In Bloom for September

Summer is still clinging on here in London. We had a gorgeous couple of days last week where the temperature hit the mid 80's...and I was out planting Spring bulbs! It felt quite strange to be doing that in the sunshine, but nice to work while it is still warm.

There are lots of blooms still going strong, not least the roses nearly all of which are in flower again.  This is Joseph's Coat, my absolute favourite rose. I just love the myriad of colour changes it goes through and it's incredible scent. I can smell it a long time before I even reach the plant.

Arthur Bell, still producing it's beautiful blooms. This flower has some apricot shades that I've not noticed before. Very pretty.

My newest purchase is The Prince's Trust Rose, a climber that I've bought to grow up the trellis alongside Joseph's Coat. The full blooms are lovely, but not as deep a red as I was expecting. I do find plant labels can be very misleading a lot of the time, but it's growing well so I guess I shouldn't complain.

Korresia is just about to flower. I'm looking forward to seeing this plant mature as it's a gorgeous rose but was in my front garden for the best part of the year so I missed out on most of the blooms and it's fragrance.

The Japanese Anemone Honorine Jobert is showing no signs of giving up blooming. It still has many unopened buds and seems to be preferring its new spot in the woodland border.

Helenium Mardi Gras has joined the late summer party. I LOVE this plant and have my fingers crossed it will spread out quite a bit.

Echinacea is still going strong.

And so are many of the summer annuals like Impatiens, Nemesia and Geraniums.

They're looking really pretty around the pond area and are cheering up the patio.

The Fuchsias are looking spectacular and more Lilies are just beginning to bloom.

The Sedums are out. This is the least floppy of the ones I left after my mass culling.

Campanula, flowering for the third time this year. It's such a useful ground cover plant.

The Cyclamen are looking great under the Willow. They're gradually spreading out to make a lovely patch here.

The Pickerel Hyacinths in the pond are still producing, even though I had to divide the plant as it was starting to take over. Funny how I've had this a number of years and this is the first time it's ever really done anything worthwhile.

Lastly, I have Winter Pansies and Violas now in bloom. I'm in two minds if I should plant these now or leave them for a few more weeks as the Summer bedding is still looking great. Hmm, maybe I'll put my feet up for a week and then decide :-) .

You might also like:

In Bloom for August

Read More

The Keepers and the Weepers

The work in overhauling the garden has been continuing, and I'm incredibly happy with how everything looks now. I've been very ruthless and many spots are now plantless, but I think it will be worth it come next year.

Plenty of plants have been given the heave ho, including an extraordinary amount of Sedums and Hardy Geraniums. I think these were plants that I realised I could propagate very easily, and over the years I got just a little carried away with them. No tiny garden needs 15 of the same Sedums, especially ones that were flopping all over the place! As for the Hardy Geraniums, well, as much as I love them, I had one variety that was in about 5 different places, gets huge leaves during the summer and swamps everything else in its path, the flowers are beautiful though so I've kept one, but, after an awful lot of back breaking digging, got rid of the others.  I swear if a clump any larger than my fist came up I let out an almighty cheer, the roots were tough and I have a feeling I didn't get to them all so I'll have to keep a watch on the areas to ensure they don't come back. I do have plenty of smaller growing Hardy Geraniums dotted around which are a bit more manageable.

I've kept a few of the Sedums at the back where they look their best, and for now, I'm leaving one in front of the shed and this one along the border.

They'll be going as soon as I have something to replace them with though. Next year, I'll be giving the remaining Sedums the Chelsea Chop again, but I'll reduce them by half this time, as cutting down by a third didn't work. Another good reason to clear out many of these plants was the enormous amount of snails and slugs they were hiding. Nearly every leaf had one or the other on it, and plenty down at the base of the plant too. I have definitely seen an overall reduction of them in the garden now there aren't as many places for them to hide!

The woodland area and front of shed border have had a tidy up, but most of the work has taken place at the far end of the garden which had started to resemble a mini jungle. Plants were crowding each other out, there were straggly Crocosmias all over and things weren't looking that great. These are the befores.

And the afters. Much better I think. 

I've moved a lot of plants from other parts of the garden, and added in some new ones, including the gorgeous Shasta Daisies, Echinacea Pow Wow, Cherry Brandy Rudbeckias and Chrysanthemums, these are the definite keepers, they have added so much colour to the borders and I can't wait to see how they look next year when they've had a chance to grow. There are lots of other Spring flowering plants dotted in, and some spaces ready for bulbs and plants I'm growing on.

And, you may or may not have noticed that the blog has had a bit of a name change. I'm now Blooms 'n' Spades rather than Spoons 'n' Spades! It's something I've been meaning to do for a while to reflect the fact I no longer grow food for eating. I like it, hope you do too :-) .

Read More