New home, new garden!

So we moved here last August, and we have just got most of the urgent internal work finished. (Hoorah!) Since we had some decent weather this week, I decided that I would make a start on the front wall. Never really had a wall to plant up before, so this is a bit of an adventure!

The Glorious flowers of the flowering Cherry tree. These beauties needs lots of water, and should be sited carefully, bearing in mind their needs and their proclivity to invade any source of it (including drains and your house foundations!).

In January we had a struggling Cherry tree taken out which overhung this wall. When we arrived in August, its few remaining leaves were falling, and then small branches started to drop off, too. Clearly it was unhappy; probably due to a combination of the very dry Spring, and it being planted in a sort of raised bed. Cherries love lots of water - so this was not the ideal place for it. At Muirlands the Cherries were planted well away from the house, so that there was no danger of them seeking out water under the foundations of the house. Here it is different. I still love Cherry trees, but maybe I'll have to settle for a Bonsai version growing a pot. We'll see.

The frilly flowers of Dianthus 'Rainbow Loveliness. The flowers are both deliciously scented and can look quite spectacular. They come in pastel shades of pink, white, mauve, and lemon. Rairly seen, but worth seeking out. Easily grown from seed.

But back to planning the planting for the wall. The lane we have moved to is long and has lots of walkers going up and down to access the footpaths that lead across the fields to the rear of the house. They pass with their children and dogs on a pretty regular basis. I love scented flowers, and imagine that the wall, planted with suitable beauties, could be quite a spectacular feature in mid-summer, both for the eye and the nose. However, the plants will have to survive in pretty much alpine conditions, and look appropriate (not too big or over-showy). My thoughts went immediately to Dianthus - they have myriad forms, many of which like dry conditions, and therefore, should be able to cope fairly well. I am hoping that some have survived over winter at my son's house - my particular favourites are the multi-hued, frilly Dianthus 'Rainbow Loveliness'. Though it can grow up to 12 inches tall (30 cms), it does tend to sprawl a bit, and I am hoping it will trail elegantly down the side of the wall. 
I am on the lookout for other scented alpines (not many spring to mind off hand, but then alpines have never been my preferred options in the past, as we had deep clayey loam at Muirlands - not exactly preferred planting conditions for alpines!) I shall start combing the seed catalogues.
Whilst I fantasize over planting, the grim reality of soil preparation has now reared its ugly head. The current planting is riddled with couch grass, which I have started to dig out, by hand, bit by running roots, bit. As this wall is thirty feet + in length, there is quite a lot of work to be done. This garden is going to be my retirement project. I am going to give it 3 years to get it as I want it. That may be a bit ambitious giving the current state of my ageing body, but no pain no gain, so they say!
It's started to rain, so time for some armchair gardening. I wonder if I still have that copy of 'We made a Garden' by Margery Fish?

Lewisia cotyldeon

Lewisia cotyledon plants growing in my cool greenhouse.

I have been growing lewisia cotyledon plants now for perhaps tewnty years or so. I love their bright starry flowers which appear every April and May with so little fuss. They are a plant which everybody loves when they see them, and so I wonder why they are so little grown in this country. Perhaps it's because they dislike wet, and so have to be sheltered from our soggy climate one way or another during our wet winters. They don't need any artificial heat at all, being mountain plants, and are easily raised from seed. They are ideal for a cool conservatory where they will brighten your day, and invite compliments from your visitors.

Striped forms are predominently pink and white pr red stripes on an amber background.

Originating from the mountain slopes of Western USA, they are named after their discoverer Gaptain Merryweather Lewis (1804) of the the famous Lewis and Clark pairing. They grow in the Siskiyou, Cascades, and Rocky mountains and so are true alpines despite their rather flamboyant appearance!

Pure ice-white forms of Lewisia cotyledon

As I said before, I've been gwowing them from seed for many years now, and through selective breeding have managed to increase the flower size in some of the striped varieties to about 4 cms diameter. Different foliage forms are also now emerging, and so in a few years time I hope to be able to offer all kinds of shapes and sizes and flower forms. The flower bunches grow to about 15 cms high and about 20 cms diameter, when grown with winter shelter. Those grown outside all year will probably be smaller in size, but still just as impressive. If you want to grow from seed yourself, sow in a gritty compost from March onwards through to July - we will have some of our own seed to sell later on in the year. After flowering, leave outside for the summer months (remove dead heads if you are not collecting seed - you may be rewarded with a second flush of flowers. Some people say they get flowers all summer if they dead head regularly), and then protect from wet from September onwards till Spring.

Schiaperalli Pink blooms!

This year I'm going to experiment a bit. Apparently Lewisia are grown in cascading drifts down walls at Bodnant (north Wales). This is achieved by planting small sized new plants, and then nuturing them for a few years. I don't have a suitable south facing wall here in Cumbria, so I'm going to try them in a strawberry pot. I'll report back later!
Happy gardening!

P.S. We will be opening an online shop soon - just working out the details. In the meantime if you would like to purchase some plants, pleae email me at buckfernplants(at)gmail.com. Please replace (at) with the customary squiggly a. This is to avoid spam.