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Oct 4Liked by Anna Taylor

Yes I have large areas planted with bulbs and I’m going to try some big shrub roses in there. I’m on clay and the grass is rampant so I’ll have to clear around them to get them going. Thinking I’ll add some wild flower plugs at some point…..

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Lovely idea to put shrub roses in there. I too am planting more rose glauca as I love the leaf colour and hips at this time of year.

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Oct 4Liked by Anna Taylor

Oh interesting! Lovely stuff. I have an area of lawn that is a bulb fest in spring and then I leave long until late summer - are there any herbaceous perennials I could add to this which would survive being mowed in the late summer?

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Sounds gorgeous! You'd have to try some plants, buy as plugs or 9cm perennials or if growing from seed, get to a decent size before letting them try to complete. I think cowslips (primula vulgars) would work, maybe ox-eye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare), geums and a little perennial called Hippocrepsis commas which is low growing, yellow pea like flowers. All of those are worth a go and bring flowers in the late spring and early summer. The other way of maintaining the spring meadow is cutting it down in mid June when all the bulbs should have died back, then allowing the summer grass to come through which would result in September meadow, which could include scabious, philosella aurantica (fox and cubs) and dianthus carthusianorum which I reckon could cope with a highish mowing (and all easily grown from seed). It would be like giving them the Chelsea chop. I think that might be a better idea actually! Let me know how you get on.

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