Some years ago a friend of mine gave me a piece of the giant scabious which I dobbed in the yellow border without much thought. Slowly it has clumped up, so much so that it caught the eye of a couple of customers who requested some for themselves. First I dug some up to divide and pot up for the orders. Then I thought the rest needed to be moved to a more central position but before I could do that I had to remove some other self seeders (phlomis) and dig the compacted ground. Then I got a barrow or two of compost and finally I was able to transplant the remaining clump. A day or two later there was some rain so, hopefully it will get nicely settled in and give a good display next year. The pieces which I potted up are all growing well.

Further along the same border I had to reduce a clump of Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ which was elbowing its way into other plants. Its such a vigorous grower but almost always looks good except in the driest years. I’m amazed it does so well given that its growing very close to the willow hedge.

Yesterday I dug up some of the many self-seeded cowslips and transplanted them to an area under a large birch. The ground here is awful; hard, lumpy and weed infested but bit by bit I’m getting some plants established there. I look forward to seeing a sea of yellow next year. (One can always live in hope).