Sunday, 10 October 2010

Doorstep gravel garden

Unless you're excited by shrubs, cyclamen or early Christmas shopping, UK garden centres can be less than inspiring at this time of year. So it was great to visit RHS Wisley the other week and find some small but delightful plants to create a small gravel garden for our front doorstep.
From centre back clockwise, we found: Helleborus x Sternii; Iris Setosa; Cyclamen Coum; Oxalis Lobata; and Gentiana (which looks a
little like rosemary in this picture). Alas, I've lost the label for the last pf these plants, so not sure what variety; since planting up, it has developed the deepest blue flowers, quite heavenly in contrast to the golden oxalis.
There should be something of interest in the pot in every season as it matures, though it is quite hard to judge at this stage... I'm hoping that there will be at least three plants either in leaf or flower at any one time.
I may have missed a trick by not including a small mirror as a "pond " next to the iris... but perhaps it would have looked too much like something off Blue Peter!
Isn't the yellow rose lovely? It's been flowering vigorously on our west facing patio since late August, when my mother brought it home for us.


1 comment:

JulieRNorthumberland said...

That's a lovely yellow rose..do you happen to have the name of it?