Little blooms

And Leslie’s gift of the monardas are out and flowering well too.

I had to really think hard about where to plant these herbaceous perennials.   They like moist soil. And I don’t have much of that.

But I decided to put them on the lower side of the calabert path that gets some underground water from a spring.

First they had to survive a freezing winter. But they did, and I now have half a dozen flowers.

I was going to put them in the vegetable garden where I could guarantee a more lush and plentiful water supply, but in the end, decided they should pretty up the sensible shrubs in the terrace. There is only a haze of blue from the perovskias and the lavenders here, so the red colour is a bit shocking.

The verbena bonariensis are thriving in the strawberry bed. I can’t believe they came through the winter.   But they had the protection of the wall behind them. And it does mean that I can leave them to multiply and flower each year without too much intervention.

I have sown so many seeds to reproduce this mass planting effect elsewhere.   I want to put them in the step garden so they can do the same job as here in the strawberry bed.   And I’m debating whether to give them a good go in the courtyard too.

But they do need the security of a wall to stop them dying over winter. I had tried them as a hedge in the open near the vegetable garden and they turned up their toes at the first sign of a cold snap. A minus 15C cold snap.

They grow tall and pretty straight and not be too garish.

They suit the granite walls without showing off. And are impossible to photograph as they blend in too well.