Tags
Allium Purple Sensation, cerinthe, Eschscholzia californium, euphorbia griffithii Dixter, hebe hulkanea, Iris Sibirica, New Zealand lilac, six on saturday
Good morning. I am joining The Propagator with a quick six, favourite sights in my garden.
First is a shrub I purchased from a garden in Winslow. A family were about to complete the sale of their late mothers house. A developer had purchased the property and the place was about to lose its garden to concrete and brick. The family invited Winslow & District gardening society their local garden group, to attend at a certain hour on a given day to dig up plants from the garden for a donation in aid of their chosen charity.
You can imagine the scene as gardeners in anoraks, armed with trowels and garden forks arrived. Hellebores, snowdrops, ferns were the main plants of interest. A polite-ish dig-up began.
Whilst the garden was under siege, I got talking to a lady who turned out to have been the owners longterm carer. She handed me a scraggy shrub in a pot. Take this for your garden, it is something special, I cannot remember what but I always had to pay particular attention to watering it. Inwardly thinking, yuck that looks dreadful, I politely accepted it and made a donation of £5.
I planted it in the ground in about February this year. Clearly delighted to have space to send its roots, it is now flowering happily. 
It is New Zealand lilac, Hebe hulkeana or right now, Happy Hebe.
2 . 
This is the outlook from my chair where I enjoy my morning coffee. Purple Cerinthe in the foreground with masses of Eschscholzia poppies behind. These are all self sown. Bargain.
3.
These may not have been fashionable at Chelsea this year but I don’t care, I still love Allium purple sensation.
4. 
The border in morning light before the sun gets to it. The contrast of green with the dark burnt orange from Euphorbia griffithii Dixter.
5.
I have always admired Iris sibirica for its royal colour and neat form, somehow refined. I planted these last year and am delighted to see they made it.
6. Another view of a different part of the border. 
Again before the sun reaches it, this is a pleasing gentle froth of green, pink and white. Persicaria bistorta, Anthriscus sylvestris Ravenswing and Thalictrum Elin.
Wishing you an enjoyable long weekend, wherever you are. D.
digwithdorris.com 
Ha, another Hebe hulkeana fan, I am mad on this lovely plant. I love all your six Dorris and what a lovely sight your Eschscholzia ( I always have to look up the spelling, there seem to be way too many vowels) and Cerinthe make growing together en masse. Your border looks fabulous. I adore irises too, yours is a fabulous colour.
Oh thank you Chloris. How big has your Hebe got? I’m hoping no more than 1.5 m?
It doesn’t grow tall, no more than about 50cm. But it sprawls sideways so it needs quite a bit of room.
Oh interesting. Thanks
I know Persicaria bistorta is easy to grow and very common but I love it in the garden. Such a happy plant that always performs. Great ground cover as well out competing even the toughest weeds.
Agreed. And that is why it has room in my garden
Wow, your cerinthe are amazingly dark and look stunning against the Eschscholzia. I had not heard of Hebe hulkeana before this week. It looks most interesting!
Thank you so much. As they are self sown I cannot take all the credit. Chloris has Hebe h and I am really pleased with how it’s looking.
‘Winslow’ got my attention; and made me wonder what you were doing in Arizona! That hebe is very different from any hebe I am familiar with. The genus is common here, but the blooms are more compact, like bottlebrush. California poppies of course grow wild. They are not as prolific as they used to be, but they pop up randomly about in sunny spots.
Winslow Buckinghamshire rather than Arizona. The hebe has a common name of New Zealand lilac which makes me wonder why it is not a syringa.
Hebe is the genus. It is not related to Syringa. It gets the common name because of the floral structure.
Yes I understand the genus is Hebe but just not why as it’s floral structure is lilac like.
Oh, a few different families use variations of that same sort of inflorescence. It must work.