Whats Looking Good October

Viburnum farrerei


Calamagrostis x acutiflora "Karl Forster"


Fuchsia microphylla


Fuchsia hatschbachii


Hydrangea daimingshanensis "Guiz 48" was Dichroa, a low growing almost dwarf species cannot make it's mind up on pink or blue. These are the fruits very different to many hydrangea.


Correa glabra turnbullii


Iochroma cyaneum


Colletia spinosissima 2 nd flush of flowers.

 

@CarolineL @Selleri
Zanthoxylum laetum with flowers.


Close up of flowers.

 

@simon_in_wiltshire you have primroses in flower now? Amazing.

 

Mahonia's about to flower in my garden - that's pretty normal for timing- maybe very slightly earlier. It's Winter Sun. Loads of buds on it.
I have to laugh at your very nice hostas @Plantminded . I won't take any photos of the ones in a garden up the road. I'll let you guess what they look like - what's left of them that is!
I used to have P. B. Baby too, but it didn't survive. It's a particularly nice one.
Native primulas flower on and off all year here @On the Levels . I have loads, and some are in pots ready to go in various sites. There's a white variety in many gardens here too, which seem to do the same. I've often thought of getting it. @simone_in_wiltshire 's looks like that one, but sometimes whites and creams are hard to get right in photos, so I'm not sure which one she has - maybe she can tell us.

 

Those hostas have been slug free all year @fairygirl, they like being elevated on that bench. You can appreciate the leaf colours and shapes at that height too. Slugs could get there with some climbing and acrobatic skills but as this garden and owner are hostile to slugs they keep away .

 

I won't mention the ones I found yesterday @Plantminded !
When you said you didn't grow dahlias now because of them, it reminded me of what I said when I started growing them again a few years ago. Slugs were the reason I'd stopped in the first place. I hadn't grown them for about 2 decades at least.
Moats were/are the best way, but even then - it has to be substantial enough because they'll still cross water. I had one pot in the pond last spring

 

I like that idea @fairygirl. Just need to construct a pond and a moat .

 

Aye - get your spade out and get on with it @Plantminded

 

@NigelJ That xanthoxyllum looks very different to mine from @noisette47 . Mine has whitish flowers and more lethal leaves. When it finally produced a few seeds this year, I tried eating them. No pepperiness at all! That dichroa is interesting - I can't believe it's now hydrangea. I know you are milder than here, but how well do the iochroma and fuchsia microphylla cope?

 

@CarolineL My Zanthoxyllum laetum has yet to set seed.
Iochroma cyaneum is not frost hardy and spends the winter in the greenhouse, label says not below 4 °C.
Fuchsia microphylla has been in the ground here since the early 2010s. The nursery I got it from closed in about 2014. They made no comment on hardiness, some years it has lost some top growth, it gently suckers around. The RHS has it at H2 so not frost hardy, Burncoose say down to -5 °C, I would say Burncoose are closer to reality than the RHS. Having said that a run of below 0 °C would probably finish it off.

 

Thanks @NigelJ - shame, that iochroma is gorgeous, but my elastic greenhouse is going to pop if I try getting more tender plants! I might give the fuchsia a try again- it didn't manage in Nottinghamshire. Hmm, I used to find Burncoose a bit optimistic!

 

I know what you mean, this is the link to trees and shrubs article on it Hydrangea daimingshanensis - Trees and Shrubs Online
The entire Hydrangea section has just been updated by Julian Sutton of Desirable Plants.

 

You might say that in jest @fairygirl but it's a project I have often considered. My worry is stagnant water and mosquitoes, plus I think the blackbirds might protest at the loss of lawn .

I'm also thinking that I'm going to have to move in the next few years and a pond might put non-gardeners off. (The sloping borders and bank here are a bit of a hazard but no way am I hiring a "gardener" .)

 

I'm not sure that your grass is a Molinia @NigelJ, the flowers look more like Calamagrostis Karl Foerster. Molinia flowers aren't as impressive but I still grow them .

This is the Molinia:Molinia Karl Foerster – Knoll Gardens – Ornamental Grasses and Flowering Perennials

 

Thank you for that grasses are not a favourite of mine and I tried to kill this one for 10 years growing it in a dry shady spot. Then I found it still alive the other year when I cleared that area and moved it and it's steadily recovered since then. Will correct caption.