Blooms in August, 2017

Posted on August 15, 2017 by Pauline

August has been a very mixed month here for weather, lots of rain, and a fair bit of sunshine, but not enough! In spite of this, plants have been flourishing. Shrubs that normally would have dropped their flower buds for next spring because of a lack of rain, are looking very healthy, with a full quota of flower buds, next spring should be very colourful! we should be thankful for all our rain.

The chinese ginger jar has had a summer haircut and stands out nicely from the flowers behind. I think I need some white in the background in the space that has been left when I removed a shrub that was suckering everywhere!

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In the sunny side of the garden.

Posted on August 8, 2017 by Pauline

A few more alterations have been made recently to the gravel garden at the back, and a few more extras bought to “prettify” it. As you may remember I started altering this area as a place for the undergardener to sit in either the sun or shade, but sadly those plans didn’t come to fruition.

At one time I put this bench under the Pittosporum tree as I like to sit in the shade.

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The Backbone of the Summer Garden

Posted on August 2, 2017 by Pauline

Providing colour all the way through summer and autumn, but never really one of the stars of the garden, is the family of Hydrangeas . There are quite a few different varieties on offer at the garden centres, with new hybrids are being produced all the time.

Hydrangea macrophylla Blue Wave, such a beautiful blue, at the start of the pergola. This variety has large lacecap flowerheads, the actual flowers are very small in the centre of all the showy sepals.

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My plant of the moment in late July.

Posted on July 27, 2017 by Pauline

I was amazed when lots of buds suddenly popped up in the border by the driveway.  I was delighted when they turned out to be buds of  Agapanthus which I had bought many years ago and were being rather slow to multiply. All the books say that they like to have their roots restricted and are therefore good in pots. Maybe their neighbours have now grown to such an extent that their roots are restricting the roots of the Agapanthus, but , whatever the reason, this year, they have never been so good.

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GBFD for July 2017.

Posted on July 22, 2017 by Pauline

First of all I would like to apologise to all those of you who haven’t heard from me for a while. I seem to be having problems leaving comments of various blogs, blogs that I have commented on for years now, all of a sudden I just don’t seem to be able to leave messages any more. I will keep trying, I am reading all your posts and hope to be back in touch again soon.

We have been having torrential rain for the past few days, so today I nipped into the garden to take photos for todays foliage post, in between 2 very heavy showers. The nearest foliage plants to the house are the collection of Echeverias that are just outside the conservatory door in the gravel garden at the back of the house.

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Bloom Day in July 2017

Posted on July 15, 2017 by Pauline

Taking a wander round the garden yesterday morning, there was so much colour that I decided to take the photos for today’s post. We have had hot, humid weather in July and thank goodness, a day of non stop rain a couple of days ago, I’m sure the garden was very grateful, I certainly was! It is a lot cooler now, more like it should be, so hopefully the flowers will last a bit longer and not go over so quickly.

Crocosmia Lucifer brought dawn by the rain, I should know by now to give him some support.

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My new Plant of the Moment.

Posted on July 8, 2017 by Pauline

New flowers are opening faster than I can photograph them, but the ones that are filling the garden with colour at the moment belong to the Day Lilies or Hemerocallis.

Even though the flowers only last for one day, there are so many buds waiting to take their place on a mature plant, that you have colour for a good number of weeks. This one is H. Stafford.

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My Plant of the Moment.

Posted on June 27, 2017 by Pauline

Actually it is two plants, both roses, both climbing to the tops of two of my huge ancient trees and both looking beautiful. The first one I planted soon after we moved here twenty seven yrs ago, Rosa Mulligani,  and one planted 18 yrs ago when our daughter was married, Rosa Wedding Day. They both seem very happy where I have planted them, they never get watered and only get a handful of fertiliser when I remember, not even once a year!

R. Mulligani with Clematis Etoile Violet which I forgot to prune again so it has shot up the tree.

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Foliage for June 2017.

Posted on June 22, 2017 by Pauline

The garden here is usually predominantly green, but the weather has been so very hot over the last week, leaves have been falling off trees, making the garden look more like autumn. The temperatures have reached to well over 30C, which we hardly ever have here, and fallen leaves are burnt to a crisp, crunching underfoot. I am wilting like a few of my plants, but at least I can move to the shade and drink plenty of water when necessary, the plants just have to cope as best they can.

I really must rake out the leaves from the Ophiopogon rug in the gravel garden, it looks so autumnal.

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Blooming June.

Posted on June 15, 2017 by Pauline

The flowers keep coming, in spite of all the weeds around them. At the moment I feel that I’m fighting a losing battle, but I’m sure that I’ll get there in the end. We had a spell of torrential rain which flattened a lot of the flowers, but at the moment we are having a spell of very warm weather, in fact hot weather. It is too hot to work outside, that is my excuse, I just manage a bit of leisurely dead heading before retiring inside with a long cool drink.

The bog garden is almost at full flowering, the astilbes are just starting to join in with the candelabra primulas and the rogersia, so I will make this area the focus of today’s Bloom Day.

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