Green Girl Gardener

A notification popped up on my phone earlier this week reminding me that I was intending to write a post about my ten favourite plants. I did this a year ago and decided to repeat the post a year later to see if my favourites had changed. I can’t remember which plants made it to the top ten last year and I’m not going to look until after I’ve selected my current faves!

Number one, I’m pretty sure will have made it on to last year’s shortlist – my Eupatorium.

This dies completely down in the Winter and this is the regrowth so far this Spring. It’s starting to get its trademark purple and dark green leaves. It makes me really happy when this reappears each year.

It should be up at these lofty heights in no time.

Next up, I’m going for Stipa.

This is one of my 50p bargains from a couple of years ago. They seem to be able to cope with anything the elements throw at them. All I do is comb them through every now and then to remove the dead fronds.

Third is Cordyline. I wonder if this made my original list? I’ve added a few more to the garden now. Well, I say added to the garden, two of them are still sitting in their pots waiting for inspiration to hit me on where to plant them.

This one’s in my birthday planter and it’s thriving.

Let’s add some flair for four!

You can’t beat a Dahlia for flair! This one is new in the garden this year.

Continuing with a splash of colour – Gerbera.

This one is new to our garden this year. I couldn’t resist the beautiful bright orange.

This one is now in its third Summer. I didn’t expect it to survive the Winter, but it’s made it through two of them now.

Number six has got to be the loyal Hebe. I’ve got quite a few Hebes dotted around the garden.

This is the first one I ever bought. It’s Hebe Purple Pixie and it was from a sale table. It lives in the shadiest part of our garden and, while I guess it may have got bigger in a sunnier area, it seems quite happy in complete shade. It’s not flowering yet but it will later in the year.

I’m pretty sure number seven will have featured in last year’s pick. It’s the Fuchsia. These were my Grandad’s favourite and I’ve got three (so far!) They’re all starting to flower again, but they haven’t really got going yet.

This one is Fuchsia Delta Sarah. It’s the second one I’ve tried to grow. The first one was fine during the Summer, but didn’t make it through the Winter, despite assurances of hardiness. This second one was from Gardeners’ World Live last year, and I went for the biggest one I could afford to give it the best chance of survival. And survive it has!

This one could maybe do with repotting in a bigger pot. This is its third or maybe even fourth year and I think it would benefit from a tad more room.

Definitely a new favourite this year is Aquilegia. I know for definite that this won’t have been included last year because I only discovered it this year when it grew uninvited, but far from unwelcome, around the garden.

I did try to grow it from seed last year but completely failed. I don’t know if I then left the seeds somewhere where they could float off in the wind to germinate where they now are, or it if they’re a happy coincidence sent to us by the birds.

Number nine is my unidentified love. It may be a Cotoneaster, but it has never had any berries, so I’m not sure.

It was £1.50 from B&M about four years ago and it was in a completely unmarked pot. I left it in its pot for quite a while hoping that something would happen to help me identify it, but it didn’t, so eventually I planted it behind my raised strawberry bed, and it’s doing really really well. It’s certainly grown considerably and it has lovely dainty leaves. I go and see it most times that I’m in the garden, just to check it’s ok. I kind of wish I’d put it somewhere a bit more prominent now, but a it seems happy where it is, I’m going to leave it rather than risk moving it. Hopefully it’ll continue to thrive.

I’m going to finish with a classic. The Rose.

This one is my first ever Rose. My Mum bought it for us when we moved into our house, and it’s Rose Hot Chocolate. It didn’t flower much for the first few years, maybe one or two flowers per year, but last year it flowered repeatedly all Summer, and it looks like it’ll follow suit this year.

These two are my sale table patio Roses which are doing really well. I should’ve pruned them back into their cocktail glass shape, but by the time I thought about it they’d already got buds and I couldn’t bring myself to cut the buds off. I’ll do it when they’re done flowering.

Right! I’m going to compare to last year now!

Interesting! I have five matches – Fuchsia, Hebe, Cordyline, Eupatorium and Stipa. My other five last year were Daffodil, Diascia Cherry Blossom, Erysimum, Blue Festuca and Geum. I did consider all of those to include this year too because I do love them still.

Here they all are!

I’m off to do some crochet now as the garden is off limits today as it’s finally enjoying some rainfall.