I have been reading 'Colour for Adventurous Gardeners' by Christopher Lloyd and delighting in the robust advice, challenging ideas and fabulous photos. My garden is small so I have always restricted strong colours to accents but I think I need to be braver. This photo was taken in a favourite garden on Sunday - it is a tiny, densely planted space with walls of clipped yew. The brightness of the yellow and blue takes your breath away as you enter through a gap in the hedge. I want those colours!
Nepetas, salvias and alchemilla have all been stalwarts in my garden. I didn't have enough blue geraniums and far too many of the pink ones which are akin to weeds here. Although there is yew, it is of the giant and unruly kind, not the neatly clipped ideal backdrop kind.
ReplyDeleteMy salvia was savaged in a dastardly night time raid by the Evil Kingdom of Slugs so no trendy blue spires this year. Sad times.
ReplyDeleteDelphiniums, they add height and drama.
ReplyDeleteMy Irises are still flowering and have now been joined by Nigella, and Philadelphus is about to burst!
Feeling the Iris envy. If only you knew how many time I have tried to grow them.
DeleteNext year I am going to try again with Iris siberica. I live in hope.
Perovskia 'Blue Spire' (Russian sage) is also a good upright-ish plant but a lighter blue than these salvias. Yew makes such a good dark backdrop. Lovely.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this! I have been researching Salvias so much that I have started dreaming about them - I need one which is not too blue, not too big and, crucially, does not get eaten by slugs.
DeleteAlice I am soooo impressed with all your colour planning...my garden feels like a child's paintbox in comparison, a sort of swirly mixed up rural mess, with occasional flashes of something cohesive. Still at the 'Thrilled Anything Grows' phase...baby steps.
ReplyDeleteYou are a 'growing' sort of Gardener which is higher on the ladder than a 'fiddling' sort of Gardener like me. Also you won't be wasting time looking at a flourishing red peony next to a gorgeous white rose and thinking gloomily 'Blood and Bandages are Bad Luck',
DeleteI had 'Anna's Red' rose and a white Pelargonium.
ReplyDeleteIt's a striking combination that gave my camera a migraine.
Blood and Bandages, I remember it well, but won't plant it again.
Welcome Diana! My garden will be very different to your fynbos plantings but I look forward to watching your garden grow and learning from the design decisions that you make.
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