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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Garden Favourites

Some of my favourite flowers are in bloom now, or in bud, waiting to burst forth. There are plenty of Dicentra throughout the garden.

I love the way this one is mingling with the Chives and Aquilegias.

And the Aquilegias, my favourite garden flower, are everywhere. And I do mean EVERYWHERE! These are Clementine Purple, a really lovely variety for contrasting with other brighter colours. 

I have so many, I've kind of lost touch with the names of each one, but I know there are Winky Blue and Whites and Black Barlow around somewhere too.

As anyone who has them in their garden will know, they are prolific self-seeders. I love spotting little patches of their new seedlings, and really don't mind that you never know how the flower on the grown plant will eventually look. I love them all! 

Foxgloves and Poppies are getting ready to bloom, with the promise of glorious colour.

And the Alliums dotted all over the garden are emerging from their jackets.  I added some white ones late last year, so I'm keen to see how they'll look.

As far as work in the garden goes, well, I've been really busy again. We had a few very warm days so I got all the jobs done that I didn't know needed doing until I really studied certain areas.  Some of the Ferns in the  shady area got trimmed back now their new fronds are emerging. The larger Dryopteris ferns were done about two months ago as they looked messy and tend to unfurl earlier. Underneath some of the dead leaves, I was thrilled to find a self seeded baby fern.

It may look like a lot of bare space in front here, but when the fern leaves fully unfurl, they drop and cover this whole area.

I added a new Astilbe, just behind the foxgloves and poppies here.

And a Brunnera, which I love for it's delicate Forget-Me-Not type flowers and variegated leaves.  It should like it here as the soil is  moist in front of the wildlife ponds.

I also think I've solved the climber dilemma I had in THIS post. I've planted Clematis Special Occasion to scramble up the shed, and an evergreen Honeysuckle Henryi to twine around the Lilac. That may take some time to get going though, as I managed to snap off the main growing stem while planting it!

One other purchase was for the back wall. This was exposed when the Leylandii were chopped down a few years ago and since then I've been trying to clothe it in plants to cover up it's ugliness. The Pyracantha has done brilliantly along with Clematis Pixie, and the Ivy is now getting a good foothold and has started to creep upwards. I spotted this pretty Solanum 'Glasnevin' in the garden centre though, and thought it would be perfect to fill the left hand side. The little flowers are so pretty. If it's happy here, it should spread out nicely.

I also did some rather back breaking digging, moving my large Bay from one side of the back area to the other. It was sitting just in front of the Raspberries before and they were threatening to overtake it, so it's now in a new home with only a Hardy Geranium for company at present. I gave it a good trim too, and it's looking much healthier.

A whole new patch in the garden was added too, taking inspiration from my visit to KEW GARDENS. Can you guess what I planted? All will be revealed in my next post.

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