The first crocosmia to flower for us is Lucifer and what a wonderful one it is. I started off a few years ago with just 10 corms and now we seem to have hundreds! They really do make an imposing statement wherever they are planted – you certainly couldn’t miss them – and they last for a good month earning their space in the garden.
Another mainstay of the summer border here are the hardy Fuchsias. They usually start flowering at the beginning of June and carry on through until the first frosts in October, they certainly earn their keep.Most winters ,the top woody growth survives to sprout in the spring and these stems start flowering early followed by new growth from the base. Last winter was exeptional and they were all killed down to soil level. For quite some time I thought that I had lost them all, but then suddenly, in late spring, small shoots emerged and they are now flowering happily, albeit on smaller plants – at least they have survived!
Going to and from Austria earlier in the summer was a good opportunity to visit some more gardens. We were flying from Birmingham so we thought we would call in at Ryton Organic garden near Coventry. We are organic but each year we have such a problem with bindweed so wanted to see what their solution was.
Their solution was to keep pulling it out each time we saw any, this would weaken it and eventually it would give up and just die!! We are trying this and will wait and see if it is successful. The garden was very pretty and we got lots of inspiration for our bee and butterfly border- veronica,Lychnis coronaria,malva,achillia,salvia and nemesia.
Just from the name alone, I think I would prefer “lacecap” and where Hydrangeas are concerned I prefer the more open lacecap flowers to the large pom poms of the mopheads. When my mother came to live with us she brought quite a few mophead varieties with her which she had grown in pots- these were liberated into the garden where they responded by forming huge plants. They started off pink but now most of them have turned blue with just a couple staying their original colour.
The last of the Day Lilies to flower for me is this one – Canadian Border Patrol – which really is drop dead gorgeous. July colour in the garden has been magnificent, thanks to the daylilies, but their show is now winding down until next year.
My favorite time of year for clematis must be July/August time- we seem to have aquired so many- climbing up every available space. Up walls,trees pergola and archways.
While walking round the garden on sunny days, the flower beds are alive with bees and butterflies, adding their colour and movement to the flowers swaying backwards and forwards in the breeze.
We have just got back from a few days walking in the mountains of Austria. Fantastic alpine flowers everywhere on the mountain tops- difficult not to walk on them when leaving the path to photograph them. Having just cut back loads of Alchemilla mollis before we came away it was the last plant I expected to find at the top of a mountain- ok it was its cousin, Alchemilla alpina – but it was spreading with the same enthusiasm as the one back home!
Day lilies are starting to flower now, each flower only lasts a day but now that the clumps are getting larger, each clump flowers for about a month. They really like our heavy soil so have collected rather a lot with different colours, reds, pinks, purples, whites, yellows and apricot. Unfortunately we now have the Hemerocallis gall midge which deforms the day lily buds so I am having to follow the RHS advice of taking off the deformed buds and disposing of them- but not on the compost heap. This will hopefully stop the life cycle of the midge and eventually eradicate it. In the meantime we have hundreds of good flowers to enjoy.
In June the perfumes in the garden are changing, now Honeysuckle and Mock Orange Blossom arrive on the breeze when you least expect it, early morning and evening are the best times. The perfume always seems much stronger when you catch it on the breeze than when you stick your nose into the flowers.
