Last week we had the whites, this week it is the turn of the brights!
I don’t have a ‘hot’ border – I don’t really have borders at all in the conventional sense. I have beds and stone walls with planting. And pots. I still keep my pelargoniums and succulents in pots so I can bring them into the conservatory during the winter. Last year the pelargoniums loved it so much they flowered the whole time.
- An unknown clematis in bright pink. This year it has flowered a little lower down as I cut it back in February. Unfortunately the other also unknown variety has lots of leaf growth but no flowers as yet. And something has
nibbledeaten all the petals of my deep purple Jackmanii ‘Warszawska Nike’
clematis - Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ a rather common one now, this one has grown from a single corm that I removed when cutting down a clump in my mother in law’s garden. It was in a pot for a few years before moving here. Now looking splendid, with 4ft tall leaves and lots of flower spikes. I also have a more orange one which is also tall. Perhaps too tall. Both species are being somewhat overshadowed by the rampant jasmine.
crocosmia - Erigeron glaucus ‘Sea Breeze’ (beach aster or beach daisy, seaside daisy plants)
This is growing on my sunny wall. I want it to spread and cover it, but I have stupidly planted a climber there which is now growing over the Erigeron. Do I move the climber? Or move the Erigeron? I don’t want to kill either plant.
erigeron glaucus
- Nasturtium. This is the common orange variety. It self-seeds every year. I have pulled hundreds of seedlings out, but it is back again. I also have some yellow ones (or did) and a dark red one which I planted. It is supposed to be not such a thug. I do like the fact that the Cabbage White butterflies (large and small) will lay their eggs on them and not the Brassica. As I don’t have any Brassica this year that’s a moot point.
nasturtium
- Osteospermum ‘Tresco Purple’. I love my osteospermum. The lovely African daisy or blue-eyed daisy. I had a huge clump last year also growing on the sunny wall, but even though this is one of the hardy varieties it was killed off by the ‘beast from the east’, as was a pretty orange one [sad face]. This is a new plant bought as a plug plant in spring, but I am pleased to see it flowering this year even if only two or three flowers. I know now that if we have a harsh winter to wrap it in fleece. (Then last week I found it and a lilac version at ASDA for only £3.00 each – a bargain – so I bought two!)
osteospermum
- My final bright is a spreading Sedum, possibly ‘Dragon’s Blood’ . I have had this plant for years too. It used to grow in a large circular pot and it dies down in winter only to re-appear in the spring. Released from the pot in 2016 I planted it around the edge of my large flat granite rock which retains heat from the sun. The plant has spread all around the rock and this year in all the sunshine is flowering like crazy. I quite fancy one of the Sedum ‘Red Cauli’ variety.
sedum
That’s it for now. I am already going through the bulb catalogues ticking off the ones I want. I shall have to drastically prune that list though as I also want some new perennials this autumn. Hey, ho, a garden is never finished is it? Hope everyone is keeping calm in the continued hot weather. We had a lovely shower this morning, so hopefully that means I don’t need to take the hose around the garden today.
See here for the participant’s guide.
Cornwall in Colours 
Happy sigh. More lovely bright colours for a cold winter day. Thanks, Jude!
So if I plant nasturtiums with my brassicas, the caterpillars will eat those instead of my broccoli?
That’s the theory! Although I did get some nibbles on my kale (sorry – I read your comment about kale) but I left most of the caterpillars on the nasturtiums.
Okay, I’ll try and remember that for the next crop (we’ve just harvested the latest broccoli and cauliflower). Yeah, kale. I liked it the first couple of times we planted it but I got a bit over it after that. And I became just a bit too obsessive compulsive about picking off all the caterpillars. I needed a break.
I’m almost too scared to tell you I have that exact Clematis in the most spectacular purple. Being winter here, it looks like dead twigs at the moment but when it flowers I’ll grab a shot for you 🙂
Mine look like dead twigs now!
The colour will return 🙂
You are optimistic!
Because it will grow again. I know this because the women I bought my two from told me not to pull them out even though they may look dead in winter 🙂
Lovely flowers that demand attention, particularly if amongst the whites.
These are scattered around the garden, though the nasturtiums do seem to think they can colonise the white bed. I did say they had thuggish behaviour!
Lovely to see a colour themed Six. The Osteospermums are wonderful. I’ve never been able to reliably keep them from one year to the next but maybe I ought to try again. How high does the Sedum grow?
This sedum is ground cover. The flowers make it higher of course, but only about 15cm.
Beautiful! My croscosmia are fairly shouting from the garden as well. The hummingbirds adore them.
Wish we had hummingbirds!
I surprised the Victorians didn’t import some, like the starlings and English sparrows that were let loose here. Maybe no one could catch them! 😉
They are all beautiful Jude. I’m so pleased to see #2 and find out the name. I took some beautiful photos of this plant in a garden here in
Quebec City yesterday after it had rained in the night. Each flower spike had raindrops hanging from it. Now I know the name! Thanks.
A pleasure to help out Carol. You are certainly covering a lot of Canada – where next? Actually where is your daughter living over there?
We’re in Montreal now for our last few days. Our daughter is in Toronto and we go back there before flying home. 😦 But we have so much to look forward to in the rest of this year.
I look forward to reading all about your Canadian travels once you are back home and have time to sort through the thousands of photos you have no doubt taken!
I’ll make a start on the Canadian series asap. We have taken so many photos – two cameras and two phones! Although this time I have taken notice of what Glen is doing and am trying not to repeat the same shots.