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30 Day Challenge Christine's garden Gardening

The 30 Day Challenge – Day 30

Today I am grateful for “The Gardening Blog”. When Barbie and I first started this blog in January this year we thought we had gardens and knew what we were doing.  So we started a “gardening blog”. Seems rather funny now because when we look back we realise that we had very little knowledge and pretty basic gardens that were nothing very special. Finding things to blog about every day opened our eyes to just how little we knew and how much more we could do in our gardens to create the gardens of our dreams.

The Gardening Blog has opened up a whole new world for us, one that has been incredibly rewarding, lots of fun, and we’ve loved every minute of it. Here’s to many more great gardening years and blogging!

Solanum Rantonnetii

Photo: Solanum Rantonnetii -Barbie and I both have this bush in our gardens – Barbie’s is huge, nine is still a young plant. They are covered in these small blue-purple flowers in summer. Easy to grow and pretty much pest and disease free.

Solanum Rantonnetii – S. rantonnetii is a deciduous shrub forming purple-blue flowers throughout the summer, followed by red decorative fruit in autumn which is popular with the birds.

About the 30 Day Challenge

Cat of The Whimsical Gardener, has invited Garden Bloggers the world over to join her in the 30 day challenge of posting a photograph and sentiment that you are thankful for – every day for 30 days. Find something you are thankful for every day, for 30 days, can’t be too difficult, can it? See all Barbie’s and my posts filed under “30 Day Challenge“.

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New Acquisition Solanum jasminoides

On Thursday Barbie and sneaked away from work as we were having “plant buying withdrawals” (yes, that’s a valid affliction suffered by most gardeners!). With little time to spare we popped in at the nearest nursery to buy “just one or two herbs”, and came home with the car bulging with new plants – not of the herb variety, although I did see a few tucked in there :).

Amongst others, Barbie bought a gorgeous Salvia “Hot Lips” which I’m sure she will photograph and share soon – it was just too cute to resist – if she hadn’t bought it I would have. It’s one of those “Ohhh how gorgeous” numbers, something akin to sexy red stilettos – if you’re a shoe person, that is.

Soon after I’d put the usual summer annuals in my trolley which included Petunias, Alyssum and Pink Verbenas, I had my “Gotta Have That” moment when I saw a Solanum Jasminoides (other names according to the Internet are “Potato vine, Solanum laxum Album, Solanum jasminoides var Album“). It reminds me of the Solanum rantonnetii (Blue Potato Bush) both Barbie and I have, only it is a far more delicate plant and the flowers are much daintier than those of its purple cousin. What I didn’t realise when I bought it is that it has a trailing, vine type growing habit, so its even more perfect than I realised. I have the ideal spot for it right next to my existing Blue Potato Bush, in full sun, with an ugly wall I am wanting to cover. An image search on Google shows a gorgeous, large creeper type bush covered in dainty white flowers, that  I’m really excited to have in my garden.

Solanum Jasminoides

So let’s get to it, show and tell, plant and wait …

[one_half]Solanum Jasminoides flowersSolanum Jasminoides flowers[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Inspection by the peanut galleryInspection by the peanut gallery[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Waiting to be planted …Waiting to be planted ...[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Can’t wait for the wall to be coveredCan't wait for the wall to be covered[/one_half_last]

According to what I’m reading on the Internet, “S. jasminoides has a scent like jasmine, but is not as overpowering. It is a reliable plant that blooms very well in the spring and has a mild perfume. It is hard to kill with too much or too little water once established” (from Shootgardening.co.uk).

Other New Acquisitions waiting to be planted …

[one_half]Cute Pink VerbenaCute Pink Verbena[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Such pretty little flowersSuch pretty little flowers[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Aquilegia and ConvolvulusAquilegia and Convolvulus[/one_half]

[one_half_last]More “Ladies in waiting”Ladies in waiting[/one_half_last]

With all these new plants waiting to get into the ground its a good thing I still have lots of “blank spaces” in my garden.

What’s the “newest” plant in your garden?

Happy Gardening
xxx