New discoveries

There were three plants that really struck me amongst the myriad of stunning plants that I saw whilst I was away, firstly for their beauty and secondly because I hadn't come across them before.

The first was  Dictamus albus var. purpureus, a tall perennial, with spires of rosy pink flowers on dark purply stems, above lush green leaves. We saw this at The Courts in their deep borders and it looked lovely against the Yew hedge. The RHS say it grows to about 1m high and does well in sun or partial shade, so it sounds manageable, although it looks lush enough for it to be a slugs favourite. I'd like to try in my garden so I shall keep an eye out for it.

Now I have come across Dianthus alpina before, I have some white ones in my garden flowering their heads off as I write. What I hadn't come across before was this magenta flowered and dark leaved variant. Usually Dianthus alpina have green, blue/green or silver/green foliage but this has dark purply leaves that act as the perfect foil for the eye-popping magenta flowers. We saw them in a couple of gardens, first in the Rock Garden at Kilver Court and then later the same day at Barrington Court, where as luck would have it, in a corner there was a table of plants with a sign which read 'plants left over from the garden £1'. And there on the table were some purple leaved Dianthus so I swiped 3 sharpish and put my money in the box. The only disappointment is that I have not managed to find out the name of this variant, it wasn't labelled anywhere and I haven't managed to find a match on the internet yet. But I shall keep looking and now I have them in my garden - hurrah!

My last find was a clematis, a non-vining (doesn't climb but forms a beautiful bush) variety called Clematis Recta purpurea. Again we saw them at Barrington Court and at East Lambrook. The typically shaped Clematis leaves were slightly purply, (the 'Lime Close' variant has even more purply leaves according to the gardener) and the small white flowers create a fragrant cloud above the leaves.

I have seen herbaceous Clematis before but never one this lovely. 

Although it doesn't climb it does sprawl rather (see above at Barrington Court) and at East Lambrook it was quite tightly supported to keep it neat and upright.

I wish I had some more space, this is one I would definitely have in the centre of a border creating a real focal point. Alas I will struggle to fit it in, perhaps I should redesign a border around it...