Chilean potato vine

It's been a funny old day, extraordinarily windy but very warm. We had to spend a bit of time in the garden, cutting vegetation off our neighbours fence, which is on the brink of collapsing. We managed to secure the fence by anchoring it to the greenhouse  with guy ropes. We were planning to mend the latter structure, which has suffered recently, but on close examination it appears that much of the timber frame is rotten, so we're now planning to remove it and replace it with a vine-covered pergola. 


Ben should have had his braces removed today but I managed to put the wrong time in the diary, so he's got to go back again in a fortnight's time. I felt so bad, as he's been looking forward to having them off for ages. However, he was lovely about it, and I suppose I did spend some time helping him revise for his maths GCSE....


All in all there was very little chance for photography but the Chilean potato vine is, which we planted about twenty years ago, is looking a picture at the moment. It's just the thing to give a sunny wall an exotic look. It has wiry stems, which need tying up to wires or trellis for support, clad in small semi-evergreen leaves which remain on the plant in all but bad winters. The potato-like flowers, each with lilac petals around a pointed yellow centre, appear continuously from mid-summer to mid-autumn. The variety 'Glasnevin' is the one to choose, as it flowers more prolifically. This is trouble-free once established, although it does need ciutting back every year to keep it in shape.