Veg Plotting

2020 is proving to be a spectacular year for wildflowers, not just in terms of their abundance, but also for new ones popping up. A few weeks ago I spotted this newbie peeping out of the shade in our front side garden. A closer look and I'd instantly consigned it to a member of the deadnettle family owing to its nettle-like, hairy leaves without the familiar tingling sensation when touched. There my identification would have stayed; thank goodness for blogging and Wildflower Wednesday to encourage me to investigate further! A quick glance at Plantlife's information on the red dead-nettle and I could see straight away my initial ID was wrong owing to the rounder leaves and rather pink flowers. It doesn't have the distinctive markings of my garden's plant.  I turned to my trusty Francis Rose and found the answer within a couple of minutes in the form of exhibit A on the page. The leaves and distinctive flowers mark it out as hedge woundwort ( Stachys sylvatica ) inste...

I came across Diascia  (aka Twinspur) for the first time 20 years ago when I started going to Franks Plants sales here in Chippenham. The blooms resemble those of Snapdragons, though the plants are more compact and like their Antirrhinum cousin, they're sold as bedding plants. Back then I used them as a filler plant for my borders; this year they're performing a similar role in some of my patio pots and provide a good dash of colour there in their preferred sunny spot. I learnt by accident* with my first planting that these can survive the winter and are in fact perennials, not annuals like most plants sold as bedding. It makes them a bargain plant in my view. Salmon isn't my first choice of colour, but as many of you know getting hold of plants under Lockdown has proved challenging. Now it's here, the colour's growing on me ('scuse pun). I was really pleased to find out on the grapevine back in late March  Meadow Farm Nurseries had a list of plants f...

I first came across this plant a few years ago at West Green House (pictured), where it provided useful winter colour and scent in a shady part of the garden. I decided there and then it was just what was needed to provide some winter interest for our views from the kitchen. I finally achieved that intent last year when I bought three of these plants, which go by the catchy title (not) of Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca 'Citrina' aka Scorpion vetch or Bastard senna. My research showed it likes sunny, walled areas as well as the shade I'd seen it in, which is just as well as that's exactly the spot I had for it. However, all is not well in my garden so far. I needed two plants, one for the top terrace bed and one for a pot next to the kitchen door, but I found it was cheaper to buy three. However my Coronilla curled up its toes at my chosen spots, and prefered my careless 'bunging' of the spare plant into another patio pot, one which can't be s...

I was surprised to find a-new-to-me plant on our walk along the canal at Bradford on Avon recently. It reminded me of the invasive Himalayan Balsam which is well established along many of our waterways, but a bright jewel-like orange instead of gaudy pink? Its ID had me stumped. Back home I soon found I was at least half way there with my ID. It is indeed another balsam, otherwise known as  Impatiens capensis , aka orange jewelweed, or orange balsam. Whilst it was quite common along our walk, I was pleased to see it's not out competed the other grasses and wild flowers along the canal. According to its entry on the BSBI website, it's not currently considered to have a high ecological impact on our river and canal system, unlike its Himalayan cousin. However it does also has an explosive seed capsule and buoyant seeds which helps with dispersal. This has resulted in its subsequent spread through our canal and river systems in Southern England. Have you seen it yet...

Following last year's Windowsill makeover , I'm pleased to report my basket of plants has filled out nicely and continues to look good in the kitchen one year on. The Aloe vera  can be pressed into burns relief duties if needed, and the two Plectranthus on either side don't seem to mind being hacked back occasionally to keep them within bounds. For this month's Blooms Day it's the plant on the left which is of interest... ... fifteen months on from when Barbara gave me a cutting it has a few spikes of delicate white blooms. I thought they looked a little Salvia -like, so it's no surprise she says it's one of South Africa's indigenous sages, aka Plectranthus grandidentatus,  aka vicks plant*. As well as looking sage-like, I also think the flowers are sticking their tongues out. Barbara goes on to say: "... it was growing between the plum trees etc at a wonderful winery I visited in South Africa a few years back, Babylonstoren ." ...

Before: evidence of my shameful treatment of Aloe vera   I knew something was wrong when I found the pictured basket of Aloe vera on my kitchen chair recently, instead of the windowsill where it usually resides... "... What's that doing on my seat?", I asked NAH. "It's getting in the way, and I'm fed up. What is it anyway?" "It's Aloe vera . I keep it there in case we have a burn to treat." "And how many times have you used it?" "Er, none," was my shamefaced reply, "that's why it's got rather out of hand." Aloe vera is a tough succulent suitable for growing indoors in the UK. That pictured little lot goes back well over nine years, as I was given an offshoot to pot up by my GNO friend H well before I left my last permanent job. The only care I've taken since then was to pot up the pictured three pots of them grown from the original offshoot, and to trim the dead ends and leaves fr...

I don't usually go for coleus, but these three simple pots round the corner catch my eye every time I go past them. They're placed below a window at the end of a drab drive, with colours that blend with each other well and also complement the brickwork of the house. This photo was taken on a dreary day and their fieriness helps to lift the gloom. I think they're fabulous, how about you? Update October 4th 2016: It looks like the outer coleus are a new cultivar called 'Campfire' , spotted amongst 56,000 seedlings at the University of Florida in 2012, or possibly 'Redhead' . It depends whether the orange of 'Campfire' has intensified, like the blurb in this month's HTA News says it does. This is a tender perennial of hardiness H1C which means it can be grown outdoors in the summer. Update same day: Ball Colegrave introduced these onto the UK market this year, so I was able to get their American company to confirm the cultivar via Tw...

There's been a switch thrown in my garden this week with this season's first dahlia blooms making their appearance. My beloved D . 'Moonfire' has returned right on cue, joined by a surprise reappearance of the pictured D . 'Bonita' above. Why the surprise? Well, it's in a terracotta pot and had no winter protection, not even my famous Dahlia Duvet . It was so much of a surprise, its stems had been nibbled down to soil level by slugs and snails before I found it. Now it's looking good, and set to be a star of my patio all over again. D . 'Arabian Night' and D . 'XXX' (as named by Thompson & Morgan when they sent it me to trial) are set fair to join them soon as I can see lots of buds forming. That's the great thing about leaving dahlias in the ground (if you can, and it's always a bit of a gamble, even this far south), the tubers get bigger with each year, and in turn bear ever increasing numbers of blooms. I'll al...

A comma butterfly sips nectar from a  Verbena bonariensis  bloom - in my garden last year  May's always a tense time of the year... it's peak gardening time with lots of spring jobs clamouring for attention, and then there's the key question... have all my precious plants survived the winter? There are always some alarming gaps in my borders which can't be written off and replaced until the end of May. These gaps are where the tender salvias, dahlias and short-lived perennials live, joined in my daily anxious searches this year by the Verbena bonariensis 'curtain' between my double terrace beds. The good news is a couple of the plants have survived... the bad news is a couple of them haven't. This was a bit of a surprise as Verbena bonariensis is relatively hardy for my part of the world - rated as H4 according to the RHS - but the cold heavy clay of my garden always causes more winter damage than the hardest of frosts. We had a mild yet wet winte...

I declare the clematis season is open with today's surprise discovery of my Clematis 'Frances Rivis'  at the bottom of the garden. It's a surprise because I cut it back hard late last year when I was tidying up that part of the garden and I thought I'd sacrificed the spring display in the process. It shows what a tough clematis this is despite its delicate good looks. This is no doubt due to its mountainous heritage and it thoroughly deserves its alpina species name. The Clematis genus name is appropriate too as this comes from the Greek meaning climbing plant. C . 'Frances Rivis' is one of my favourites of the many I have here at  VP Gardens . It's an older clematis, dating back to around 1900 and is named after the Suffolk gardener who raised it from seed.  Elsewhere in the garden there are lots of fat buds showing promise of a wonderful clematis season this year. Thank goodness when I cut back those Darling Buds of March ,  I did no harm and...

Summertime Nemesia 'Wisley Vanilla' It was wonderful at the weekend to be able to sit out on the patio without the need for fleece and gloves, at last . I drank plenty of coffee, had the odd ice cream or three, and took some time to see how the spring garden is coming on. Then I detected the unmistakable scent of the nearest Nemesia 'Wisley Vanilla', remarkable because there are currently just a couple of stems in bloom after its late winter haircut. This was also one of my surprise plants in bloom for last December's Blooms Day . I have a pair in bright blue pots either side of the patio doors, and their distinctive warm scent makes my nostrils crinkle with pleasure. They also remind me of happy times spent with Threadspider , so she still has a friendly presence in my garden now she lives so far away. NAH mistakenly calls them Amnesia. Inspection of the other pot revealed its plant has succumbed to root rot over the winter, about the only problem with...

And in the wood, where often you and I Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie...  William Shakespeare, in:  A Midsummer Night's Dream . As Shakespeare is the man of the moment, so consider the above as my small contribution to the festivities. Primroses are amongst our favourite spring flowers, especially as they're a native wildflower. It's name is derived from the Latin, prima rosa , meaning the first rose of the year, though it's not a member of the rose family. Primrose-beds aren't as common as they were in Shakespeare's time due to over picking. Now they're protected by law and I'm always pleased to see a huge bank of them on my way to my allotment at this time of the year. A perennial plant, they can reach maturity in a single year and may self-seed prolifically. It means they can recover well if conditions are right. We found lots of them on holiday in Cornwall too. A more surprising sight was the pictured plant at Wheal Martyn Chi...

Bees land on lavender with a satisfying 'fwing' - taken on my sunny patio next to my garden bench in 2014.  I love lavender. It thrives on neglect, is loved by bees and the merest brush against it releases a gorgeous scent. What's not to like? I confess it's taken a while for me to learn to look after it properly. I had to grub out a wonderful 20 foot long lavender hedge in the front side garden after the trees on the public land next door shaded it out. Then the selection I grew at the front of one of the sunny terraced beds in the back garden became too woody and ugly because I didn't prune it properly. That was before I learnt a top tip from Jekka McVicar - prune them back to the merest hint of the current year's growth in August ( L. stoechas ) or September for the more hardy varieties (e.g. L. angustifolia ). That keeps the plants nice and compact and the timing allows the plants to recover from their haircut well in time for anything winter may ...

View of the restored conservatory from the Italian garden at Chiswick House  A couple of days ago I had an enjoyable afternoon finding out about the historic collection of Camellia japonica at Chiswick House . This garden's been on my radar for a while. There's a restored walled kitchen garden and a most intriguing entrance to look out for when you whizz by on the coach to London . The invitation to a special Garden Media Guild study day was the nudge I needed to go and explore. The collection is housed in an amazing 300 foot long conservatory, restored via a generous Heritage Lottery grant and public appeal in 2010. The original conservatory was designed by Samuel Ware and built in 1813 to house the usual production of fruit and vegetables a notable house of those times demanded. It was redeveloped in the 1840s to include improvements in glass and ironwork pioneered by Joseph Paxton, and the fruit and veg replaced with camellias. It's believed to be the oldes...