Open Gardens 2025 - plants from 101JR

Open Gardens - about the plants

You'll most likely be reading this page because you visited our garden as part of the Telegraph Hill Open Gardens weekend in May 2025. It contains some information about the plant(s) that you may have taken away with you which I hope will be useful. My garden is a haven for slugs and snails and everything here survives! I've added what I hope you will find some helpful details along with links out to the Royal Horticultural Society website where you can read more from the professionals. 

Campanula

This one is fantastic as ground cover and will grow in little cracks. It is great in the shade but also works in the sun. The blue flowers are great polinator magnets - you know it is in flower by the noise as well as the lovely carpet of blue. I found that once the first flush of flowers is done, you can pull them away and you'll get a second flush later on in the summer. There are lots of varieties but the closest I can get is this one. However, it seems not to be attractive to slugs and snails.

Crambe cordifolia

This greater sea kale produces large leaves and a fabulous quantity of white flowers on a tall stalk. My original plant came from an open gardens visit, and this year I've managed to get five new plants from the original parent. It seems only right that some should go to local gardens. The lower leaves can get munched by slugs and snails but not to the extent that it stops it from thriving. More info here

Crassula ovata

Very easy to care for houseplant. What more can you ask for? See what the RHS have to say about it here

Geranium

I think this one is "Ridsko" judging by the image and description on the RHS site. It is great at surpressing weeds and giving good reliable ground cover. Pretty pink flowers in early spring. 

Hylotelephium (the plant formerly known as sedum)

Probably this one. Great big flowers late on in the summer which the polinators love. 

Jasmine Beesianum

Great climber. Smaller red flowers in the summer. RHS info here

Jasmine (common)

Great climber. Wonderfully scented flowers in spring. More here

Jasmine (winter flowering)

This evergreen provides yellow flowers during the winter and is good for the polinators that are still around at that time of year. Tolerates hard pruning. More here

Lamium

Great for shady ground cover. This one produces lovely yellow flowers early on in spring. It will weave its way through the undergrowth and where it touches the ground, may form new roots. I find it is easy to pull up if it has strayed to where you don't want it. More information here

Mint

If you like your mint tea then this is a great plant. Because it spreads very easily, I keep mine in pots and sink them into the soil. It is easy to propagate - take some long stalks, remove the lower leaves, and then place in some water. You will soon see some roots. But don't take my word for it, read more about variteies of mint and how to take care of them here.

Pittosporum tobira

I was given two of these by a former colleague. She'd had them as standards on her balcony. Occasionally they produced small shoots and so I took heel cuttings, most of which rooted. Their flowers are gloriously scented. The RHS advice is to grow them in full sun but mine have survived in pots and with only the morning sun.

Phormium

Fantastically resilient ornamental plant that can grow quite large in the open ground. We first planted one in 1993 and it grew and multiplied into a large clump. We then dug that up, separated out all the plantlets, and put some of them back, including a couple of clumps in pots. It does well in a pot and seems to thrive however badly you treat it. In a pot, it can create a really useful screen. Individual leaves look great in flower arrangements. See what the RHS have to say here.

Raspberry "Malling Promise"

A vigorous early fruiting raspberry. I'm glad I planted mine in a raised bed as it has gone bonkers. This year I will net it once the fruits start to form so that I get more than the squirrels do! RHS advice over here

Sorbaria Sorbifolia

I was attracted to this because of its lime leaves which are tinged with pink when they emerge in spring. It also produces a lovely white flower. It is vigorous and sends out suckers with new plants along them, so I'm now keeping mine in pots so that they stay where I want them to be. Great for a pot. Seems to tollerate hard pruning. You can read more over on the RHS site here

Tradescantia Zebrina

A lovely houseplant, gifted as a birthday present a couple of years ago. Really easy to propagate - I do mine in water, simply cut off a length with a few leaves on it, remove the lower leaves, place in water and watch as the roots emerge. You can read more from the RHS experts here

Vinca minor

Ground cover. Produces little purple flowers in the spring. If it is very happy (as mine was) it will produce a carpet of glossy green leaves under which our resident toads like to overwinter! See the RHS information here

Six on Saturday - 24th June 2023

All things blue and beautiful

A whole five months since my last post and I've not even managed to get it out on a Saturday! I did actually start writing it early yesterday morning and I started with  "It's a beautiful morning". Then, all the jobs that I set myself to get done before heading out for a day of singing took over, and that's as far as I got. So, now it is Sunday afternoon. Let's see how far we get this time. 

It's a swealtering 29 degrees outside, Sunday afternoon 24th June  2023. At times like this I'm really grateful for the shaded areas of the garden and earlier I took full advantage, sitting right down at the bottom writing up my diary, and completing this week's column in my gardening five year record book, something I also started earlier in the year. In fact the record book is possibly the reason for not getting back to the blog as by the time I've written that up I've thought of a thousand things to do in the garden and then, before I know it, it is not Saturday anymore. 

It's the time of year when all the learner fledglings try out the bird feeders. A new one this year has been a young greater spotted woodpecker. For a couple of weeks now it has followed its mother around the garden,  calling after her and landing slightly ginergly, sometimes ending up suspended underneath a feeder and apparently trying to work out "what next". Today it was alone and a lot more confident.  Also out and about are a large number of damselflies. Earlier in the week there were at least four pairs, hooked up in tandem, the rear female dipping her tail in the pond, presumably laying eggs. And after some refreshing rain, rain which filled two of the four water butts, I saw at least two toads. I'd been worried they'd all disappeared, especially as it looks as though this season's eggs did not survive a March frost. 

Anyhow, to planty things going on in the garden here in south east London: 

 

One: bright blue Hydrangea Macrophylla Zorro

Last year Zorro's flowering season was brought to a juddering halt with the insane 40 degree heat that we had. I pruned it earlier in the year and it is coming back very nicely indeed, and still nice and blue. It is in its own pot, planted in ericaceous soil, and watered with rainwater with added fortification. I don't think the flowers are quite as large as previously but there are a healthly number of them, all on gorgeous dark, nearly black, stems. 

Two: beginning to go blue

I've been giving Mum's hydrangea the "Zorro" treatment. I've had it since she passed in 2014 and it has been pink most years. It certainly has some blue tinges now. Come back in another year or two to see if I've been successful in turning the pompoms blue. 

Three: blue bee heaven

This is one of several profusions of campanula which are dotted around the garden. The bees adore it if the buzzing is anything to go by.  

Four: bicycle blues

Dad gave me this last year and would have loved to see it planted up like this. He and Annie had had it in their garden in Lincolnshire and it had become completely overgrown with brambles. We extracted it and realised that it could still be used as a rather quirky planter. Here it is tumbling with lobelia and geraniums. 

Five: Salvia "amethyst lips

I've discovered Salvias through our local gardening club. Seven are in flower at the moment with only Amistad and Black and Blue waiting to take off.  

Six: fortification

The air was blue the other weekend when I realised that the squirrels had taken all my figs and most of the nearly ripe strawberries. I have now acquired this cage into which I've put the strawberries, the lemon tree - the blighters took all those last summer - and a blueberry bush. A determined squirrel will probably get through but I'm hoping this will be a sufficient deterrant for now and that I've secured it sufficiently so that the birds and the toads don't get tangled up in it. 

This is my latest in the #SixOnSaturdon ay series inspired by The Propagator and currently being championed over at Garden Ruminations. Check out the participant guide here. I aspire to be as disciplined, creative and inspiring as them but for now, I'll remain pleased if I can just limp on with a post every now and again.