Plant ident 24/04/2013 - Bedding plants used at Dixter

There are good and reliable plants that we have tried and tested at Dixter and constantly new ones that we try out every year. It is good for me to get familiar with what we have in stock, as spring bedding changes over it is an advantage for me to know what we have to play with. Like the nursery, we buy in plants but propagate many of them ourselves too.

(Left - right, starting from the top)

1. Leaves thin & hairy - Catananche caeruleum (Asteraceae family). Flowers are like purple daisies

2. Echium vulgare 'Blue Bedder' - classic borage like leaves, especially the raspy sound when rubbing it.

3. Lathryrus latiflorus 'Albus' - the everlasting sweet pea.

4. Salvia turkestanica (Lamiaceae family)


Slightly blurred because in a rush (from top left - clockwise)

5. Glaucium flavum (Papaveraceae) aka Yellow Horned Poppy. It's a summer flowering papaver that is yellow and has a talon like seed cap.  These are to be seen flowering wild in Dungeness nearby.

6. Erigeron annus our popular tall fleabane daisy that we thread through the garden often.

7. Lychnis deltoides is the florister's carnation and produces bright pink flowers which is a great contrast to the darker leaves. It is part of the Carophyllaceae family and characteristic of this family is that it has swollen nodes.

8. Grindelia robusta (Asteraceae family) aka Great Valley Gum will have yellow flowers. A plant that has many interesting medicinal uses from a sedative to treating people who have been affected by poison ivy. Dyes has also been obtained from its flowers and seeds.

9. Ammi majus - another tall umbellifer that appears regularly in the Dixter palette. It has light dome-like flowers.

10. And last but not least Lagurus ovatus - the bunny tail grass, a great shot of green when it is still very cold in early spring.