Seeding Around & Other Garden Miracles (GardenDesignOnline)

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Many years ago, I read a garden column in the Financial Times by classical scholar and garden writer Robin Lane Fox, and I never forgot it. He wrote that there's nothing that beats a mass planting of white Dame's Rocket (Hesperis matronalis) in the evening, because the white is so pure it lights up the entire border.

I searched and searched for the white version of Dame's Rocket, and finally found seed at Thompson & Morgan, a British company that has a branch in the US. It's now happily ensconced in one of my borders next to the peonies, and I love the fact that it seeds around -- popping up here and there around the deutzia, the lilacs, the witch hazel and other plantings.
I've often read that it can be invasive, but in my garden it stays put in that one border, and it's easy to pull out if too many appear in the spring. I'd hesitate to plant it if I lived in an un-fenced garden near an open area or a park, but in my urban-suburban garden, it's one of my favorite plants.

I'm happy to report as well that some clematis are simply impossible to kill, no matter how hard you try. Two years ago, city workers were cleaning up the alley, and in the process, reached over into my garden and cleaned the Lord Neville clematis from its trellis. I was absolutely crushed -- enraged, I should say -- it's a show stopper that halts pedestrians in their tracks as soon as it starts to bloom.

Ever the optimist, I left things alone, and a miserly number of leaves reappeared last year. Maybe it's the torrents of rain we've had recently, but Lord Neville has finally decided he's willing to live on, hopefully for many more years.

And in this photo of honeysuckle, at left, if you click on the picture to enlarge it, you'll notice a little bird's nest just above the large bloom. It's actually sitting atop a six foot fence post, nestled among the leaves.