Survivors

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I went to Ruth’s garden yesterday for the first time in two weeks.

On my last visit on 6 August everything was gasping. Then I left it - again - to fend for itself for two of the most brutally hot and dry weeks this country has ever known.

But during my early August visit I triaged. I took extreme measures. I cut back hydrangeas, philadelphus, roses, persicaria. I said the last rites for some.

This is a lesson well learned. Sometimes, you have to cut off the foot to save the leg. On my visit yesterday, despite two more weeks of drought and beastly heat, the cut-back shrubs were showing beautiful healthy new growth. Phew.

There’s nothing like inadvisably spending a lot of money on plants to then watch them all fizzle into dust within a matter of weeks. I am extremely relieved that some have been saved, not least for my bank balance.

Tragically, one of the beautiful Deutzia ‘Kiftsgate’ is unlikely to survive, and the Fuschia ‘Hawkshead’ looks so stringy and crisp that it is barely hanging on. These I had not cut back, and that may have been my mistake.

But this is not a tale of woe. This is a tale of valiant survivors.

And in particular, of an unsung hero: Brunnera.