I have promised a Great Reveal about the flowers I chose for my bog garden and asked you to kindly wait until I had practised my drawing skills. My inner Klimt remains dormant but here goes. Almost all are to be grown from seeds because I think they are minuscule miracles but I did occasionally weaken and buy a couple of plug plants.
First I thought of blues and purples and ordered water mint. Then I read about how invasive it can be and housed it separately in the mini bog garden near the lavender hedge where it would augment the idea of a sensory area. You are thinking that I do things in the wrong order - and I agree.
It seems to have both rhizomes and seeds and is perennial which - being translated - means that I've got them for ever. They should grow up to 90 cm tall and be in flower from July to October, attracting bees, butterflies and hoverflies. The aromatic leaves can be used for infusions.
For the main garden I next plumped for water forget-me-nots, because I love their colour and the name is so evocative. (I nearly added purple loosestrife for the same reason but it, too, is aggressive).
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How could I forget such beauty? |
This will grow up to 70 cm and blossom from mid-spring to first frost. Its leaves have the astonishing capacity to be so flexible that my newt mothers can wrap them round their glued-on eggs for safety. Here I did buy a few plug plants because the seeds were a long time producing seedlings.
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What was my next colour choice? Another Great Reveal in my own good time. Doc Barbara is insisting on a strong cup of tea - immediately. You may be wondering why I said that I am planting no more blooms. I didn't mean that there would be no further flowers; I want to avoid those waxen, massive showpieces that look glossily unnatural and overblown. I prefer smaller insect-friendly species with nectar for bees and their friends.
