I like things with scent, so have several "boring" evergreen bushes with wonderful tiny scented flowers hiding under the leaves - Osmanthus and eleagnus ebbingiei, as well as viburnum bodnantense and mahonia charity, lavender of course, and then old fashioned pinks and evening primrose, which grow to 6 feet high and smell wonderful. Perhaps my all-time favorites are the iris family, from the tiny ones in flower right now, through the delicate siberian ones to the heavily scented bearded ones - I love them all. Not everything is scented, I have many varieties of clematis which also seem to do well in my heavy clay soil and pentstemons....and the cranesbill geraniums which are the mainstay of my garden, from tiny low growing ones to tall elegant ones - no idea of their names as they have been collected from friends over the years. Sadly roses no longer seem to be at home here so I have more or less given up on them for the moment.
Well, hello, Gardening Granny from Gardening Grandma. First time I've seen a post from you, but I knew you existed because I tried to call myself by your nickname. We could cause a lot of confusion!
Jess - I planted a rose bed many years ago with much advice from Peter Harkness but over the years the roses have grown tired and you can't plant in the same place when they die because of rose sickness. In the meantime I've planted other things amongst the remaining roses, and now only have shady spots left which new roses don't really like. I do have a very beautiful "Sweet Juliet" and three other David Austen shrub roses and I'm cosseting them with a little horse manure and ash from my wood burner. Mind you, sweet Juliet is a lttle less sweet when you try to prune as she has vicious thorns.
Fairly inexperienced but the plants I really love so far are: Peony's, poppies -oriental and standard, lavender, hostas, hellebores, magnolia, roses, Japanese annenomies, aliums and agapanthus!
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I like things with scent, so have several "boring" evergreen bushes with wonderful tiny scented flowers hiding under the leaves - Osmanthus and eleagnus ebbingiei, as well as viburnum bodnantense and mahonia charity, lavender of course, and then old fashioned pinks and evening primrose, which grow to 6 feet high and smell wonderful. Perhaps my all-time favorites are the iris family, from the tiny ones in flower right now, through the delicate siberian ones to the heavily scented bearded ones - I love them all. Not everything is scented, I have many varieties of clematis which also seem to do well in my heavy clay soil and pentstemons....and the cranesbill geraniums which are the mainstay of my garden, from tiny low growing ones to tall elegant ones - no idea of their names as they have been collected from friends over the years. Sadly roses no longer seem to be at home here so I have more or less given up on them for the moment.
how come roses don't like your heavy clay soil gardenning granny? mine is heavy clay too, but the roses do really well.
Well, hello, Gardening Granny from Gardening Grandma. First time I've seen a post from you, but I knew you existed because I tried to call myself by your nickname. We could cause a lot of confusion!
So we could Gardening Grandma!
Jess - I planted a rose bed many years ago with much advice from Peter Harkness but over the years the roses have grown tired and you can't plant in the same place when they die because of rose sickness. In the meantime I've planted other things amongst the remaining roses, and now only have shady spots left which new roses don't really like. I do have a very beautiful "Sweet Juliet" and three other David Austen shrub roses and I'm cosseting them with a little horse manure and ash from my wood burner. Mind you, sweet Juliet is a lttle less sweet when you try to prune as she has vicious thorns.
Kate
I'd rather have a good summer Kate but each to their own
Could be birds, sparrows particularly like the yellow ones!