Repositioning our raspberries

I feel that something of an apology is in order for some of our soft fruit. 

When we purchased our bunch of bare rooted raspberries and our three blackcurrant bushes I should have paused to consider where to position them.  Deep down I knew that I had bought too many raspberries.  After we had placed the best ones in a healthy spot, my dear husband duly dug holes close to a profuse flowering perennial known as crocosmia (Monbretia) at that stage in its dormant phase and in a somewhat shady small bed bordering our back dining room for the rest.   

The crocosmia stifled the raspberries and four out of five survived in a thin and leggy state (I seem to remember the technical term is etiolated).  I joked that at least any berries were concealed from the pigeons.  My husband determined to dig up and donate the croscosmia corms.  They have now found another home.

The blackcurrants also suffered.  Their leaves curled and distorted as they were attacked by aphids and they bore very little fruit.  One of them has been moved now and as soon as it is appropriate the other will go to join it in a better position.  I think a selective pruning is also appropriate.

The raspberries are still in the same place but repositioned against a cleared fence along with some delphiniums that were being crowded by our 'star' clematis.  The two other rescued clematis have joined them a little further along the fence.  Of which more later.

A 'cottage garden effect', dear readers, is not achieved by shoving surplus plants into unsuitable places, but, however artless it seems, is the result of centuries of experience and careful thought.