It was 14C today with rain on and off and still. The garden is pervaded by the scent from the green but gradually dying foliage of Tulbaghia Hazel. The leaves have a not entirely pleasant foxy garlicky scent but I can’t complain about the show all summer and its made a huge clump which may succumb in a harsh winter but dominated the front of the border for the second year.
Bred by the UK Tulbaghia National Collection holders and named in 2004. They say the flowers have a lovely evening scent, there must be a lot of moths in South Africa, at least two pelargoniums and Zaluzianskya are evening scented as well.
Final blaze of glory
Cornus Midwinter Fire is lighting up the tawny bed with pinky golden leaves echoed on the boundary of the garden by the richer yellow of the Hazels which have still to drop the majority of their leaves, the theme in turn picked up by the oaks in the field beyond. The Ash however is bare, its blackened leaves litter the path to the stream, and the Stag’s Horn Sumach went fiery red and dropped to bony winter hornage within a week.
I couldn’t help myself
This has been an autumn of bulbs, some have still to go in. In the summer I ordered quite a lot especially of tulips from Jacques Amand at full price and then some autumn crocus and other bits and bobs from Broadleigh Bulbs and then Crocus had 50% off and Avon Bulbs had 25% off – Yikes! But this is about lots of different types of bulb not quantity, allium, Iris reticulata, scilla, muscari, hyacinths Delft Blue, Miss Saigon, Roman White and Sky Jacket, Anemone blanda, Anemone coronaria, tulips Don Pedro, Queen of Night, Montreux, Monte Carlo, Prinses Irene, Apricot Beauty and Spring Green, more autumn crocus, narcissus, Silver Chimes, Thalia, Topolino WP Milner and Elka, Snake’s Head Fritillary, Wood Anemones and so the list goes on.
Now most are in I’ve forgotten where I put them so hopefully I’ll be surprised and delighted come spring!
When planting up one large terracotta pot a couple of weeks ago I found wood mice had made a nest in the polystyrene at the bottom of the pot under the summer bedding having made an access hole in the compost down the side of the pot hidden by the then still burgeoning white heliotrope.
Arum creticum is pushing through and pats of the rounded leaves of spring flowering Cyclamen coum appear amongst those of C hederifolium. There are flower buds on Melianthus major.
And finally…
Grown from seed sown this year and now resident in the conservatory, a Californian native, Galvezia speciosa, loved by hummingbirds apparently. The seed was from Derry Watkins Special Plants, also from SP this year, Dolichos lab lab, the first time I’ve got it to germinate, it whizzed up the Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate but failed to flower. The jury is still out on Dahlia australis, it looked better in a bed that received full sun than those in partial shade.