We hope you’ve been enjoying your walks around the walled gardens at Charlton House! This month, look out for:
Night moth Salvia (Salvia nachtvlinder)
With velvety plum-purple flowers, this Salvia is attractive to moths and other pollinating insects and flowers over a long period – well into late autumn. It has deliciously blackcurrant-scented leaves and is said to protect roses against black spot when it is planted under them.
Michaelmas daisy (Aster x frikartii ‘Monch’)
A bushy perennial with clusters of yellow-centred, lavender-blue daisies that flower right through the autumn, it is very attractive to pollinators. One of the most reliable and popular Michaelmas daisies (so called because they flower at the time of the feast of Michaelmas on 29 September), it was bred by a Swiss nurseryman called Frikart and named ‘Monch’ after a Swiss mountain.
Eastern valerian, or golden lace (Patrinia scabiosifolia)
Branching sprays of neon-yellow tiny flowers stand out above clumps of coarsely-cut green leaves. This pretty plant self-seeds freely, but you might not recognise the seedlings because the seed leaves are just oval and only form the cut shapes as they get more mature. The leaves will die down in winter, but they can turn a reddish, autumnal colour first.
Sedum / stonecrop (Hylotelephium ‘Matrona’)
This drought tolerant “ice plant” with leafy, reddish stems has multiple, tiny, soft pink flowers which fade to deeper pink as they age (look closely – they are like tiny stars). It’s always covered in bees, which love the flowers! Dormant in winter, it can survive very cold temperatures. These were part of the original planting scheme in the early 2000s.
Lily turf (Liriope muscari)
Grass-like evergreen leaves (hence the name “turf”), with spikes of long-lasting, lilac-purple flowers, similar to grape hyacinths. This plant is actually a member of the Asparagus family! It makes attractive ground cover, and is great for dappled shade. This whole clump has formed from a single donation by a CABAHS member three years ago.
And still going strong:
Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia)
With its tall spikes of violet-blue flowers, Russian sage is a head-turner! It’s not really a sage for cooking (smell but don’t eat the leaves) and it’s not from Russia either (it was named after a Russian botanist). It is long flowering and beloved of bees and butterflies, and makes a real impact planted around the statue in the Peace Garden, where we like it so much we have made the bed bigger and packed more plants in!
In winter we leave it standing, and it makes an amazing display in the snow.
Persicaria (Bistorta amplexicaulis ‘Firetail’)
Looking particularly fine this year (it didn’t enjoy the drought last year), all the clumps of bistort in the garden have been grown from a single plant that was donated by a volunteer in 2021. Bees and other insects love it!
Also look out now for beautiful seedheads:
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Visit Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society online.
