Category: Plants
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Cosmos bipinnatus
Some plants just seem to give you “the finger”… When I think about how I coddled and cuddled my little cosmos seedlings last spring and summer, padding them with mulch, hovering over them with the watering can – and still the tiny little spindly things just wanted to die throughout the summer before finally putting out…
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Lonicera
Lonicera or honeysuckle is a very diverse species, including wonderfully scented vines (periclymenum, japonica, tatarica, xylosteum…) or shrubs (fragrantissima, purpusii, syringantha…), fruit-bearing shrubs (caerulea/kamtchatica…) as well as evergreen hedging shrubs and groundcovers (nitida, pileata, crassifolia…). Lonicera japonica I love the scented Lonicera vines and was more than happy to discover that the massive hedge of…
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Alcea Rosea
Alcea rosea (Hollyhocks in English or Rose trémière in French) are another example for plants that – in my experience – grow best if left alone to do their thing. They like to sow themselves where they please and need nothing besides maybe some support against the wind in their quest for the sky. Not…
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Anisodontea
Anisodontea or Cape Mallow is another plant I would never have thought of planting myself but which I have grown rather fond of. My mother gave it to me 2021. It had been grown from a cutting as an indoor plant in cold Ulm, Germany. When we came here I planted it in the garden,…
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Erysimum linifolium Bowles Mauve
I love the wonderful heady perfume of Erysimum cheirii but they seem a bit difficult for a low-maintenance mediterranean garden. So I decided to try Erysimum linifolium Bowles Mauve in a very pretty lilac color. It’s a perennial (if supposedly short-lived – remains to be seen) evergreen shrub, flowering from March ito July and forming…
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Roses for a Mediterranean Garden
A garden without roses? It’s possible but is it necessary? I did my research in 2022 and chose what I thought was a varied selection of robust roses. My experience so far shows that there are huge differences between varieties, even those said to be robust and resistant. And there are a lot of aspects…