Anyone for dolly mixtures? I have oranges, yellows, blues and pinks
Who cares about a few floppy leaves? Turn your flower beds into a kaleidoscope of colour this summer, with expert help from Agnes Stevenson
Days spent moving plants around the garden have left me covered in stings and scratches, with a few insect bites thrown in for good measure.
Moving plants in full flower is a bit risky but if you choose a damp spell of weather and are willing to keep watering if conditions turn dry, then it’s a good way of instantly seeing the effect you are trying to achieve.
Don’t worry too much if the leaves flop for a few days, they will soon pick up again and if they don’t then just cut some of these off so they don’t place too much of a demand on the roots.
Most of my relocations have been quite successful but I’ve had to plant the nectaroscordums quite deeply to prevent them from wobbling over. I quite like their “wonkiness” as it adds a touch of eccentricity to the borders, which at the moment are a froth of Alchemilla and the bottle-brush flowers of pink persicaria with a few ox-eye daisies sprinkled amongst them.
These tall daisies are a familiar sight from every roadside verge at this time of the year and although I’ve tried to weed them out, I’m delighted they are sneaking into the garden and disrupting my carefully planned planting schemes.
Aside from the daisies, most of the plants currently in flower are in dolly mixture shades of pink and orange, but there are a few blue splashes too, thanks to the knapweed and Geranium Rozanne. They will soon be followed by the agapanthuses, which have defied expectations and done well despite the heavy soil.
All this growth has woven itself together into a dense tapestry of stalks and stems that blanket out the earth but the occasional breeze is a reminder of the small creatures that live beneath this canopy. I’ve already
got some pink roses but I’m keen now to add some yellow ones. I’ve chosen Vanessa Bell, a shrub rose with a lovely scent, but I’ll wait until November and plant them as bare roots when they will cost less and have a chance to settle in before they develop leaves for the rabbits to nibble.
Meanwhile, I’m on the hunt for the lovely penstemon that I bought last year, overwintered in the greenhouse and from which I took cuttings a couple of months ago. Now the plant has disappeared and, despite turning out the greenhouse and checking amongst the pots on the patio, I can’t find it anywhere.
I’ve clearly already planted it out but until it erupts into garnet-coloured flowers, I’ve little chance of finding it.
It’s always exciting when something that you’d forgotten planting suddenly appears. In a previous house I inherited a gorgeous patch of lily-of-the-valley that had crept in under the hedge, filling my garden with a lovely scent.