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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
As I mentioned in my last post, my daughter whisked me away to Bristol for a few days last week and took me to Bristol Botanic Gardens so we could have a break from all the paperwork that we were having to sort out. Once in the garden it was hard to believe that we were still in the city, there were so many mature trees and so much birdsong.
Zantedescia aethiopica Green Goddess was the first plant that greeted us at the entrance.
May is one of the most beautiful months in the gardening calendar, every day there are new delights in the garden, but this time they passed me by as my mind was somewhere else. I still came into the garden and photographed the flowers but somehow didn’t get the same pleasure from them that I usually do. It is only now that I can look back at the photos and appreciate all the beauty that has been around me for the last few weeks.
It is with great sadness that I have to tell you that my lovely husband and undergardener, Ray, passed away on 3rd May. Unfortunately he didn’t make it home from the hospital, the doctors decided that his body wasn’t up to the journey, but all the family were with him when he passed away. My nephew Tim had flown over from Canada to be with us and he was a wonderful support for us all, his big hugs were just what we needed when we were feeling overwhelmed.
Ray’s Funeral Mass was last Wednesday and our little church was packed, such a wonderful tribute to a quiet gentleman. Everyone who met him took him to their hearts. The singing of the hymns was truly amazing and with the readings which we had chosen, made the service more a celebration of his life. Everyone commented on his wonderful sense of humour and I have to admit that our 51 yrs of married life was a life full of laughter. We all miss him dreadfully but are so lucky to have had him in our lives.
Ray Mulligan 1943-2017
Rest in peace my love, your long struggle is now over.
Thank you all for your lovely comments on my previous post. It made such a difference to us, knowing that you were thinking and praying for us all.
Deb's Garden Blog – Journal
Diary of a Suburban Gardener