In my garden this week

Everything's going white.

First up is a New Zealand speciality bouught and planted 4 years ago in honour of my step-daughter who was then living in NZ. This is Diplarrhenia moroea and is related to the Iris family. It stands about 18 ins high and has a lovely scent. the flowers only last a day but they produce quite a few in succession. I must be lucky as when I read up on it it said it only survives in very mild areas, certainly not a description of Devon this last winter.

Next up and also in my front garden is this one, yet another geranium, this time G. pyrenaicum albifloria or the white hedgerow geranium.

This is an annual and has gone crazy in my front border. The plants are lax sprawlers and seed themselves profusely, in winter you are rewarded with mounds of downy grey/green leaves.

Another white form is G. ashodeloides album which is much daintier and more well behaved in habit although just as prollific as it's larger brother above.

This one has star shaped flowers and seedlings are either white or pink flowered.

Lastly a rare gem from the back garden, Silene fimbriata syn S. multifida purchased at a Women's Institute plant sale a couple of years ago. These are always a rich source of the unusual and plants are normally very cheap there too. My picture is not so good of this one partly because overnight the snails had a real feast with the flowers which had been flattened by rain.

This will grow to well over 3 feet so is a good one for the back of the border. It is shade tolerant too, always a bonus!