Surely not another salvia?

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Yes I’m afraid so and this salvia is once more irresistibly beautiful.  Here we have the shocking pink Salvia involucrata, a native of Mexico and sometimes known as the roseleaf sage.  What it lacks in hardiness it makes up for in vigour, growing up to 1.75m in a season before flowering.   Once it starts to bloom there is no stopping its profusion, providing a welcome blast of colour as the light diminishes. Cuttings have been taken as an insurance policy against its arch nemesis, the frost.  If this one makes it through the winter it will be even more superb next year.  If not, one of its greenhouse cosseted offspring will take its place.  The circle will be complete.

Framed

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There has been significant progress in the Case of the Stolen Pasty.  Some new evidence has come to light which has led to an arrest.  We received a tip-off from Mrs G sorry, an undisclosed member of the public.  For her own safety she is presently in a witness protection programme at Carol the Cake’s house oops, an unidentified location.  It appears that shortly after the said incident Mr G left the country.  Suspicious by his sudden desire to camp in the pouring rain in France, I delved deeper into Mr G’s murky past. It seems that he has “form” in the pasty department.  A self-confessed pastyaholic and founder member of the Pasty Liberation Front, he has been under surveillance by the Pasty Police for some time now.  All the evidence pointed to the fact that the Pony Posse, not lily-white angels themselves, were set up by Mr G who ate the pasty himself.  To prove this theory a trap was set for the ruthless villain.  An unattended Traditional pasty was left on the bench outside the office whilst I hid in the feed shed.  As expected it didn’t take long for his well-developed pasty sensors to locate the bait.  He sidled up and pounced like a lion on a wildebeest, there was no hope for the incident victim.  “You’re nicked”, I shrieked, as he was caught in the heinous act of stuffing the pasty sideways into his mouth.  “Its a fair cop” he sniggered, and shortcrust pastry, potato, swede, a nice bit of beef skirt seasoned with a generous sprinkling of black pepper was spat vehemently in my direction.   He threw back his head and emitted a spine-tingling evil cackle and headed at speed towards his getaway tractor clutching onto what remained of his spoils. Unfortunately, for him, the tractor wouldn’t start (might I suggest checking the alternator) which made an arrest quite straightforward.  No remorse has been shown. He will be offered full rehabilitation.  The ponies have been given a full pardon and an extra apple each.  Case closed.

Spent

IMG_4378This hydrangea head is possibly the most beautiful spent flower in the world.  Of course I am open to correction about this outrageous claim, but today at L&L’s it seemed that way.  My morning spent digging out a raspberry (and ground elder) bed was enhanced by the sight of its gloriously maturing blooms.  If Helen Mirren was a flower, then this would be her, confident in her ripe beauty.

Whilst remembering the forbidden fruit that I had sampled just a few weeks ago from these canes, I asked Lionel if scrumping referred only to apples.  “Well” he told me “When I was a boy I would scrump apples, pears, plums and cherries.”  This made me feel much better about my foraging. However I cannot blame the impetuosity of youth, just the devil-may-care of age.

Pot

IMG_4361We have all been guilty of it.  We see a plant that we like, in fact it is love at first sight.  We must have it right away, now, without delay.  The only spanner in the works of this burgeoning affair of the hortie heart is that we can’t plant it out straight away.  There could be many reasons for this first hiccough in our relationship.  Perhaps we are off trekking across the Hindu Kush and can’t rearrange.  Maybe a total revamp of the garden has been planned and it can’t be used until the Japanese Tea House has been built.  Or maybe a little juggling needs to be done before it will actually fit anywhere.  So it stays in the pot.   It then gets shoved in a cosy corner for the winter with good intentions to give it our full attention in the spring.  In the spring it looks a little grim so we keep it in the pot for a little longer to recover.  Then one morning 20 years later, it has become a 3m tree.  Still in its pot.

Nerine bowdenii

IMG_4318On many occasions recently  I have been tempted to feature nerines.  It is after all their time to shine in all their pink trumpety glory.  There are specimens in almost all of the gardens I visit and I have photographed them in various guises, “wet”, “dry”, “open”, “closed”, even “over”.  But somehow it didn’t seem quite autumnal enough, so many other summery things were going on to distract me.  I wanted to wait for the perfect opportunity, the perfect mood.  Today is the day.

Bidens aureum “Hannay’s Lemon Drop”

IMG_4237The more I walk the gardens of this world, the more I am reminded just how little I know.  How is it possible that I have not come across Bidens aurea “Hannay’s Lemon Drop” before?  It is unlikely that I could have walked past this beauty and not been stopped in my tracks.  Supermodel elegant, fashionably late flowering, with chic-ly understated flowers, the only embellishment being each petal end is dunked in virginal white.  Of course there may be hidden secrets, not apparent on first meeting, perhaps invasive or short-lived or high maintenance.  For this instant I didn’t care about any potential foibles, I was happy to admire the perfect airy blooms against the clear autumnal sky.