I was sympathising with fellow SOSer Jude in Cornwall about disappearing plants. We mainly blame slugs and snails of course and definitely not our gardening skills. But gardening, in my case, is a bit hit and miss. I veer from having very sensible plans to organise heights, colours and textures, as I am encouraged to do by the gardening press, to responding haphazardly to the situation on the ground – or not responding! So things can go a little awry. Here’s six slightly wrong things.
One
This looks quite good. It is my one surviving delphinium and a peony. I didn’t plant the peony, it may be a remnant from the previous owners’ garden and it has only just flowered. Both are jammed right up against the rose bush behind which causes both plants to take desperate avoidance measures. In reality they are twisting and flopping and needed to be propped up with supports. But they survive.
Two
My collection of hostas. It’s clear what has gone wrong here. Despite layers of gravel and coffee grounds the slugs munch away. It’s interesting that the hosta ‘Francee’ behind which has thicker, darker leaves is fairing much better. I think the ‘Thomas Hogg’ in front are acting as sacrificial plants.
Three
This is an interesting one. Two things ‘going wrong’ here. First the classic example of digging out seedlings and wanting to keep them somewhere ‘just in case’. This is meant to be a symphony in white and green with some late purple. Instead ‘Johnson’s Blue’ and psilostemon steal the show. Behind is persicaria polymorpha, planted to hide the fence, which is doesn’t quite do and worse, it smells awful! But it is ideal for semi shade and is long flowering. Perhaps I will get used to the ‘perfume’.
Four
Phlomis russeliana, whorls of pale yellow flowers is what I was promised. I find these rather strident, especially as the aforementioned Jude did suggest, delicately, that I could have chosen the more subtle tuberosa pink version. Worse, when the rose arch collapsed I had to move ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ to a new location and the only possibility was the wall behind the phlomis. The dark red of ‘Tess’ and the yellow phlomis is far from ideal. There will have to be a rethink here.
Five
This is a case of re-appearing plants. It isn’t in flower yet, but this is a globe thistle, echinops ritro if I remember rightly, I planted them in my quest to find blue flowers that the slugs didn’t eat. Several years ago I dug them out because they were mildewy, covered in blackfly and, well, thistly. I still don’t want them but as you can see the slugs don’t eat them and they are determined.
Six
If I Ieft the garden to its own devices it would be a forest of verbena bonariensis. It’s hard to take a photo that really captures their character. I like them and this year they are incredibly tall. Not a problem really but this group are in front of a new hibiscus that is about half their size. A clear case of wrong heights and quite probably overcrowding. At least the hibiscus can be seen through the verbena. The path is becoming a little less visible though.
Gardens eh? We love them even though they challenge us every day. I’ll be out there again this weekend, weeding, feeding, watering and enjoying it all. I hope you will too. Jim, our host, almost certainly will. Do have a read and join in.
n20gardener 
I’m reading this and smiling. I think your garden is looking lovely, but yes, things grow where they are not supposed to. I removed my verbena boniwhatsit because I want to redo the bed it was in (and try to remove the cinquefoil that runs all through said bed) and yet seedlings have appeared all over my gravel paths! Funny when I try to grow seeds myself they rarely germinate, but other things happily throw themselves about. Sometimes I think I should just leave the garden to its own devices and see what happens.
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I’m also sharing your cinque foil problem 😂😂
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Gosh those tap roots go deep!
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Your garden looks great. I have all these plans for spacing things nicely, growing taller plants at the back, repetition of colour and all that and it falls apart pretty much immediately. Things get swamped, tall self-seeders appear in the front of borders and colours clash – and I don’t have the heart to pull things up once in flower (Ox-eye daisies for example). I’m very impressed you have a surviving delphinium – they never live to see another summer in my garden.
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Sharing your reluctance to pull up things in flower. We can but try!
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I think what I love most about this post is that it sounds like you are very intentional in your garden design, yet chaos creeps in. My style is more chaotic, but I will have to see if any order creeps in. The persicaria looks a bit like our native Goat’s Beard, Aruncus dioicus, which can reach 6 ft if it likes where it is. The flower is not so white though, maybe more cream, light tan. I can’t plant anything that smells bad or the non gardener would have a fit. I was forbidden from using blood meal after our backyard smelled like a slaughterhouse during an ill fated hay bale gardening experiment …
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Ooh. The hay bale experiment sounds worrying! I haven’t shared the persicaria problem with non gardener yet. 😂😂
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I like the Verbena bonariensis also. It is indeed difficult to photograph since there is nothing for the camera to focus on other than the bloom head in a closeup.
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That’s exactly the problem!
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I am a chaotic gardener, popping plants into spaces, allowing self-seeders to run wild. I have successes and disasters and I love it! It is vegetables that I need to find more success with. Hopefully the insects are happy with all your flowers.
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Me too, with vegetables! My veg plot doesn’t warm up until quite late so carrots and parsnips are always difficult.
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Reading your post makes me feel so much better about the things which have gone/are going wrong in my own garden. Keeping it real, I like it!
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Thank you. It’s such a balance both in the garden and with what I think about the garden.
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Yes, as the others say, with the exception of the hosta problem, the others are not such bad problems to contend with. They still look exceptional. Most of us might not recognize them as problems.
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We are always our own worst enemy!
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I’m late to read all the Six and in yours I found the hostas pretty and healthy (or at first glance with the one at the back which is larger and without visible holes)
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I’m always impressed by your SOS reading. I have had busy weekends lately and have not done so well.
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