Purple Wellies

It is always at this time of year, when the trees have lost most of their leaves, that you can truly see the structure of the garden that forms the rigid skeleton the rest of the garden is supported on.

About a year ago, I came across a rose with the promise of large, crimson single flowers with an exceptionally long flowering period - late spring through to the first frosts.

With milder winters, Salvias have perhaps become more popular in the last few years. One Salvia that should be on every collectors list is S. bulleyana, a true connoisseurs plant. There is some confusion over the naming of this, so you might find it listed under S. flava megalantha. It also grows by a trade name of ‘Blue Lips’.

A fantastic hardy member of the ginger family, this group of tuberous perennials with their orchid resembling flowers appear between May and August and some varieties , when a sizable clump, can carry on flowering for up to eight weeks.

My husband and I, well more me really, as he is never that keen, have opened our garden previously for our local village garden safari raising money for the village hall. We’ve done this about four times. I’ve always thought what would it be like to open for the Yellow Book (National Garden Scheme) and had always assumed one day I would contact them when I believed our garden could warrant people spending 45 minutes perusing and critiquing the borders!