Astilbe Peach Blossom
Astilbe Peach Blossom, like all the other forms of Astilbe in our garden this one just thrives in the cool Summers of the North East of Scotland
We wouldn’t be without Astilbes in the garden, in fact when a plant grows as well as these ones do we tend to fall back on them time and time again as if there were a shortage of other plants to choose from.
Three of them which I feature today, I know the names of, we have others which look good, however they were planted at a time when I was less fussy about taking note of cultivars or varieties.
Peach Blossom above, we planted in the back border of the front garden, its pretty well shady and doesn’t get the sun until quite late in the afternoon. It hasn’t half taken a good hold though and gave a spectacular show in July/early August.
The flowers are a pale rose, peachy shade and the dark green leaves are deeply divided. Many of the Astilbes still look good when the flowers have faded, Peach Blossom is one of those.
Hardiness – Fully hardy
Height – 60/70cm
Position – part/full shade where it does not dry out
_________________________
Astilbe Rheinland
Astilbe Rheinland is in the east facing border of the back garden. These ones were planted last Autumn, very young plants they were and I did not expect such good results in the first year.
This is a most unusual Astilbe the flowers almost sparkle and the mid green deeply cut foliage is very attractive. Rheinland received the RHS award of garden merit which is always a good piece of information to have before purchasing a plant. Astilbes in general really do prefer a moist shady spot, however they will grow well enough in a semi shaded position as long as the soil is kept very well watered.
Hardiness – Fully hardy
Height – 50cm
— Mail Order —
_______________________________________________
Astilbe x Arendsii White Gloria
Astilbe x arendsii White Gloria (Weisse) planted in the woodland area of the garden, in a border which requires a little more watering in Spring and Summer than the others do.. This one in our garden grows to about 3ft tall. A very handsome white form.
There is no doubt about it. Astilbes just hate to be in dry areas of the garden where performance will produce sparse flowering and generally sickly looking plants. Astilbe is in fact known to thrive in boggy conditions and they always look good when planted alongside Hosta and Phlox, which also like similar conditions.
___________________________
Clicky Stats
Going back to the early days when I started my blog one thing that really fascinated me was the stats. Well to be quite honest when I first came across it on my dashboard I didn’t have a clue what it could be. C’mon, at my age if it had said statistics then I would have put two and two together, well maybe!
Anyway I eventually got my head around it and found what the wordpress stats did. It let me see how many pages had been viewed each day, week or month. Not only that it showed me which pages received the most visits. At my time of life stuff like this fascinates me, younger folk would say, your easily excited.
I carried on for a few years happy with the results then I came across something similar called <-Clicky Stats-> this really did take the statistics to a whole new level.
Not only did it show me how many pages were visited but also the amount of individual visitors. Clicky also shows where your visitors come from, Country, city ip address, even what they had for lunch (I made that bit up). You are also shown how long each individual stays on your site and which pages were visited. Now and again you can pick up that someone had been on your blog for an extremely long time, (two hours) This leads to curiosity making me want to contact the visitor, however even with the ip address I havent figured out how to do this as yet.
I know most of you will be well acquainted with the likes of Clicky but I expect there will be some of you who may well welcome information like this. The free version of Clicky Stats offers all that most bloggers would wish for. I have checked out others but found none of them quite compared.
If you happen to leave a comment I will be sure to visit your site and do the same
very beautiful Alistair. one on my list… your blog had become bible for me now..
Happy Christmas to you Linnie. i had never thought in a million years that any action from myself would be seen as an omen, I have been mistaken for Damien though.
My poor astilbes were languishing in dryish clay, so in the fall I relocated them– all three. Really I have great hope for them now and I take your blog post as a good omen in that regard. (I bet you never knew you could be an omen!) Happy Christmas wonderful Alistair!
Happy Christmas to you also Pam.
Alistair, I love astilibes, too, although I haven’t been too successful with them — my shade garden is too dry I think, and the cottage garden too hot. I look at Google stats occasionally, but don’t know how accurate they are. Have a very Happy Christmas! P. x
Angie, I see, like myself you are in to healthy eating.
Well deserved praise for these beauties you have the Alistair.
I made a new border at the top end of my garden and didn’t realise how damp it got, so opted to plant some Astilbe. So I will be looking forward to them next year – I do hope they are as beautiful as yours 🙂
BTW – I had a fried egg roll as a late lunch – been out Xmas shopping since the shops opened this morning!!
Rosie, Carolyn was just telling me about a series named Visions, I think we should both check this out.
Carolyn, I will definitely check out the vision series.
I am currently in an astilbe phase. The last two springs I ordered what I thought was an excess to sell at my nursery, intending to plant the leftovers in the only moist area in my garden, but there were almost none left. I actually like the Astilbe chinensis cultivars even more. There is a great series called Visions, with ‘Visions in Red” being particularly beautiful.
I love these plants – I couldn’t do without them in the garden as they love my soil conditions. I leave the drying stems all winter to protect their crowns and my favourite part is seeing those brown fuzzy new stems appearing each spring.
Thanks Alberto, you kind of cheered me up on this miserable grey day, sorry these plants don’t perform well where you are.
Hi Alistair! Seeing how your astilbes and the astrantias beside thrive in your garden makes me feel really bad. I love those plants but I can’t grow them successfully in my garden because of heat and drought. I always watch your garden pictures and read your experienced advice with so much interest. But your stats already told you this, right? 😉
B-a-g, I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I keep wanting to change the look of my website, no doubt it will happen again. Just finished a ham and tomato sandwich. Cant make up my mind regarding cookies, they seem to have become pretty essential.
Deborah, seems like there is no doubt that Astilbe prefers cooler conditions.
I admire your astilbes very much! They are sold here, but mine failed to thrive and then perished during the extremely hot summer. Perhaps a cool stream bank could offer them what they need. I wish I had that in my garden!
Hi Alistair – I see that the astilbes have inspired you to change your background to peachy. I have cheese and pickle sandwiches most days. I used to be curious about stats but it seems that the standard Blogger stats can’t filter out spammers so my stats are meaningless. I personally find cookies etc a bit intrusive.
Your astilbes look so lush and happy! Here summers are hot and humid, and they suffer through but do not look so at ease. I especially love the brilliant soft color of ‘Peach Blossom’!
Helene, I am amazed at the search phrases that lead to your blog, I wonder if this relates to some of your keywords. I can imagine that Astilbe would suffer greatly with the lack of water.
I know what you mean Masha, I tend to have spells when I check these out.
I love astilbe too, but sickly plants with sparse flowering is exactly what mine are like… Yours look amazing.
I have stopped looking at stats on my blog and found it makes for much more relaxed blogging experience, for me at least 🙂
Hi Alistair, I have always had astilbes in my garden, but have managed to kill a few over the years. The latest casualty was this August when I was in hospital and subsequent recovery, when many of my plants suffered from lack of water. Most of them recovered, my Clematis Niobe for example is flowering now!! But my two astilbes died, not sure if they will emerge again next spring, can always hope, if not they surely will be replaced as the spot I am growing them in is perfect, as long as they get a splash of water during the summer months.
Oh, and I will take a look at the Clicky stats – OK, so I admit it, I am easily excited too, I love that stuff! I have my blog with Blogspot, and they have quite detailed statistics as part of their service, one feature is that I can see what people have searched for when ending up on my blog. Hilarious at times, and unbelievable what kind of search phrases that will lead to my blog! I keep a list of some of them, here is a small selection:
-I have been thinking
-my cat has big ears
-being a philologist
-do I have to replant flowers everyday
-very nice flowers
-nightmare before Christmas gingerbread house
-a cat that looks like tabby but it’s not with big ears
But maybe Clicky stats can reveal even more fun and interesting things 🙂
Take care, Helene
Yes Donna a plant grows as well as conditions allow.
No Crystal, it only seems to recognise food of the common people.
Astilbe Peach Blossom looks wonderful. I’ve tried growing astilbes in my garden but they don’t like the dry conditions in summer. Although this summer was very wet. I could have tried them this year. Oh well.
Like the sound of your Clicky Stats, very useful. I had beans on toast today. Did it get it right?
My favorite astilbe is peach blossom. In our area, it is hit or miss how it grows. It is mostly due to soil conditions, and is very particular about the amount of sun when it is not happy in its location. I still spec it on jobs, but much less than I used to.
Andrea, I will have to show the garden in Winter, although it doesn’t look very special. I am not really sure where you are coming from regarding having no advertisements, stats should still be as interesting.
Alistair, your garden is always an envy for us gardeners, but that astilbe i have always encountered in words, but the photo just stuck to me now, lovely. You said this is your garden in July, i wonder how it looks now in winter there. Re: the stats, blogger also shows that to us, but because i don’t have advertisements i guess it’s not useful enough. But I am amazed also of the visitors from different countries. Regarding the lenght of time one stays in your post, just like me i stay long because it is difficult for me to open and comment to wordpress, time is spent waiting to upload, hahaha!
Holley, I hope your Astilbes continue to do well.
I have always loved the look of astilbes, but have heard they don’t do well here (probably because of our tendency to have yearly droughts). But, I planted some last year and so far, they are doing fine. I hope they grow up to be as pretty as yours! I have never heard of Clicky Stats before. May have to try them out.
Janet, high time I did a full profile on spotted laurel.
Great photos Alistair, I note that you are showcasing one of your spotted laurels too 😉
Astrid, do check out clicky, easy peazy and interesting. By the way By luck I found your comment in my spam, may have to do with the use of triple question marks. Have a great weekend, an! what did you say you were having for lunch tomorrow.
Donna, I hope they do continue to thrive, the drier conditions as you say may well hinder them.
Larry, your lilies next year I am sure will be a sight for sore eyes.
Hi Alistair
Aren’t Astilbes beautiful??? I adore them, short or tall, pink or white. I used to have more of them but some died out during high droughts and I didn’t replace them but I might think about it now. Yours are super!!
Clicky Stats, eh??? Hmmm…I may look into that! Especially if it let’s me snoop on what everyone is having for lunch – hee hee 🙂 (Oh!! You were just kidding about that part!)
Astrid
Hello Alistair! Lovely astilbes that you’ve shared today! I really love astilbes but have never gotten into them very heavily until this past fall, when I found beautifully healthy plants at a very discounted price. I couldn’t help myself and bought several cultivars in groups of five or six each and planted them in a large wave in one of the newer areas I’ve redone. It is near a water source so I should be able to offer any moisture they require. Can’t wait to see how they do!
On another subject, I received my 30 martagon lilies from England in plenty of time to get them planted out. I was tremendously impressed with their quality and decided to also purchase more orienpets, Lo’s, and asiatics to be delivered this spring… in all, 110 bulbs in groups of five to be planted all about the gardens so that during orienpet season the fragrance will be spread about the property… wherever one wanders, the scent should be marvelous. I was impressed that some of the orienpets I ordered will, after a couple or three years, get to 10 feet in height with blooms to 12″ in diameter… I had never heard of most of these varieties previously. It will take careful consideration to find the proper locations for so many but I do look forward to the task. Take good care, Larry
I have always loved astilbe and they seemed to thrive except this year with the drought, and now with more sun coming into the garden with the loss of trees, I fear many will not like the conditions. I have these 3 and a few more. Given the right conditions they really are so easy to grow. I hope they will continue to thrive.
I would not be without astilbe in my garden either Alistair. I always love seeing those feathery plumes in late spring. Have a lovely weekend.
Thanks for the link, I’m curious now and will give it a try! And that Astilbe looks lovely with its airy plumes of flowers!
Hey Alistair,
That Peach Blossom is just gorgeous and can only imagine that color against the dark foliage. They flower here in late spring here and look wonderful on an established plant.