PUSHING THE BORDERS

Some plants enjoying the drizzle.

MartinNicklin wrote: ↑Sat Apr 26, 2025 7:48 am Chad I’m getting worried about the Aralia. No update?

The sun came out and it wilted.

It recovered overnight, but hasn't grown since.

It doesn't look 'well' but isn't actually wilted today.

Chad

Here is Paeonia tenuifolia in flower, Chad.
Not quite fully open but we have a heavyweight hedgehog ploughing through the borders hoovering up slugs and snails at the moment. It is doing a brilliant job, but we can never be sure which plant it will accidentally flatten next.
Can you tell if it is anything out of the ordinary, or even the fabled Crimean form? It is only 30 cm tall, and disappears by mid August.

Is tenuifolia self fertile, I can save seed if you would like to try it?

John, that is a wonderful thing, and not growable down here.

I don't know enough to answer your questions though.

I don't know about self fertility, but the genus as a whole 'self' even when you are trying to cross them.

Don't even think of sending me seed, it would be a disappointment in an envelope; I just don't have a compatible climate for it.

Thanks for showing it, it has cheered me up.

Chad

John, if you did manage to set seed I'd be very grateful to try some! It looks fabulous!

Absolutely Paul, I will do my best.

Superb!

Lots of yellow happening in the garden (some of it from the lesser celandine!)

Although my plant is a shadow of the magnificent one on a wall at Tregrehan I am very fond of Hibbertia aspera, here it seems to need sun to flower but will grow happily in dense shade

Hibbertia aspera by charliepridham, on Flickr

The greater Celandine, the double form and as previously mention just as invasive as the single!

Chelidonium majus by charliepridham, on Flickr

Usually one of the first things to get going in the ponds, used to be double but seems to have reverted to the wild form of Marsh Marigold

caltha palustris by charliepridham, on Flickr

The cause of all those Spanish Bluebell hybrids!

Scilla campaniflora by charliepridham, on Flickr

Not coloured up as well this year

xanthoceras sorbifolium by charliepridham, on Flickr

Scilla campaniflora?

That's a blast from the past.

When I was learning formal names in the 1970's that was a name I was told to forget.

It has, apparently, been Hyacinthoides hispanica since 1944.

It was a relief to see research that showed it 'died out' from native bluebell populations slowly.  The hybrid swarm of Hyacinthoides x massartiana turns out to be relatively pollen infertile. So the early reports of the hybrid taking over from better seed production are probably allarmist. Mind you, it will take several hundred years and even then a few rogue genes will probably have 'introgressed'.

Chad

Love the Hibbertia. Love anything yellow, probably because I can see it! I must confess to liking the Spanish Bluebells. There was a garden locally when I lived in Wolverhampton which had the blue, white and pink ones en masse and I have to say it looked quite spectacular. And let’s be honest, the native Bluebell can also be a real pain in the butt. My friend has it all over the garden and can’t get rid!
In my garden I have lots of colour coming now. I’m trying to grow Wisteria as a tree, rather than a climber and it seems to be working. I’ve never had so much flower on it:



Whereas the Akebia longeracemosa I’m growing and trying to display like a Wisteria. It’s doing a great job working along the greenhouse. I know your original plant was from Pan Global Charlie, as was mine first plant, which never flowered. I think he gave you the best one! However, this one from you I couldn’t be happier with:



I really like the daintiness of the Iris confusa, as well as its form. I’ve just acquired the blue form, Martyn Rix, and am hoping they will intertwine:





I’ve got wattii but for the life of me can’t see any difference between that and the white confusa:



Whereas Iris tectorum, with similarly diminutive blooms, has more colour:



Lots of colour from new foliage as well like Acer ukigumo:



And these two Nandinas, the names of neither of which I know!







The red one has vivid red new growth and it stays red throughout the season. Its height is enormous so I doubt it to be the plant I bought it as because it a) is three or four times the height and b) does not turn green throughout the season. I did put it on GOTE but sadly nobody was able to ID it.

Clianthus Flamingo is my only bloom in the greenhouse at this point:



The Labunocytisus adamii has in the last day come into full bloom and, despite my disappointment at not seeing a mix of colours, I quite like it:




And I love the dainty flowers on Vestia. I just wish the plant didn’t have such an unappealing aroma:




With the May blossom and cow parsley out in the lanes and this stunning weather, it is certainly a time of great joy. I see even Cornwall has seen temperatures well into the 20s so worth getting the passports out to cross the frontiers.