New Shrubs

My plantsman friend and I used to have a good thing going. I'd cook him roast dinners, he'd give me plants - sometimes his rejects, sometimes unusual shrubs he thinks I'd like. Some of them live in Middle Garden.

 So beautiful.
Variegated Pieris Shrub

The variegated Pieris is doing well, and I love its variegations. But I have to remember to weed out lots of friendly broom and gorse seedlings which surround it. Now those shrubs are definitely not welcome!

Psoralea

Psoralea is an interesting shrub, and not so well known in my gardening area. It's slightly frost tender, with blue sweet-pea-like flowers in spring.

I popped it into a sheltered spot on the edge of Duck Lawn, next to the Pieris. It grows very happily on the West Coast of New Zealand. Aren't those blue flowers pretty!

 So pretty in spring.
Blue Flowers of Psoralea

Oops. Did I say it was frost tender? Well, a rather heavy winter frost a few years ago killed it. Such a pity.