Wednesday 15 October 2008

Lots of planting

... as I have the pleasant and very enjoyable task of designing our new garden. I love this stage in the process when a garden is just beginning to get "a face".

My new plants are special for two reasons:

a) my dear parents went to a lot of trouble digging them up from their garden, writing instructions, labelling and packing them in wet newspaper and plastic bags so that they would be able to survive a three day car journey. One of them, a 1.5 m high Lilac, even travelled on the roofrack - until the car broke down 350 miles from home!

Which leads me to the second reason why these plants are dear to me: You can probably imagine the adventure we had, travelling with them in Taxis and on the train. The bags were more than we could carry, and of course we had to change trains (at a station which had been closed until 5 minutes before we arrived, due to an abandoned suitcase). Unfortunately quite a few train stations have recently abandoned the idea of luggage trolleys, so I had to enlist the help of fellow passengers.

But everyone and everything survived the trip, so finally, here is the list of the far travelled species:

The aforementioned Lilac (Flieder)
Irises (Schwertlilien)
Aquilegia (or Columbine?; Akelei)
Aster
Astilbe
Lilies of the Valley (Maigloeckchen)
Lysimachia clethroides (Gooseneck Loosestrife; Entenschnabel-Felberich)
Sage (Salbei)
Streifengras (I would like to know the English or even the botanical name...)
Physostegia Virginiana (Gelenkblume)
Achillea Millefolium (Schafgarbe)
Saxifraga Arendsii (Moosteinbrech)
A mysterious shrub (Bodendecker)
Phlox
Campanula (Glockenblume)
Archimenes (Schiefteller)

I might post a picture when all is planted...