Sweet Williams, cottage garden favourites.

I love these old fashioned flowers. They are easy to grow, give a wonderful show in mid summer and go on flowering for a long time (several weeks).

In Geoff Hamilton's lovely book 'Cottage Gardens', he describes the Sweet William like this:

'Dianthus barbatus - Sweet William

Height: 15-60 cms (6 in  2 ft)

Lovely old fashioned flower making a large head filled with individual florets like auriculas. However, flowering in mid-summer makes it an awkward customer, so it's now rarely grown, with the preference being for longer-flowering half-hardy bedding. If you can find room for at least a few, they're well worthwhile.'

Sweet Williams are bi-ennial so need to be planted now, as seeds, in order to have flowers next summer. I usually plant mine in a trough first and then, when the plantlets are big enough, I put them out into the garden to establish. The plantlets overwinter very well and grow steadily until they flower in June/July/August time.

I suppose they'll come back into fashion one day. I do hope so.

Millie being nosy.

Happy Gardening

Cottage Garden Plants - Lysimachia Punctata

 Don't you just love these yellow glories? Lysimachia Punctata, a hard perennial, perfect for a cottage garden.

They love to grow in moisture retentive, well-drained soil that does not dry out, in summer.

As their colour suggests, they love to grow in full sun, but will also thrive in partial shade.

It spreads quickly and will soon need dividing. That is best done in the Spring so during the summer, make a note of where you want some next year and then, come Spring, you will know where to plant the divisions.

Enjoy the sunshine.