Plant of the Day
Thursday 6 September 2018A great selection of named forms of Sempervivum (houseleek) were on display at the Beth Chatto garden and nursery, Essex. These hardy, evergreen perennial plants form a mat with clusters of fleshy rosettes. They require full sun and a very well drained soil.
Jill Raggett
Plant of the Day
Saturday 18 August 2018In the walk around the perimeter of Scampston contemporary Walled Garden, Yorkshire, by the Dutch plantsman, Piet Oudolf, was a great walk of unusual plant species created and cared for by Paul Smith, Head Gardener. This included Syneilesis aconitifolia (shredded umbrella plant) a rhizomatous, deciduous perennial with erect stems of small, pale lilac flowers which looked great with the purple foliage of Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ (redbud).
Jill Raggett
Plant of the Day
Wednesday 5 September 2018Providing an early autumn display of flowers on this barn was the deciduous sub-shrub Clematis ‘Praecox’. This plant produces long scrambling stems and can be grown in a border where it can be supported by other plants, used as a groundcover or, as here, trained annually as a low-growing wall shrub.
Jill Raggett
Plant of the Day
Tuesday 28 August 2018The strong growing herbaceous perennial Achillea filipendulina ‘Cloth of Gold’ (yarrow) needs an open sunny position and space to spread. It had all of the required conditions at Helmsley Walled Garden, Yorkshire. These flowers were in a very impressive herbaceous border. They can be dried for indoor winter displays but have a very distinctive odour.
Jill Raggett
Plant of the Day
Sunday 26 August 2018An herbaceous perennial that thrives in a shaded site with moist, lime-free soil enriched with leaf mould is Kirengeshoma palmata (yellow wax-bells). It grows as a clump and has fleshy, yellow bell-like flowers.
Jill Raggett
Plant of the Day
Tuesday 31 July 2018The exotic garden of the Royal Horticultural Society Garden Wisley, UK, included the unusual Lysimachia paridiformis var. paridiformis. This evergreen perennial forms clumps of whorled foliage, of shiny dark green leaves with dense clusters of golden-yellow flowers in the summer.
Jill Raggett
Plant of the Day
Saturday 21 July 2018Fuchsia cultivars are grown for their pendent flowers that are borne throughout the summer and into the autumn. They are used for containers, in summer-bedding schemes and hardy species can be part of shrub planting and for hedging. This carousel display by Roualeyn Nursery, North Wales, was at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Hampton Court Flower Show.
Jill Raggett
Plant of the Day
Thursday 19 July 2018Clivia miniata var. variegata has been flowering producing a spectacular display on a shady bench in the garden. It has a large head of trumpet-shaped orange flowers with strap-like leaves with linear variegation. This plant originates from South Africa where it grows on the forest floor.
Jill Raggett
Plant of the Day
Saturday 7 July 2018Common in bogs throughout the U.K., the fluffy, cotton-like flower and seed heads of Eriophorum angustifolium (cotton-grass, bog cotton). The white cotton-like seed-heads were once used as a feather substitute in pillows. Here the plants are thriving on the Isle of Tiree, Scotland.
Jill Raggett
Plant of the Day
Friday 6 July 2018A maritime native of the U.K., Armeria maritima (thrift, sea pink, cliff rose, cushion pink, lady’s pincushion, sea gilliflower, sea grass) flowers through the summer on the Isle of Tiree, Scotland. This mat-forming, evergreen perennial has dense, needle-like leaves and needs a well-drained soil.
Jill Raggett
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