July Plant of the Month – Philadelphus

Philadelphus or more commonly Mock Orange is a popular shrub in gardens and rightly so.  This year they are absolutely covered with white or cream blossoms and the scent is very strong of orange blossom.  The cup shaped flowers have a conspicuous central boss of frothy yellow stamens,  shrubs vary in size from 10ft to 1.5 ft tall and the flowers can be single or double some having  a dark centre which looks very attractive.  They all can be cut back hard after flowering to a new shoot, this rejuvenates the plant.  They grow well in fertile well drained soil in sun or partial shade.  It is a good shrub to grow a later flowering Clematis through, as these are usually pruned in early spring and so do not interfere with the shrub flowering.