There’s a week of good weather forecast which will lift everyone’s spirits. It’s a positive start to Autumn and I’m happy to say goodbye to that wet, grey thing that was optimistically called Summer. I’m adjusting to a new season and starting to forward plan. I’ve found a new (to me) variety of onion (Centurion) and an early potato (Cherie) to try out, I have good intentions to invest in some solid plant supports and for adding one or two more upright perennials to the border. Bulbs have been ordered and seed catalogues will be picked over. Even though Summer has wound down, there are one or two treasures in the garden to enjoy. Here are my choices for this week.
One
I had plans to plant a ‘Hawkshead’ fuchsia down at the far end of the garden and put in an order for one early this year. The nursery told me that they had had a poor start to the season and their plants in the polytunnels were a write off. They offered me a free twig of the fuchsia in with the rest of my order and I accepted. Six months on from its arrival it has been repotted twice and is flowering quite beautifully. I only hope that I can get it through the winter and then through another year or two before it becomes a properly grown up shrub!
Two
This is echinacea ‘White Swan’, a favourite of mine. I also have a couple of plants grown from seed that I hope will catch up with these purchased plants soon. I’ve sown a few more seeds this year, but just as I liberally covered them with vermiculite I re-read the sowing instructions – ‘Do not cover, needs light to germinate’. Have you every tried looking for seeds in vermiculite? Not recommended!
Three
I planted out some salvia ‘Nachtvlinder’ last year to fill up a space at the base of a climbing rose. So far these beautiful salvias haven’t quite climbed high enough to clothe the gap but I do like them. Maybe next year they will get a bit taller.
Four
And speaking of salvias, how about this for a surprise? I lost my main collection of salvia ‘Amistad’ over the winter so the ‘Darcy Bussell’ roses have been without their usual companions. This one is from a cutting I took two years ago and which also didn’t look like it was going to come to anything this year. It has suddenly shot up and produced flowers. I’ll try to get a couple of cuttings again for insurance.
Five
Not a treasure to enjoy but something that must be dealt with. There is always a problem corner in the garden and this is my current one. The rodgersias at the back failed to flower this year, most of the zinnias planted here fell prey to the slugs and although the fleabane looks happy it is camouflaging one of my most hated weeds – the cinquefoil. It sends out runners at an amazing speed and now has a strong grip on this corner. I pull it out as best I can but the plan is to dig out everything and try to take out every last scrap of cinquefoil too. I’ll do my best.
Six
The roses keep going and this deep magenta one is lovely and has a great scent. It’s ‘Madame Isaac Péreire’, a repeat flowering Old Rose. It doesn’t put out flowers all summer but after its first flush it starts again around now. It has the potential to be a mighty shrub in a couple more years, which will hopefully mean more flowers and more scent.
The Propagator hosts this meme and has kindly produced a participant guide in attempt to keep us all in good order, Take a look at the rules, then take part, the rules can be bent gently if you need to. Posts come in from all around the world so there is always a steady supply of garden colour.
n20gardener 
The Echinacea looks fantastic – I never seem to do well with the, they always die off over winter. Lovely Salvias too 🙂
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I have had so many things die off over winter but these seem okay…so far!
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Fab echinacea !! I love this one…Reassure me, your research on potatoes and onions is for purchases for next spring? You don’t want to plant them in the autumn ..!?
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Be reassured. I am doing my research for the next planting season! I thought it was time to try something new.
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I’ve got Hawkshead on my wish list one day. I hope yours makes it through. The salvia Nachtvlinder looks a great deep purple, one of my favourite colours in the garden. Good luck with the weeding!
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Somewhere I saw the nachtvlinder at its full height and it was lovely so as with the Hawkshead I will be patient.
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I don’t think my comments on your post made it through to you. I’ll see if I can work it out!
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Is fleabane a weed? It is native here, and can be annoying, but is mostly manageable. It grows on stone walls, and gets pulled off as it deteriorates. That way, it never stays long enough to get too overgrown.
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Fleabane not a weed here for most people but it’s self seeding properties could place it in that category. It is the cinquefoil growing amongst it that causes me problems – it has large strawberry like leaves.
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I have only heard about that stuff online. To me, it looks pretty.
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I agree with you, good riddance to ‘summer’, I feel more upbeat now autumn is here and the sun has arrived, yippee! Nice to be planning again for next year too. I would love to get my hands on the white fuchsia but haven’t seen it around here yet. I also have Salvia Nachtvlinder (which I discovered means ‘moth’, easier to spell!) and it’s colour is gorgeous but I have found it to be a sparse bloomer in its first year, maybe it takes a while to get going. The rose is wonderfully sumptuous.
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My Nachtvlinder is in second year and is so much stronger. I think it could take a couple more years to really get in its stride.
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‘Hawkshead’ is one of those “pull a piece off and stick it in the ground and it will grow” plants and is inclined to spread by suckers also. I find it very good as a “hedge” of sorts on a bed with spring bulbs as it can be cut back very harshly but will fill out again and cover bare ground very nicely.
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It sounds like the perfect plant for the place I have in mind. There is even room for it to spread a bit. Sounds like I could plant it out now rather than molly coddle it through winter?
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We generally have mild winters with hard frosts quite rare so it is left outside. I cut it back hard at some stage over the winter to keep it within bounds. If cut back by frost it would most likely shoot again from the base.
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Thank you.
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Your ‘White Swan’ makes me want to try it again. I also had the problem of it not surviving the winter. The Rose is beautiful.
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