March 31st 2024

Surprising Plants in a Gravel Garden.

Our gravel garden is very sunny and we grow the sort of plants which are said to like these conditions eg salvias, lavender and yet are other plants which like different conditions which come back year after year

I have tried to establish wood anemones under trees and in shady spots with no success and yet this clump come up reliably every spring

Snakes Head Fritillary like damp meadows and again we have failed to naturalise them in grass but here they are growing happily

Native primroses seed themselves every year and are more prolific than in the grassland where they would be expected

What is Looking Good Now

The weather has continued to be disappointing this spring- cold winds and lots of rain. Still there is some real warmth in the sun now when it does make an appearance. The camellias have been excellent this year .

The large picture below is a 40 year old Camellia x williamsii “ Donation” which we hard pruned 2 years ago. It is still my favourite Camellia – big pink flowers that last and don’t go so brown as they go over unlike many. It continues to thrive despite not being in an acid soil.

Also in the picture on the right is a scented perennial honesty, Lunaria rediviva, and on the last a well established clump of snowflake, Leucojum aestivum . The red leaves in the foreground are the new growth on a Katsura Tree, Cercidiphyllum japonicum that we planted in the autumn . I have long wanted one of these for the amazing candy floss scent given off as the leaves turn colour in the autumn.

A selection of plants in flower now are lower down ( clockwise from top left )

Amelanchier lamarkii, Daphne transatlantica, Brunnera, mixed hellebores in the woodland edge bed and finally my favourite wood anemone- Anemone nemerosa “ Robinsoniana”