Sheena’s Plant of the Month: Daphne mezereum
Every garden should contain at least one Daphne, and Daphne mezereum Rubra is one of the toughest. It’s an upright, deciduous shrub with prolific beautifully fragrant pinkish-purple flowers that precede the leaves in late winter and early spring. Although maybe not as sought after as the evergreen Daphne, this variety has the advantage over others […]
Sheena’s Plant of the Month: Lonicera fragrantissima
Just coming into flower now, the winter honeysuckle covers itself in creamy-white, highly fragrant flowers. Like most winter-flowering species, its scent is so strong that it carries for some distance to guide in those pollinators that are still on the wing. In winter, flowers need to be perfumed with the sort of scent that travels […]
Sheena’s Plant of the Month for May – Foxgloves
Sheena explains why Foxgloves are great this summer The foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, is one of the most familiar of our wild flowers and a must for any woodland garden. Digitalin, which is extracted from it, is a powerful poison and an important drug in the treatment of heart complaints so beware of planting if you […]
Sheena’s Plant of the Month: Choisya ‘Aztec Pearl’
This fairly common plant is seen frequently for a reason. It’s not at all fussy, the glossy leaves are evergreen, its citrus-scented, pinky-white flowers persist for weeks sometimes repeating in late summer, and it makes a neat mound up to 2.5m each way. It can be kept smaller with careful pruning after flowering. Because of […]
Sheena’s Plant of the Month: Clematis cirrhosa ‘Freckles’
This vigorous evergreen climber is a really good ‘doer’ in a garden. An excellent plant for disguising an ugly fence or wall, it’s also obliging enough to flower at a time of year when there’s not much else to see in the garden. Being slightly tender, it will require a sheltered spot, ideally with a […]
Sheena’s Plant of the Month: Chaenomeles x superb ‘Knap Hill Scarlet
Chaenomeles x superb ‘Knap Hill Scarlet’ is also known as flowering quince. From spring to summer this stunning plant bears clusters of large, bright red flowers. I love it because it’s so easy to grow on a shady wall and later in the year it produces golden yellow fruits, making it a very good all year […]
Sheena’s Plant of the Month: Pyracantha ‘Golden Charmer’ – Firethorn
This evergreen shrub, with dark, glossy foliage and sprays of white flowers in summer, displays the most magnificent yellow/orange berries at this time of year. Firethorn is useful to train up a fence or wall, or to create a dense evergreen hedge. With its very sharp thorns it makes a good deterrent for intruders but […]
Sheena’s plant of the month for September: Aconitum carmichaelii, monkshood
This superb form of aconitum flowers with handsome spires of rich blue monkshood flowers, which resemble the hoods worn by monks, hence its common name. It looks lovely when grown with Persicaria amplexicaulis and both will tolerate a shady position so work well under a tree or tall shrub. It prefers a good soil and […]
Sheena’s Plant of the Month – Virburnum opulus ‘Compactum’
A very easy shrub to grow in most soil types, this is a compact version of the wild species plant. It has snowball like flowers in spring and in September, brilliant glossy red berries, very attractive for birds, nestle among the bright red autumn leaves. This Virburnum requires little, if any pruning making it a […]
Sheena’s plant of the month – Stipa Gigantea
Stipa gigantea is a great plant for this time of year and I think the most magnificent of all the ornamental garden grasses. Its narrow leaves form a large tuft of basal foliage while the loose, open panicle flowers are held on stems up to 2.5m above the foliage during June to August and persist […]