Viburnum ‘Aurora’ and ?

April 28, 2024 by Cathy

About two weeks ago, while we were still enjoying a warm spell, my Viburnum carlesii ‘Aurora’ in the Oval Bed came into flower.

I love this shrub and have another one at the front gate. I also grew it very successfully in my old garden. It has a wonderful fragrance, pretty pale pink flowers and shiny leaves.

As you may notice on these photos there is a bud next to the flower, tightly closed. I thought this was odd and had already noticed the foliage of part of the shrub was slightly different. But, I am embarrassed to admit, I never really took much notice of it.

A few days ago the second lot of buds opened, and some ugly white flowers, with no scent, appeared. Now, I took a closer look! All of the thicker and more textured foliage – which was a similar shape to Aurora – and the white flowers were on a second stem at the base of the shrub. This is the first time this part of the shrub has flowered.

I looked online for clues, but found nothing. I then remembered that the other Aurora shrub I have here also had another alien stem growing at its base which I lopped early on last year. On checking it, lo and behold! That lopped stem is also sprouting new leaves that look unmistakably like the native wild Viburnum opulus that grows in our hedges here.

So, my conclusion is that the rootstock of this hybrid decided – for whatever reason – to shoot and try and take over! I did not consider that this could happen. Did I perhaps plant them too deep, as can happen with grafted fruit trees?

I have removed the offending part of the shrub now (great material for starting off my new compost beds) and Aurora has been given breathing space again. The whole Oval Bed looks so much better! I hope she will now put on new growth and form buds for next year.

This will not deter me from planting another ‘Aurora’ in my new bed, which will focus on scented plants. I will, however, be more vigilant from now on. (By the way, work is resuming on the new bed this week as our rain has stopped and the wind is drying the garden up nicely. 😃)

I wonder if any of you gardeners have experienced the same with cultivated shrubs? I would love to hear if this is common or if it only occurs on particular plants.

Have a great Sunday

and

Happy Gardening!

Wordless Wednesday: Amazing Grace

April 10, 2024 by Cathy

Tulip ‘Amazing Grace’

Silent Sunday: Midsummer 2023

June 25, 2023 by Cathy

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In a Vase on Monday: Summer Romance

June 19, 2023 by Cathy

As we approach the summer solstice the mad rush of spring gardening chores is almost over, the garden is slowing down, the vegetable garden is established, the annuals are planted out and I can start to relax. Big Sigh……😃

To join Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for her In a Vase on Monday meme, I decided to pick just a small posy to celebrate ‘today’, and grouped my small collection of hearts around it to remind me of the friends and family that gave me them. 💕

The sweet peas unfortunately do not have any scent, as they are the perennial ones. But since our climate does not suit annual sweet peas, I am more than happy to have these pretty blooms climbing obelisks in the Oval Bed. 😃

The pink and blue Scabiosa are also growing in the Oval Bed, which is looking a picture right now with the Red Centranthus in full flower.

However, from experience I know the Centranthus will not last well in a vase, so I added a white Campanula, some Nigella and a few pink and purply red Knautia along with seedheads. The purple spike on the right is Salvia viridis – a bee magnet!

The purple vase is an old favourite, making the overall effect of my simple posy very pleasing.

It is overcast and muggy today, with heat and thunderstorms forecast all week – and as usual at this time of year I am hoping for rain. Can anyone spare us a little?!

Have a great week everyone!

The Mid-May Garden, 2023

May 18, 2023 by Cathy

It seems like the perfect time to give an update on what my garden is up to. 😉 May has been mostly mild and damp so far (although last night it went down to 1.8°C!), and plants seem to be popping up from nowhere. Left, right and centre!

My first oriental poppy started opening this week. Its silky petals have the ‘wow’ effect, and in a day or two it will be wide open for the bees to enjoy!

It was a humid day when I took these photos, with thunder clouds and the occasional rumble in the distance. This kind of day in May, especially in the evening, produces a wonderful light where all the shades of green stand out and provide a magnificent backdrop to the fresh colour in the garden beds.

One of the brightest colours in the Oval Bed right now is this Aquilegia, bought a couple of years ago. After having mostly purple ones reseeding in my last garden, I wanted a different colour to get established here… there are some seedlings already. 😃

The Camassia are starting to add blue to the spring colour scheme in the Butterfly Bed and are spreading too. They disappeared completely one year, but are now back in force.

I also have a paler Camassia in the Moon Bed. The creamy white shrub behind is Broom – Cytisus praecox ‘Albus.

In the Sunshine Bed some Geums are already open. This one is Scarlet Tempest – a lovely healthy plant that has filled out nicely, despite being planted just before the terrible heat and drought last summer. The Euphorbia polychroma is a great plant for sunny dry spots, and all my Euphorbias did extremely well last summer with no watering at all.

And this is Geum Mai Tai. Such a pretty colour, and reliable too.

At the back of this bed is the yellow broom, Cytisus praecox ‘Allgold’. It likes my garden and also does well in the soil around here. I always look out for it when I drive to town, as it grows wild along the roadsides.

The poppy I showed above is in The ‘Edge, along with a few late red and yellow tulips. Euphorbia polychroma makes an impact here too, but something that surprises me every spring is the beautiful new golden and orange foliage of Spiraea japonica ‘Magic Carpet’. It looks dead until about late March, and then slowly but surely comes back to life with bright orange shoots, fading to yellow and then lime green. The flowers are a rather insignificant pale pink in summer, barely noticeable, but in the autumn it will again take on these wonderful rich colours.

To finish off, this (unplanned!) grouping caught my eye: Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’, Yellow tulips ‘Texas Gold’, Blue Oat Grass (Helictotrichon sempervivens) and, in the background, Physocarpus ‘Lady in Red’. Helctotrichon is perhaps an alternative to the enormous Stipa gigantea, albeit not so long-lasting. It is the first grass to flower in my garden and looks lovely in the evening light especially.

It has been comforting to see that I had very few losses due to the drought last summer. Choosing resilient plants contributed to that. And perhaps the wet winter helped a bit too. 😉

Has your garden suffered any losses this winter?

Thanks for visiting my spring garden. Do drop by again soon!🐝☀️🐝

In a Vase on Monday: Softening the Blow

April 24, 2023 by Cathy

It is Monday again, and time to join Cathy (Rambling in the Garden) for her Monday meme, where she invites us to pop something in a vase from our gardens to share.

Well, after three warm sunny days in a row everything is suddenly green! The housemartins are back (hoorah!), the grass is growing (along with the weeds) and the tulips are opening. 😃

The Alchemilla mollis leaves around the edges of my vase today are to soften the blow of the shock when these yellow and orange tulips opened.

Had I planted them somewhere else, I would probably have thought them quite pretty. As it was, I have to say I was appalled… they were supposed to look like this:

😂

I planted them in the Oval Bed, which does have yellow Narcissi in it in spring, but is primarily pastelly pinks and blues. The red, orange, yellow tulips clash horribly with some neighbouring pink ones, so I decided to pick the worst offenders and plonk them in a vase – with the help of a florist’s frog in the base of the vase to get them to sit upright. They actually do look quite nice on my table, with a pretty doily underneath kindly sent to me by Annette. 💕

Has this ever happened to you, that you order a plant or bulbs and they turn out to be completely the wrong ones?

I have notified the company I bought them from and am hoping for a refund. Am I too pernickety perhaps? Or would you have done the same?

Anyway, this was certainly a good reason to cut tulips to bring indoors, as I rarely sacrifice them for a vase. So something good came of it after all!

🌷🌷🌷

Have a great gardening week!

P.S. I think I will pick the remaining 4 and put them in another vase in a day or two. And then dig the bulbs out and move them promptly!

A Week of Flowers 2022: Day Seven

December 6, 2022 by Cathy

My floral celebration draws to a close today, amd what a week it has been! There is a big smile on my face and I have learnt a lot, exchanged comments with both old and new blogging friends, and been inspired for future plantings and other floral projects. 🌸

Over a dozen blogging friends have joined me with a fantastic array of flowers from all over the world. From Agapanthus to Zinnia, we have probably covered the whole alphabet together. So let’s end on a high with a grand firework display of colour and flowers!

First some odds and ends which would look lovely planted together but are actually scattered around the garden…

Eryngium ‘Miss Wilmott’s Ghost’

Helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’

Euphorbia seguieriana

Geranium Rozanne

Linum perenne

And now a couple of wider shots of the Oval Bed with Centranthus ruber, Stipa tenuissima, Pulsatilla seedheads…

…. Alliums and a blue Persicaria

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who visited. To everyone who wrote a lovely comment. And especially to all those who participated in my third annual Week of Flowers. 💕

Same time, same place, next year! 🤗