Bees Lovely!

Posted on July 24, 2015 by davidsgardendiary

I have found alliums love my garden. They do well in clay, they are drought tolerant and totally reliable. I love them all but this little beauty with the difficult to pronounce name, Allium sphaerocephalon, is particularly useful as it flowers slowly throughout July and therefore mingles with other plants where it is well behaved and attracts bees all day every day. They love it so I love it. It is also one of the widest available and least expensive at just 10p or less per bulb. I got 12 for £1. It grows well in pots too and doesn’t care if you forget to water it, as I often do. As you can hopefully see, it begins as a green flower and gradually turns purple from the bottom up. The flowers shrug off wind and rain and remain upright even after being bent double, they are bone hardy and multiply each year. I am growing them with white scabious this year which is a charming combination. I would urge you to try them, they are one of the few things that everyone and anyone can grow regardless of local conditions. Utterly reliable, very cheap and bees adore them. What more can you ask for!.

Judgement Day!

Posted on July 20, 2015 by davidsgardendiary

I don’t consider gardening to be a competitor sport but when the opportunity arises, it’s nice to see how you’re doing by getting the opinion of those in the know. So I entered the Charlton Kings In Bloom competition for the second time and it will be judged today! Sunday 19 July 2015 It’s 4pm and I am waiting for the judges to appear to inspect and critique my garden in the annual Charlton Kings in Bloom competition. My judging slot is 4.30 – 5.30pm which is the last of the two days and the 30 gardens which have entered. I hope they are not fed up and dying to go home! The weather is beautiful, warm and sunny with a light breeze, perfect for garden visiting. Officially, I am not even supposed to talk to the judges, I don’t even have to be here. They usually just turn up, walk around, take loads of photos, mark the scores on their clipboards and leave. However, I have a cunning plan, I am going to greet them and offer to give them the tour! I have spent the last two days pruning, plumping, propping and preening…….weeding, watering, mulching, deadheading, mowing and edging……weeding, weeding and weeding! It looks good…not perfect but good enough I hope. It has been so warm and dry that many of the plants I hoped would be in peak condition are already over, the delphiniums, knautia macedonica, salvia greggii and microphylla are past their best but balanced by the echinaceas, heleniums and some of the early chrysanths which are out earlier than usual.

4.50pm They have arrived…..six of them! I know three of them including a former nursery owner and a professional gardener. This is going to be difficult. Wish me luck!5.35pm They’ve gone! Phew! Actually it went very well. They loved the design and planting schemes, raved about the Agapanthus africanus lined up in front of the bungalow and looked at everything with experienced and critical eyes. They were keen on finding any rare or unusual plants and were furiously writing notes on anything they found. I suppose there are only so many petunias, begonias and pelargoniums you can take! This worked to my advantage as there are several unusual things around the garden one of them being the Leopard Lily, Belamcanda chinensis, which no-one recognised. Others were Salvia uliginosa and the beautiful but easy white Lysimachia ephemerum which got them talking and writing even more furiously.

Time for a glass of wine and a sit down. No gardening tomorrow!

Highlights

Posted on July 13, 2015 by davidsgardendiary

Leucanthemum ‘Broadway Lights’ is at it’s best this week. Short and stocky, it opens a creamy yellow and fades to almost white. Never flops unlike it’s tall white cousins which I always have to ‘Chelsea Chop’ to keep them upright.

The Agapanthus africanus lined up in their big pots facing south along the front of the bungalow are getting lots of admiring glances from passers-by.

The Heleniums are in full flow and providing a feast for the bees and butterflies. This one is the shorter ‘Wyndley’ which at just 80cm is very sturdy and it’s beautiful yellow/bronze flowers really shine in the sun.

It seems scabious are attractive before they open…….

and after!

I have discovered that the climbing Fuchsia ‘Lady Boothby’ makes a very good standard which, if supported by a short obelisk forms a good head. Friends tell me they cut it down to the ground like other hardy fuchsias but I find it shoots from the ripe wood each year.

Another first for me this year is Echinacea pallida which I grew from seed last year and easily overwintered in plastic pots plunged up to their necks in one of the raised beds which are well drained. They all came through unscathed and are flowering well. It remains to be seen if they will survive a long wet winter in the beds. Not sure whether I like them or not! They look a bit frail for my taste.

The last Allium of the season to open is Allium caeruleum ‘Azureum’, the only true blue allium. Makes a nice change from all that purple but I just wish they were bigger!

Nice!

Posted on July 9, 2015 by davidsgardendiary

I took 80 photos today but when I got back and downloaded them, this one struck me more than the others. We were at Stanway House and Gardens, the one with the 200′ fountain which ‘plays’ twice a day, twice a week. It would have been easy to post a pic of that. and I probably will, but this one was different. I suppose it represents everything I love about established gardens in country homes……mystery, solidity, and in some cases, absurdity.I cannot imagine how much it would cost to build this palladian doorway today but whatever it was, it would be worth it.

Smelly but nice!

Posted on July 6, 2015 by davidsgardendiary

I wonder what the collective noun would be for a group of Lilies….a smellatron?? I suggest this because the scent emanating from these beauties is simply overpowering! Almost at their peak now, I leave the door open to allow the sweet smell to waft in. It is divine!

The pollen splashed petals are working hard to attract every passing flying insect and it looks like it has been succeeding!

Fire & Ice

Posted on July 3, 2015 by davidsgardendiary

I am absolutely smitten by Lychnis of all kinds and grow several types including this, my current favourite, Lychnis chalcedonica, or Maltese Cross (for obvious reasons!) It must be the easiest plant to propagate from seed. One seed head will produce literally hundreds of new plants.

The ice is provided by these little beauties, Lilium regale, which are easy and reliable and have doubled in quantity in their large pot since last year. The scent is just heavenly all day and into the night (as I found out at 3am this morning – no questions please!) and there is no doubting why. Just look at the amount of pollen on those stamens!