FLOWERS IN DECEMBER — TOM HOWARD

It’s wet, cold and rank out there, but there are still some bits and bots doing the business in the garden. This is why London gardening is great. All these pics were taken on December 2.

A hebe of some kind, backed by Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Silver Queen’.

Some kind of small-petalled fuchsia, given to me as a cutting by my Dad. This plant, he informs me, is doing much better than the parent plant is in Devon.

A calendula officinalis - pot marigold - that survived the frost. It’s had an interesting year. Planted it in the spring with the tomatoes and the peppers. Did quite well, flowered a bit, then suffered from drought for two weeks when I went to Italy for two weeks. Assumed it was dead, but cut it back instead of digging it out just in case, and here we are. It’s in a raised bed on an east facing fence, and it loves the morning sun.

Lychnis coronaria ‘Alba’. It’s seen better days, obviously, but I love that it’s managed to pump one last flower out for the year. I’ve been deadheading it regularly all summer but I’ll let this guy go to seed to see if it’ll self-seed somewhere else in the garden.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this Rosa ‘Kew Gardens’ is magic.

See ya later Clematis (unknown cultivar), you’ve done very well INDEED to get this far.

I’m calling it now: this Erigeron karvinskianus is so happy in its sheltered west-facing spot on a white wall I reckon it’s gonna be evergreen for me. Don’t be so ridiculous! Oh okay. Well, if it self-seeds all over my big concrete steps I’ll be delighted with that too.

A Mahonia japonica rescued from the house my gran moved out of two or so years ago. Repotted it, didn’t I, but it didn’t flower in its first year, did it, but now it’s doing this so it was worth the wait. Not remotely fragrant though, which is deeply disappointing.

Hydrangeas, of course.

This Jasminum nudiflorum (winter jasmine) is, as you can see, undeniably in flower. But its not that happy in its pot so once it’s done I’m plant it underneath the Rosa ‘Kew Gardens’ so it can cascade through the wooden picket fence and over the top of the big concrete steps. It’s a brilliant idea and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to think of it.

Rosa ‘The Fairy’. Inherited this from the previous owners, and I like it a lot. Very healthy, disease free, flowers late, is nice and perky when its surroundings are dreary.

Cheeky little Christmas daffodil, smells delightfully of sherbet.