LAVENDER AND THE LONG BORDER


There is a little hedge of Munstead Wood lavender on the edge of the Rose garden.  It is covered in bees.  The wands of lavender bob up and down under their weight.




The lavender in the gravel garden is doing well.  There is English lavender, Lavandula Hidcote and the French 'bunny ears' lavender too.  I took a risk planting this in little pockets of soil in the gravel with its sub layer of crushed stone.  I wasn't sure it would survive.  But so far I have only lost one plant.




By mid July the Rose Garden is starting to wind down, and the Long Border is becoming more colourful, although not looking as lush as I would like due to lack of rain.  Here it is in it's entirety.  I'll pick out a few of the plants below.




Nearest to the camera is Anthemis tinctoria 'E C Buxton'.    When I bought it a couple of years ago it wasn't very tall, so I put it at the front of the border, where it has shot up to a metre high.  I did just check on Beth Chatto's site and they say it's 40cm high, so I don't know why this one is so tall.  It's a pretty thing that goes on flowering, and overnight the flowers send their petals back like they've been in a wind tunnel, which is rather sweet.


Further along, nearer to the Summer House there are some stunning tall orange lilies, 'African Queen'.  These have come back strongly in their second year.


At the far end of the Long Border is a perennial sweet pea.  There are actually three of these dotted along the border, but they aren't as far along at this one.  They always seem to be a little slow to get going in the Spring, and I think they have died, but once they get started they grow at an amazing rate.

 



A plant which would fit into the Long Border quite happily is this orange day lily.  It happens to live in the Rose Garden instead though.  It was one of the few plants that were in the garden when we moved here, and it is just coming to the end of its flowering period, so I thought I had better get it into Six on Saturday pronto.



 

That's all I have for you this week. Thanks as always, to the Propagator, who kindly hosts Six on Saturday.   I hope you, and your plants, manage to make it safely through the forecast heat wave.



 

Comments

  1. Lavender is very popular this year, the heat is helping. I have 2 different varieties here and although I have lost some in previous years this is not the case this winter. I do like the set with the tall orange lilies near your summer house, it must be very pleasant to spend some time there.

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  2. I love you idea for planting the lavender in the gravel, it softens the harsher stone.

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  3. It is often necessary to trial a plant in one's own soil to see just how it grows. Well at least I am finding this, and already I have noted plants than need to be moved around, because they don't grow as it was described on the label.

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  4. The long border is looking great despite the lack of rain, which for your pretty Anthemis isn’t a problem at least. The lilies really stand out well and I like that group of planting around it, with the Achillea and what’s the bright magenta-pink splash to the left? PS I think we do have the same daylily, you mentioned it on one of my posts. Good luck with the heatwave.

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    1. It's a Phlox. The kind described as red in catalogues, but it isn't of course.

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  5. The Anthemis tinctoria 'E C Buxton' is very pretty with its pale yellow flowers. Oddly enough, lavender seedlings do better in my gravel path than the Lavender that I planted in the borders. I keep meaning to replace them with those growing in the gravel but perhaps I should leave them. The long border is looking great.

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