I feel I’m fighting a losing battle with the weather and so is my garden. Everything is looking parched and very dry and I just can’t keep up with it all. I’m watering everything in pots that need watering in the morning when I get up early and it is nice and cool, but the rest of the garden just has to cope by itself. Normally it can as I am on heavy clay, but with this being the third heatwave, I think all moisture has now been used up and with having 2/3 of an acre, it is far too much for me to water. I just about managed to find six plants that look ok to be photographed, one is looking lovely, which was a nice surprise.
Yucca filamentosa.
It was a lovely surprise when a flower stalk suddenly appeared on my Yucca filamentosa and the flowers gradually started flowering, I think it is the only plant in my garden that is really happy!
Lysimachia ephemerum.
Lysimachia ephemerum has also suddenly burst into flower and is looking ok at the moment, but it does like moisture so I wonder how soon it will be looking stressed.
Iceberg rose.
My Icegerg rose is flowering nicely still, which means that I haven’t had a visit from my local Roe deer, thank goodness!
Hydrangea.
Some of my hydrangeas are looking stressed, but this one in the shade by the front door seems ok at the moment. I have flung buckets of water over the others and hope that they will survive.
Honeysuckle.
I have a small window in the wall by my TV and yesterday while I was watching Wimbledon, this honeysuckle was waving to me in the breeze, I had to get up and photograph it!
Acanthus mollis.
This is the bane of my life, if there is one plant that I regret planting, it is this one! For 30 yrs it behaved itself and didn’t spread very much, but then it started taking over the garden. Lovely flower spike but it has no manners whatsoever! No matter what I did it kept on spreading, I even resorted to spraying it, but that acted like a fertiliser and it spread even more. The leaves are now looking very unhappy and yellow, do you think the drought will kill it, I hope so! The leaves in the photo are from the phormium beside it.
Those are my six for this week. I think I ought to take a break from SOS until conditions improve with the weather and the garden. My problem is that most of my plants like moisture as the garden is so wet in the winter and I have planted accordingly, we didn’t have summers like this when I was making the garden 35 years ago, I’m not sure what I ought to do.
Please pay Jim a visit at Garden Ruminations to see how others are coping with our hot weather.
I love the look of acanthus mollis but resisted the temptation to buy it and, having read your comments, I’m so glad I did!
Hopefully there will be some rain for you soon although it will probably all come at once, as these things seem to these days.
Gardening is becoming a real challenge and just when we need our green areas the most. Well done for finding six to share. The rose is a real beauty!
Good job dealing t=with the heatwave! I mostly only water my vegetables, but had to get out the hose last week to give a deep watering. Need to do it again this weekend, as next week will be brutal again. The iceberg rose looks cool despite the heat!
I love the waving honeysuckle! The Lysimachia ephemerum looks beautiful. The weather is getting wearisome. It seems it really is going to be like this every summer.