Finally we have had a few nice days – still cold but not quite so wet.  The news was saying that we have the wettest 18 months till March this year since records began (maybe they just meant England but we have been very wet up here too).  I am still eagerly waiting for some signs of new growth from a few newly planted plants (last year) but so far it looks like they have died.   I had also taken quite a few Nepeta Junior Walker cuttings to sell at the Duddingston Kirk Garden Club sale but sadly they didn’t make it.  Some nepata in the stumpery also didn’t make it.  I found vine weevil grubs in one of the large pots on the patio that contained  some heuchera,  but at least I managed to take cuttings of the heuchera and saved them, I then fed the grubs to the birds.  I found one adult vine weevil in the conservatory but so far I haven’t found grubs in any of the plants in there, that may be because I put a top layer of gravel on the succulents so it couldn’t lay it’s eggs in the soil.  So, I have ordered vine weevil nematodes to treat the patio, conservatory and back garden.  I hate the blighters – apparently every adult is female and they can lay hundreds of eggs from April to September.  Just as well they can’t fly.   Trouble is, that to use the nematodes you need a soil temperature of above 5ºC and wet soil.  In Scotland we have to wait a while longer than England before the soil temperature is high enough for the nematodes to survive.  The temperature is ok now so I had better get on with it.

Most of the narcissi have gone over now except for the narcissi Pipit  Most of the tulips are over, as is the cherry tree, mahonia, spirea Bridal wreath, rosemary and  the epimediums.  Now taking over are the saxifrage mossy white and saxifrage andresii carpet purple along with the purple honesty, white wood anemones, bluey purple pulmonaria and yellow erythroniums in the stumpery.    The bright orange berberis is looking good just now and the ferns are all just beginning to unfurl their fronds.

There are loads of little splashes of purple all around the back garden from the Viola labradorica.  Not only does it have delightful little purple flowers but the leaves take on a purple tinge too.  They will self seed everywhere but I love them.  People do say that to make your garden feel more cohesive it is good to do repeat planting, either the same plant in various places around the garden or a similar colour repeated throughout.  I have done this with a few plants such as the viola, bugle, perrywinkle, hellebores, geraniums and aquilegias.  I was hoping to do the same thing with nepeta and erigeron but a few of the erigeron just died leaving empty spaces in some areas.  One of my spirea japonica white gold died too but the one right beside it is fine – I have no idea what happened there.

I am glad to hear that the weather will be getting a little warmer soon so I will be able to get in the garden a bit more, although the colder weather has maybe kept the number of slugs down as I haven’t seen that many – yet.

In the stumpery – woodland area I have mixed some wild plants along with plants you might associate with a cottage garden like foxgloves and geraniums as they like a semi – shaded aspect and are often found in woodlands.  I mostly let the foxgloves seed about where they like but if there are too many, otr they are just too close to the path, they get hoiked out and replanted in another area.  The foxgloves are looking great just now and are mostly untouched by beasties.  There is some damage on a couple of flowers – possibly snail damage.  A couple have toppled over but most of them are standing up by themselves.  The main colour scheme are shades of pinks, red, mauves, purples with splashes of white and gentle yellows.  I don’t particular like orange plants in this garden but I do like coppery foliage of some plants especially ferns.

Foxgloves standing tall.

Foxgloves and geranium.

Foxglove damage.

We have had a very sunny and hot May but so far a rather foggy, cold, and drizzly June.  The knapweed in my previous post is looking very bedraggled, and covered in mildew and brown leaves. I want to chop the whole thing back to the ground where it will shoot again, but there are loads of buds on these horrid looking stalks.  What I may do is; once I have chopped it back, I will take off most of the foliage and put the stems in a vase, so that when the buds open – the bees can still visit them and I can enjoy both the flowers and the bees.
The deutzia is covered in flowers.  It is usually covered in bees too, but not today as it is so cold there are only a few brave bees about. It may be Deutzia ‘Mont Rose’ but I don’t know for sure as I bought this from a sale with no label on it and no body knew what the plant was. It is under planted with a red astilbe which is now getting a bit smothered, but I will be cutting the deutzia back after it has flowers so the red flowers of the astible will become more visible.

Deutzia ‘Mont Rose’

Geutzia ‘Mont Rose’ closer.

There is also a Jacobs ladder on the corner near the deutzia but I am not sure that I want to keep it.  When in flower it does look pretty but the slugs go for it and the stems are quite easily broken and it always looks a bit scruffy.
The tierella are looking a bit ‘lumpy’ this year and have taken ages to get going.  I need to  lift and divide them, then  re-plant a little deeper. As they can take about a year to establish their roots  it is often better to do it in spring rather than in autumn, so that can wait until next spring.   After a few years they have a tendency, like the heucheras, to kind of extend themselves up wards out of the soil and can look very straggly, lumpy and generally scruffy.  There are more tierellas in the sunnier bed by the patio, but they have been so trodden on by the massive wood pigeons that I am thinking of replacing them that can withstand that kind of treatment.

In corner,  where the gutter down spout empties, the weigela, rodgersia, Soloman’s seal, and the ferns are looking good.  The weigela is covered in flowers which the bees love.  There is a pink astilbe there and it has grown quite tall,  slightly taller than I had expected.  I planted a variegated form of Jacob’s ladder at the front along with he twhite version of ragged robin to brighten up that slightly more shady area of the corner. The weigela often needs trimmed back to keep it under control so that can be done when it has finished flowering.

Weigela corner.

The new nepeta arrived this week so they have just been planted in
the right hand border ,where it gets a bit more sun than the stumpery,
and this time some organic slug pellets were sprinkled around them just
in case.  I lost the first lot of plants so I don’t want to lose this
lot.  I do slug/snail patrols every morning and Harry does a patrol at
night to try and keep on top of the slug/snail number.  Nepeta are
another one of these plants often found in a cottage garden and they
have a very gentle habbit and pretty flowers – again bees love this.
Behind the nepeta are the circisium which are always covered in bees and
beside that are the poppies (Patty’s plum) which have huge flowers on
them.  They do need staking though and I was a bit behind with this so
they had already fallen over by the time I asked Harry to stake them so
they are looking a bit trussed up now.
In the next few days  the
weather should brighten up a bit and will hopefully be a bit warmer
too.  It is much nicer to do the weeding when it is warm than when it is
cold and drizzly.