I sometimes forget just how many different plants I have in the garden. I have a database containing the name of plants, when I aquired them and who gave them to me or where I bought them but I am far from perfect at keeping it up to date. I attempt to keep a note of at least one location in the garden where a plant appears, but with many self-sown and divided plants that is not very accurate! However, it does help me to go out at this time of year to locate some of the little treasures I have been gifted by gardening friends!
These Chinodoxa had a chequered history. When I first planted them I nearly lost them among the very vigorous Lesser Celandine that is a constant companion so I lifted them to a border where I could keep an eye on them and thy were lovely for a few years until the Hypericum Calycinum completely covered them. Last yearI got fed up with this thug and dug it out and to my amazement these brave little flowers reappeared – and best of all, have started to spread!
This is Cardamine that was a gift from Helen Dillon in 2014 but it didn’t take, and then from Mary Tobin in 2015 and this one has established as I planted it in the Hazel Grove, a woodland situation that suits it better! However, although it has a reputation for being a bit invasive, it has to compete with a definite thug of a tall lilac coloured Geranium! After meeting Mary & Paddy at Bellefield last year where there is a lovely clump beside the Rill I went in search of mine and was delighted to see it was quietly growing away! I cleared it some space and it is much better this year.
Here is Corydalis Beth Evans. It has also been in the Hazel Grove and has reappeared each year despite the competition. This year there was no sign when it usually appears in February but in doing a walk-round the garden showing my sister what was in flower I spotted the bright pink! I have two other Corydalis in a safer place – well, somewhere I can keep an eye on them anyway – so Beth Evans is now in the greenhouse getting some TLC before being relocated with her relatives!
Erythronium Revolutum ‘Knightshayes’ is looking great now that I have removed a large self-seeded Helleborus Argutifolius, Japanese Anemone babies and some Lesser Celandines from completely covering it! One flower open now, but lots of buds to come! Every year I wait anxiously for the didtinctive foliage of this plant to appear! I know I should divide it but I never seem to get to it at the right time.
Erythronium Pagoda doesn’t get lost, as it is planted right beside the path but again, it is always an anxious wait in the Springtime for it to appear. I wonder do other people have this anxiety for the many plants that disappear completely once their flowering display is finished?
Gortnalee Garden Blog 