Sunday Selection

   This Daisy type flower was in flower in one of the Rose pots. I think they originally started in the wild flower area but have been spread across the garden by the wind.

 This Dianthus just sings in the planter next to the compost bin. When I left this was just a few stems. It has exploded into magenta glory.

 All the Hostas have unfurled their leaves like green sails, and are now hoisting up their flower spikes. I think they add a little interest to the garden. Big tubular white flowers.

 The Astrantia's have suddenly come into bloom. When I left these were just a few leaves growing from the ground. They are hovering above the pond looking gorgeous. This is the Astrantia Ruby.

  The last bloom of the Flag Iris. I love these iconic anglo saxon plants. I might try to split the plant into two. One for the pond, and one for the wild flower garden.It has just seed pods growing now. Im pleased it kept one last yellow Iris flower for me to see.

 This Nemesia Vanilla Scent smells divine. Today the sunshine made the scent fill the garden, and just caught it on the breeze.

 Pink and White flowers with yellow centre. These arrived as small plug plants and have been grown on. I need to plant the Night Phlox that are sat in the greenhouse. They will scent the garden in the evening and night time.

 My Petunia Blackberry Sour are now blooming. I love the dark purple nearly black Petunias, against the Lime Green Petunias. I have three baskets planted with these combination.

 Petunia Presto White, and Presto Blue fill two baskets. They compliment each other nicely.

  The Sambuca Niger is flowering now with its champagne bubble frothy pink flowers. This poor Sambuca is swamped by the Dicentra. It probably needs moving to where it can be seen with its dark foliage.

  A highlight of my return is seeing the Peony Sarah Bernhardt flowering. It has taken it three years but the bloom is spectacular. 26 layers of satin soft petals surrounding golden yellow stamen. It smells too, like a medicine smell? I cannot think what it smells like.

The last flower is a lemon yellow and white Aquilegia. I love these flowers with their long nectar filled spurs.These should hopefully self seed, and produce more varieties of plants.
 Being away for a month means I missed the build up of all these flowers. I returned to the wow factor moment, but loved them all.

Saturday Pics

   After three weeks away from the garden its amazing how much has grown and how many plants are now in bloom. This Pink Daisy has gone mad in the pot by the backdoor. It is vibrant magenta colour with white centre and golden stamen.

 The Sweet Williams in the green planter box has flowered again. They are pinks, reds, whites, and combinations in between. They smell of cloves. I thought these were annuals or biennials. These have flowered for three years in a row now.

 The photo shows the detail of the Sweet William. White, red, pink, and white stamen.

 The Darcey Bussell Rose has bloomed whilst I have been away.There are two Roses in flower at the moment.They have a slight tea scent.

 My gorgeous Gertrude Jekyll Rose in flower. There are loads of blooms on this thorny climbing Rose. The scent is pure orange and lemon.Good enough to eat.

 Flowering along side the Getrude Jekyll is the Rose Harlow Carr. This has spiny stems and is very floriferous. It smells of fragrant old roses. You could make perfume or soap from this. A warm breeze carrys this right up your nose.I love it.

 A fourth Rose in bloom is the Rose Margaret Merrill. This has four large white blooms with beautiful red and yellow stamen. It is very fragrant too.

 The flowers are big enough to cup, and to inhale the sweet scent.

 The Candy Lip Gloss plants in the baket smell too. I love the vibrant colours of the pink flowers.

Growing in one of the Rose pots is the delicate Forget Me Not. The blue flowers dance above the sea of green leaves and stems.
 This is a small selection of colour and blooms here.More flowers tomorrow.

Back Again

  My first post for a good few weeks. After a marathon flight back from Auckland I'm back in Yorkshire. I took 850 photos in New Zealand. I loved the fact I did not know the names of anything like Trees, shrubs, plants,or birds. The whole two and a half weeks was educational.That will probably be a separate blog from this to show the many pics i took.
  Now I'm back in Wakefield, I have so much in this garden to blog about. Many more photos to take..
 This Bee was walking over the Darcey Bussell Rose which has flowered in my absence. It has a slight fruity tea smell. Seeing Bees in the garden is good..
 The weather has been a mixture of hot sunshine and rain.The garden has exploded in new lush growth and flowers.Its good to go on holiday, but equally nice to come home to your own little green oasis.

Rose dreams

My last three UK blog photos are of the Roses.The David Austin Moliniuex in the front garden had flowered, and the Roses all look healthy with plenty of yellow flowers.It has a delicate tea scent.

The Rose I was worried about was Sweet Scent Sation, from Fryers Roses.I bought it after Monty Don mentioned it on Gardeners World.I am pleased to say it has started growing in earnest.It was three bare stems for weeks.The flowers are supposed to smell like Turkish Delight.I hope they flower for when i come back off holiday.

The Hybrid Tea Queen Elizabeth is also growing on well.This Rose has the cut stems sealed off with green wax.The leaves are getting bigger slowly. This should have beautiful pink Roses on it when it blooms.
   I will enjoy seeing my Sister and new Nephew. But also all the new flora and fauna that grows there. Plenty of trips to the botanical gardens, experiencing the wilderness and beauty of there. My camera is primed and ready.Only one more night then a 25 hour flight to Auckland.

garden highlights 3

These wil be the last two posts that I do from England.I might try to do some blogging in New Zealand if i can use my sisters computer and upload photos onto her computer.I finally got some good Woodpecker shots.

They are so beautiful but shy birds. If they even detect you they fly off into the neighbouring trees.

I wander if the Wood Pecker was feeding his chicks?He loves the fat balls and suet snacks.

I had the mad photo spree taking last minute pics of the garden.This Petunia Presto Blue impressed me with its Azure colour.

Petunia Presto White is the counter point to the blue flowers.

This Mara De Bois Strawberry was starting to form.I hope Cat eats these fruit.These are the new french ones loved by Raymond Blanc.

The Strawberry bed is packed full of flowers and forming fruit.They usually are ready for picking around the time of the lawn tennis championships at Wimbledon.

I loved this Hosta, but had to move it as it was being devoured by slugs and snails. The Hosta White Feather has died back to the ground!I hope it regrows some green leaves to help it develop more roots and crown.
  Im blogging from Cheltenham on the way down to London Heathrow.Snappys blog will be going down under? to New Zealand.

garden highlight 2

My Flag Iris was nearly flowering today. I have asked Cat to photograph it on her phone when it flowers. I love this anglo saxon flag plant. It is growing in a pot in the pond. It has grown really well this year with healthy new growth.I want to try to split it this year.

Also nearly flowering is the Astrantia Ruby (like the ones at the top of the page).I have two Astrantia plants growing on the edge of the pond.

The Daisy flower has regrown from where the seeds dropped from last year.

This pink flower has also regrown again.I cannot remember the name of it. It was in the wild flower mix I sowed three years ago.

A Petunia Sour (from the Blackberry Sour mix) has flowered. I randomly planted these hoping the colours would balance. Their seem to be more Sour lime green flowers than the raspberry coloured ones.I liked the green/purple colour mix in the pictures.

This Bee flew staight into the self seeded Aquilegia.

The colours of the Dogwood, Lupins,Geum, Ceanothus, and Rhododendron were so bright. They all contrast in colour and form. I like the picture.

The Geum Mrs Bradshaw seem to explode from the green leaves. The red and gold flowers dance in the wind and are a vibrant red colour.

The Lupins are beginning to show some of their colours. The flower spikes are so intricately designed.

The Rhodie at the front of the house has suddenly bloomed as im going away. The Purple Splendour is well named.

The sunlight was rippling through the purple flowers making the dark red wine stains glow.I love the colours of these flowers.

garden highlight 1

  I am blogging this from Cheltenham Spa.I ran around this morning taking photos of the garden before I had to leave it. The sun was shining, and the sky was blue. Everything was cast in a bright light.I love the colours of the Ceanothus, Geum, Rhodie, and Lupin Leaves.

The whole garden has a lovely honey smell emenating from the Ceanothus. It is festooned in honey blue flowers and the Bees love it. They will drop their flower petals onto the ground like blue snow.

This Aquilegia has self seeded in the Rose pot. It is beautiful pale red and yellow petals with lovely long spurs behind it.

I planted some other new Aqulegias from Hampsons. This one is white petals and pink edged spurs trailing behind. I love these Dragonfly series flowers.Hopefully they will self seed and make new coloured varieties that will appear in the sunken border.

The Nemesia Vanilla Scent has started to bloom away in the ceramic bread pot. They are lovely smelling. A good plant to grow near where you sit so you can appreciate the scent.

The Petunia Presto plants (blue, and white) are flowering away now in the two hanging baskets.They have a lovely exotic scent.

The Dianthus in the rectangular planter has reflowered again. These plants flowers have the scent of cloves, and the electric pink colour.

The last photo shows the Iris Indian Chief in flower. They are beautiful blooms, short lived but spectacular. They have taken years to flower.