Plants I bought at Hampton Court

Here is a Koria hydrangea that does not have a clue what colour its meant to be, although I think its made rather a nice mixture

So onto the plants I bought at Hampton.  I have a thing about buying plants; it feels like cheating.  Somebody else has put all the hard work in and you just come along and bung it in a hole and job done.  I really like that stage where you spend three weeks staring at soil willing germination to happen, but of course you can’t grow everything from seed and annoyingly generally it’s the hybrids that are the most interesting.  So buy plants I did.

Hydrangea ‘Koria’- Saw it, bought it.  Or more specifically I managed to convince the mother to thereby helping ease the strain on my wallet.  Not that it took much to convince, those crimped edges did all the talking.  The only stumbling block was that we already have four hydrangeas to our names, but there is always room for one more.  Hell I would dig one up to make space for this baby.  The only problem is ‘Korias’ don’t come out until a couple of weeks after Hampton so the nursery had forced a couple out early otherwise I doubt anybody would have been buying, which is fine.  But theirs were blue, and ours started to come out pink, which again would be fine if we hadn’t bought into the concept of blue.  Im sure it can be persuaded to feel a bit more blue by changing the ph levels of the soil where we plant it, but whatever the nursery did to their show ones they did not do to ours which is annoying.  Now the mother has watered it with the stuff that makes hydrangeas blue it is completely colour confused.

Left: 'Fiona Coghill' It is the top bloom that got too heavy for its' own good but my clever angle has hid the sellotape
Right: Achillea Inca Gold

Leucanthemum xs. ‘Fiona Coghill’- I will admit I got a bit tight here.  I fell for ‘sunny side up’, but after confirming that it is a hybrid and I would have to buy the plant, which was huge and therefore pricey, my purse clamped shut and I went for the very similar but significantly cheaper ‘Fiona Coghill’.  The white flower heads are so ridiculously packed with petals that they weigh a tonne and one stem bowed under the pressure the moment I got it home.  It is now back to form and wearing a sellotape splint for support.  Im thinking I should just have just thrown caution to the wind and splurged on ‘sunny side up’ as I am in the process of eyeing up buying one online.

Thats quite the density of petals

Achillea ‘Inca Gold’- I have a thing for grass at the moment and a desire to turn the front garden into some kind of American Prairie.  There was an abundance of Achillea at Hampton in displays and while clearly not a grass it fits that concept in my mind, like colourful cow parsley.  I was eyeing up a salmon shade but opted for this gold in the end.

Scabius 'Black Night' although clearly dark burgundy red

Scabius 'Black Night'- Now herein lies the problem with spontaneous purchasing.  This is an annual and therefore I did not need to bother purchasing the plant, but I obviously did not realise this at the time.  Luckily I bought it as part of a deal and have had the enjoyment of it this summer but I am watching it like a hawk to see when it sets seed so I can collect it and make the most of my money.  Lovely and black, with white to very pale pink stamens, these remind me of a confectionary but I can't for the life of me remember what they are called. 

My two favourite new plants- these are soft soft soft!

Lagurus ovatus 'Hare’s Tails' and 'Bunny Tails'- Which are basically the same plant but in little and large forms.  I saw these while hunting for two plants to make up four to take advantage of a deal and fell in love.  So soft and whimsical these appeal to the child in me who just wants to touch, and also fits in with my 'prairie' concept.  I find myself having a feel whenever I walk past.  When its been heavily raining the heads absorb the water like sponges and drop all sodden and heavy.  Again annuals so will be collecting the seed.  Apparently these happily self-seed, but they wont be doing that on my soil so Im taking backups.

Clematis- I couldn't go to Hampton and not buy another couple of Clematis.  We bought ‘Sieboldii’ which we also bought at Hampton last time.  Why buy it again you may ask?  Well because when it flowered it turned out not to be that variety at all and is instead ‘Florida Alba Plena’ and I only know this because I spotted the same thing labelled on a Clematis stand.  As much as we like it, we do rather like Sieboldii with its’ dark centres on white so second time lucky hopefully.  We also bought 'Gravetye Beauty' for literally no other reason than we have walked round somewhere called Gravetye Manor several times.  Red, and flowering like upside down tulips Im sure it is also lovely.

Left: the Sphaerocephalon balls that even im getting a bit sick of seeing
Right: The clematis labels as the plants essentially look like any flowerless clematis

Sphaerocephalon- Yes I also bought my own set of uncontrollable balls and yes, they were a nightmare to carry round but luckily I bought them right at the end.  I was tempted by the offer for 50 bulbs for a special price, but then reason kicked in and I thought a. where on earth would I find room for 50 bulbs, especially with all my Gladiolus bulbs, and b. I would only plant about ten before becoming knackered and giving up.  So instead I bought a few bulbs in a pot already flowering, even though it goes against my natural inclination towards economy.  Sometimes you have to live life on the edge.