Now that the bluebells are on the wane for this year, they’ve been closely followed by Yellow Archangel, an ancient woodland species in the lamium family (nettle). The story is that they were called Archangel as they didn’t sting! They’re worth investigating closely as whilst they have a classic nettle leaf with toothed edges growing in pairs up the stems, the butter-yellow flowers are so interesting, resembling little ‘bubbles’ before they open out. And there are markings or ‘honey guides’ on the flower for the benefit of pollinating insects. Isn’t nature marvellous – designing maps to guide the insect in – and, of course, once the nectar is collected the pollen drops on to the plant’s stigma and pollination takes place and so the cycle continues. Making observations like this slow a woodland walk down but isn’t it worth it. On the same walk I met someone taking a picture of the most amazing fungus on a dead chestnut stump. Seeing it quite made his day and mine.

After spending a winter spreading home-grown compost on the beds and dramatically reducing the thicket of Rosa ‘Rambling Rector’ (don’t make the same mistake as we did and plant up a tree. It is a very vigorous rambler) from a long suffering apple tree and then clearing out rampant vinca under the tree, the area finally looked decent enough to start replanting. Hopefully, the canopy of the remaining rose won’t be too dense now so plants happy in semi-shade will do well.

Then there was a bit of a spending spree at the Autumn Fair at Great Dixter and the Northiam Plant Fair. We queued in the drizzle for half-an-hour at the latter, but the variety of plants on offer made it so worthwhile and there were plenty of people to talk to.

The first plants to go in have been three ferns whose name is a bit of a handful. These are Coniogramme emeiensis, introduced from the holy Mount Emei in the Sichuan Province of China. They have quite spectacular tall, branched, ribbon-shaped fronds with distinctive yellow banding. My mistake, I think, was putting them in too early and the result has been that they have been lashed by the wind. They’re hardy to -15°C but I didn’t take into account howling gales. The morning ritual now is to go and check them and I see that a few croziers are making an appearance on one of them. They grow to about four feet so should make quite a statement when they eventually get going. The thing is that the nights haven’t reached above 10°C this year as yet and this is holding things back.

And then there are the epimediums. I’m trying
E x warleyense and E x rubrum as ground cover in the same area. The former is named after Warley Place which was the home of the famous gardener, Ellen Willmott. They should both bulk up and make good ground cover. Epimedium x warleyense produces peach/yellow flowers and has evergreen foliage. The heart shaped leaves of E x rubrum is bronze when new which contrasts beautiful with delicate crimson flowers on wiry stems. They are so pretty and fairy-like. Epimediums can become a bit of an obsession and I was glad to see an article about them in the latest edition of The Garden.

What else has gone in there? Well, some aconites for height and late season colour, a blue comfrey that my son gave me and which he was busy ripping out – invasive but a lovely blue. A few smaller ferns like the broad buckler fern, Dryopteris affinis ‘Crispa Whiteside’. Oh, and a lovely Japanese shrub, Kirengeshoma palmata, which is looking very happy. Palmate foliage combines with dark stems and in the autumn, lovely yellow bell-shaped flowers appear. It’s happy in partial shade but the soil needs to be kept quite moist.

This ‘under the apple tree’ area will probably dry out a bit, especially if we have another hot summer, so it’s on the list to be kept well watered. We’ve also added Actaea simplex ‘Brunette’ with its purply black leaves and scented white flowers, a few interesting looking foxgloves and the odd pink-yellow geum ‘Cosmopolitan’ (Cocktail series), which is happy in semi-shade.

And then there is another little treasure, purloined from the marvellous Cotswold Garden Flowers nursery up at a plant fair in Sutton Valence recently and recommended by Rosemary Alexander, Principal of the English Gardening School, who was also looking at the gems on the Cotswold’s stand. Beesia calthifolia was discovered in China by the plant hunter, George Forrest, in the early part of the 20th century, and is interesting as it didn’t fit into any known genera so was named after the nursery, Bees of Chester, who had hired Forrest to bring in new specimens from the Far East. It wasn’t in cultivation for long but was reintroduced by modern day plant hunters, Bleddyn Wynn-Jones (Crug Plants) and Dan Hinkley who spotted it in a Japanese nursery in the 1990s.

It’s a woodland plant; happy with a little bit of morning sun and content with plenty of leaf mould to keep the soil moist around it. It has beautiful heart-shaped, deeply-veined leaves which are all shades of green. The flowers are star shaped and a greenish white growing off wiry stems a little like the epimediums I’ve mentioned. I’ve put it in a shadier part of the garden where the canopy of the oaks soon fill in and it’s a complete treasure. I can see that that’s another one which will need a visit from the watering can regularly or at least until it is well established. It is well worth a try.’

The only other thing to mention is this year’s tree. It’s a large crab apple, Malus hupehensis. Why grow it? Well, it is a vigorous and very beautiful tree. From pink buds come fragrant white flowers followed by ‘cherry like’ fruits. I love it, as it has such an abandoned looking habit with branches spreading out in a rather relaxed fashion. And yes, this is another one that will need to be kept well-watered until it has settled in. Sorry to be a killjoy, but I hope that this summer doesn’t break records as last summer did. Otherwise there’ll be no time to sit down and enjoy the fruits of being a plantaholic!

Sue Whigham can be contacted on 07810 457948 for gardening advice and help in the sourcing and supply of interesting garden plants.