What's Looking Good In June 2013

A few more from today;

Rosa glauca, possibly my favourite rose




Clematis 'hagley hybrid' (I think) opened today

Clematis 'the president' (again I think)


A lovely Aquilegia with an odd habit, flowers open nodding and progress to face skywards?


And a good old Buttercup in the grass

 

When you think about, there are few flowers with that intensity of yellow to match our humble buttercup. Those clematis are yummy Bilbo,
Jenny

 

Not to mention the gorgeous Acer

 

Manners, Cherub: manners

 

Indeed ... the trouble is I want one, and you all know how that sort of thinking winds up around these parts!

We are on heavy clay, alkaline, and somewhat exposed (not like the top of a hill, but its pretty flat around here and not much in the way of trees, although we do have a few around the plot).

I want to make an Autumn garden, near the house, so that when the weather is not-much-cop we can enjoy the garden from the house without having to dot he squelchy-walk to go-see parts of the garden.

There's a nice bit that already has a couple of red Acers (large leaf type, I guess they are
Acer platanoides rather than Acer palmatum) and a red leaved nut of some sort. So there is a bit of Autumn colour, and I would like to plant a few more trees in that area (for more shade, and Atuumn colour - e.g. Robinia pseudoacacia & Liquidambar styraciflua) and then some under-storey of Japanese Acers, plus some dogwoods with interesting winter bark colours.

I can run some decent land-drains into the area, to improve the drainage, but I do wonder if I am basically pushing-a-rock-up-hill expecting that the Acers will do anything other than just die-back ??

 

Speak for yourself!

 

No good near either of us then!

I have one in the Exotic garden, that is completely surrounded by 40' Leylandii, so about as sheltered as you can get ... even that one is looking miserable at the moment (i.e. looking like the effects of wind damage).

I'd be happy to erect a windbreak to deter / deflect the wind in that area ... it could do with a hedge to reduce windflow in that area anyway [i.e. a windbreak as a stop-gap until the hedge has grown up]

 

I had a beautiful Acer in a pot for over 15 years and it did extremely well with very little TLC (it was before I got into gardening so it didn't get fed or anything). Latterly it was in a corner where the house meets the wall so nice and sheltered.

Here's a pic.



What killed it was me repotting it and damaging the roots at completely the wrong time of year, plus the cat deciding that it was a good place to use as a toilet (maybe a mixture of both)

Just bought another 8 Acers this year, 5 of which are in planters

 

Deciduous Azalea has perked up a bit after its journey ...



Rhododendron Tortoiseshell Champagne ...



First Roses of the year :

Mutabilis ...



Gertrude Jekyll ...

 

Ooooh Merle,
I can smell the perfume from your Gertrude this morning......lovely,
Jenny