In this article I am going to show you plants that were here when we moved in, or that I have deliberately planted here that have subsequently self-seeded around. I wonder whether the plants that self-seed themselves around my garden are particular to my chalk hillside environment, or are pioneer species that will pop up anywhere? Having visited The Eden Project this summer and seen the part of their claypit hillside display covering pioneer species in Europe has made me ponder this. Obviously, Buddleia are ubiquitous self-seeders anywhere (railway embankments, roadsides etc); but are other “garden” plants I have that self-seed here, really just very tough pioneer species that will colonise anywhere, or are they more choosy about habitat? I know that Vipers Bugloss is a chalk grassland plant, that is happy seeding around here; but is Red Valarian, (Centranthus Ruber), which I associate with Chalk, and the Cotswolds, where I see it happily self-seeding in verges, walls etc happy everywhere in the UK?
I shall start in our front garden as I want to show you a pinker-flowered valerian that I have been trying to encourage to come up here from further down the road – I surreptitiously collected the fluffy seedheads from the “rock face” of a retaining wall by the bus stop covered in this much pinker flowered valerian, as it never came up here by itself, and FINALLY I have managed to get it into the front garden:-
Beyond it is the blue Campanula that was growing out of the base of the house when we arrived – Not transplantable (I am SURE that is a word!!) as the roots were into the mortar, and himself has eradicated it round the side of the house, but as you can see it self-seeds itself back into places in the front garden. Another plant that was here in the front garden against the wall with next door was Mexican Fleabane – Erigeron karvinskianus:-
This seeds itself all around the front garden. It is a particularly successful self-seeder into cracks as you probably all know, and is much less happy in borders, as the soil is too lush/drainage is not sharp enough for it. It has flowers for months, and is so prolific, and so low growing, that you don’t notice that some flowers have gone to seed, which is wind dispersed to other cracks. To collect seed for the Hardy Plant seed list I first lift the mat of stems on the path, and see how much seed has collected under there, and then methodically work my way over the bush finding the spent flowers and pulling seeds from them. To get new plants, I stand pots of compost against the mound and leave the plant to do it itself – a gritty mix, topped with vermiculite works well here.
A plant that came from my Mum’s Garden was the early flowering white allium, Allium Triquetrium. This had seeded itself all over her sandy garden, and so any plant dug up from there to rehome here was liable to bring some of these bulbs with them. However, they don’t really like being in the back garden for some reason, and seeded themselves into the cracks between the tarmac and the house bricks at the front, as you can see: -
Also seeding themselves around the front garden are Festuca Glauca – here full of seed ready to spread round the front garden: -
And Geranium Endressii which also seeds freely round in the back garden – particularly into the hoggin paths.
Before moving onto back garden self-seeders, I wanted to talk about the effect the extremely dry weather has had on the garden. Here we had a hot dry spring (less than a third of the rain expected for March-May. June, we had three heatwaves, and another more recently, and as we all know DROUGHT. Indeed, we had no measurable rain in August at all, and sun/wind/temperatures in the very high twenty’s most of the time. The less obvious effects of this have been how early everything has flowered/fruited/set seed. I had collected almost all the seed for the Hardy Plant seed list well before the end of August, as most plants have gone over early. We do not water the decorative garden at all. Only plants in pots, and the vegetable garden get watered, and for the first time I found that the hardy geraniums wilted. (Apart from Geranium ‘Patricia’). I am in awe of the established plants survival abilities, as the ground has been rock hard and completely without moisture for months. I had dug out and planted up a new bed at the end of February, when the ground was very wet indeed, and apart from a few garden pinks, all the plants put in there have died over this summer, just showing how very important it is for the plants to have established roots and mycorrhizal fungi, particularly noticeable as several were various types of scabious plants, while their parent plants elsewhere in the garden have survived, and indeed in the case of the Scabiosa ochroleuca, that has self-seeded itself into the grass as well as through the borders – thrived. Here it is backed by another happy self-seeder – the Golden Feverfew, (Tanecetum parthenium ‘Aureum’): -
The Tanecetum parthenium ‘Aureum’ has flowered and set seed from established plants this year, but I haven’t noticed the new little plants coming during the year, unlike usual.
Moving to the back garden, each spring I take photos of the weedy hoggin paths here, to show you what plants seed themselves into them, but then generally fail to take photos of them in flower later in the year. Here are a couple of examples: -
The second photo is of Geranium Endressii, Geranium x oxonianum ‘Wargrave Pink’ (and hybrids of the two) seeding into the path beside the bed in which they are. The first picture is of Blue flax leaves, (Linum narbonense); as well as two types of sorrel – Rumex acetosa and red veined sorrel, Rumex sanguineous. Here’s the Linum narbonense in flower: -
Another blue flower that seeded itself into the paths is Lithodora diffusa ‘Heavenly Blue’: -
Whilst you might expect Alchemilla mollis to seed around, here it ONLY seeds into the hoggin paths, never into the beds: -
The Rosa canina which came as a seedling from Mr Bowles Garden in Enfield seeds into the hoggin pond patio beside it, (here a large seedling with both Centranthus ruber and Dipsacus fullonum leaves: -
In this patio the Cowslips and Primroses also self-seed – indeed the Primroses (Primula vulgaris) left the bed they had been planted in entirely for the hoggin patio, as you can see here: -
I had better pause here, and next month move on to more plants that self-seed round this garden,
Sheila May
