planting out

I've been planting up some of the gaps in the awkward bed by the entrance.  The pots of pink chrysanthemums went in, not before time as they were on the verge of becoming pot-bound.  My stock amounted to six pots of the tightly double, dark pink 'Dr Tom Parr', originally from Langthorn's, and five of the tall, pale 'Emperor of China'.  The roots of one of the Doctor Parrs had fasciated to a remarkable degree, spread out like pink fans around the inside of the pot.  I've never seen that before, not on roots.  It was not honestly very attractive, though flower arrangers covet fasciated stems.  I planted the entire potful as it was, and left it to sort itself out.  A few of the plants were infected with the wretched root aphid. but with any luck a winter in the ground will sort them out, since I think it's primarily a pest of pots and protected growing.

The flowers of 'Emperor of China' look just like chrysanthemums out of a Chinese painting, and I made a mental note to cut a few for the kitchen table.  My original plant in the back garden has emerged from the tangle of other things that threatened to overwhelm it, helped by the fact that an autumn gale blew a branch out of an encroaching Robinia hispida.  Unfortunately, once exposed to the elements it flopped over.  A back-up I bought from the Chatto gardens has failed to appear among the asters further up the bed.  It's always tricky trying to squeeze new acquisitions in among larger, established plants, as they can be outpaced and shaded out in their first season, even though in theory they should grow at least as tall as their neighbours.

Three Sedum 'Matrona' filled a space where some Erysimum 'Bowles Mauve' died.  This perennial wallflower is only short lived, perhaps because it flowers for so long in its first couple of years it exhausts itself.  I did remember to take cuttings this time round, but used them in another bed.

A couple of seed raised verbascums that had been languishing in the greenhouse all summer went in next to an existing patch, likewise a small rooted cutting of Sedum 'Abbeydore'.  I was disappointed to find that only one 'Abbeydore' had succeeded, since I must have taken more cuttings than that, and seem to have vast supplies of 'Vera Jameson'.  Still, I'll try again next year, now I've discovered quite how easy sedum cuttings are.  Two dark purple penstemons struck from cuttings went in front of the chrysanthemums.  They had gone straggly in the greenhouse, and I layered a couple of stems of each to encourage them to spread.  I can vaguely imagine the penstemons and chrysanthemums mingling at the edges in a pleasant way, but I don't know if they'll see it like that.  I still have some even stragglier seed raised lilac coloured penstemon to go in.

Some columbines completed today's efforts, a long-spurred, yellow flowered species from north America, Aquilegia longissima.  Growing columbines from packeted seed always seems to be feast or famine, and I end up with either complete failure or two dozen plants.  This time round I have enough to experiment.  With any luck they'll like it somewhere in the garden, and seed themselves about.

And that is the opposite of the carefully planned schemes of garden designers, but is how you may set about filling up odd corners, if you have a finite budget and enjoy propagating, then need homes for your progeny.  The assortment I planted today would have cost roughly a hundred and twenty quid from the plant centre, based on that number of two litre and nine centimetre pots.