RHS Wisley in Early Summer

RHS Wisley is looking damned smart and there is plenty to see to obtain ideas for your own gardens, even if you cannot manage the scale Wisley provides.  Here is a selection of my favourites from yesterday:

Looking this plant up for research, there is very little information.  It is a variety of Parahebe hookeriana and originates from New Zealand.  As such, the RHS have, "tentatively accepted [the] name in the RHS Horticultural Database".  This is a lovely salmon pink variety but I also saw paler pink versions.

Below is Pennistum orientale 'Tall Tails'.  Ideal for prairie planting schemes or amongst herbaceous perennials

Penstemon digitalis 'Husker Red' - an upright perennial with glossy red leaves and elegant spikes of white bell-shaped flowers, flushed pink in summer


 

Here, allium (Allium christophii) has been interplanted with Yuccas and Eucomis in a gravel border adding colour and complimentary structure against the leaves of its companions.

Aruncus diocus (left) and Astilbe (right) are best grown in moist shade, such as a woodland bog garden but zing out from amongst the shade attracting your attention in even the lowest of light conditions.

   

 On the left this great specimen of a Cornus kousa species was grabbing the attention of everyone passing.  It has white flowers on opening but with sunshine, gradually turn pink, such as the example to the right above

Daphnes are one of my favourite shrubs for fragrance and colour.  This one is Daphne x transatlantica Eternal Fragrance 'Blafra'.  Quite a mouthful but copy and paste it and you'll locate it online for about £20.  I think it is well worth the investment as it is evergreen and very hardy, so will give your garden structure in winter and flower from pink buds to white April to autumn as it flowers on new growth.

 Grasses are now more popular than ever and remain in vogue for those who want easy gardening.  The first below is curvy "Weeping Lovegrass", Erngrostis cervula a dense clump forming grass of rough, dark green, linear leaves, with large arching panicles of grey-green spikelets in summer growing 1-1.5 metres. 

Here we have "Red Hot Poker", Knifophia bicolour paired with "Feather Reed Grass" (Calamagrostis x acutifolia 'Karl Foerster') remaining evergreen (actually, ever-bronze) in mild winters and works well as a screen, as a specimen, and as a container plant with other perennials or annuals and is sufficiently cold-hardy to overwinter in a pot in most areas.

There are hundreds of grasses and I could dedicate a whole site to them but won't put you through that for now! To the right is Miscanthus sinensis 'Morning Light', one of the more elegant of the Miscanthus group with slender emerald green blades with narrow cream margins arching gently at their tips to create a 'fountain' effect. In warm summers, reddish brown flowers open in October and endure through the winter providing structure in the more difficult months of the year.

Salvias are becoming more and more popular, and more and more varieties are becoming available.  Left, is Salvia nemorosa 'Amethyst' and below, the darker 'Cardonna'.  Both suite the herbaceous border, a prairie wilderness scheme or in pots as shown in another part of this site.  They are particularly attractive to bees too.

And finally, 2 Mock Oranges (Philadephus).  Both bushes (up to 1.5/2 metres high) produce very fragrant cream/cream-white flowers in early summer.  The top is Philadephus 'Bouquet Blanc', a double flowering version and below is 'Sybille' producing a single flower with a purple central "flush" of colour.

(c) CraggleProds 2011