Survival of the fittest

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

I always think that if you have worked hard in the winter and spring in your garden you should be able to just sit back and enjoy the summer months.  But of course plants don’t live by my philosophy; they will only ever do what they want.

Not that I’m complaining, because this is the time of year when your garden gets to surprise you.  I was clearing away the poppy stems and other jobs over the weekend and came across an Allium I forgot I had planted.  This is the result of having too much!  I think its Allium christopii, but not 100%.  The head is a good 20cm across, and it was tucked in under some early flowering Dicentra, and the wild poppies.

Something that isn’t shy or hiding is a Verbascum speciosum. A  Nursery colleague gave me this plant ‘to see what it will do’.  Well it will do at 8 foot tall, and absolutely outshining the Echiums this year.  It’s been fun to watch, and I think the yellow plants have particularly enjoyed this dry spell; they are nearly shining out of the beds.

One of the best combinations I have this year in the garden is Achillea ‘Yellowstone’ and Salvia ‘Negrito’.  The Achillea is illuminating, and a definite in my future planting schemes.

But of course it’s also important to put the bully’s back in there place.  I was very hard on some of the Nepeta and Knautia, as they are inclined to choke other plants.  The Delphinium couldn’t be seen as well as it should, and even the white Chrysanthemum had a job pushing up through the Nepeta.  But remember plants are harder than you think, and I’m starting to think that Plants are a bit like cats.

You don’t own them, they own you