Hi Maggie,

I have about 100 Queen of Sweden bushes in a hedge around my lawn. They were planted bare-root in January 2013 and are now well-established plants about 1.5 metres (5 feet) tall. My observation is that the fading - even in the middle of Summer - is minimal. This year the first flowers appeared on the hedge before the end of April - it was glorious through mid-May and, after a few weeks to regather its resources, it is now in full bloom again. The photo was taken about half an hour ago ⦠hope it gives you some indication!

Cheers
Tricia

Tricia, wow. Your hedge is simply gorgeous. But how did you dig 100 planting holes? Just wondering. I consider digging one hole a major project.

Oh my goodness!!! Gorgeous!!

Hi view1ny - digging 100 planting holes is definitely beyond my capacity, too. We have really heavy clay soil here so I did it the easy way â¦. I phoned my local nursery;-)

They arrived late October with one of those trench digging machines to dig out all the soil down to a depth of about 50cms - they then amended the soil with a truckload of much better soil, lots of well rotted horse manure and 'cornunghia' which, I believe, is probably a product we call 'hoof and horn' in English. It then sat and waited until January when the bare-root QofS were planted. Every single bush is thriving so their soil preparation was obviously successful.

Cheers
Tricia

Wow! And I thought I was lucky to have three Queens of Sweden. 100--I can't even visualize it, but I sure wish I lived close enough to visit your yard and observe for myself. That is pretty heady stuff there. And QofS is a winner, isn't she!]

Kate

QoS sort of keeps its colour in my Med climate sun and heat. What I mean to say is that it doesn't fade before it opens up completely. Having said that you might want to try something darker also. Boscobel stays is a medium pink in the heat for me and has similar growth habit in my climate. In cooler conditions it gets salmony tones.
Nik