This last week we managed to get away to Dorset for a little break. It’s the first holiday in well over a year and it was lovely. Yes, we had plenty of rain (and 65 mph winds), but there were gorse-covered heaths, sea, sandy beaches, blustery cliff tops and quaint towns to explore. Meanwhile, back home, in a seemingly orchestrated way, my brilliant neighbour dealt with the simultaneous arrival of multiple packets of plug plants from all over the show: Hayloft, Sarah Raven and J.Parkers. Oops! They are all doing splendidly though, so today I’ve been busy potting them on. Of course, the garden has been getting on with things in our absence, so this post picks out some freshly opened beauties. I’m joining The Propagator for his weekly gardening meme, Six on Saturday
22/05/2021
1 Cedric Morris Irises
These were a bargain buy from Plant Heritage last year: a choice of six plants from a limited selection of Cedric Morris Irises. It looks like they will all flower in the near future, but so far Iris ‘Benton Cordelia’ and ‘Strathmore’ are open:
Iris ‘Benton Cordelia’
Look at those orange beards!
Iris ‘Strathmore’
2 Geranium pratense ‘Dark Reiter’
OK, I am not totally sure of this ID as the plant was unlabelled on the plant stall, but it was nevertheless irresistible! It does look like the babies of ‘Dark Reiter’ that I am growing from seed, but perhaps its leaves are slightly less dark and incised … and, of course, I can’t compare flowers yet. However, I am pleased to see that it has returned and is in flower after an exceptionally wet winter.
Chocolate-leaved Geranium pratense
3 Euphorbia stygiana
This lovely statuesque shrub is in flower in a tub to left of the greenhouse. Its sticky flowers smell like dilute honey. I don’t know how that compares with E. mellifera, but I suspect the scent is much less strong.
Euphorbia stygiana
4 Sanguisorba ‘Red Thunder’
I particularly love the look of this burnet before it flowers. It looks more three dimensional somehow and maybe a bit more vicious:
Sanguisorba ‘Red Thunder’
5 Scilla hyacinthoides
A quick poke around the greenhouse when we got back revealed that this Scilla had opened. Sadly I can see some greenfly on the flowering spike, so I need to make up some detergent spray pronto.
Scilla hyacinthoides
6 The Fringe Cup plant
Tellima grandiflora, aka the Fringe Cup plant, for obvious reasons, has sent up lots of flowering spikes this year. As the flowers fade they take on a pink tinge, which is rather endearing.
Fringe Cups, Tellima grandiflora
I thought my display was fairly good this year, until I saw this bank of the same thing growing on the side of the road down to Middle Beach, Studland Bay last week!
A bank of Fringe Cups growing on the bank of the road down to Middle beach, Studland
Ah well, there’s always next year.
Thanks to Jonathon for hosting once again. Have a good weekend!
Frogend dweller's Blog 
Loving the Iris colours, ‘Strathmore’ looks like sherbet!
Yes, orange sorbet!
I’ve been trying for weeks to figure out what ‘Scilla’ reminded me of, and I finally got it: Scylla and Charybdis, the mythical sea monsters mentioned by Homer who eventually turned into the ‘rock and a hard place’ that we’re often between. The words themselves aren’t related, but I did learn that ‘scilla’ comes from the Latin and Greek for ‘sea onion.’
Interesting … and now I’ve been looking up sea onions and they are funnily not scilla genus, but drimia (admittedly Scilloideae subfamily), but they do grow in the coastal habitat of the Mediterranean basin.
I guess your scilla is in the greenhouse? What is the size of the pot? I started to grow it from seedlings this winter but I was wondering if I could keep it in a pot or if I had to plant in the ground. Currently it’s in a 7 cm pot
Yes, the scilla is greenhouse-based, in a very deep 15cm pot. (I think it’s an ex-rose pot, if that helps)
It helps. Thanks. I will move mine in a deeper pot. 😉
Glad you were able to have a break away and were able to enjoy it despite the weather! How ironic all your plugs arrived while you were away – perhaps look at Brookside another time as you can choose your delivery week? Your garden must have looked very lush on your return! That scilla looks really interesting and I shall search it out for the Coop. How tall does the sanguisorba grow? I have it but not for long and can’t remember its credentials.
Thanks Cathy. It was a lovely holiday and great to spend time with our new granddaughter. My neighbour is a hero! Luckily for her, the table of hardening off plants was mostly watered by the daily downpour, which saved one job. That sanguisorba is currently about 60cm, but is still growing. This is its second year in the ground. It should reach about a metre. Yes, everything was looking very verdant when we got back, including some very long grass! 😉
Ah yes, it was a meeting family visit – how lovely for you all 😊 Thanks for the reminder about the sanguisorba which is reassuring as mine has just been sitting as a flat rosette since I bought it and I was beginning to think it was going to be a ground-hugger…I suppose it will consider itself settled in one of these days!!
Dorset, a beautiful county with such pretty countryside (my aunt lives there), it is so refreshing to get away for a bit, isn’t it. That bank of Tellima is glorious. Is your chocolate leaved geranium a good grower? I also have a dark-leaved one, called Black and White Army, with white flowers, but it really is a slow, even pathetic, grower and if it doesn’t get its act together, it’s going to be swamped by another Geranium growing nearby.
Sorry to be so behind with replies. Re. the chocolate geranium. I’d have to say it’s a bit hit and miss. In it’s favour this one (in the photo) has come back fairly well. It’s in a protected environment over winter though, but it is managing to reach above strong surrounding foliage. Of the ones I’ve grown from seed, two are doing well and two are struggling, so it is a bit hit and miss. Shame, because I do like the dark leaves.