With Agnes Stevenson
A change of tune has brought bold and bright colour to the garden creating, says Agnes Stevenson, the horticultural equivalent of a Mariachi band
By the time Easter comes around I like to have dahlias growing under cover and I do, but now I’ve just been tempted by another collection of these cheerful summer favourites and so these new arrivals will be a little later to get going.
I’m a latecomer to the fad for dahlias but I’ve fallen hard and I have a weakness for those that mix together shades of orange and pink. It’s not a subtle combination of colours, but then the whole point of dahlias is that they are bright and brash and that they bring a blast of Mexican exuberance to our gardens. Dahlias are the horticultural equivalent of a Mariachi band – loud, clashing and impossible to ignore.
I do love pale flowers but I’ve discovered that, against the extensive backdrop of trees and grass in my garden, anything white or green just fades into the background and so I’ve had to dial up my colour choices and opt for those that make a bigger splash.
One shrub that can be guaranteed to add brashness to the garden at this time of the year is forsythia, and I can understand why some people find its acid-yellow blooms difficult to place. I did, too, for a long time but where I live now there’s enough greenery to dilute its effect, which is why I’m slightly put out that the forsythia I planted three years ago has yet to flower.
It’s not that I have pruned it at the wrong time, which is the most common reason why anything won’t flower, nor is it because the buds have been killed by frost – no buds actually formed in the first place. I haven’t drenched it in nitrogen fertiliser and it isn’t old enough to have run out of steam.and it is growing in a sunny spot, so it isn’t sulking because of too much shade.
Maybe as a young plant it
just hasn’t got going yet so
I am going to give it one more year and then, if it still fails to perform, it will end up on the compost heap.
Digging out plants provides a chance to grow something new and, while it might be sad to say goodbye to something that has been a familiar feature in the garden for a long time, there does come a point when some things have to go. Ceanothus, for example, can often run out of steam after a decade or so and will have to be replaced, which is disappointing if you have come to loves its striking blue flowers.
Often, though, taking out a large shrub lets more light into the garden and you may be surprised by what appears in the empty space.things you planted years ago and then disappeared may miraculously reappear. For example, I’ve seen clematis that had been long forgotten about re-emerge to put on a spectacular show once they had been give the chance to escape from the shadows and grow up into the light.