The Wheelbarrow of Happiness
I thoroughly broke my plant buying duck at the weekend with a trip to the public plant sale at West Kington Nurseries. This usually happens in late April and early September, but this year's events meant both were combined into one sale spread over the longer Bank Holiday weekend instead. Like so many places these days there was lots of hand gel in evidence and sprays available to ensure safe wheelbarrow handling before I headed off to view the goodies on offer. Facemasks were the order of the day in the glasshouses and polytunnels, but thankfully not for coffee and cake time whilst I sorted out my plan of attack for the day.
I was pretty good and stuck mainly to my list, though a rather nice Eupatorium* 'Chocolate' also leapt into my barrow, as well as a Hydrangea paniculata 'Diamant Rouge' and Actaea 'Hillside Black Beauty'.
I was pleased to find the foxglove 'Glory of Roundway' and aster 'Little Carlow' as both originate from nearby Devizes. They've been on my my list for quite some time and are perfect for the border revamp project I've been clearing under lockdown. Agastache 'Blue Fortune' was being thoroughly bothered by bees at the nursery, so naturally three of them had to come home. The rather racily named Thalictrum 'Black Stockings', plus Rudbeckia 'Prairie Glow' and Persicaria affinis 'Darjeeling Red' completed my wheelbarrow of happiness.
Regular doses of rain and warm September sunshine mean its been perfect planting weather this week!
* = I've since learned Eupatorium is now called Ageratina, another plant renaming to get my head around *sigh*