In Bloom for August

There has been so much upheaval in the garden over the last few weeks, I'm surprised there is anything blooming in there at all. But despite the fact I have moved plants in the middle of summer, on some of the hottest days, nothing seems to have suffered, and the plants seem quite happy in their new spots. Just goes to show you can throw that gardening rulebook out of the window sometimes...and I frequently do, lol!!

Giant Dahlia Orange has been blooming in my front garden for a couple of months now and still has plenty of new buds appearing. I'm not sure why it's called 'orange' when the flowers are yellow, but oh well, it's still a stunner. Not much snail/slug damage on this one either.

'Lucky' is my newest Rose in the garden. It's such a pretty pink colour and smells amazing! I'm looking forward to the plant maturing so I can enjoy more blooms, there have just been a few this month.

Rose Arthur Bell has just started blooming for the third time this year, and considering I moved it just a few weeks ago, is quite surprising me with it's beautiful yellow flowers and soft perfume again.

Rose Deep Secret is in one of the raised beds in my front garden, and I make sure I sniff a bloom every time I'm going in or coming out. I've taken a few cuttings of this one as it's a complete beauty and more of a deeper red than pink that my photo shows.

The Primulas are still going strong in the woodland area, delighting the butterflies.

And they're very fond of the Buddleia too. This is Magenta Buzz, a compact variety that I have in a large pot near the shed and is looking its best at the moment.

Hydrangea Love is still looking great with lots of blooms, although many have started to turn brown in the last day or two due to the deluge of rain we've had. Thanks Bertha :-/ .

The Begonias have just started reaching full bloom. This gorgeous rogue red/orange one is looking a little odd, as all my others are pastel coloured, but the bloom is so much bigger. Maybe it was a sign and I should plump for this colour next year.

And speaking of rogues, my Clematis Freda suddenly produced two new blooms, just two, right at the top where I just about spotted them on the shed roof.

Petunias, Nicotiana, Trailing Geraniums and Nemesia are giving a lovely display in my raised beds.

                          

And Shasta Daisies and Rudbeckia are settling into their new home after I revamped this area.

The Anemones are looking really pretty, although the foliage has suffered a bit with the hot weather we've had.

A mention has to go to the Solanum, which blooms practically non stop in the garden, and is still going, although not as prolifically as earlier in the year. I love its delicate little flowers and it's such a fantastically fast growing climber. It has smothered a good part of the ugly concrete wall in just a couple of years and is now mingling with the apple tree.

And speaking of apples, just 7 on my tree this year, a measly 7. There were 8, but something got to that one. Oh well, enough for one with my lunch for a week I suppose. Hopefully a better yield next year.

And remember I said at the start of the post there were no casualties from my big garden move around. Well, that's because even the Salix Willow that rather looked like it had given up the ghost in THIS POST has started growing again. I gave the old branches a good crop and staked the tree to help support the roots and voila! it started sprouting new branches. I may have lost the old ones, but it's a fast growing tree anyway so the new ones should replace them in a year or two. I can wait!

That's some of what's blooming and growing in the garden just now. I've still a lot more work to do out there, including putting out some lovely new plants and I'll hopefully be sorted enough to share my progress on that next time.

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All change!

Just when you think you can sit back, relax and enjoy the fruits of your labour in the garden, you realise something's not quite right. Something is jarring on the eye. For me, it was this whole area in front of the shed. You can see how it looked when I first planted it up HERE, neat, tidy and full of promise. This is how it looks now after a week of cutting back, digging and re-planting.

The main change was removal of the Salix Willow you can see in the photos below taken last week and during Spring. I really love these trees, but this one had started crowding out everything with its dense canopy and it just had to go. 

It didn't like being moved much, and is now in a bit of a sorry state. I'm hoping it will recover though, as I want to keep it in this pot and have it on the patio. Fingers crossed!

And these are the new additions to the area. In place of the willow, I now have an obelisk for height. I've planted a clematis up one side named Corona which is meant to be perfect for growing up pillars and trellis, and a beautiful rose to the right called 'Lucky', which has just started flowering and smells delicious. It's a bush rose not a climber, but I couldn't resist it. I may add another Clematis next year but want to see how this one gets on first.

Asiatic Lily Gold and Oriental Lily Maru are adding a pop of colour in the border. So far free from the dreaded Lily Beetles that desecrated my fritillaries in spring, but I'm keeping my beady eyes on them!

Verbena Bonariensis is growing up against the shed along with Clematis Montana Freda which has romped away here and flowered beautifully in spring. The butterflies love the Verbena, although this first one got caught by a yellow spider crab that was laying in wait.

Alstroemeria and Coreopsis are mingling happily, and Lobelia is filling out its patch nicely.

Pickerel Hyacinths are just starting to flower in the wildlife pond, and the Lamiums are getting ready for their second flush of flowers.

I'm hoping Hydrangea Macrophylla Sheila will bring a bit of colour to the far left corner where I removed a large fern that wasn't very happy. It's a bit small at the moment, but should fill out quite quickly.

I've planted up some other things in this area, but they're mostly cuttings from other parts of the garden or very small plants, so there isn't much to see of them, but I'm really looking forward to this patch filling out with a bit more colour and interest as the year progresses. I'd like to say I stopped here, sat back with a cool drink and sunbathed during this glorious weather, but, no, I went and tackled a couple of other spots I wasn't in love with. More on that next time!

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