Friday 25 April 2008

Shady Goings On


Today I thought I'd say a little about some of my plants which are growing in the shade. It was good to see the Dicentra Formosa (pictured) in bud today. This plant is has a long flowering period and is much loved by bees. I have three of them and this year I'm also growing Dicentra Spectablis f.alba, which has fancier white flowers. They have been blooming for about a week but strangely the bees are showing no interest in them at all.
I noticed that the Tradescantia cutting I was given by a friend last year is also in bud, as are the Hesperis Matronalis plants (Sweet Rocket) which I successfully kept over winter. The latter smell wonderful and are very popular with a number of beneficial insects.
The Convallarias (Lily of the Valley) are well in leaf as are the Digitalis purpurea Tinkerbell (a dwarf Foxglove), which look like they will have at least three flowering stems each compared to just the one last year.
My Geranium sanguineum 'Max Frei' has its first bud and the three plantlets I salvaged from my somewhat bedraggled Alchemilla Mollis appear to have survived the transplant, each showing at least one new leaf.
Spring has definitely sprung here.
Georgie

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