Plants At The Paddock Feb 24

By Ciaran Burke

It is February, and there is a brief respite from the rain, sunlight transforms the garden, dull greys and drab browns become shining stones and warm woody stems, the earth beneath my feet is full with promises.
I wander around, inspired by snowdrops, resilient white blooms, and encouraged by bloated red buds of peony roses rising from the soil. I reach The Corner, every garden has it’s problem spots, this is one common to many rural gardens, the bio-cycle, or what we used to call a septic tank.

Two circular concrete slabs, house covered openings to our waste and washings, provide the stages for container gardening displays. The surrounding area is mulched with stone and had been planted years before my arrival at The Paddock.
Heathers bloom in winter and spring, Choisya ternata and Hypericum ‘Hidcote’ provide an evergreen backdrop and floral displays while Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and Geums wander over the stones. In winter a fragrant Sarocococca confusa scents the air.

This unlikely corner of wastewater treatment has brought me a surprising amount of joy, the existing planting and my pot grown contributions combine to provide floral and foliage interest throughout the year.
In this area I use terracotta pots, and the odd plastic one too. In summer and autumn, Canna blooms above tropical leaves, providing a vulgar display of brash red blooms is Begonia Whopper ‘Dragon Wings’; reminiscent of the wax leaved Begonia semperflorens commonly used for summer bedding, but on a massive of amount of steroids and growth hormones! Dark waxy leaves and stems reach 60cm high adorned by bright red blooms throughout summer until first frost in November. It is solitary in its pot, there is no room for shared space.
Other lone dwellers inhabit adjacent pots, Plectranthus argenteus has super silver leaves, a tender perennial that can be over-wintered by rooting cuttings in a glass of water on the kitchen windowsill: it will soon be time to pot them up and move out to the glasshouse. Beside it, the evergreen shrub Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca ‘Citrina’ spread over a big pot, the small evergreen leaves are only without flowers during summer, from September to May, pale yellow pea-like flowers are scented and produced non-stop. Alstroemeria ‘Indian Sunmer’ has been a surprise, the same plant has been happily living in the same pot for the least three years, and it has had little attention. Dark bronze leaves are the perfect foil for the hot orange and red blooms, a long flowering variety of Peruvian lily that starts in early summer and will only be stopped by the frost.

The year-round star has to be Anisondontea capensis, a plant I purchased from work a few years ago, a mallow relative, a shrub trained as a small standard, and covered in pink cups shaped blooms. The first year it grew big, and I some how struggled it into the greenhouse over winter. The following year, it was not going to fit, so it has it’s first winter trial outside in the cold of the winter 22/23. It survived and thrived. Just this morning, I was admiring the abundance of the pink blooms, it is literally in flower 365 days, well 366 this year.
It is a plant that asks for little attention. I gave it a light trim last spring, and top dressed with compost and added slow release fertilizer.
Every week from April to September, I give all the pots a liquid feed, sometimes tomato food, others it is Miracle -Gro, to be honest I do not think it makes much difference as long as you give your pots a feed, I have not found that the plants have a preference for a particular brand or type.

When planting containers, I fill them entirely with compost from bottom to top, I never include a drainage layer of crocks or stones, the science does not back up such practice.
One new plant that I have just added is a wonderful, variegated Dianella, D. tasmanica ‘Wyeena’. Dianella is an evergreen perennial, sometimes encountered in Irish gardens, admired for its blue berries in Autumn. This variegated variety has stunning white striped leaves with an arching habit, I am excited by this plant, it will be stunning in pots and make eye catching mass planting displays.

So now as February is about to turn to March, my mind is thinking of pots for summer. Begonia Whopper ‘Dragon Wings’ will be purchased in May, Plectranthus argenteus will be grown in the greenhouse, I have just purchased some new tubers of Begonia and some Dahlia too, these will be potted now to encourage early growth, planted into pots when the frost has passed, and enjoyed until the frost returns again.
To see more about The Paddock visit my website: ciaranthegardener.com

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