All in my garden is not roses although readers of my posts will realise I have a mini-obsession about them. There are a few newcomers that I have not mentioned yet, including a fern which I bought yesterday. I think it was a mistake. Usually I read labels carefully before buying plants but sometimes I just think I know all there is to know, which can be disastrous. The fern, it turns out, can grow about 1 1/2 metres tall. I had in mind something about 1 1/2 feet tall! Oh, well. I have decided to try and grow it in a tub, like a conversation piece. It would look very nice if it worked out.
These are a few of my yet unmentioned plants:
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| Symphyandra hoffmannii - Ringed Bellflower |
The above symphyandra flowers look a bit tatty but blame the weather, not the plant. This was bought as a tiny, cheapo plant two or three months ago and is now a couple of feet tall. The flowers are about 2 inches long and if you look carefully at the image (click on it for an enlargement) you will see that the plant is absolutely bursting with buds. I believe it could be hardy, will tolerate sun or partial shade - mine is in full sun - and flowers from summer to autumn. I understand though that it is monocarpic, meaning it will die after it has flowered.
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| Heuchera 'Green Spice' |
The above is the third kind of my heuchera collection, if you can call it a collection. They do very well in my garden although I have to say that one of my Marmalade variety heucheras has succumbed to a type of rust disease while the other one, in a damper and shadier place, has not. Again, I believe the warm temperatures and humidity are causing a problem. I cut back the Marmalade leaves and they grew again but still showing the rust, so I have sprayed it with the same spray I use for fungal diseases on my roses. Time will tell. Meantime, I think Green Spice is a lovely addition to my garden. I like the idea of being able to cut a leaf off now and then to put with flowers in my home. You cannot really see from my young plant but if you just look at the label at the bottom of the photo you will see that 'Green Spice' gets reddish, or spice, coloured veins.
Talking of Green Spice, it reminds me very much of the Brunera Macrophylla that I have planted in a shady, damp part of my garden, at the base of the climbing rose, Compassion. It is doing superbly. I cannot believe how healthy and perfect it is. Perhaps I shouldn't speak too soon. Perhaps it isn't repulsive to slugs but that they just haven't noticed or got around to it yet.
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| Brunera Macrophylla 'Jack Frost' |
Last but not least, back to the topic of my fern, Dryopteris Filix-Mas 'Euxinensis'. It has the loveliest fronds, I think. Imagine it, enormous in a lovely pot in the garden, or using some of it in a flower arrangement.
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=678 - for further detail.
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| Dryopteris Filix-Mas 'Euxinensis' |
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| Dryopteris Filix-Mas 'Euxinensis' |
When I lived in the Caribbean, I grew two asparagus ferns and had no idea how enormous they can get. Each was in a very big pot and stood on top of a concrete post on either side of my patio steps. The ferns grew so big that each frond with about 6 ft long and I kept having to cut back the longest so I didn't trip over them. They just kept on throwing out shoot after shoot and they were never thorny like the one I once grew in a bathroom in the UK, which attacked me everytime I went past. My Caribbean asparagus ferns were giants compared with the one below.
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| (c) http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/36110-asparagus-fern |
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