PUSHING THE BORDERS

Yes I think I will get another. Knowing there was always a chance of losing it in a bad winter, I did try cuttings from mine but they didn’t take. I wonder if there is a particular method or type of cutting which gives more positive results.

Here's a few photos from the last few days. The weather has been consistently fantastic for weeks, but we are desperate for a drop of rain. Thankfully some is forecast for tomorrow.

Nothing fancy about this, but it's a good splash of colour - Weigela florida (no idea on the cultivar):


One of the few roses I grow - Rosa glauca. First flowers just coming, to be followed by bright red hips later on. But I really just have it for the foliage which I love:


Lonicera subequalis:


The slugs have left the Disporum viridescens alone (so far):


Arisaema speciosum:


Very excited that Aloe polyphylla is going to flower for the first time:


Agapanthus 'Phantom' just about to open:


And a few Abutilon to finish - 'Wisley Red', 'Ashford Red' and 'Kentish Belle':

Its May and already the roses have started, I presume this is the "New normal"

emily gray by charliepridham, on Flickr


Lonicera cilliosa and implexa by charliepridham, on Flickr

The Solomans Seal under the Crindendron here in my shady bed has so far escaped the sawfly attack that gets the plants in the sunnier front garden

Crinodendron hookerianum by charliepridham, on Flickr

Crinodendron Ada Hoffman by charliepridham, on Flickr

Even up here Charlie the roses have been in bloom for a while.








Madame Alfred Carrière starting to climb nicely into the cherry.

My Jovellana violacea has made a massive clump but punctata, planted next to it, was killed last winter.




Zantedeschia White Giant or Hercules glowing in the sun:



The Alstoemerias are starting their show but some of the more finicky varieties are a bit behind:







First flowers on Nicotiana glauca. I was lucky this got through the winter outside!



There are few plants which will comfortably make a nice skirt growing right up to a tree trunk but this Persicaria Purple Fantasy does the trick very well:




Like the Nicotiana did, the Iochroma not only survived winter unprotected but has come back very lushly with the first flowers about to open. In my old garden this happened very late in the year:




And most pleasing for me, this Indigofera pendula, which I bought as a spindly bare twig mail order from Cross Common last winter, and which I thought was dead, has in the last couple of weeks, come to life:




Fuchsia Logan Woods, 8ft tall, impenetrable, coming into flower:






I wish we could hold on to May!

This must be the best time of year when the plants are unfurling with hope and promise. This spring has been so dry that slugs and mollusks are at an all time low. So the Kniphoffias are growing without damage for the first time in many years. Large leaf hostas too are unscathed. Not sure who or what will be missing the slugs this season, but I’m happy. Have lots of wild poppies scattered about the front garden and they’re usually drowning in bees, but they too are in short numbers.









Aralia elata has pushed up and out at record speed this season.



Around in the back garden :






Another flowering of Manfreda 'Macha Mocha' (xMangave) again. From the last flowering a few years ago I’ve planted out several and with only an overhead sheet for winter protection, most have survived and are in great shape. Slugs have however managed to graze on some of them.



And a Trichocereus pachanoi which has doubled in size since last year. In a pot which was brought into the greenhouse for the winter. The Trichocereus terscheckii in the ground next to it has also managed 2 winters in the ground with a sheet over its head.



Enjoying the year so far, rain is in the forecast for the weekend, good.

Andrew there are so many buds on your Kniphofia. Which variety is it? It's a beauty.

Did you leave your Musa plants outside through winter? I would have thought the Aachen area rather cold for them???

It's a lovely garden and sits so well with the style of architecture.

MartinNicklin wrote: ↑Fri May 23, 2025 8:37 pm Andrew there are so many buds on your Kniphofia. Which variety is it? It's a beauty.

Did you leave your Musa plants outside through winter? I would have thought the Aachen area rather cold for them???

Hi Martin, Kniphofia 'Flamenco' that's really all I can say about it's name. It does look good this year. There are 4 mounds of them in that part and they bulk up quickly.
The Musa bj will turn to mush if I don't protect the stems, you're right the winters here are a tick too cold. So I put a large tent up over them and loosely wrap them. Even though that looks terrible from Dec-March it's worth it. The kicker is it's only a tick too cold for about, at most, a week in that period.

The thing about the front garden is that it is largely populated from free sowing seeds of T. fortunei of which there must be about 30+ now growing there, and grasses such as carex and festuca, Euphorbia characias wulfenii, etc seed themselves all over. Large amounts of undergrowth weeds, wild strawberries and even stinging nettles are allowed to carry on, you don't see much of them, but it gives a green easy feel to the whole thing. I rip them out when they get too much. And now a few of my neighbours are letting this happen to their gardens too. Less work that way and the bugs like it as well.

Thank you. I will look out for that one.
As far as bugs are concerned, I think councils leaving the verges to go wild is working. I’ve already seen far more birds, butterflies and bugs this year than the last few years put together and for the first time in decades I cleaned the front of the car of dead bugs and flies stuck to the bonnet, windscreen and bumper.

Nothing particularly rare to report but the Alstroemerias are doing their thing:





Don’t know which rose this is but it’s very pretty and changes colour:



I was quite taken with the new The King’s Rose from David Austin. The nursery is very close to where I live and the rose gardens there are considered world class. Apparently for days after Chelsea the queues to get in and buy the new rose were horrendous with people turning around and driving away. I will be satisfied with my own similar rose, Ferdinand Pichard, which I think is nicer and beats the new one hands down scent-wise:



Has anyone been growing Ipomoea Heavenly Blue in recent years? This was a plant which got me into gardening when I was a kid. I grew it from seed and was astonished at its beauty. However, for the past three or four years I have tried to rekindle my fond memories of this plant but every packet I have tried - from T and M to Mr Fothergill’s has produced weak plants with pale, almost variegated leaves. A couple of years ago I was quite excited when I thought that variegated plants had appeared but in reality they were just very weak and didn’t perform. Same each year - different vendors. Different composts. What is going on???



However, other IP’s I’m growing have been fine:



In fact, Star of Yalta has seeded itself all over the garden with plants popping up everywhere. No idea what’s going on with Heavenly Blue.

First flower on my newly acquired Mitraria so bright I can actually see the red against the green! Rare for me!



Euphorbia stygiana Santamariae really is turning into a tree:



The greenhouse is starting to look full:



And, for the first time ever, I have managed to keep a Poinsettia past 25 December! Question: in the greenhouse is a large Cantua buxifolia about 6 years old. It’s strong and healthy but when will it flower?

I’m getting back into fuchsias, including species, but this took my fancy at Hodnet. It’s called Water Nymph and is supposedly hardy although as I said to the vendor, it certainly doesn’t look as if it would be. Anyway, time will tell:



Can anyone tell me which tree fern this is. It really struggled so I plunged it into a big pot and it has sprung back to life?



Enjoy the hot weather forecast over the coming days!

We grow Ferdenand , good scent but never a big plant with us.

When are you sowing the Ipomoea ? if before Mid may that could be the issue they dislike low night temps as small plants, then again it could be compost/virus or crap seed!!

Cantua flowers in the spring here