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The Garden House (Devon, England)

The destinations are beginning to blur but looking at the tour guide booklet, I see that we are now in Plymouth. Today, we visited two gardens designed by Keith Wiley.  The first is The Garden House , where Wiley worked as Head Gardener for 25 years (from 1978-2003). The 10-acre estate was purchased in the 1940s by former Eton schoolmaster Lionel Fortescue and his wife Katherine. It was formerly home to the  vicars of Buckland Monachronum. The Fortescue's renovated the gardens and ran a market garden business and raised cattle.  The remains of some of the original buildings in the vicarage still stand in the garden and serve as a romantic backdrop in the Walled Garden - I loved the way they had massed ferns together. Just stunning! Surrounding the walled garden and venturing out away from the house are more naturalistic plantings  - Today, the head gardener is Nick Haworth, who was previously head gardener at Greenway , which we visited earlier.  Keith Wiley lef...
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Goodbye to the Annuals

A freeze warning tonight means that the annuals will be toast in the morning. 

A last look -


Fuchsia 'Firecracker' - Not all fuchsias are tender and many are perfectly fine in the ground and will come back next year. Tender varieties that I mostly grow in pots can be overwintered in the garage although buying new ones in the spring is less hassle. We do love 'Firecracker' which the only place I've found it is Fred Meyer. Maybe I should try and save this one.


'Southgate' was a new one this year and it is just now coming into its own. I do plan to over-winter this one since I'm afraid I won't find it next year. 



Heliotrope - This has not been the best year for Heliotrope. I planted some in pots and in the ground and they just did not want to grow. We like to plant one near the front window where the vanilla-like fragrance flows into the house. 


Dorotheanthus 'Mezoo Trailing Red' (Red Apple) 
I love this plant and buy it every year. It is always sad to see it go. 


Dragonwing Begonia and Impatiens on the front porch. It would not be right if we did not plant a Dragonwing Begonia although I was miffed that this one turned out to be pink instead of red.


Need color for a shady spot? Look no further than coleus. This plant will probably take center stage on our deck from now on out since it is mostly shaded.


More impatiens, this time in the ground. These were planted late in the season and would be much larger if put out earlier. I was very impressed with a line of them bordering the foundation of a house in our neighborhood a few days ago. It was quite impressive.


Love, love this plant. This variety is Oxalis 'Molten Lava'. I've tried various ones in the chartreuse/gold range and love all of them. I've never tried overwintering this but thinking about trying it this year.


And heavens to Murgatroyd, I almost forgot to bring in the mandevilla! This is the first one I've ever successfully overwintered (hint - keep it sheltered under a plant light) AND the first vine that has done what I wanted it to do - drape over the mailbox. It took forever to bloom but so proud of it!




And some tender perennials that I bring in the garage for winter -

Angel's Trumpet (Brugmansia) - We have 3 in pots - 'Charles Grimaldi' (pictured), another with variegated leaves that turned out to be nice and a red one that has never bloomed. I wanted to toss it out but Michael says not after all the TLC he has given it. So it gets yet another chance.


Cuphea 'Stybing Sunset' - Cupheas are one of my favorite plants and this is #1 for me.  I had a dickens of a time finding another one when my first one croaked. Dancing Oaks carries it and so does Annie's Annuals. I wait until after the frost and dig it up, pot it and bring it into the garage.


 
And finally, ending with another cuphea - 'Vermillionaire'. This one is so easy to find, I just buy another one every year. Hummingbirds adore this one. 


Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy
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  1. Kris PetersonOctober 27, 2023 at 8:18 PM

    It's got to be hard to see plants come to an abrupt end all at once like that. We don't get freeze events so, except perhaps in the case of a severe heatwave, I'm lucky to avoid seeing plants killed en masse like that.

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