Garden Journal: 27.05.2025
An Update from Battersea
[ North-facing border, Battersea. 27 May 2025 ]
Well, our rain dance was successful and it has been raining and gloomy here in England for two days.
During the weeks of unseasonal sunshine and climate-anxiety-inducing heat waves we longed for April showers, and nothing came. Tonight the wind whipping around Daisy Barn is so fast and powerful that my neatly stacked plant pots are skittering and scattering across the cobbled terrace and down the drive.
I am back at Daisy Barn for about 30 hours before going back to London again. This is a kind of madness, but I came back to water my seedlings. Was it worth it? No, because there was an accident on the M4 and the drive down took over 4 HOURS rather than the usual 2hrs 20. But also, yes, because I would never have forgiven myself if I had left them to die.
Besides which I can’t very well re-sow them all now, it is almost JUNE.
I don’t understand how this happened. The desperate longing for the garden of May and June that sustained me through the long, long winter feels like it has barely had a moment to abate, and now we are careening towards the solstice.
That said, my little garden in Battersea is starting to really resemble the mental picture I had painted many months ago. It doesn’t… quite work the way I’d planned. It just… really is quite brown and beige. This is difficult for me to say but…
was right about everything.That said, there are some moments that are working for me. I love the combination of Verbascum ‘Pink Petticoats’ with Rosa ‘Open Arms’. Not strictly speaking intentional but a fun combination.
[ Verbascum ‘Pink Petticoats’ and Rosa ‘Open Arms’, Battersea. 27 May 2025 ]
[ North-facing border, Battersea. 27 May 2025 ]
The Iris Germanica ‘Supreme Sultan’ is not quite as exciting as I anticipated. Though I think perhaps I will be more enthusiastic about it when the Martagon Lilies bloom alongside it. Unfortunately, zero Iris Siberica are showing signs of growth, despite my planting a crazy quantity of both ‘Ginger Twist’ and ‘Paprikash’ (the latter of which I was thrilled to see in Jo Thompson’s Chelsea garden). Alas.
[ South-West Corner Bed, Battersea. 27 May 2025 ]
[ Iris Germanica ‘Supreme Sultan’, Battersea. 27 May 2025 ]
[ Phlox drummondii 'Crème Brûlée', Battersea. 27 May 2025 ]
[ Iris Germanica ‘Supreme Sultan’, Battersea. 27 May 2025 ]
I adore Verbascum ‘Southern Charm’ and it’s violet spires that fade to café crème. It is fabulous with Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’ and that mad Erysimum that has been blooming and blooming since, like, December! And still covered in buds! What a do-er.
[ North-West Corner Bed, Battersea. 27 May 2025 ]
[ Verbascum ‘Southern Charm’, Battersea. 27 May 2025 ]
[ Verbascum ‘Southern Charm’, Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’, and Erysimum ‘Spring Breeze Sunset’, Battersea. 27 May 2025 ]
The other Geum I planted is even better. I think it is ‘Coral Tempest’ though I wouldn’t bet my life on it. The colour is extraordinary. It looks wonderful with the domes of Allium hollandicum ‘Purple Sensation’ and Allium christophii.
The Rosa ‘de Rêscht’ is not red. Now that I look at the information on David Austin it is listed as being “bright magenta” so I’m not quite sure how I managed to mix that one up… Ah, but then Trevor White (the supplier from whom I bought my bare root specimen) says it has “ruby red blooms”. So, that’s how.
Anyway. Everything is not going exactly to plan, and everything does not look quite as intended and really, who cares. It is such fun seeing this long-planned scheme start to appear. And there is a great deal still to come!
[ South-facing bed, Battersea. 27 May 2025 ]
[ South-facing bed, Battersea. 27 May 2025 ]
[ Rosas ‘Iceberg Climber’ and ‘Sweet Siluetta’, Battersea. 27 May 2025 ]
[ Tiarella ‘Spring Symphony’ and Nasturtium leaves, Battersea. 27 May 2025 ]
[ Saxifraga x urbium 'Variegata', Battersea. 27 May 2025 ]
[ South-facing bed, Battersea. 27 May 2025 ]
If you want to support my plant addiction (or, indeed, my coffee addiction)
you can buy me a coffee here. Love you x
Hey mate
So, there are people in my life who say I’m big-headed enough, and that folk neither need nor want me stomping around (and over) their plantings and whatever else telling them what’s what. So this reading this may not be good for my moral fibre. Even if it is, of course, true.
I think these photos are cool, and I dig that Supreme Sultan guy (he kind of feeds into my take on life). And so what if the colours aren’t quite what you intended, isn’t that part and parcel of the joy of gardening…getting it a bit wrong to get it a bit more right next time? It’s a creative scene, after all, man.
And that saxifraga variegata is trippy.
That Verbascum pink petticoats is incredible - and in a North facing border!!!