Category Archives: colour

A colourful view of the back garden from the patio. Flowers and shrubs in bloom.

In the garden in May 2026.

colour, flowers, foliage, stumpery

Thundery storms, hailstones /rain – then sweltering heat! But soon there will be some respite from the heat with a little rain.  So far this year the majority of butterflies I have seen have been the orange tips and speckled woods  and one small copper (I think) and one red damselfly. Lots of little bumble bees and a few large bumble bees.  The tadpoles have grown bigger and I have spotted a few newts.  Thankfully I have noticed far fewer slugs this year.

The Jock Tamson’s Gairden (JTG) plants sale went well and most of the plants were sold.  I had propagated too many bronze fennel but that is ok as any unsold will be used at JTG.  At the sale I got talking to a lovely lady, Naomi,  who,  after blethering about our mutual love of gardening and plants  gave me a few plants from her own garden to try.  Thank you Naomi.

At the beginning of May we found more blanket weed in the pond so gave the pond a treatment of Aquaplancton which made it all look a bit cloudy.  The tadpoles, frogs and newts didn’t mind at all although we did get some on some lily pads so they look a bit grey. I am still waiting for signs of the Typha I planted a couple of years ago and I planted a variegated iris just at the beginning of the year so I hope they will appear and flower this year.

Amy, my garden help, re-located a huge cyclamen from behind the garage to underneath the spirea where is should do well as it doesn’t get too moist there.  We took out a couple of old limbs of the viburnam as it was quite congested and was resting over the purple acer so that some of it’s branches had died off.

Also re-located is the hardy geranium Mavis Simpson which hadn’t really got going in the stumpery so it is now beside the heuchera in the middle bed where it will get a bit more sunshine.

I noticed that there are flowers for the first time on the acer Shirasawanum aureum and they are so tiny but really show up against the bright,  golden-green of the leaves.  The flowers are produced in small cymes.  Soon they will turn into a pair of winged samara (keys).  A samara is a winged achene which is one dried, seeded, fruit encased in one wing.

Small clusters of red flowers on a golden green acer shrub.
Acer shirasawanum aureum flowers.

My purple acer, acer palmatum Dissectum Garnet  (which is much older) has never flowered whereas next door there is a purple/red acer peaking over the top of the garage which already has the purple/red samaras .  I have never seen the flowers on it, and it is getting pretty wide now, growing over both sides of the front of the raised bed and growing down to and along the ground now.

purple acer shrub in the corner of a raised bed with f=green shrubs and a fern in the background.
Purple acer palmatum disectum Garnet in the raised bed.

The clematis montana is doing well but has now started to pull off the support at the top.  We are soon to start work on the garage roof so it isn’t the right time to do anything about it.

Pink flowers on the climbing plant clematis montana.
Clematis montana on the garage wall.

Below the clematis along the back of the garage wall is only a narrow border so it can be tricky to get it to look good.  I am trying out nepeta Junior Walker, hardy geranium Vision light pink and silene coronaria on the left hand side just to see how they do.  So far the cats have been stomping all over the nepeta so I have had to put an upturned basket on it for protection and this has done the job.

The middle bed is coming on nicely just now with the hebe in flower and the other plants are looking colourful.  There are are a few different colours of foliage in the middle bed with silvery white, dark green, bright golden-green, bronzes and purples which can make a lovely palette.

Different colours of foliage in a plant bed. Silver, bronze, purple, dark green and bright green.
Colourful foliage in the middle bed.

When viewed from another angle.

Layers of colour of plants. Purple at the front, golden-green then darker green, then pink flowers at the top.
Layers of colour.

The new fronds of the  athyrium otophorum var. okanum fern look like a right old tangle but they always open up perfectly.

Tangled looking new bronze fern fronds.
Athyrium atophorum var. okanum tangled looking fronds.

I am so happy that I finally bought some geum Mai Tai as they look so pretty next to the rose and fill up that gap nicely.  I did spot another geum right in front of the rose which was looking huge and healthy and wondered what I had planted but it turned out to be a weed (wild geum urbanum) so it was pulled out but now there is a bit of a gap in front of Gertrude Jekyll.

A variety of plants in a damp corner under the down pipe.
The damp corner where the geums are thriving.
Peach, frilly petals of Geum Mai Tai flower.
Geum Mai Tai.

I bought and planted three verbascum Peach champagne last year and only one was in flower at the time  (buttery-yellow colour with purple in the centre).  However I was not prepared for the colour of the emerging flowers this year.  The first two to start flowering started a deep dusky pink, then went peach and finally to the buttery-yellow colour. The last one to flower bypassed the pink stage – it started out peach.  Hey ho.

dusky pink verbascum along with pink flowers on a hebe and green japanese anemone foliage. Bright green foliage of spirea in the top right hand corner.
I thought I had bought the wrong verbascum. Pink instead of yellow.
Peach coloured verbascum flowers next to pink hebe, green Japanese anemone and bright green spirea foliage.
Verbascum Peach Champagne changing from dusky-pink to peach colour.
Verbascum Peach Champagne yellow flowers with purple centres.
Finally the right colour on the Verbascum Peach Champagne.

The red peony is looking good right now.  Normally when they are looking their best we get a deluge of rain which knocks all the petals off.

Deep red peony flowwers next to variegated holy and pink aquilegia flowers.
Red peony (unknown variety).

The poor old witch hazel had to be taken out as it was indeed totally dead.  It didn’t take much pulling and it was very wet at the base.  I am now looking for another large shrub or small tree for that gap.  There are a few more gaps I could fill in the stumpery but otherwise it is looking fine.

Path through a woodland garden.
Stumpery at the end of May.

It is so nice to work in the garden just now with the warmth of the sun and the gorgeous scent of the syringia that fills the air.

Pink flowers on syringia with beautiful scent.
Syringa Josiflexa Belleicent

The view from the patio right now.  Over the grey winters we have in Scotland I really miss seeing all this glorious, lush  colour.  Of course it will all change over the next month.

A colourful view of the back garden from the patio. Flowers and shrubs in bloom.
Colourful view from the patio.
Frogs, newts and frogspawn in a small garden pond at night.

Mid March 2026

colour, flowers, frog, newts

Mid March and it feels like we are still in winter. Rain, more rain, wind, frost, tiny bits of sunshine then more rain.  The patio pots are all still water logged but most of the plants look like they have survived although some are covered in moss like the red astrantia.  But I am hoping the astrantia will soon pop up through the moss.

moss covering the top of a plant pot.
Moss taking over the astrantia.

The crocuses that were eaten when they flowered in the trough last year have survived as I put one of the seed tray lids over it this time.  They looked great in the little bit of sunshine that we did get.

Pale purple crocus flowers with yellow centres in the sinshine.
Crocus sieberi ‘Firefly’ in the sun.

Most of the hellebores are in full flower now so here are a few:

Pale green flowers against dark green leaves of hellebore argutifolius.
Helleborus argutifolius
White flowers against green leaves of helleborus niger white.
Helleborus niger white.
Double pink flowers of hellebore picotee with shrub berberis behind with tiny jaggy leaves.
Helleborus picotee.

In the stumpery:  the small white erythronium are almost flowering.  The pulmonaria are looking lovely with their spotty leaves and pinky/mauve flowers.  The tortured hazel looks a little half and half as the side that gets the most sunshine has the most catkins on it and the shadier side is looking a bit bare.  Even the dead witch hazel that is still clinging onto it’s dead leaves has some colour – the leaves look almost red.  There are some very fragrant flowers now on the sarcococca and also on the winter flowering honeysuckle.

Spotty leaves and pink/mauve flowers of pulmonaria.
Pulmonaria ‘Lewis Palmer’
Red coloured dead witch hazel leaves still on the shrub.
Dead witch hazel leaves clinging on.
Dangly yellow catkins on a twisted branches of a tortured hazel shrub.
Corylus avellana contorta catkins.

The best news is that we spotted the first lot of frogspawn on 6th March this year and the other day I counted at least 30 frogs and loads of frogspawn – at least 11 clumps!  And even better than that- Harry saw loads of newts in the pond at night (he counted at least 10 but they move really fast so getting a photo was tricky).

Lots of frogs and frogspawn in a small garden pond.
Frogs and frogspawn 2026.
Frogs, newts and frogspawn in a small garden pond at night.
Frogs and newts.

The mouse plant that we are trying to get rid of in the raised bed came back with a vengeance so Harry dug down and got most of the soil out of that corner.  Before we put and soil  in there we will wait and see if any more reappears.  We have already waited over a year to get rid of this stuff.  Right next to that area is a small clump of tete-a-tete narcissi and at the other side a clump of hardy geranium so I am hoping the mouse plant will not appear in amongst them.

Dainty yellow flowers of tete-a-tete narcissi.
Tete-a-tete narcissi next to the dug out hole.

With a bit more sunshine the rest of the narcissi out the back will bloom while the large yellow daffodils out the front garden are flowering away and the mahonia it just about to bloom.  I can’t wait to get out and enjoy the garden without having to  wear about 6 layers of thermals.  I have just got over a horrid cold and am still struggling to keep warm even in the house.  On the plus side – I haven’t seen any huge slugs yet this year – it is only a matter of time.

Colour combination of deep red grass flowers, purple acer leaves, green foliage and large purple tree in the backgrond

Chilly Mid October 2025

colour, plants, Uncategorized

Well my relief at my healed pressure sore on my right ischium was short lived – as a few weeks later the skin broke down again and I was back on bed rest. I hadn’t been doing too much and I was really looking after my skin but, it did what it did.  It is soooo frustrating.  My fixed wheelchair was dropped off on the 15th October (finally!!) so now I have to wait to be  ‘pressure mapped’ at  a wheelchair assessment  to make sure  my wheelchair cushion is actually doing the job of relieving pressure on my butt, and to check that the wheelchair is  set up right for me.  I have already had to drop the footplates by 1.5cm.

Harry did the vine weevil nematode application and I now have Amy (gardener) to help with the garden.  Hopefully my skin will toughen up soon and I can get back outside again. All I have managed to do these last few months is keep the patio watered and the houseplants alive.  I did have time when I was up to pot-up some crocus and narcissi.

At the end of September I noticed in the pond some weird looking thing so I fished it out to see what it was.  It turned out to be a fruiting body of a water lily.  I have never seen one before so I chopped it off and brought it into the conservatory and kept it under water.  It turned into a gelatinous mass within the red casing.   The gel dissolved away to reveal the seeds.  It was very smelly so I just threw it out (I don’t need any more water lilies anyway).

red capsule of water lily fruiting body
Water lily fruiting body.
gelatinous material with water lily seeds in it
Water lily seeds surrounded in gelatinous material.

Back in March this year I went along to a talk about ferns by Heather McHaffie and she very kindly gave out a few cuttings from a hare’s foot fern.  I got a couple of cuttings and it is only now starting  to grow fronds.  Boy do you have to be patient with these things.  I do have a more dainty version of hare’s foot fern so I am so pleased that this is growing quite happily now.

Hairy rhizome cutting from Hare's foot fern with a tiny new frond or crozier growing.
Hare’s foot fern rhizome cutting.

There is still plenty of colour in the garden: still flowering are the Japanese anemones, verbena, geranium (Rosanne), persicaria, guara, fuchsia, cyclamen, erigeron, a few roses, viburnum, and even a few verbascum.

Tiny purple flower cluster of the Verbena bonariensis.
Verbena bonariensis

There are loads of pink berries on the rowan (Pink pagoda), bright orange crab apples (Everest), and the deep purples of the acer and heucheras are looking great as are the red seed heads of the miscanthus (Red chief).

Small bright orange/red crab apples (Everest).
Crab apples (Everest).
Large grass with red flowers. Miscanthus Red Chief.
Miscanthus (Red chief)
Red flowers of Persicaria amplex (Blackfield).
Persicaria amplex {Blackfield).
Colour combination of deep red grass flowers, purple acer leaves, green foliage and large purple tree in the backgrond
Purples, greens and splash of gold.

Some gold foliage of some ferns and the hakenechloa grass bring some bright as well as the silvery foliage of the snow in summer.  On the patio the marigolds are still flowering and the pink buds are developing on the skimmia (Rubella) although the leaves are looking a bit yellow so probably needs an ericaceous feed.

Small pink roses on a rambling patio rose.
Rambling patio rose.
Two toned orange marigold flowers.
Marigold.

Storm Amy came along and happily only one large branch crashed down and flew over the garden up to the end of the patio but nothing was squashed.  The top part of the clematis support came down but the clematis itself clung on so another job to sort out.