Ivy
A living wall full of wildlife
This evergreen big-leaved ivy covers the fence at the bottom of the garden giving us a green wall to look out on all year round. Birds nest in it, it’s teeming with wildlife and now berries are providing winter food. Even if I chop it back when it gets too heavy it comes again – although one time it took nearly two years to recover from a rather aggressive hack. I learned not to do that again.
Epimedium
Colour through the winter in a pot
This common epimedium is suddenly giving me red leaves. As evergreen ground cover this plant can’t be beaten. Here it’s in a pot and spreading all around.
Mahonia
Evergreen shiny foliage and scented flowers
This is a new variety of mahonia, Mahonia nitens “Cabaret”, which has orange flowers which later turn yellow. I’ve had it for a year now in a pot and here come the flowers. They should be scented too.
Japanese anemone
Roots that never give up
A root of a pale pink Japanese anemone which I had to go down 2ft to dig out and still I left some root in the ground. Toes for scale. These can be a monstrous thug and I need to keep on top of it as it smothers everything in its path. The named white varieties don’t seem to spread as badly.
Osmanthus
Fabulous scent right now from this evergreen shrub which fills the whole front garden with a lily-of-the-valley perfume. You may think it’s not the most exciting shrub but it has glossy evergreen foliage and scent from now to next year. Everyone coming down the path notices it. What could be more wonderful? Just plant one – you won’t be sorry.
Gorgeous scent from tiny white flowers
Scented leaves
Different scents from simple herbs
This is a group of very simple, ordinary easily available plants. There’s lemon verbena in the very front, purple basil on the right and pineapple sage on the left. The joy of them is that their foliage has a very strong smell which wafts through the air and even better, just brushing them with my hand gives me their perfume.
I’ve never had much luck with colourful bedding plants but these lovely herbs thrive in the shade of the apple tree and give such value. Do try them next year.
Thankyou to the propagator for hosting this theme of Six on a Saturday and over on his blog you can find the Sixes from other gardeners.
