When Perennial Plants Continue to Grow and Establish

The Potted Rhododendron

My wife, Carole spends lots of time in the greenhouse and is beginning to establish a variety of plants around our front, side and back garden.  She put a plant pot by our side door with a Rhododendron in it. A beautiful flowering shrub.

During the winter, I forgot all about this shrub. It just looked like a green little bush in a pot. Okay, it looked neat but it never really flicked any switches during those autumn and winter months. I forgot how lovely it was. Even the beginning of spring did not seem too interesting, where this potted shrub was concerned.

I was never too interested in gardens. I would mow the lawn and so on, but lacked the interest and patience to do the plant thing. However, since Carole came along and began to talk of flora like perennial plants, that self-seed each year, and growing an established garden over a period of time, I've been sucked into it a little more. Especially after the mad wildflower display we had last year with blue Cornflowers and much other wild flora mixed with a gorgeous array of colours. 

As quickly as the splendour came it went with equal speed when the late autumn came. The ground looked bare and it was hard to imagine there ever being the colourful display. Carole kept saying, "It will all return next year and will be even grander than before. We bought seeds of more wildflowers and scattered them ready for this year's summer.

Suddenly it is all happening again as the plants shoot up and flower. Within days the potted Rhododendron has bloomed. My much coveted Red Hot Pokers are back. I dug two of them up from the dyke by the field opposite our bungalow. Now there are eight of them. All manner of other flora is blooming and the wild blue Cornflowers are just sprouting though not flowered as of yet. They will do soon.

Tiny Forget Me Not spreading here there and everywhere.

Petunia are blooming in the hanging basket

Bacopa is spreading lightly

Campanula spreading amid the stones and rocks

Succulents that we put amid the stony triangle are back again

They are small but robust little plants

Achillea is a fine little flower that makes its presence known

Snow on the Mountain spreads around the borders

Osteospermum reminds me of a back ache.

Love in a mist and Marigold

The Red Hot Pokers are back

A stray seed sees Lobelia taking root and spreading in the nooks and crannies

Aguilera plants are growing all over the garden

Antirrhinum plants

Geum plants

The Lupins are growing in various colours

Lugwort sounds a harsh name for so fine a flower

Foxgloves amid the Ceanothus

This is only the start as many other varieties will make their mark when the summer really kicks in. It's all hands to the soil and bottoms to the garden chairs as we look out at our gardens on sunny afternoons and evenings.