Favourites

If you‘re anything like me, you’ll spontaneously decide a particular plant is your absolute favourite …..only to change your mind when another beauty bursts into bloom. This morning the sun was out, the air still and we spent time relaxing amongst a plethora of flowering specimens –  June is the best month in the garden at Scott Road (although great effort is being put into making every month just as plentiful) and so a new favourite emerges every day.

Today, it’s Papaver orientalis ‘Beauty of Livermere’ – a stunning flower, the colour is just so deep and rich, it totally justifies the time I spent this morning sitting on my bench simply looking at it. No doubt tomorrow I will have a new favourite, but for now, this one’s having it’s moment…

 Meanwhile, elsewhere in the garden, there was stiff competition for pole position, including this wisteria which was rescued from the 50% off bench at a local garden centre about 10 years ago. This is only the second time it has flowered – and the previous flourish was just one flower swag. So I’m really pleased with this display – if it carries on like this next year, it may have it’s moment..

Then there is this stunning peony, ‘Buckeye Belle’, but it has only produced one flower this year – most likely due to the fact that I moved it in April. I think I’m probably lucky it flowered at all, peonies are not at all keen on such disruption.


The final contender today is Anthricus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’, a purple stemmed and less prolific cousin of the wild cow parsley. I bought this at the annual garden opening at Alltyrodyn Mansion in Wales two years ago – it’s now 5′ by 3′ and sits at the edge of the pond – a fine specimen!

An old favourite has been very disappointing this year, the rambling Rosa ‘Albertine’. It is usually covered in pale pink roses, but this year there have been hardy any, despite being treated in the exact same way as previous years. In contrast there is a previously neglected specimen growing around the door at Aberglasne which is covered in flowers – we hard pruned it last year, so I think I’ll adopt the same strategy at Scott Road – I’ll prune it well in a couple of weeks and hope for a better display next year.