May Photographs 2000

A few more plants from my garden all photographed this month.

"But your garden is full of weeds", I can just hear all the Dahlia and Chrysanthemum growers, as I reel off my hardy Geraniums. Well they may be someone's weeds, but I love them, they are untouched by slugs and most other pests, provide fantastic ground cover where many plants would struggle and yet are all easily controlled and have pretty, if not showy, flowers in shades of pink, magenta, purple and blue. The first one shown to the left is I believe Geranium macrorrhizum, I say believe because G. dalmaticum and g. x cantabrigense are also very similar in appearance. This plant provides excellent ground cover and is evergreen for me. It has self- seeded around my garden and I now have it in white, various shades of pink and carmine. 

The next one is Geranium phaeum, looking somewhat paler than it's usual almost black, due to the backlighting from the sun. I do have one in a very deep brick red and of course it is also available in white, but I lost my white one. It is not a very long lived species but does seed around so there are generally replacements to be found of various shades. This is a good one if you need something for a shady corner, even where it is fairly dry, such as under a mature tree. It  forms a mound of foliage, but unlike the one above, does not spread, except by seed or cuttings.

Wish I could have got in even closer for the photograph of this one, to show the veining on the petals clearer, it really is a beauty, and it's name, yes I did manage to look it up, is Geranium versicolour. It is another non spreading mound former and flowers for a good few months, starting in May and continuing up to about the end of August. The divided leaves in the picture belong to herb Robert another Geranium, robertianum would you believe, now this one is a weed, but I must confess to introducing it. I gathered the seed from a plant growing in a stone wall whilst on holiday in Torquay, thought it looked pretty with it's little pink flowers and such a tiny thing. Tiny in the barren conditions on the wall, a huge mound in the richer conditions of my garden, and it pops up all over the place. To be honest, it is easy to pull up and if I tried I could get rid of it, but it does have pretty flowers and leaf form, and it grows where not much else will, in dry shade, so I allow a few individuals to stay each year. 

Still on Geraniums, can you tell I like them, we have one for the front of a border or for an alpine garden, Geranium subcaulescens. I must warn you that the flowers are somewhat more garish than the photograph shows so place with care, but it does brighten things up just as the spring colour starts to fade.

Yet another one and  for similar positions to the one above, but these flowers are much easier to place, being deep pink with purple veins, a bit darker than shown. This one is Geranium cinereum Ballerina, and that ends this months Geraniums. I would just add that almost all are very easy to increase from cuttings taken in Spring, Summer or Autumn and nearly all root with no problems.

Thought you may be ready to move over to the other side of the colour spectrum after all the pinks and purples, so here is  Paeonia lutea. Now this really is a "tree" paeony, mine is about eight feet (2.4m) high and still going up. The flowers are not as large as many of the hybrids, but there are always plenty of them even on a relatively small plant, and it produces the most wonderful black shiny seeds about half an inch (1.2cm) in diameter. They look particularly decorative in the Autumn as the leaves fall and the pods split open. During the spring and summer the leaves give a tropical feel to the garden, being large and divided. It does not cast dense shade so a range of plants can be grown under it's canopy. Mine is in a somewhat shady spot itself under my autumn cherry, but does very well in those conditions and does not seem too affected by the dry ground in summer.

Two colour versions now of the same plant Centaurea montana and the variety Alba. I have had the blue one for a few years now and it is the first grey leaved plant I have ever had that thrives in shade. It resists the slugs fairly well and forms large clumps if undisturbed. Add to that the unusual flowers and long flowering season, books say May to July, I say May to end of August, and you have a real winner.

I acquired the white one last year and that too is doing fairly well, but for some reason seems more prone to slug attack than the blue. I think it is perhaps just the slug first rule of acquisition coming into play, if it is new and rare in the garden, assimilate  that first. (Sorry about mixing up Ferengi and Borg terminology, and even more sorry to those who do not watch Star Trek/Deep Space Nine).

I have a great temptation to go on and on with the plants this month, but I have limited web space and must leave room for the rest of the year.