LATE SUMMER SHOWSTOPPERS

Is it just me or has this summer (or at least what passes for summer these days) come and gone in a heartbeat? It seems just yesterday that I was sowing beans and peas in the greenhouse and now this week I’m collecting seed to dry and store over winter ready for sowing next spring!

Whatever the reason, this year has certainly been a peculiar one weatherwise; something I think we will all need to get used to. But rather than dwell on the vagaries of English weather, I’d rather concentrate on some of the unexpected successes it has caused.

Each year, for as long as I can recall, we have had three large pots of Pineapple Lily (Eucomis bicolor) on display in the garden, each year performing well but not causing any particular comment. This year, however, partly due to our lack of success in growing any Cosmos at all and therefore short of annuals to fill gaps in the borders, we decided to plant the Pineapple Lilies direct into the ground once this year’s growth had begun. The bulbs of these tropical oddities are large, each one of ours easily the size of a tennis ball and they are very hungry. They quickly outgrew their usual potted size and, as you can see from the photo, they have made quite an impact; indeed so much so that we shall do the same next year. They will keep going until the first frosts take the top growth whereupon we’ll dig them up, pot them individually for the winter and wait till next Spring. 

Elsewhere in the garden there are plants that are only just coming into their own, some defying the seasonal changes from bright summer colours to the more mellow Autumnal hues. Strobilanthes atropurpurea is a delicate looking plant that looks as if it belongs in the greenhouse but is invaluable, not only for its regal purple flowers but for its likeness to a late blooming Salvia. Indeed, if you struggle to grow Salvias give Strobilanthes a go; it thrives here in clay, collapses to the ground in Winter and pops up with its arthritic looking stems year after year. No fuss, no complaining, it just gets on and does its thing each year.

Our Clerodendron is another plant that surprises each year. First seen at Marwood Hill in North Devon some years ago, growing like a weed among the paving cracks we decided we needed it at Lewis. For several seasons we had nursed three single stemmed plants that have shown no sign of spreading anywhere. Clearly our heavy clay was restraining it. Not so it would seem for this year, it has broken free and a new very healthy stem has appeared from nowhere several yards from the original plant. This augurs well for the future and I’m hoping that its brash lipstick pink flowers that bloom in September and October will be dotted about the top garden to brighten those more dismal Autumn days.

Just along from the Strobilanthes, indeed almost dead opposite and a great complimentary colour, is a patch of Persicaria amp. Taurus. Persicaria is a favourite of mine and what I love about them is that you put them in as a small plant hardly noticing their fluffy flowers atop the slender stems only to discover a year or three later that you have a huge patch of them swaying ever so slightly in the late summer breeze; the effect is quite startling and the choice of varieties is amazing.

Any article extolling the virtues of late summer showstoppers has to include the gently thuggish but ever so elegant Clematis rehderiana. I’ve mentioned it before, but it is SO delicate, SO loved by bees and butterflies and SO rarely seen that it should be given more exposure. Not only does it cover unsightly structures, it does so gently, produces quietly nodding primrose yellow, bluebell type flowers followed by old man’s whiskers that carry seed pods which float away on the Autumn wind and all of this done on the north side of a garden shed. Who could ask for more?

Now whilst I’ve been bashing out this article on my laptop, Richard has been rummaging about in the Mulberry tree for this year’s crop of what he calls “delicious little orbs of fruitfulness”. We missed the crop last year and looking at the amount lying on the floor around the tree we almost missed this year’s too. But he assures me that there are plenty to crop and more to come. So 7lbs in and counting it looks like a bumper year for Mulberry Gin and Mulberry Jelly. This year’s harvest of home produce has clearly begun in earnest and no doubt the Medlars won’t be far behind, but maybe more of those next time.

Gardens open for the NGS in the few weeks

Sat 2nd, Sun 3rd Sept, Moretonhampstead Gardens https://findagarden.ngs.org.uk/garden/17987/moretonhampstead-gardens

Sun 3rd Sept High Garden, Kenton https://findagarden.ngs.org.uk/garden/20783/high-garden

Sat 9th, Sun 10th Sept Brocton Cottage, Ashburton https://findagarden.ngs.org.uk/garden/32626/brocton-cottage

Fri 15th, Sat 16th Sept, Pounds, Hemyock https://findagarden.ngs.org.uk/garden/37619/pounds

Sat 16th, Sun 17th Sept, South Wood Farm https://findagarden.ngs.org.uk/garden/29679/south-wood-farm

Sun 24th Sept, Upper Gorwell House, Barnstaple, https://findagarden.ngs.org.uk/garden/9645/upper-gorwell-house