The garden is awash with drifts of pink at the moment, and, unusually, it is the shady side of my garden that is showing it's best. Most of the "Flowering in my garden' offerings this week like a slightly cooler and shadier spot, although not necessarily deep shade.
19 Primula
I have 2 shades of candelabra Primulas, one paler, one more vibrant, and I bought them both last year from Polgwynne on the NGS open day. Niether were in flower so they have been a lovely surprise. Their tall spires of tiered flowers zing out from among the fresh green growth all around them, and the bunches of buds just keep coming.
Candelabra Primulas like the ground damp, but don't want to stand in water. They will grow in partial shade and don't respond well to being hot, but they are not choosy about soil type. The main problem with them can be slugs (no surprise there then!) which like to eat the forming buds.
The flowers are held on tall, robust, silvery stems
...and wave gracefully in the breeze (which has been quite enthusiastic in recent days). The leaves are less interesting and can become tatty looking, but they can be removed as they become unsightly and clumps can be divided in the autumn/early spring.
20 Wigelia florida varigata
Wigelia is deciduous shrub with arching branches and comes in a wide range of varieties. This is a variegated one with creamy margins to the leaves and a pale pink trumpet shaped flower. It looks lovely at the moment with it's graceful branches waving in the breeze/wind, and the flowers and the darker buds appear all along the length of each branch.
The bright buds zing out from the lovely foliage.
It's a very unfussy shrub, it will be happy with full sun right through to shade and just gets on with it!
21 Londons Pride - Saxifrage x urbium
London's Pride is one of my favourites and has been part of my garden memory ever since I can remember. It grew in the garden of the house I grew up in, I took some from there to my first garden in London, and eventually brought some of that down to Cornwall. It's a well travelled London's Pride!
It has a haze of tiny flowers held on tall, wiry, reddish stems but when you look closely you see a wealth of delicate detail in every bloom.
...and the rosettes of bright green, serrated, fleshy leaves, each with their central downy stalk, stay lush for most of the year. London's Pride likes a sunny to semi shaded, well drained spot and new rosettes will grow roots and can be divided off whenever they appear. The only other thing that needs doing is to cut the flowering stems down when the flowers are over - Easy!
I also have a variegated version with lovely yellow streaked leaves, but it isn't quite as reliable as this one. This year it hasn't flowered at all.
This is another winner in shade - The Deadnettle or Lamium, this one is the Spotted Deadnettle, although it isn't spotted at all! It is a perennial, is great as ground cover and this time of year has spikes of pink flowers rising above the mounds of decorative leaves. Even when the flowers have dropped their petals the spikes are left with their jagged, bronzy bracts and look lovely against the green.
The downy leaves with their central painted stripe start pale green with a slight bronze edging, and then darken to a richer green that shows the stripe more clearly. It is semi evergreen in my garden and divides well. There are white and yellow flowered variants, and a smaller trailing white leaved variant. I would have to say that one is harder to establish, as I planted 3 of them and they all died! But we mustn't hold that against these lovely Lamiums, which are flourishing in the shade with not very much care and attention.
So the pink extravaganza ends - hope it finds you in the pink!
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