After the May, June, early July burst of growth and colour in the sand beds until the prairie plants take hold later in the month, it is now we turn to the green waste beds for colour.
Our 25 Phlox that we grow have had a really strong year with Phlox paniculata 'Donau', Phlox × arendsii 'Hesperis' both looking really good. Phlox paniculata 'Casablanca' is a beautiful pure white form with smaller flowers.
An incidental plant community of Thalictrum delavayi 'Splendide White', Sanguisorba tenuifolia 'All Time High' and a Sanguisorba in cultivar that we are trialling for Arno Rijnbeek can be seen in the photo above and are all in their prime.
The green waste area has really come into its own as we are approaching late summer. Artemesia lactiflora 'Jim Russell', Miscanthus sinensis 'Kaskade', Plhox 'David's Lavender' all thriving in the photo above.
We are excited to be trialling some plants grown in aggregates formulated by Local Works Studio for the Tate Britain garden designed by Tom.The intention is that existing hard materials that will not be carried through into the new design will be crushed and used as a planting aggregate.
There are three mixes, equal parts of the following crushed aggregates to be mixed with local waste materials and reutilised on site. ( from the top of the image to the bottom) Mix 1 Ceramic, Limestone, Concrete Mix 2 Cockle shells, Limestone, Concrete Mix 3 Cockle shells, Limestone, Sand These were planted in late May. As a controlled study on each of the beds we are growing Allium angulosum 'Summer Beauty', Achillea filipendulina 'Cloth of Gold', Eryngium x zabelii 'Big Blue', Geranium sanguineum 'Elke', Vernonia lettermannii, All have responded extremely well to the conditions. And have only been watered 3-4 times since being planted in late May. We are happy with the results so far, the winning mix is yet to be decided but it's looking like the sand mix might come up trumps!
We had a day for the first Serge Hill Plant Fair with 16 nurseries and over 550 people visiting! A big thank you to all the volunteers who were around to help, it could not have happened without you. We do have many plants left over to sell! And are having a big sell off of them on Wednesday 10 September (5pm-7pm) and Thursday 2 October (4pm-6pm). Tickets are free but you’ll need to reserve a place in advance.
We will have Anthericum ramosum, Campanula trachelium, Ligusticum scoticum, Peucedanum rablense, Seseli hippomarathrum, Silene fimbriata, Salvia azurea, Salvia interrupta x candelabrum, Sesleria autumnalis, Xanthogalum purpurascens available amongst many others. All 9cm pots are £6 each. We will also have a selection of seeds from the plant library for sale. The Orchard Nursery from Sunnyside Rural Trust will also be selling their plants propagated on site too.
And finally I was very fortunate to see Armeria pungens ( a plant library plant ) in its native coastal habitat in North East Sardinia in May. Good to see it also thriving in the Plant Library.! It's over to bulbs now and I'm beginning to look at our list for planting in the autumn ... watch this space!