What's looking good in June 2012

These plants are patriotic - red, white and blue






One of our totally thornless, highly scented white roses is starting to bloom


Annabelle - is starting to form the flower. This hydrangea has dinner plate sized white flowers, anything up to 14" across


The Freemontedendron is now beginning to show off

 

Some more Aquilegias are starting to flower








A couple of heucheras





This is the first of our Nigella. It certainly lives up to its nickname of love in a mist when they flower en masse. Later on this month there will be hundreds of them

 

Yes, it's tough as old boots, takes no looking after and is very rewarding. It's really a tree and we have trained ours along wires. You shouldn't prune it hard (just a little judicious pruning each year) or it will grow like mad.

The flowers last a long time. The first few come out in April, the mass of them arrive in May and continue in quite full flower through to July and then sporadically until the frosts.

It has very fine, hair like burrs on the flower casings and a little on the younger stems. They can stick to your skin and can be a bit of a nuisance with very young children - but not much. If there are very young children around you train it as a standard (as we have done) and don't let it become a bush.



The lower branch in the foreground is a young branch that is drooping down from the weight of the rain and I haven't bothered to tie it in.

It's excellent for the back of a border. Some people have it as a specimen feature in in the centre of a bed or lawn.

 

Simbad, we don't know the variety name of many of our plants. The label thieves live in tunnels under our garden!

As long as plants look good, and sometimes even if they don't, they are left to grow. Mrs Shiney takes cuttings and propagates most things as people are always asking for plants - and she just loves growing new ones . She sold close to a thousand plants on Open Day and our nursery areas don't look as though they have been depleted much