The back border that I planted last year has been a mixture of success, failure and mind changing this year. Below this is what it looked like last year.
We had such a wet winter I was not really expecting any of the perennials to come back. However, most of them seemed to. The Hellienum was a huge success to start with, producing lots of beautiful yellow bee-friendly flowers. They have in the last few weeks slowly started to slow down and we now have very few coming through. The alliums (I did wonder what they were at first) also were strong and full of bees. The astrantia and the aquilegia again produced a wonderful show.
The penestom were very poor this year, a few flowers but not many. The Verbena bonariensis did ok, we had more as it is self-seeded but did not have many come back. We brought this daisy-like flower, Mr MC&W chose it and I am not sure of its name, it barley flowered and looked dreadful this will be going.
The hebes Hebe Caledonia and Hebe pinguifolia Pagei have been a massive disappointment, they are just not flourishing at all. Which is a shame as I love hebes.
I planted some annuals of cosmos and Zinnias, the cosmos were pretty but a huge disappointment, normally they are so tall. The yellow ones were small and not many flowers and when I went to cut them for a display all the petals fell off. The zinnias though were beautiful full of colour and life.
The Fushia Hawkeshead has reached a tall stature but not many flowers on it this year.
The Gaura lindheimeri Whirling Butterflies has been amazing and looked wonderful with the Verbina running through and beside it.
With lots that did not come back, I had a lot of space so just ordered some September treats. I will be having lots of thoughts over the winter and will come back better next year.
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