I woke this morning to lovely soft gentle rain, it was so welcome. We have had a few little showers this week but lots more rain is forecast for the next week so hopefully I can stop worrying about the garden. It is time for another Six on Saturday but I was really hard pushed to find 6 plants looking really lovely, so here is my offering for this week.
This is the only Chestnut Tree in the garden, the others are in the woodland behind, but they are all in the same state. The shrubs either side are taller than me and I’m not small, so you can appreciate the scale of the chestnut tree.
All the fuchsias have started flowering, they don’t seem to have been affected by the heat. This is the plain F.magellanica by the back door.
My white Agapanthus are flowering in the border by the drive, the blue ones are still in bud, maybe next week.
Crocosmia Paul’s Best Yellow, also in the driveway border, is flowering beautifully. I just wish it would increase like C. Lucifer!
Far too much red! Must do some reorganising in the autumn. There will be plenty to split and give away and plenty to move elsewhere. There is a path between the Crocosmia and the Hemerocallis, these are all sitting in flood water in the winter and have enjoyed all the heat they have been given this summer, so I’m glad there are plants that enjoy such extremes.
The meadow is now finished, the flowers are all dead and the grass has been battered by wind and rain. I was talking to the gardener about cutting it next week when he comes, this would be earlier than usual, but it seems that hay making time has come earlier this year. However, yesterday each time I walked through the meadow, clouds (well 5 or 6) Meadow Brown butterflies flew up and circled round before settling again. Maybe they were laying eggs, I don’t know, but maybe I had better wait a bit longer before cutting it all down.
There we have my six for this week, hopefully the garden will have a different feel next week as long as the promised rain arrives. Please pay Jim a visit at Garden Ruminations to see how other gardens are coping with the dry heat, or maybe rain if they are lucky! I have visitors coming next weekend so might be missing from SOS, will catch up with you all later.
The fuchsias are here on time and ready to appear in our gardens! The humidity of the last few days with the heat seems to be pleasing them.
All the fuchsias seem to be doing well Fred, I’m so glad that there are plants that can cope with both extremes of weather. We now have cooler weather but not as much rain as was forecast unfortunately, still, mustn’t grumble!
Oh I do like the yellow Crocosmia, I am like you and have plenty of the orange/ red one.
The yellow one is very precious, simply because it isn’t increasing as quickly as I would like, I think a move might be necessary!
Your lovely white agapanthus has a hint of pink, very nice. It is hard to believe it is just July, the sloes are colouring on the bushes and the meadows are done! Hope that doesn’t mean winter is coming sooner.
I hadn’t noticed the pink in the agapanthus til you mentioned it Gill. You never know, we might get a second summer in September!
I love that you have a meadow! I would turn the bulk of my backyard into a meadow if I had my way. It may not work with your aesthetic, but I leave everything up all winter so insects have shelter. Daylilies are so crazy, aren’t they? They will spread and fill in everything. Someone gave me a clump and I decided in the need against planting them because I did not have a space for them to run riot. Are those edible chestnuts? If so, what do you do with them?
I’m lucky that I have the space for a meadow Elizabeth, it brings in so many more bees and butterflies. The daylilies are amazing that they can sit in flood water in the winter and then cope so well with the heat of a drought, thank goodness some plants can.are not edible No, the fruits of the Horse chestnut tree are not edible, usually just used by children in this country for the game of “conkers”.
Sad about the chestnut tree. Leaf blight or leaf miner presumably? It sometimes seems like we’ll have no trees left.
They have been attacked by the leaf miner for the last few years Jim, but the drought this year hasn’t helped. More leaves are down now, the tree is almost bare, unheard of in July!
A “plain” magellanica is fine by me, I think they’re a mainstay of gardens later in the summer.
Such a shame about the chestnut tree.
All my fuchsias Helen, seem to be coping well with the drought, just as well something can!
I am loving my Pauls’ Best Yellow too, flowering for the first time, but presumably just a single corm despite the 5 planted a few years ago – I am not a huge fan of yellow in the garden, but there is something gorgeous about the shade of yellow, and perhaps it is the formation of the flowerhead too. I expect you will have had a lot of leaf drop already, with all your trees – autumn will be early this year!
So far the leaf drop from trees is just the Chestnuts and Silver Birch Cathy, most of the others seem to be hanging on to their leaves, thank goodness. I have a couple of smaller yellow crocosmias that haven’t started flowering yet, I’m quite happy with yellow in the garden!
A lovely selection. I need to sort out my crocosmia – they’re in danger of taking over!
Here, it is just Lucifer that has world domination in mind Graeme, all my other crocosmias are well behaved!