"Robert" wrote in message
...

"andrewpreece" wrote in message
...
: I have bitten the bullet and dived into the overgrown corners of my
garden
: and started turfing out the spanish bluebells, where I also found clumps
of
: Crocosmia which were very congested and hardly flowering at all. After
: digging up the clumps I find that the oldest ones have 17 corms stacked
one
: on top of the other. Presuming these are laid down annually that's 17
: summers without clumps being touched! No wonder they didn't flower well.
:
: The books recommend no more than three years betwen dividing clumps.
: I've knocked off the excess corms and replanted but I imagine that I'll
not
: get a display this year, it being rather late to do this kind of thing.
:
: Andy.

Replanted them !!!! Some of us spend time trying to get rid of them and
you
replant them lol. Only joking, well partly anyway, they get everywhere and
won't stay put



I'm not too sure what they can do when they're given a bit of room to
breathe,
so I'm giving them some space, and binning the excess. If I'm right, then
the
variety in my garden is at least 17 years old, so is unlikely to be a modern
variety.
I try to recycle plants as far as possible, even though this may not
give
the best displays. For instance, plants that I have inherited and recycle
a-

Yellow Archangel: with a silvery striped leaf - elegant groundcover, and IMO
much better looking than the other type of Lamium, the Red Deadnettle, which
I rip out in handfuls. Shade.

Purple Toadflax: tall, cottage-gardeny, low maintenance. Sun.

Aquilegia Vulgaris ( Columbine ): this comes in only shades of purple, but
the
foliage is decorative even when the flowers go. Shade or sun.

Corydalis Lutea ( Yellow Corydalis ): Yellow tubular flowers from
March-October,
good for shady spots, ferny foliage.

Tutsan: similar to St John's Wort/Hypericum. Elegant foliage of a greeny-red
mixture, with yellow flowers and berries that change from yellow-red-black.
Semi-evergreen. Can take shade.

Primroses: well, I'm in Devon so they're a must! Some sun.

Feverfew: looks like small double chrysanth's. Aromatic foliage, actually do
well
in shade so can go under my Leylandii hedge and still produce plenty of
foliage and flowers. Needs deadheading later in the season as the white
flowers
turn brown, even so they last a long time.

Native Foxgloves, Digitalis: white or purple only, need to identify and
rescue the
seedlings from wherever they turn up, and putbthem in a little nursery area
for a
year. Sun or shade.

Ivy-leaved Toadflax: small snap dragon-like flowers, they go on for ages.
Good for
filling cracks in between rocks. Sun.

Pink Sorrell: Good in woodland areas, flowers for quite a while, a bit
informal.

Great Willowherb ( Codlins and Cream ): I'm sure this is classed as a weed,
but it just arrives and I let it grow. Doesn't last all that long, but very
cottagey.
Sun.

Rosebay Willowherb: OK defo a weed but charming 'til it takes over. Sun.

Creeping Campanula: colonises all those damp shady crevices that I would
be scratching my head to find an alternative for.

Forget-me-Nots ( Myosotis ). Dig 'em up in winter and place where required.
Best used as underplanting as the wild type is a bit rangy. Sun or shade.

Tell you what I do find invasive though ( Crocosmia isn't that bad ):-

Spanish Bluebells ( and their bloody great strappy leaves flop over and
smother
all and sundry ).

Wild Strawberries: runners everywhere.

Creeping Buttercup: runners everywhere in the damp places.

Nerines: much worse than crocosmia IMO, you plant a few, and a few years
later there's an impenetrable mass.

Lily-of-the-Valley ( Convalaria ): pops up every, rhizomes won't take no for
an
answer.

Bishop's Hat ( Epimedium ): it marches onward and is a sod to dig up.

Dear me, that turned into a ramble,

cheers!

Andy.