RogWilko’s Garden

 Perhaps our most loved woody perennial climber. This Wisteria sinensis was planted about 6 years ago and is in its pomp. It is known to flower best on horizontal branches, so the pergola was fitted with a head high branch to allow it to extend itself in an extra direction.

 First flowers today from this little beauty.  It is Hylomecon japonica, and it makes a very nice ground cover in shady areas.

 This Euphorbia is known as Miner’s Merlot, presumably a reference to its dark red foliage. The green and yellow flowers are a rather shocking contrast, but it seems to work. A really handsome plant, which gives the impression it would thrive almost anywhere except for marshy ground perhaps.

 Shrubs of this genus are found in many gardens, but the flowers are much smaller than this and are in various shades from pink to red. This is a Weigila middendorffiana and really is a lovely shrub. It’s deciduous, and seems to survive the winters we get in Cumbria. Surviving winter seems to be generally easier than for many evergreens.

 Our latest garden acquisition is this very tall, very narrow cherry, with the most delightful white blossom with a tiny hint of pink. It is sometimes referred to as a flag pole cherry, but its proper name is Prunus amenogawa.

Mid April, time for rhododendron and azalea flowers. This flame coloured Azalea (with its tiny purple rhododendron companion shrub) has long been my favourite, though the  Azalea lutea below, growing well in a large pot, is pretty good as well.  

 This plant has been with us for many years. It has now found its final position, after being unhappy for several disappointing years in two previous spots. It was given its last chance between the garage and next door’s fence. It is now about 8 feet tall and flowers for several weeks. It is Paeonia lutea ludlowii, or tree peony. Lutea means a yellow flower.

Sometimes things are more than the sum of their parts. These two plants, flowering simultaneously, make a good example of this. Each seems to gain from the presence of the other. The purplish blue flower is that of Camassia leichtlinii which is set off by the presence of the familiar arching stems and creamy white flowers of the Polygonatum (species unknown), commonly Solomon’s seal. Camassia  leichtlinii  

 Bare ground isn’t much to look at and attracts weeds. The best answer to this is ground cover, which may not sound - and often isn’t - very exciting or memorable. This little low growing species is Waldsteinia ternata, common names for which include Siberian Waldsteinia and barren strawberry. Not closely related to wild strawberry except both are in the huge Rosaceae family. One of its most useful characteristics is that it doesn’t much like sunshine, and indeed can do well in deep shade and still produce this mass of cheery bright yellow flowers.

 This shapely shrub is Amelanchier alnifolia “Obelisk. It has grown quite quickly from about 2 feer to over 6 feet and is a profuse flowery. Interesting to see how long blossom lasts, because our other Amelanchier really only flowers for about a week.

There seems to be cherry blossom wherever you look just now, even in my garden. This very neat little hybrid Prunus, P x cistena has a tidy habit and stays quite small. Its lovely reddish/bronze foliage makes it good throughout the growing season, though of course in winter it drops its leaves. Still, most deciduous shrubs seem to cope well with winter cold.

Daphnes are rather underrated I think. They don’t seem that common in people’s garden considering they are hardy, have abundant, often fragrant, flowers, don’t  need much attention and sometimes, as with this one , the evergreen foliage can be very attractive all year round.  This one is D. x transatlantica “Summer Ice”

 This modest little shrub is hardy and needs little attention. To look at its flowers, reminiscent of willow catkins, you might think it was part of the willow family, Salicaceae, but it resides in the Hamamelis family. Its name is Fothergilla gardenii “Suzanne”.

  When people see this shrub in flower they struggle to identify it. Lots of people think it’s a Camellia, others think some kind of rose. Well, it does have thorns and is in the rose family. In fact it is a quince, full name Chaenomeles speciosa “Kinshiden”. Speciosa I believe translates as showy, which it sure is. It’s been in a pot for at least five years,and only grows slowly. Now about 2 feet high and 2 feet spread. The flowers keep coming for over a month.

 Pulsatilla always cheers up the spring garden. It comes in several colours from magenta to deep purple, but this white variety is very nice ice too. The common name is pasque flower, which I think translates as passion, presumably in the biblical sense as the flowers emerge in the Easter period.

 Such an exotic-looking plant, must be hard to grow and or very tender. Not a bit of it! This woodland perennial, growing from rhizomes seems to shrug off winter cold and damp and throws up these beautiful showy flowers almost come what may. It is, of course, Erythronium dens canis, common name dog tooth violet. Disappears quickly after flowering, so we build little walls of slate round them so we don’t plant something else on top of them.

 The second flowering shrub in my garden is this small tree of Amelanchier lamarckii.  It is about three metres tall at the moment and is covered with these delicate white flowers. Only a short flowering season, like most things when you look carefully. But a beautiful sight for thosee few weeks. Fortunately, it is still a nice tree to  a nice tree to look at formuch of the year.

 This rather handsome shrub is Drimys lanceolata “Red Spice”. In 10-20 years it might reach 2.5m, but I’m going to enjoy seeing it in a pot. Being an evergreen, it may be vulnerable to a longer spell of severe winter weather, but the pot can be moved. With its lanceolate dark green leaves and very red stems there is a bonus in the form of clusters of rather curious little yellow flowers.

 The first of my spring-flowering shrubs to come into bloom. This is Exochorda racemosa in full sail. Very abundant flowers - there must be over a thousand if you count those that haven’t opened yet.