My newest border is the Dappled Shade one which was created a couple of years ago by removing a piece of lawn to join the areas beneath my two trees. This bed gets some morning sun and then afternoon and evening sun from the other side. The bed is shaded by the Twisted/Contorted Hazel and the Kilmarnock Willow tree.
I tried to create a coordinated colour scheme in this bed, mainly purple and blue and purple-pink flowering plants with some rich dark red foliage plants. This year it is looking particularly good at the moment with the addition of the self-seeded foxgloves.
The largest by far of the plants here is the Nepeta which seems to get bigger each year! So much so that I have already had to cut it back as it swamps other plants waiting to take their turn. The bees love it though.
And June is the month for the hardy geraniums to make their mark in the garden. I have a few, but Anne Thomson is one of my favourites for the colour and the way she wends her way through this border. She’ll be here for the next few months. She also matches the colour of the foxgloves perfectly!
Another hardy geranium is G. ‘Magnificum’ with large rich purple flowers though this one is short-lived. But the colour works perfectly here.
New this year are these two kinds of Martagon lilies. Planted last year they were eaten by the S&S before they got very far. This spring I covered the bulbs with cut-off plastic water bottles as a kind of cloche, until they reached a good 6-8 inches in height. I have watched them carefully over the last few months and am very happy to see them come to flower. I am hoping these like this location and bulk up over the coming years.
Heucheras are at home here too adding their loose sprays of small white or pink flowers to the abundance of flowers.
It has been a strange week for June – warm, but cloudy and lots of showers and also very breezy. As I have still been getting over the lurgy I mentioned last week (not Covid) I haven’t been out in the garden much anyway, but I am conscious of the fact that spring bulb containers need emptying and summer annuals need planting. Hopeful for a dry weekend so I can get something done and to enjoy the start of summer.
As always, if you want a peek over other people’s garden walls then please pop over to our host, the lovely Jon, AKA ‘The Propagator’ where you find links to many more wonderful garden enthusiasts from all over the world.
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Cornwall in Colours 
What a beautiful, shady corner you have. The plants and colours go together very well. I hope you are back to full strength soon.
Thanks GG. I managed to do quite a bit of clearing yesterday, still pulling up the FMNs!
Yes, plus the perennial geraniums. Lovely until they “go over” then they are just untidy.
Ah, yes, I have been clearing a load of Herb Robert too and somehow buttercups are making a takeover bid!
Funny you should mention buttercups, yesterday I dug up the biggest one I have ever seen! It must have been over a foot high and spread twice as wide. 😱😉
Haha… yes they can get extremely tall!
Your Nepeta really stands out beautifully! It does in my borders, too, but I know it as Catmint. The blues seems to “ground” or balance all the pinks and purples, don’t they?
Yes it is also known as catmint here too. True blues are lovely and I find a bit of orange or yellow/lime helps balance all those purples too.
Ooh, I think I shall try again with Martagon lilies having seen yours today – they look lovely in your border like that. I use cut down bottles to protect sunflowers in their early weeks of being planted out – they certainly help. So it wasn’t Covid after all?
The bottles certainly seemed to help, though I kept a close eye on them. I have always wanted Martagon lilies having seen them in a NT garden close to us which has very similar plants to me, I thought if they could grow them then so could I, but last year we went away not long after I had planted the bulbs and there was no sign of them on our return. We tested negative for Covid so I guess it was just a horrid heavy head cold, I am still coughing, though not as much.
Better than having Covid, I guess, even it was horrid? Can’t believe the Golfer and I have escaped it (so far). He has had his second booster now (and a flu booster at the same time!)
The Dappled Shade border looks splendid. Your vigilance with the Martagon lilies was certainly worth it – they’re lovely. I’m off to look up Ann Thomson – I like the idea of a long flowering Geranium that wends through a border.
Ann Thomson is lovely, better than Rozanne I think, which has made a huge dome this year!
These make me happy, Jude. I love your garden.
Thanks Janet, glad you enjoy it.
Very pretty foxgloves and the colours in your garden are so vibrant.
I try to have a coordinated colour plan, but sometimes things just take my fancy!
I love the concentration of just a couple of colours in this part of the garden, Jude. It must give you great pleasure.
It’s probably my most successful bed.
I love the dark centres of ‘Anne Thomson’ – that’s one I’d like to add to my garden. This year our Nepeta seems to have gone mad too. It’s huge, but it’s owner, Strathy the cat, seems to be less interested in it. Maybe we just need enough heat to release the oils. (I do notice that he’s more interested in on a hot day.)
Beautiful mixes. I have severely mistreated my Ann Howard, moving her so many times. Now I’m leaving her alone for a couple of years to see if she will wend! My martagon lilies are not in flower yet, but needless to say the lily beetles have been active. Dappled shade can be so very rewarding. Lovely to enjoy your planting.
I assume you meant Ann Folkard, a more vigorous one than mine, but equally beautiful. I was lucky finding her happy place, I have had to move several geraniums!
Oops, mind elsewhere !