread, or at least I think it has. There is a patch of hopeful looking bright green strap shaped leaves emerging, and I can't think what except Rhodohypoxis they could be. They hail originally from the eastern parts of South Africa, and are supposed to be very happy in a shallow pan, except that you cannot leave it outside over a British winter and expect them to live. I speak as one who has tested this empirically, killing four different sorts bought at the Hampton Court Flower Show in the process. The flowers are rather like small pink or white squills, appearing in June. Today's planting brought my total in the gravel to three, all pink and all different, and since I haven't labelled them I don't suppose I shall ever be quite sure which is which.
Thalictrum tuberosum sounded worth a punt, on the strength of an article by Val Bourne, usually a sensible garden journalist, who said that unlike most thalictrums this one positively basked in a sunny, well drained place, the hotter and drier the better. Hot and dry is one thing that gardening on almost pure sand in the Clacton coastal strip can deliver, and since Thalictrum tuberosum is only going to grow a foot high at most it will escape the worst of the wind. If I'd understood the soil better when starting off I'd have given up more space in the front garden to providing shelter, then made more use of the extraordinary drainage to grow tender things from southern climes that absolutely demand dry feet in the winter. As it is the drainage is perfect, but the north and east winds can be lethal.
I fed the bits of gravel I'd finished weeding with fish, blood and bone, since while the sand provides perfect drainage it also delivers a starvation diet.
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