Wind & Blooms

I finished my weekend at work and have been resting today.The Hurricane Katia has made its way across the Atlantic Ocean.The winds are now buffeting the west coast of Britain.Its amazing how a Hurricane that was in New York had enough steam to cross the big pond.The garden has been battered today by gusting winds.The bird table has blown over,and other debris has been thrown around the garden.These Butterfly flowers have been flowering away.I love the flowers facial markings.The Duchess Asters continue to attract Bees to gain some late nectar.The colour they add makes up for their slow growing.These originated in a packet of seeds my Mum sent me a few Xmas's ago.Their colours remind me of coloured Jelly beans.I will grow more of these next year.An addition this year was this Red Dianthus.It has more pink markings than the plant label photo showed!Maybe they used a red camera filter.This plant goes well with my container grown Dianthus Jazz ,that has been growing year after year.I love the colours and the smell of cloves from the flowers.
Cats Mum brought us some plug plants today.They need growing on in the greenhouse and will make some Winter Baskets.Normally the hanging baskets bloom until the first frosts.I would empty the baskets then stack them in the greenhouse.I hope that hardy winter plants can survive a Yorkshire winter.
I will try to keep the Fuchsia's to see if i can over winter them.I have six in baskets,and a climbing Fuchsia from Cromer that cats parents bought us this year.
I hope that the winds do not do too much damage to the garden.I can hear the wind gusting and objects being moved around.
It is a time to reflect on whats grown well,what has not,and what I can grow next year.The seasons keep turning slowly changing how the garden and surrounding Trees looks.

In Bloom Today

Its Sunday afternoon and the sky is overcast, with thick rain laden clouds. I went outside to take photos of some of the flowers in bloom today. Starting with the quintessentially cottage garden favourite, Foxgloves. These have had bee's buzzing into the spotted cup like flowers already. Hopefully these will self seed freely! I want lots more Foxgloves.

A Bee's eye view looking up the Foxglove flower. I have four plants growing, in both light and dark pink. I bought four baby Foxgloves from the plant stall. They are growing on in pots, but will not flower untill next year. Most Foxgloves are biennial, in that they grow for the first year, before flowering in the second year. They will set seed then die back.

The Gertrude Jekyll Rose in bloom. These Roses smell of sweet rose scent. They are pretty pink colours. The scent is old english Rose, crossed with more prolific flowering modern Roses.
It is healthy and got more Rose Buds than all the other shrub Roses. It was voted the UK's most popular Rose for its looks, scent, and free flowering Habit.

Another cottage garden favourite is this Aquilegia. I have them in White, this Purple and White, a pink and white, and the Blue and White. The flowers are huge and the spurs trailing behind are very long. These self seed freely too in the garden. I like the variety of colours that letting self seeded ones flower. You need to buy new ones if you want to keep the original flower colours.

Across the side of the garage I have these five window box planters full of Verbenas, Mimulus, Sea Hollys, St James Wort, Busy Lizzies, and a Heuchera. The Eryngiums are finally forming their spiky flower bracts. This year after they have finished Flowering I will put them in the garden borders. with a label saying this is a plant not a weed!

There are Two clumps of Snapdragons growing in the raised borders. These beautiful White flowers with a hint of yelllow in the centre. They smell like candy sticks, yum yum. I have a greenhouse full of Snapdragons grown from seeds my mum sent me.
They will grow away this year, for flowering next year. They need to gain in Size, and sturdiness.

Growing up the right side of the pergola was the sickly looking Clematis. After I cleared the weeds around it its regained vigour. The furry flower bud has opened to reveal this Purple/Lilac coloured flower..

The Clematis has two climbing Roses growing now alongside it on the right side of the Pergola. The left hand side and top is covered in Honeysuckle. The pink Rose is so sweet smelling, Zephrine Drouhain. I love stopping to smell the Roses. Especially when it is as strongly fragrant as this one.

The final photo on my whirlwind flower tour is the Butterfly Flower. I saved the seeds from last year and sowed them in a pot. Schizostylis I think there latin name is. There appear to be a variety of colours and faces on these Orchid like flowers. I think they are called poor mans orchid too.
I have them in Lilac, Purple, and White. The spotted colouring is different on every flower. Like an organic Rorsasch test!
Sundays are perfect for walking around your garden and seeing whats flowering, and whats growing.

Old And New

Old and new is the theme of todays post.The flower is the second flush of the Butterfly flowers or Poor Mans Orchids.They looked spindly and collapsed so I moved the pot to the back of the garden.They have revived and are blooming with the white and the lilac coloured flowers.The plants nearly ended up in the compost bin.I thought I would share the old flower blooming again.I want to buy some more varieties of this next year.It has been a really good flower grown from match book seeds.


The new is that Gardeners World had Toby Buckland on it last night as the new presenter of the long running BBC gardening program.He follows such legends as Geoff Hamilton, Alan Titchmarsh, and of course Monty Don.I watched on the BBC i player the episode from last friday.
He seems quite amiable, with a lot of passion, and a keenness to get back to basics showing summer dead heading, and cutting grass around a tree and making a straight edge of a border.
The You Tube video is the current theme music, that reminds me of Friday nights, and a program to get you back into the garden. After seeing them at Berryfields I ventured back into my garden.
We'll see if Toby Buckland can become a legend like the famous gardeners before him.The lead presenter is as much a part of British gardening, as allotments, vegetable growing, rain throughout the summer, slugs, snails, and flower shows like Chelsea and Tatton Park.
The music is very atmospheric for flowers and bee's, the noise and colour of an English garden.

Oranges, Lemons,And Green Gifts

In bloom today plants that have been given to me from people I know.The Butterfly Flower came from matchstick seeds from Fran.I love these Chilean flowers with their harlequin faces, and orchid-ish looks.These have surpassed my expectations with their flowering.I thought the glued seeds would not germinate well, but they did.

My birthday present from Cat.The superb Apricot coloured Lady Emma Hamilton rose, still in bloom.The flowers smell gorgeous, and the fragrance actually alters as the Rose bloom ages.I can smell oranges and lemons, and honey too.Good looks and great scent.What a present!

The Garden today showing the path to the Rose bench.The bottom left planter has seeds given to me by Hils.A lot of my plants have come from Hilarys greenhouse, and the plant stall in Walton.

The left hand border with Ageratum and Busy Lizzies, Geraniums, Calendulas, French Marigolds, Cerinthes, Roses, Camellia, mixed grasses.. overlooked by the Viburnum Tinus in the top right hand corner.The red flowering Crocosmia add some summer heat to the border.

A Calendula from Cheltenham.I found these plants in Mums border, still self seeding away.I love the warm colours of these plants, and the claw like seed head that can lie dormant in the soil for years.She hated them but I always tried to replant them in new displays.They do not take kindly to being moved from their chosen spot.I dug the whole root ball up and moved them to Yorkshire..

More Calendulas, these are from Cats garden.I took some dried seeds and plant a Z shaped line.Only two lots have come out this year.I like the two tone effect of a deep orange and a lemon yellow.When Cat moves to a new house I can give her some Calendula seeds to grow again.
All the plants we collect and are given have stories, and makes us more connected to where we grow them.Keep sakes, pass alongs, and gifts keep the garden full of stories, and the plants full of personality.
More posts after my long day tomorrow.Sigh, back to work...