This week, for my Six on Saturday, I’ll be concentrating on the roses that didn’t appear in my earlier rose post. Two are huge ramblers, two are climbers and two are shrub roses that didn’t wake up with the rest.
No 1. Rosa Wedding Day
R. Wedding Day was planted when my daughter got married and has grown up its support, an ash tree, part of it has been blown down again but most of it has climbed to the top.
My circular meadow is coming along nicely, or I think so anyway. The grasses are growing, the buttercups and daisies are making a wall to wall carpet and other wild flowers are popping up. Some I have seen in previous years but one in particular has made its first appearance and it is looking very lovely indeed.
The view up the steps outside the back door.
This week I’ve tried to find six plants that haven’t been shown previously in a recent posts, it wasn’t easy! The wind and the rain that we had this last week have taken their toll and there has been a lot of cutting back and deadheading going on, however there is still a lot for me to enjoy.
No 1 Candelabra primula
Most of my first candelabra primulas are now starting to form seed, but this lilac/purple one has just started flowering, I know I’ll want to save seed of this one, it will look gorgeous with the peachy one.
Wherever I look at the moment, roses are flowering as never before, have they enjoyed our strange weather, I don’t know, but whatever it is that has made them flower so much, I’m very pleased with the result. Come for a wander with me round the garden and see how much colour they are providing but how I wish you could smell all the wonderful perfume that I can.
Buff Beauty which I grew from a cutting of the one in the back garden, this one always flowers first.
It’s time for P.I.Ps to take centre stage, or they can try but the roses outshine everything else at the moment. The P.I.Ps that I’m talking about are the poppies, iris and peonies that fill a gap which sometimes appear at this time of year, not this year though. They are glamorous but fleeting, loved all the more because they are so beautiful, but don’t stay very long in the garden.
Poppies
Papaver orientalis, this just appeared one year, I don’t remember buying it. Not a shrinking violet!
It seems very strange to be writing about rhododendrons in June when the sun is blazing down outside, it should have been a post to write in May when the weather was cooler, so if I don’t write it now, I will have missed my chance. All my rhodos are now flowering, but I think they will be wilting in this heat, so won’t flower for very long unfortunately.
a large pink one which was already here when we arrived 30 yrs ago
Saturday has come round again very quickly and it is supposed to be really hot this weekend, not yet though. Last Saturday saw me driving up the motorway to my daughter and family in Bristol, the first time I have been there for 18 months- it was wonderful seeing everyone again after such a long time apart, lots of hugs all round. While I was away, I’m sure the weeds grew another 6 inches, so that is mostly what I have been tackling this week. My 6 for this week are as follows.
No 1 Holly Blue Butterfly
This tiny Holly Blue butterfly was enjoying itself on the Cotoneaster horizontalis by the kitchen window.
It was time to cut the grass the other day, leaving the circular lawn to be a flowery meadow once more for a few months. Asking Derek, the gardener, to cut twice round the edge of the lawn and then just once up the centre towards the pond area, leaves the rest to grow lots of small flowers before the grass gets too long to hide them.
After all the cold, wet weather that we have been having recently, the last week or so with rising temperatures and hot sunshine has made such a difference in the garden. Buds that have been tighly shut and waiting patiently for some warmer weather are now starting to open and the garden is looking colourful once more.
Come for a wander with me, starting on the front drive, English Iris, Iris latifolia, are expanding into the gravel drive. I must try and remember to move some of them once flowering is over.
The weather this week has gone from freezing hailstones on Monday to boiling hot sunshine by Friday. The sunshine is still very hot today and is forecast to continue for some time. I feel the garden is about a month behind what it usually is, maybe now it will catch up. In the meantime here are my six for this Saturday.
No 1. Viburnum plicatum Mariesii.
Beautiful shrub at this time of year with its horizontal branches and lacecap flowers.
