Shrubs in the Pink

As I get older I find myself liking the colour pink in my garden more and more. Those hot orange borders with startling blue-black contrasts are just a little too bold. Forget hot colours. I am obviously entering a pale pink gardening phase...

I've never been a pushy purple person, either. But someone in my dim feminist gardening memories has obviously warned me about having too much pink. This has lead to scary rose resolutions, well documented in my journal, like: 'No more pink roses allowed!' And rhododendron resolutions, these shrubs permitted only if deep pink or cherry pink... Silly girl!

Pastel Pink

Ha! Finally I've just got too old (mature might be a kinder adjective) to care about too much of any colour! And so pastel pink is alive and well in my garden. It's not just the roses (the softest David Austin pastels are blooming as I write). I've 'discovered' two fabulous, fluffy, pale pink flowering shrubs.

One of the new pinks was a mystery plant, but no surprises as to why I've only just found her. Guess who has been pruning this faithful, no-complaints bargain bin shrub at the wrong time of the year! I had no idea she flowered so beautifully. A kind internet friend has identified her as a Kolkwitzia amabilis, or beauty bush.

Tickled Pink

Being a budget plant, she will be very common, her arching branches covered with quasi-blossom, flowering in the gap season in late spring. I'm tickled pink!

My second pink beauty is also well known - she's a variegated Weigela, with flowers the colour of apple blossom. I've used this shrub before to fill in the depths of the Dog-Path Garden. There in the gloom, jostling with pushy Pittosporums, the flowers have been unspectacular, and have gone un-noticed.

Pruning Problems

Then I shifted one out to the edge of the water race, into space and fresh air, and - you guessed - gave it a good shaping prune. Naturally there were few flowers for me to notice the following year.

But this spring, wow! What an amazing display! She dominates the waterside gardens, in the nicest possible way!I promise faithfully to prune her immediately after flowering - that is if the flowering will ever stop!