Thalictrum aquilegifolium planted in two beds in the back garden in May 2016. Last year it did well. This year it’s enormous, and was obscuring plants behind it in B2, so at the end of May I cut about half the stems to the ground. This seems to have worked, and it’s now (15th June) flowering nicely. It’s quite exposed to the wind, particularly in B2, but bamboo cane supports work well.

The plants are now about 8′ tall. The bamboo canes reach about 5′ above the ground.

The valerian from the original garden flops nicely over the gravel where the car is left near the bay tree. It seeds freely in the gravel, but the seedlings look quite nice and can be pulled up easily. There are quite a few valerian seedlings under the car. They must grow while I’m away, but of course, I very rarely see them. There’s a lot more scope for planting in the gravel, particularly in the front garden.

This spring I found some bulbs sprouting in small pots in a B&Q garden centre. The Tête-à-tête miniature narcissi were good, the Iris reticulata less so. I’ll continue to plant most of my bulbs dry in late autumn or early winter, but the sprouting pots are useful gap fillers.

Conventional planting:

Sprouting pots:

30 Mch 18

These tête-à-tête are superb. Better than those I planted traditionally. The iris reticulata have all disappeared, however.

Another relic from the London garden. Just keeps going

There is at least one cat round here that gets driven into a frenzy by my catmint (Nepeta × faassenii). It gets rolled on, scratched and worse. The plants don’t seem to be as attractive once they’ve grown a bit. These covers made of chicken wire are showing some promise. I might try Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ which should be more durable.