It's about Thyme...

Don't you just think Thyme is fascinating?! All those tiny leaves and then, at the right time of year, all those tiny flowers, all tightly woven together in a plush carpet! It's amazing!

My real fascination with Thyme began when I went to the National Trust property Felbrigg Hall for a BBC Radio Norfolk outside broadcast. I was supposed to be producing, but there was this big patch of Thyme right by where we were based for a part of the programme and I couldn't take my eyes off it. Unsurprisingly it was smothered with bees (helped by the fact that it was only a stone's throw from the Hall's beehive) and seemed almost alive. I was determined I'd recreate such a Thyme carpet at home.

But, sometimes it's the things you really REALLY want that prove the hardest to attain! I kept buying lots of lovely Thymes, but somehow I never got their conditions right and - much to my disappointment - they failed to thrive. Looking back I think it was the drainage element I was missing. But somewhere along the line I obviously figured out the error of my ways and it seemed that all of a sudden I was having success with my Thyme. Two of the first I managed to grow to any kind of maturity were this large, airy pale pink one which I grow in a pot and Thymus serpyllum 'Russetings', which is in my heart-shaped bed in the front garden. 

Russetings is probably one of the few Thymes whose name I still know! I have loads on my database, but I don't know which plant they belong to. I'm hoping if I go rummage in the garden I might be able to find some labels helpfully still in the ground near their plants! Anyway, those two were the first Thymes which settled in and didn't die. I was onto something! So, learning from my many mistakes and few successes, I set about converting the verge outside my garden into a Thyme paradise. I dug it over, added some compost, but mainly loads of grit. And voila! I popped in a load of tiny little Thymes and a year on they are ecstatic! I lost a couple because people walking by pushed the wheelie bin on top of them (which isn't going to help any plant's health!) but the rest are looking wonderful! And they're as popular with the bees as the original plants which inspired me at Felbrigg! 

If you look closely, I make that at least five bees..!

Surprises: Mostly good, one not so...

So from heatwave to downpour, the weather has been undeniably British! And all following on from a cold, wet spring. All through March and April I've been consoling myself through the grim weeks of misty murkiness by watching the progress of my Himalayan Blue Poppy (note the operative word 'blue'). 'So what if the weather's distinctly Scottish,' I thought. 'Himalayan Blue Poppies love it!' And sure enough it's been lapping it up, growing bigger and stronger than ever before. With glee and great excitement, I followed the progress of the little bud, from its initial position nestled amidst the rosette of leaves, right the way to the top of its precarious stalk. I ran out to the garden after work everyday to make sure it hadn't been squashed by a pigeon or a cat and waited, with great anticipation, for the bud to open. And then it did. And it was white. 

Yes. White. Not blue. Not that beautiful, vibrant, luminous blue I've coveted for years. Boring old white. I mean, it's very pretty and everything (as you can see in the picture below), but really if I wanted a white poppy I'd just grow a normal white poppy, which requires far less effort! So, I'm looking forward to my Himalayan Blue Poppy story continuining another year, but for now I have a Himalayan White Poppy...

In other poppy news, my self-seeded ones are such a delight!! I'm so pleased I didn't go around hoiking out the Shirley poppies that didn't come out dainty pastel shades in the past. Now I have this glorious profusion of dark red poppies and they're all so individual...from single, dark red poppies to ruffled, many-petalled ones, to a tiny one with yellow stamens, and lots of big, pink ones as well! It's such a treat! I go on little poppy tours, delighting in their differences!

 

And the poppies are all combining with other plants for a wonderful overall effect...for example with the flax, with the roses, and with my Royal Purple Cotinus...

Other exciting combinations are the Ferdinand Pichard rose, looking lovely with the Rhododendron behind it...

And this little blood grass with the Alchemilla Molls behind it...

In my verge, the Achilleas I grew from seed are doing better than I ever could have hoped! They're terrifically tall and teeming with buds...and rather excitingly a lot of the blooms seem to be this gorgeous faded shade of peach, which is looking great with the self-seeded speedwell things (not entirely sure what they are, but they turn up everywhere, look great and are a favourite of the bees)...

Lots of the great combinations are complete accidents, but I'm pleased to say some of them were planned, like my Apricot Delight Evening Primrose, nestled amidst my Briza Media Limouzi. The colours compliment each other perfectly, especially when the flowers fade from creamy yellow to sumptious apricot...

And the Purple Sage and Stachys, which have always been a lovely foliage combination, are looking particularly lovely now they're both in flower... 

During my mammoth weeding session yesterdy, I was thrilled to discover another few baby Stachys plants. I've always been a bit disappointed these didn't self-seed more freely, seeing as everyone else's do! But now I've got more gravelled areas, they're turning up everywhere! Fingers crossed before long I'll have more than I know what to do with!

On the subject of self-seeding, the corn flowers have done me proud again! The blue ones always do such a great job of brightening up the garden, and this year a couple of white ones have turne dup as well. For the first time, I spotted the plants when they were still small and transplanted them to more suitable locations (with 100% success!) so they're sitting much better amidst the other plants than they usually do!

In the patio area of the back garden, I'm also very excited to see a Californian poppy has seeded itself in the perfect place...in a crack in the bricks right on the edge of a little gravelled bit. Last year I planted some into the bed and they got carried away and swamped everything, so really pleased to see they're a bit out of the way this year, but still around to brighten the place up! And I'm always delighted by their unual buds, which look like pixie hats!

In the same little gravelled bed, I've planted an Orlaya this year, which should be far less intrustive than the californian poppies and add a lovely splash of light to the corner. I took a photograph of this one in bud and was amazed by how curly and intricate it is!

And of course, aside from flowers, there are lots of dazzling seed heads in the garden. I'm always amazed by  how lovely the Alliums look even when they're over and, while Cristophii is always a bit more impressive than Purple Sensation, they're still pretty cool!

And the grasses are doing all kinds of lovely things. Unfortunately I can't remember what this one is, but it's one of my favourites at the moments, a little cloud of seeds!

And, already mentioned on this blog, my Quaking Grass is such a stunner, particularly when it gets caught in the sun like this!

So, there's that blog! I had a spree the other day and picked up a load of gorgeous new additions to my plant family! As soon as I get some good light I'll be out to capture them on camera and pop them on here!

Jubilee weekend...

The rain's put a bit of a halt on my weekend photography, but, just as the Jubilee continues happily merrily regardless of the weather, so does my blogging!

To think, I'd been under the impression that the garden was bursting with flowers last month! Well, now there are blooms in profusion!! So many plants finally opening up their buds...weeks of waiting over. 

One plant I was especially keen to see flower, was the self-seeded Verbascum in the front garden. I'd spent months not being able to figure out what this mystery plant (I feel a bit stupid now!) It had leaves like hooge Lambs Ears and looked quite cabbage-like. Well now, a considerable number of weeks later, it's quite clearly a Verbascum. I'm thinking it's possbly self-seeded from one I had in the border a few years ago. Either that, or it's just turned up! I think it's simply Verbascum Bombyciferum, which is great news because it will survive any drought we suffer very valiantly (she says while the rain pours outside!) And it's gorgeous and wonderfully architctural (though I wish it had placed itself a bit further back!)

More self-seeing wonder comes in the form of these wonderful Cerinthes. I grew some myself from seed last year, after admiring them in a friend's garden, and am so pleased they've self-seeded. A few of the seedlings didn't make through some belated cold snaps, but most have turned into lovely early-flowering plants. Here's to more self-seeding for next year! I love them and so do the bees (as a picture in one of my earlier posts testified).

Other self-seeded buds come in the form of cornflowers and poppies. The cornflowers always throw themselves about though, interestingly, one of them has come out white this year. I think a few years ago I put down a mixed packet alongside the brilliant blue ones and it's thrown up a white one this year! The blue are still my favourite though and they look so spectacular, even in bud...

 And talking of spectacular buds...check out this Calendula officionalis 'Indian Prince'. I'm not sure if this one has self-seeded or is the indestructable one I grew from seed last year. Either way, when the petals are closed, they're perhaps even more beautiful than when they're open!

Alongside the cornflowers, there are always some lovely self-seeded poppies. I love corn poppies and rarely pull them out from the border (part of my potentially over-zealous commitment to a 'natural' look) and consequentially a lot of the poppies are very close to roadside wild poppies. However, occasionally a Shirley Poppy influence can be spotted in a slightly more pastel or crepe-papery bloom, as this one promises...

  

Or sometimes you see something a bit more robust and fleshy - perhaps with an Oriental influence - like this gorgeous red poppy.

I suspect this one is the love-child of a normal corn poppy and the pink Oriental poppies I have (pictures to follow in a moment). See those gorgeous ruffled petals in deep scarlet, chunky multitudinous stamens and jet black flashes at the heart of the flower.

Needless to say I'll be saving the pepper-pot seedhead from this one!!

Like I said, the Oriental influence no doubt comes from a couple of poppies I purchased last year. I walways feel slightly guilty forking out cold, hard cash for something I could so easily grow from seed, but my willpower doesn't always hold out! I'm particularly a sucker for salmony/pastel pink Oriental poppies with dark, contrasting centres. I've got two - Papaver orientale Konigin Alexandra and Papaver orientale Princess Victoria Louise - and I've been waiting for one of their big, fat buds to open. Then, all of sudden, I was out in the front garden yesterday when I noticed, like with all my plants, it had snuck up on me and exploded from its bud. Now, I must confess, I have no idea which plant is which, but whether it's Konigin or Princess, it's definitely fit for royalty... 

Continuining the poppy theme of the last few pictures, one rather different poppy I'm enormously excited about is lurking down in the 'woods'. It's a Himalayan Blue Poppy, which I bought as a little rosette of leaves last year. I thought I'd lost it over the winter, but it reappeared and has been thriving in this cool, wet Spring we've been 'enjoying'. Over the past weeks I've been following the progress of it's bud, gradually stretching upwards. Every day I go and check it...fingers crossed no fighting pigeons or pesky felines sabotage it before it gets the chance to open!

Another plant I'm particulalry excited about seeing in flower is my Ornithogalum pyrenacium or Bath Asparagus. I bought it from Beth Chatto's nursery last year and think it's one of the most absolutely stunning plants! Understated and very subtle, but just exquisite. I wasn't sure if it had made a reppaearance this year, but then I noticed it hiding amidst some sphaerocephalons! It's stripey spike is poised to open...I can't wait!!

Another pair of new additions to the garden last summe were Oenothera 'Apricot Delight' and Briza Media 'Limouzi'. They're planted side by side and complement each other wonderfully. Apricot Delight stars off with these creamy-yellow blooms and gradually turn peachy as they age, and the quaking grass is burgundy-tinged...a perfect pair.

 

There are some really spectacular blooms about. This Geranium palmatum was a gift, which - for fear of losing at the hands of frost and snow - we planted into the cold frame. It's so happy there (sheltered and in brilliant soil) that we haven't had the heart to move it! It's now absolutely enormous - a true tryphid! And covered now with bunches of bristling buds, all promising these striking pink flowers...

Another plant whose beauty I can never quite get over is the Astrantia. We have a little colleciton of the down in the 'woods' and each year I'm completely captivated by the detail and delicacy of their blooms, be they green, pink or red...

You couldn't talk about striking blooms without giving a nod to the wonderful roses which are all bursting into bloom. Because of the amount of rain this spring, they're all smothered in buds, though they're now also all starting to fall victim to the various ailments roses tend to suffer with. Still, their flowers look amazing, even if they're foliage doesn't! Here, in order, are two David Austin roses 'Jane Austin' and 'Abraham Derby', and the sumptious rich red of Rosa 'Isabelle Renaissance', which we bought at a local NGS garden last summer...

In a similarly ruffled vein, a couple of old peonies are blooming away. They've been here since before us - stereotypical stalwarts! This one started deep pink and has now faded to this wonderful antique shade...

Back to the roses...and also in the Rosaceae family, is another of my favourites...the Geum! This pink one (possibly Pink Frills) is incredibly happy down in the 'woods', while this red one (which I simply can't remember the name of and don't seem to have recorded anywhere!) is thriving in opposite conditions in the front garden...

Now is also still the moment of all the Alliums. Amid all the showier varieties, I always relish the chives, who are absolutely resplendent. Each individual flower is so beautiful...something I knew, but didn't fully realise until I started taking photographs of them!

And, of course, Allium Purple Sensation is still looking wonderful, though starting to just go over. Here are a couple of shots while they were still at the height of their glory!

In the front garden Alliums and Geums come together. Purple Sensation has found the perfect companion in Geum 'Totally Tangerine'. Here they're acting out the plant version of 'lean on me when you're not strong'! 

And the successful combinations aren't just floral. I'm loving the foliage contrast between my Stachys and Purple Sage...

And my Cotinus 'Golden Spirit' adds a splash of limelight to the back garden...

And it's not the only splash of colour. Here, it's joined by the orange wallflower and chives to form a backdrop to the wonderful Anthriscus 'Ravenswing'.