I’m very pleased to say that Driftwood and I will have a two-page feature in a national gardening magazine next month which will be published next week on the 20th. So, if you read Modern Gardens, look out for the article inside. Looking good in the garden this week are the five large fascicularia bicolor or crimson bromeliad.
They are all planted in the ground around the bow of the large rowing boat in the beach garden. They are a rosette-forming, terrestrial bromeliad with slender, spiny-toothed, rigid, mid to dark-green, evergreen leaves up to 50cm long. In summer each mature rosette produces a dense central cluster of pale sky-blue flowers surrounded by ivory-white bracts.
The innermost leaves of the rosette turn scarlet red and mine are still looking great in November. These are unusual and interesting plants that will be a talking feature in your garden. Its brilliant colours erupt along the leaves giving this hardy plant a tropical appearance and are so unusual and spectacular they will become a real feature in patio containers or a sunny border.
Mine have been growing well in the ground for over three years now in a south facing part of the garden, so they get full sun through the summer months. Dogwood looks stunning planted in groups, beside water, or in a winter border In the centre of the back garden, I have a really lovely red dogwood plant. This deciduous shrub has oval, dark green leaves and produces small, creamy-white flowers in May and June.
But it's reall.