And it was all going so well.

After asserting my point that I don't 'do' red in the garden in my previous post, look what went and bloomed this week.

What a rogue! This was meant to be a delicate pink variety of the Poppy called Viktoria Luise, and it's red, BRIGHT red!  My heart truly sank when I saw it, as I nurtured 6 of these from tiny plugs, and they are now scattered throughout the garden after I planted them out in Spring. I was crossing my fingers that maybe this would be the only red one, but a bud from one of the others is showing a tiny glimpse of the petals beneath, and they're red too. Sigh. So, should they stay or should they go? What do you think?  I'm really undecided at the moment. They are gorgeous, but my garden is based on a palette of pink, white, purple and blue, with splashes of yellow. I fear a few red poppies on their own will look terribly out of place and spoil the peacefulness of the garden. The blooms are huge though, true saucer size, and after all my effort of growing them on, it will be a wrench to hoist them up. And this one does look rather nice against the yellow Lady Stratheden Geums. Decisions, decisions!

Another decision that had me pondering was the state of one of my Clematis Montana Freda's. One day, it was healthy and about to start flowering, the next, it looked like this.

At first, I thought a stem might have snapped or got damaged and therefore died, but looking at it closely, that wasn't the case, and two stems had actually withered up. I don't think it was Clematis wilt, as there was no blackening of the leaves, and Montana is meant to have a good resistance anyway, but it did seem strange. I decided against removing the whole plant, as one half still looked okay and instead I cut the two dead stems right back to the base. Thankfully, the remaining stem is doing really well a week on, and another stem has appeared at the base. So, fingers crossed, it might have been saved.

Now, I can hardly complain about the next garden event, because it had me captivated for a whole weekend, but there were some rather messy consequences to deal with after.

We were visited by a flock of starlings, with a vast amount of baby chicks. When I say vast, I'm talking in excess of a hundred. The noise they made was deafening, but I just couldn't stop watching them, especially when they descended on the garden, turning it into starling city! They really were everywhere...at the feeding pole, on the table, shed, fences, pots and around the ponds. Oh, and the washing line made a handy little perch too!

It was quite funny to see the slim adult birds feeding the huge pudgy chicks. The one above even dripped water into the chicks beak...awww.  It seems they were only here for a pitstop though, as they left for new pastures on Sunday evening, leaving me with rather a lot of, ahem, mess, to clear up! 

Since the weather has been just gorgeous over the last few days (I'm currently typing this at the patio table in 80 degree heat), the number of insects visiting the garden has increased too, especially the butterflies. Here are a few I've managed to photograph, mostly by chasing them around the garden all day like a lunatic!

The Peacock Butterfly.

Orange Tip Butterfly. Look at his head! I swear he turned around to pose for the photo!

And I'm not sure what species this butterfly is, maybe you know? It has light brown, plain wings on the underside, with one little white spot on each.

Common Blue.

And finally, a Large White.

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Inspired by Kew

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was really inspired to add a few new plants to my garden after my recent visit to Kew Gardens. It was the Rhododendron Dell there that really captivated me. En masse, they looked incredible, and there were so many different varieties and beautiful colours that I'm sure it would have  been impossible not to find at least one to fall in love with. Add to this the fact that they produce beautiful blooms in Spring, well, I just had to find some space for a few.

I already had one Rhododendron, a Percy Wiseman, that had been languishing against the fence for a few years. Although it bloomed, you couldn't really appreciate it as it was tucked behind other plants. I bought this one forward, and it's now sitting snugly between a Hebe and a Hardy Geranium. It got a good feed of ericaceous compost, and has looked spectacular for the last fortnight, blossoming with little speckled flowers.

One of my new purchases was this gorgeous Azalea, Mme van Hecke. It looks just as good in bud as in bloom, and is evergreen, always a bonus I think.

I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I don't 'do' red in the garden, with the exception of strawberries and tomatoes on the patio, so I was about to pop this Azalea, Geisha Red, back on the shelf. Looking again at the plant though, the buds appeared more pink than red, so I decided to risk it. I'm glad I did, as they have indeed bloomed a delicious deep pink colour that blends in beautifully with the others. 

The last purchase was this Dwarf Rhododendron, Impeditum. It has lovely little purple/blue flowers and I was taken with it enough to purchase two, the second of which I've placed in the new area where the garage was removed.

So, this is my very own little rhododendron dell, and I'm looking forward to seeing the plants grow and merge over the next few years.

The rest of the garden is looking full and lush at the moment, and though we've had a few really lovely sunny days, it's mostly been rain, rain and more rain. I do hope that's not the theme for our 'summer' again this year, as I'd love to actually sit in the garden and appreciate everything out there!

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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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