Radical Action Part 2 A Touch of Spice

I think it's about time there was a bit of a change in our garden. I've been admiring the palate of late summer colours in other people's gardens and on their blogs. And I have come to the conclusion that we need to have a crescendo of glorious colour to end the season on a high note.

Nothing too adventurous, you understand, just a bit swing of the colour wheel away from the green/blue/pink which is usually my preference. I was thinking hot colours such as reds, even yellows and a bit of lime green but then I came across this Achillea "Terracotta" It's a bit spicy and I realized that this was the sort of look that we were after. What is so attractive about this flower is that it's more than one colour and gives an overall spicy effect.

Looking closely at these achillea you can see so many soft shades of orange and yellow blending into each other. As the flowers age the fade to a soft yellow.

We'd also been given a couple of stunning crocosmia that are looking for the right spot in the garden. First of all there is Emily MacKenzie which has a very large flower of burnt umber and orange.

Then we have the slightly more subdued but very clear yellow Crocosmia "Citronella" The buds are a deeper custard yellow opening to a clear pale yellow.

I'm in two minds about dividing the crocosmia before putting them into the border. This is usually what I do in the spring but it may be more of a risky strategy at this time of year as the weather may turn before the plants have time to recover.

I was hoping to combine the new planting with Smoke Bush Cotinus "Grace"  but I'm slightly concerned about the size it will grow to in a short time.

 

Grasses catching the late summer sun and setting off the warm tones of flowering crocosmias and achillea sounds like a "must have" combintion.

Grasses including a stipa gigantea and some smaller ones that I grew from seed, including hardeum jubateum, (foxtail barley) will find a place in the planting plan.

We have a unusual Mecanopsis that came from Cluny House gardens. It has a wonderful arching habit and clear yellow flowers. Perhaps we'll also add some blue or purple in the shape of a clematis and some salvia.

Doesn't the rustic plant support do a great job in allowing the mecanopsis to tumble over without appearing too obvious! That may be an idea to borrow.

The melianthus major will have a important place in the planting. Perhaps it will be moved to a position nearer the path so we can admire the foliage better. I never tire of it's serrated foliage and it's glacous appearance. It's worth all the mulching and care during the winter.

Last but not least (at up to 8ft tall) we have eremurus bulbs, also known as the foxtail lily. They were bought in a weak moment ( I have quite a few of these) at the Dundee Food and Flower Festival. I know they have a reputation for being fussy and difficult to please but we did have some success with the yellow one in our last garden. Their native habitat is the arid desert and that means that getting them to flower in Orkney must have had a large element of luck involved.

Eemurus should flower in early summer before many of the other plants are in bloom. They like light soil and full sun. Last time we grew them I found it difficult to avoid breaking their brittle roots. Perhaps this time I will remember to mark them each with a cane. We have two Eremurus robustus and Eremurus Himalaicus.

So that is the proposed planting. It will proably change along the way, or I'll get cold feet and revert to type (The blue/purple part of the colour wheel).

The rain is on for now and we are expecting the tail end of Hurricane Katia (what a treat) so planting may have to wait several days while we batten down the hatches