Now that the summer is well behind us and the October winds blow the fallen leaves around in a frenzy it is time to take stock of what worked well in the garden this year and what improvements might be made for next year. The garden pool worked quite well with flowers for most of the spring and summer although the water lily has not bloomed yet but that was only to be expected as they usually take a couple of years to settle down. Mimulus Luteus was a great addition to the pool as it bloomed all summer and spread over a third of the surface providing much needed shade that prevented the dreaded blanked weed form getting a hold. Lobelia cardinalis Bees Flame provided the grand finale to the summer with beautiful scarlet flowers that lasted for two months and still have a few flowers at the top of three foot stems.
The raised beds in the back garden did really well this year and were quite colourful all year. Even at this time there are lots of autumn bulbs in bloom including the entire crocus collection that I moved from the bulb frame last year. They would appear to be doing much better in the raised bed and are producing lots more flowers after only year planted out than they did over the four years in the frame. I now intend to move all the pots from the bulb frame and plant them out in the garden and reserve the frame for the less than full hardy forms of cyclamen. I have also moved a lot of my deciduous Lewisias into a cold frame to make more room in the alpine house.
I experimented with a few of them last spring and it worked a treat because they flowered much later in the frame which coincided with the plants that I wanted to cross-pollinate them with. Last year they had finished flowering before their pollen recipient partners were ready, this meant that I had to save the pollen and couldn't back cross without saving pollen for a year in the fridge which did not give good results.
The last alpine house that I erected is now completely filled with Lewisia hybrids, all new plants of my own creation. This year was my most successful yet because I had a few surprises with plants that I had never managed to cross before. Some of them are very promising indeed and because most breeders think that their geese are swans I took digital photographs and mailed them to some nurserymen who sell Lewisias just to get their opinion.
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