Colour: Finding Pink
a surprising new love
Blue has been a lifelong love (see a post about the blues here).
I have blond hair (going white now) and blue eyes: so blues are the colour for me. I wear blue, not exclusively, but pretty much all the time. In the garden, I’m learning, other colours, colours I would never wear, are deeply attractive.
Pink never appealed, I never wanted what seemed to me a false idea of girlishness near me but yesterday I was swooning over a the pink blossoms of a Viburnum - perhaps Carlessii. I bought this and two or three others from the cheap shelf in a nursery somewhere near Wolverhampton, years ago, before Covid. In ten litre pots they looked neglected and nearly overcome, but they were very, very cheap and I thought they would revive, so I bought them all. One was definitely Viburnum Carlessii, the others I can’t remember. The labels disappeared, and I don’t even know what happened to the other plants, perhaps they went to Calderstones or or to family members. But this one remained, and with watering and repotting, it returned to active life, and last year, after years in the pot, I planted it in the ground near the back door.
It is a delight. The pink-with-white of its flowers, like apple blossom, is compellingly attractive. I will never be able to think ‘I don’t like pink!’ again. And the powerful scent is moreish, almost incense, spicy-sweet, and pervasive. The colour of its leaves now, in early season, is a soft apple green, somewhat velvety. What more could I want?
Downside? Well, it is a short season of interest, as they say. I am determined that that means make sure I love it every day, rather than tell myself oh it will be over soon. I’ve planted the Viburnum close to my other short-season love, the Prunus Shirotae, and the Viburnum began to open just as the Cherry blossom began to brown and fall, so I go out daily in March and now April to love first the one and then the other, which together gives me nearly a month of joy.
So, as someone who has never thought of trying to use pink, I’m asking myself, what goes with it? More pink could be the answer. On the other side of the garden is a delightful whitey-pink Bergenia, which might be Silberlicht, or possibly Beethoven. It’s a small one and I think I got it from Beth Chatto when I went to visit her garden a couple of years ago. would look very good beneath the Viburnum.
This tough little builder’s rubble corner at Calderstones has made me realise that the shape of Bergenia leaves makes them a great partner to things of other shape. This is one of my favourite bits of planting at Calderstones, partly because Alexandra Lanfrancotti and I spent ages, digging at the rubble with a crowbar, trying to work out what could be grown here when we first started gardening at Calderstones. She planted this up, with shares of unwanted divisions from a neighbour, when she was working alone during lockdown.
Last week I promised more from Calderstones, and to return to blues, here’s the Ceanothus (I think Trewithen) looking gorgeous on the wall of the Theatre Garden which backs onto the Stones Courtyard.
There’s a rose in there against the wall…not yet blooming of course, a pink one, David Austin’s Mary Delaney. This is really a lovely colour and shape, rather unusual as a shade and slightly geometric in shape. Seeing it in flower I have wished I could grow it at home. And perhaps now pink has entered my colour range I will. It does well there on that wall, which is very shady til midday so maybe for me it could go on Front Garden fence?
As for the rest, this has been such a busy week in the Reader’s Garden at Calderstones - because we’ve been completing the planting of the gift of roses from David Austin - that I haven’t made it round to the front of the building.
Please note: If you are local we need more hands on deck. Come along to Calderstones Bookshop and ask where the gardeners are any Tuesday or Wednesday… we need you!
But here are a few things I did notice as I rushed brom A to B and back, planting roses as I went:
That’s it for this week.
Happy outdoors!
I adore viburnum, mostly for the fragrance of some I've grown in the past. And I adore pink as well! I've never minded the girlish references, as I am not very girly in appearance and sometimes pink brings out that feeling, which I am all for these days, in my advancing years!
This made me giggle… poor pink it does seem to get stigmatised. I’ve met quite a few women who avoid it. As soon as I was old enough I demanded to stop being dressed in dresses and pink 😂 but I’ve always found certain pinks comforting - pink skies for instance.
I welcome these pinks now - I enjoy ‘feeling pink’ - I have some lovely dusky pastel pink curtains in the bedroom that go really well with the deep teal wall. And as for flowers, pink and green go so well together; thinking about it, in my mind when I picture a garden there are always pink flowers.