Anemone Rotkäpchen

Translated to English: Little Red Riding-Hood. If you like warm pinks, then you will love this charming anemone.

Although it is usually considered of small stature, at us it grows about 80 cm high. It is important to know that it is invasive, like every anemone.

In our garden (Z5) it resists winter with no problem. It prefers part-shade, but it also tolerates rather much shadow, and if it gets enough water, it also grows on a somewhat sunnier place. However, you must not put it on open sun and dry places.

I think it can be best joined with purple, warm pink, apricot, pale yellow, butter-colored flowers, but nice combinations can be made with blue and white as well.

At us it is certainly sold by Hegede Kertészet, and perhaps by others as well.

Sun hardy hostas

As almost all parts of the garden are sunny at noon, I have much experience concerning the sun tolerance of hostas. And I have to tell that some of them surprisingly well tolerate strong sunshine.

The absolute record-holder is undoubtedly Hosta plantaginea. You can plant it in full sun, and it even tolerates dryness. In late summer it produces white flowers with a strong fragrance. It grows 60-80 cm in height, but at least 120-150 cm in width.

Hosta Francee. At us it is in sun from morning till afternoon, but in Daves Garden some people write of having put it in full sun. It starts to blossom in late July. It blossoms long, and even its dry flower stems are so beautiful that I never cut them. In size it is more or less the same as plantaginea.

Saturday morning

Paeonia 'Do Tell'

We have bought this peony from Miely's Pfingstrosengarten, too.

Paeonia Pink Hawaiian Coral - Paeonia Coral Sunset - Paeonia Coral Charm

Paeonia Pink Hawaiian Coral


Paeonia Coral Sunset


Paeonia Coral Charm


The peonies are from Miely's Pfingstrosengarten.

Paeonia suffruticosa 'Teni'

Japanese woody peony. In the last year I have already mentioned, but now I repeat it because it is important that the Japanese sports are more frost-hardy than the Chinese one. This one is for example Z4 (that is, down to -34 ºC).

It has just opened this afternoon. Have a look at its pictures from the last year, too! And if you are interested, check its page in the fantastic Paeonia database of Carsten Burkhardt.

I have purchased our peonies from the German nursery Staudengärtnerei Gräfin von Zeppelin. Now they offer 180 sports, more than 50 of them woody ones. Watch their page even if you do not want to buy, their photos are beautiful and true to life. And if you need good quality plants, you are encouraged to buy of them.

Those wonderful barberries! 2. Berberis thunbergii 'Aurea'

You can see it in front of the birch in the middle, between the thuya and the rose. At us it grows on a rather shady place. On a sunny place it get much more yellow.

It was one of my best gardening catches. I bought it some years ago in the New Garden nursery as a completely developed plant. On a deeply reduced price, as nobody bought it. But I at once fell in love with it.

Here it is at the left side of the picture, in the middle of the summer. Beautiful, as throughout all the year.

Its form is so architectonic that one can put it even in a Japanese garden, as they often do it indeed. But it also fits well to our more colorful, loose mixed flower bed.

In the autumn it assumes beautiful colors. It also produces berries, but at us unfortuntely quite few. In has a spectacular form also in the winter, here behind the birch to the right.


It is quite frost-hardy (Z4). It grows about one meter hight and one to one and half meter large. People often recommend to plant it on an light soil, but at us every Berberis thunbergii feels better on adobe soil than on sand. However, it cannot stand soils with bad drainage. (This is no problem at us, as all our soils drain water better than necessary.) It loves sunny or partly shady places. It works well in dry places. That is, it is perfect of its kind.

2008

We have put the album selected from the pictures of 2008 on Hortus Carmeli.

(When entering the garden, go to the bottom of the page. By clicking on the thumbnails in the albums, you have the images enlarged, and following the little hand in the upper right corner you can visit them one by one.)

Autumn has come

... what a beautiful, cold autumn (Xin Qiji)

Euonymus alatus 'Compactus'

I have not believed it until I saw in our own garden that this is the real autumn color of this shrub.

This is how it begins.

This is another shrub which has just started to turn in red. This one has already developed to full hight; in the future it will only get larger. The ones on sale are usually one meter high, but as you can see on the picture, it will develop higher, one and half or – according to some pages – two meters. The width of a fully developed shrub is between one and half and two meters, too. (You have to keep an eye on what you buy, because the basic species is twice as great.

It is particularly beautiful with Miscanthus and Pennisetum.

It is also well accompanied with hosta, barberry, cotoneaster and cherry laurel. It is often used in Japanese gardens. It tolerates surprisingly much shade, although it becomes coloured much later if planted in shade. As to the soil, it has no special demands, and resistant to aridity – but it will not suffer the hottest (30ºC+) weeks of our summer without proper watering.

Now, in the autumn you can buy it in many places. Before you buy it in the chic garden centers, you should also check it in the more popular nurseries. I for example purchased the above great one for about twelve euros in the Zöldkirály Nursery one or two years ago, while in the New Garden center they sold smaller ones for about seventy in the same time.

Persicaria microcephala 'Red Dragon'

My absolute favorit. If I could only have one perennial, it would be this, I think. I saw it for the first time at Beth Chatto, and I immediately fell in love with it. To protect the one I bought, I purchased a small backpack in London and I took it on the plane in that, together with a couple of more plants.

It had survived that journey without any problem. However, the next spring, when it did not show any sign of life several weeks after the Persicaria amplexicaulis sprouted up, I thought it become frozen during the winter, and I threw it out. I was convinced that such a Japanese wonder must be frost-tender. But no, it belongs to Z5, it is frost-resistant down to -29ºC. And, in contrast to some of its infamous relatives, it is not invasive. (Some other members of its family, like Persicaria amplexicaulis, Persicaria polymorpha and Persicaria virginiana 'Painter's Palette' are not either – but the overall sold Persicaria bistorta runs like the Orient Express, and its blooming period is also short.)

A professional-looking American review wrote that it also grows on clay. At us it is effectively on clay, and it apparently feels well. You have to water it of course, but it does not require as much water as, for example, the Ligularia. At us it is planted in shade. Where it gets more sun, its leaves become more red. It grows 1-1.5 meters high and 1.5-2 meters large. At the end it blooms small white flowers (on the above picture you can see one or two), but it is usually planted for its beautiful leaves. I also regularly put them in bouquets. It is perfect in every aspect. You only have to take care not to throw it out in the springtime by mistake.