Making a Good Impression

Although they had looked wonderful earlier in the year, the plants in the pots either side of the front door really had seen better days and couldn’t possibly limp on until tulip planting time. Part of the problem was that the increase in tree cover as the year progressed meant that they rather lost the will to live. On my travels I was lucky enough to be passing Plants for Shade in Somerset (minutes off the A303 & signposted Long Acre Plants) on a Thursday – they only open Thursdays and Fridays – and was able to pick up some fabulous plants that will be perfectly happy there until I plant my bulbs in November. There’s Actaea simplex ‘Chocaholic’, Persicaria virginiana ‘Lance Corporal’, Deschampsia caespitosa ‘Bronzeschleier’, Asplenium scolpendrium ‘Cristatum and Begonia sinensis ‘Red Undies’. Barely a pronounceable name in the lot! They will look lovely for the next couple of months and then I will pot them up and look after them overwinter while the tulips do their thing. They will be ready and waiting to pick up the baton next year once tulip time has passed.