Time for readers to take a look at the good, and the bad

I’ve cut the drought-stricken grass, trained the goldfish to perform like synchronized swimmers and snipped off so many spent flowers it’s been like an episode of “The Walking Dead” — a floral walking dead.

All this and more in preparation for my open garden on Sunday, July 29, 1 to 4 p.m. and Monday, July 30, 2 to 8 p.m. Yes, after half a season of writing about my garden and the plants in it, it’s time to let readers take a look, let you see all my successes — and my failures, which I try to hide.

Among the latter, I include most of my clematis. Ones that used to put on a glorious display are looking sad. After struggling for a few years with the notorious clematis wilt, a fungal disease, they’ve almost given up trying to climb the trellises.

Fortunately, I have a couple of species that are resistant to the disease. My shrub type, Clematis integrifolia Blue Ribbons, has been wonderful, and one climber, Pink Mink, is taking over the corkscrew hazel, clambering up and through the branches, peeking through the foliage wherever it can, precisely as it would when growing wild.

As for the rest of the garden, I describe it as Vita Sackville West once described her garden, the amazing Sissinghurst. She called it a “shockingly unorthodox muddle.” As Thomas Hobbs, writer and acknowledged impresario of garden design said, “Conquer one small area at a time until a vision of perfection appears.”

Sure, I can find corners of perfection — small ones — and a few corners of despair.

As soon as I get one bit right, another fails. That’s down to me being a little too accepting of the Japanese philosophy of wabi sabi — beauty found in transience and imperfection. Transience for sure because my garden changes from day to day, the way I sort of plan it. It would bore me otherwise. As for imperfection, a weigela lost half its branches this past winter. Fortunately, it’s mostly hidden now by a ninebark.

Contributing to the muddle, I simply stick in too many plants, too many varieties — always wanting to try something different — to see how they perform. It might be an almost forgotten species or a new hybrid, but it does little for any concept of landscape design.

A current star of the show is a Calibrachoa called Love Swept. It was the most talked about introduction at the California Spring Trials, and it’s a beauty. A double flowered pink with white picotee edges, it’s flowing out of the container I plunked it in.

Also impressive is an Angelonia hybrid called Steel Blue. OK, there’s a hint of lilac, but it performed surprisingly well through the heat and drought. One more that’s excelled is a sedum called Lemon Coral, described as a 2019 National Plant of the Year in a marketing program by Proven Winners. I have it in a couple of small containers and it’s been growing well, undeterred by the heat, which is no surprise as it hails from Mexico. I love the texture of the spiky, chartreuse foliage. The downside is it’s an annual here, so I’ll have to try to winter it over indoors.

To fill in for the doomed clematis, I planted morning glories to cover the trellis. Something a little different. They’re a frilly, pink double, supposedly an heirloom variety that’s not commonly available, at least that’s what the seed package says. I just hope they aren’t too enthusiastic about self-seeding. I don’t need to add anything more to the muddle.

Right now, the garden is not looking too bad, so feel free to come by. If you spot a zombie, it might be me. Address is 162 Herron Place, Waterloo.

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David Hobson gardens in Waterloo and is happy to answer garden questions, preferably by email: garden@gto.net. Reach him by mail c/o Etcetera, The Record, 160 King St. E. Kitchener, Ont. N2G 4E5