Pittosporum ‘Golfball’ at the front

This is a fantastic plant with a very good shape, and lovely dark red stems, but I don’t want it to get too tall and shade the border behind. The idea is to make it lower and let it spread over the gravel.

Pittosporum ‘Golfball’ at the back

This plant is looser, and there’s nothing behind that it’s shading.

Pittosporum ‘Elizabeth’ at the back

Another cracking plant with a more fastigiate form. It was getting too high and shading the Prostanthera behind it. I cut it back to about 50%

There are three plants right at the front. (Actually four, but the closest two are effectively one.) They’re too big and too uniform, although I love their flowers and their toughness.

I’ve tried to treat the three clumps in three different ways.

The one in the middle has been cut to the ground, and some plants from the National Botanic Garden planted around it on 30th March – possibly temporarily.

The other two have been cut back to a better size. The one on the left has also had about a third of the thick old stems cut to the ground.

I like the much-maligned ‘Dutch Master’, even though it is so common. It’s rather too big for a pot, but brilliant coming through the new growth of the thalictrum. Hopefully it’ll do the same thing next year.

Smaller ‘Jetfire’ works better in a pot. I don’t know what I’ll do with the pot-grown bulbs when they’ve finished. By the time the foliage has died down there’ll be nowhere to put them.

The symphytum, tulip and skimmia were all in the garden when I arrived, but I moved the skimmia – from a pot, I think.

The fritillaries have done much better in a pot than in a border at the back. This is the third year they’ve flowered in the same pot without any attention.

It was a wrench to cut back the epimedium leaves because they were gorgeous, but it does show off the flowers nicely.

The bellis was surplus from Dyffryn. Dame Edna would be proud.

5 Apr: the clematis is still going strong. It’s been flowering for about a month. I’m looking forward to it covering more of the rather ugly fence.

I won this marsh marigold in the raffle at the HPS meeting last week.

I must make sure it doesn’t overwhelm the bleeding heart just behind it. It’s said to be vigorous

These Cardoons have grown a lot since being planted last summer, particularly in B1, so I lifted one and put it in a pot in the front.

5 Apr 19: It took a bit of a hit, but is looking fine in the pot. I’ll think about planting it out somewhere at the front.

Seen near NE corner in shallows