There’s still plenty of interest in the garden if you look hard enough – here are the things that caught my eye this week.
Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’
This is a really lovely Acer with purply leaves in spring and summer – glowing up in autumn to bright crimson. It’s in a fairly sheltered spot but even so, it seems to cling on to its leaves long after other varieties in my neighborhood have lost theirs.
What I see here is a tree ripe for a bit of light shaping to introduce space between the branches and a more open base. This approach is popular in Japan where opening up space between branches to reveal a more attractive skeletal framework is a fine art. This is a job on my list for later in winter.
Saxifraga fortunei
The Acer stands at the top of the rockery built in 2019. The rockery stones have softened in tone over the last couple of years and the plants have spread. I try to achieve year-round interest here but just one plant remains in flower – the Saxifraga fortunei. It’s a plucky little plant with very attractive lobed leaves above which pale pink sparkler-like flowers burst forth.
The next flowers to appear will be the snowdrops…
Hydrangea
The warm weather continues and we still await the first frost. In a usual year, all the hydrangea heads would have turned burgundy long ago but the one at the centre of this picture still retains its blowsy high summer colouring.
Trailing Rosemary
Trailing prostrate varieties such as this provide stunning displays in pots but what this photo shows is that you should avoid cutting them to use in cooking. The pot at the front has a 3-year-old plant in it, which has been regularly scissored for the Sunday roast and has failed to regain its waterfall shape. The one at the back is only a year and a half old has been left alone to arch gracefully over the sides of its terracotta pot. I have had to plant a couple more normal rosemary plants elsewhere in the garden to which family members are directed for culinary purposes and they have strict instructions to leave the trailing ones alone.
Lampranthus
I was given a few cuttings of a pink flowered Lampranthus a couple of years ago, which I believe is one called ‘Tresco Brilliant’. It flowered well in my rockery but did not overwinter outside. Luckily I took further cuttings which were planted in this large pot and clearly loved it this summer, spreading in all directions and smothered in flowers that opened exuberantly in the sunshine. The whole pot is in the greenhouse for the winter so that next year the display will be even better.
Sarracenia
I can’t take any credit for this beauty as I bought it from the sales table at my local Alpine Garden Society meeting. One of the members has many and was selling off a few. He says they are hardy but may die back over winter. However, he chooses to keep them in a cold greenhouse, his only tip being to sit them in a saucer of rainwater.
This seasonal diary is part of a weekly link-up of garden bloggers from around the world, called Six on Saturday. For more information and links to other blogs crammed with gardening activity, check the blog of host Garden Ruminations.
I have a 3 or 4 yo rosemary here that is dripping down the wall as well. Apart from adding a little bit of it in for cooking, I don’t have much idea of how to use it, but the bees really benefit from it when it’s covered in flowers! Very beautiful, fine and elegant sarracenia. I hope you’ll have more next door soon
I think I remember seeing your trailing rosemary and it may well have been that sight that made me want mine to achieve better. The snipping ban will remain in place!
When I first glanced at your rockery picture I saw huge rocks and a landscape receding into the distance, then I saw the wall on the right and the scale came true. My Saxifraga fortunei is half the size it was last year, it’s trying to tell me it’s not happy but I don’t know why. Yours looks like it may get much more sun than mine.
Hi Jim, interesting to hear about your saxifraga fortunei as mine hasn’t shrunk but it hasn’t grown either. It’s the same size as it was 2 years ago. It gets sun until about 1pm in summer and very little in winter but it’s happy enough. It’s surrounded by more thuggish spreading varieties that I have to cut back so I musn’t grumble and of course the flowers are so pretty.
I do enjoy the colours of an Acer, they really look good.
Yes Acers have it all – colour, leaf shape, overall shape etc. I guess the only thing they lack is spring blossom!
I smiled when you mentioned the snipping of Rosemary. It is indeed an excellent herb, I have a prostrate rosemary which I guess would tumble down, and it is by far the best for cooking as its leaves are softer than the other variety I grow. I however am the gardener and the cook, so only snips pieces from the right places. It is very easy from cuttings.
Hi Noelle I hadn’t noticed that the prostrate varieties were softer. That’s a great observation but I’ll keep it to myself so that the family keep away!
Wow to the Acer. I’m realising I should have gone back and read some of your earlier blog posts when I was compiling a list of 10 rockery or alpine plants for the RHS course. Saxifraga fortunei is one I might actually be able to remember for the exam next year.
Hi Graeme, good luck with the exam next year and I’m glad it covers rockery plants. There are soooo many amazing alpines though – it feels like there’s a mountain to climb getting to know them all.
Like others, I’m enjoying the glorious colour of the Acer, which looks fabulous at the top of your rockery. Lampranthus is a plant that in Australia is lumped into a category of other similar plants and called pigface , i e no idea why.
I like the idea of having trailing rosemary in a large pot.
Pigface – I love it!
Your Acer is stunning, be careful with the pruning though, they don’t really like it. Intersting to read about your rosemary, I keep snipping my prostrate one, maybe that is why it doesn’t look very good!
I’m glad you alerted me to be careful about Acer pruning. I have a tendency to head on in with my secateurs without researching things properly first!