The plant centre was closed again today, too. Pity, as Bank Holidays count for double pay. Still, I don't suppose we'd have got much trade, and I can't blame the owners for trimming wage costs where they can, in these hard times. I used the time in the garden instead. Radio weather forecasters kept saying that today was much colder than yesterday, with a chill wind, and it was.
I'm still working my way down the long bed in the front garden, and am getting into my stride. This is on extremely light soil in full sun, and some of my original plantings failed to thrive, while others that were good for a time got old and hideous, and so it's been a renovation project in places over the past year. A Choisya x dewitteana 'Aztec Pearl' came out more easily than I feared it might. It was a pick axe job, but an easy one. The poor thing never prospered from the outset, despite being periodically dosed with 6X, pelleted chicken manure and other stimulants. (Plants that have never done well tend not to have very good root systems, so it was not a total surprise that it didn't take all afternoon to dig out, but you never know. The worst shrubs to remove are generally things that have got huge, and are not yet dead). 'Aztec Pearl', well grown, is a vigorous shrub with dark green leaves. The firm who built my parents' house planted a couple in the front garden, and they have grown prodigously, and would entirely block the window of the downstairs loo without regular pruning. 'Aztec Pearl' has narrow leaves, and masses of scented white flowers, and when I planted it I liked the idea of it very much. However, for all that the RHS says that it's suitable for well drained soil and full sun, and drought tolerant, mine was an abject failure, stunted with yellowing leaves despite my encouragements. I think our front garden does take 'well drained' and 'drought' to new levels of meaning sometimes.
'Aztec Pearl' is one of those plants which the gardening establishment has mysteriously not taken to its bosom. I think that must be due to the enthusiasm with which mass housebuilders and supermarket car park designers have used it. OK, it doesn't have astonishing grace and poise, but a fast growing (in the right conditions) evergreen shrub with slender, divided, glossy dark leaves and scented flowers in spring that are attractive to insects is a reasonably pleasant prospect. However, Graham Stuart Thomas, having praised Choisya ternata, says sniffily 'As to the new hybrid 'Aztec Pearl', I can see little to recommend it'.
Most of the bearded iris seem to need dividing again. I feel that iris ought to be happy in the front garden, but mine seem to go straight from freshly replanted rhizomes to congested mats with stunted leaves, without bothering much about flowering in between. Whatever it is that they really, really want, I don't seem to be providing it, and I don't know quite what it is. Feeding? The soil is free draining, but also exceptionally infertile. It has done for Ballota before now, that are supposed to be such good dry garden plants.
There is a creeping weed grass here and there. I forked out what I could, but it has taken refuge over the years in the ivy hedge and under the yews, whose roots are so dense I could never extract all of the grass. I hit it with glyphosate, when I can avoid spraying the legitimate inhabitants of the bed, and keep it in check, but I never manage to eradicate it. I am almost an organic gardener (organic purists would reject that claim as meaningless, since to deviate even slightly from the righteous path is to fail entirely. Sometimes they chuck in the adage about how 'you can't be a little bit pregnant' for good measure). Anyway, I very rarely use chemicals in the garden, but spot treating creeping and difficult to get at weeds with glyphosate is one instance where I do find them helpful.
The sun shone beautifully, and the wind was frankly cold, and as I worked I mused on what to put in the gaps, without coming to any firm conclusions. I might try a shrubby, twisty branched Japanese cherry next to the golden pine. Another Japanese cherry, one with double flowers that I bought as a tiny rooted shrub from a now sadly defunt firm up in Norfolk, is doing quite well elsewhere in the bed, despite the sandy soil, and I think the twisty cherry and the pine would complement each other. I might leave some room for annuals. I don't normally do annuals, except for self seeding ones, mainly in the gravel, but I have a yen for some Cosmos, and they do very well in nearby gardens. In the winter I could have wallflowers. I adore wallflowers, which are one of the fondly remembered plants of my childhood. I'll see how much room is left by the time I've finished shuffling the iris about.
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