There have been some winners and losers this summer in the plant population, and not much to do with the weather, since a few of them were in pots and they all got watered tediously.

​Calibrachoa – last year I was delighted with these. They started flowering in June and went on until frost and never needed deadheading. They did need watering – surprise..

This year it started chilly and they wouldn’t get going. In and out of greenhouse… The it got hot and they didn’t seem to like that either.

So many got thrown away. I would have replaced them all if it hadn’t been for the cost and that they just hung on, nearly acceptable. Didn’t get the enthusiasm from visitors they had last year though. Next year? That’s a big question…

Nemesia Wisley Vanilla– now this was something else! (until next year, no doubt) Found at the local garden centre, which is not bad apart from them not stocking my books. Before I was published I used to believe local authors got celebrated by local businesses….

This again flowered it’s head off – well, several of them did, I couldn’t resist buying several. I put them on the garden table and they smelt glorious all the time I sat there relieving visitors of their entrance fees. I do hope I can get them to survive the winter and do it all again. They are still in flower – I took the pic yesterday. (hence the scrubby little dead flower)

Patrinia scabiosifolia is another delight and this time is a hardy perennial. When researching this before buying I found this wonderful and helpful blog post about it. I wonder why I don’t find blog posts instead of nurseries more often when I research a plant? Do we fail to enter them in the right place to get noticed? I often wish I could hear from someone who is growing the plant and not just selling it. (and yes, I do go way beyond Google front page)

I understand it’s been on Gardener’s World, so my sneaky pleasure in having a plant I have seen nowhere else will be very short lived.

Anemone Wild Swan. This may just be the real star. It’s beautiful. It flowered non stop from May/June until I cut it down a couple of weeks ago, fearing it was flowering itself to death.

It is so like its relation, the Japanese anemone, but starts so much earlier. I kept several in pots – I wanted them where I could see them often. An extravagance turned into a prolonged joy.

But then you notice there are more of these new hybrids around. The search is on… I found Dreaming Swan, which also seems like a winner. (haven’t had it all season). And I found the Fantasy Series –

This is smaller and looks like another winner? I’m not so sure. It goes over badly, I think, – at least it does in a pot. It seems rather congested and the dead flowers are horrid, whereas I never noticed them in the larger Swans.

Clematis Rehderiana

And then – a little warning.

Looks great, doesn’t it? It frequently gets sold by photos like this. It even has a (slight) perfume. Yum.

It even looks good like this. (ie from a distance)

But in two minutes the flowers – which are tiny, (2cms/three quarters of an inch) look like this.

I remember how disappointed I was originally. Resigned to it now rather than pulling it out, but it smothers the rose it’s growing over.

And finally (notice that I avoid ‘So’…) Hydrangea macrophylla Bloody Marvellous (Merveille Sanguine or Raspberry Fantasy) is NOT Bloody Marvellous. It’s a disaster at Veddw. I gave it two years, in case it was the weather. I tried removing the grotty flowers – but they are ALL grotty in no time!

I had a sweet little scheme here, which it has ruined.

For just a moment, before the hydrangea flowers go grott, it looks beautiful with these sedums fronting it. The purples of the sedums pick up the purple leaves of the hydrangea and the crimson hydrangea flowers work brilliantly. Until….

Anyone know of a good hydrangea with dark purple leaves and crimson flowers?