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.
The Sun is shining outside for once after weeks of rain and grey sky's. The only benefit is the garden looks very luscious and green. The Wildflower area around the pond has bloomed magnificently. The pastel colours of the Snapdragons are like sweets in a sea of green. The Bees and Hoverflys are swarming from nectar rich flower to flower.
My idea was to plant around the edge of the mini pond to soften the harsh green edges, and to produce some shaded water within the pond. It has worked successfully. From a distance you can see the grasses and pond plant Norfolk reed sticking up. The water is shaded.
One of the sights of the summer for me is seeing this Frog chilling in the water. He is one of two. He blends in remarkably well with the rocks and the dark water. If you are not looking he is very well camouflaged. The Frogs were drawn to the water by their natural instinct for finding bodies of water across land!
