Viola | Davids Garden Diary

It rained every day this week which made weeding a lot easier in my claggy clay soil and I whizzed through my ever increasing ‘to do’ list. Darcey Bussell’s skirts got wet but she didn’t seem to mind!

The last Penstemon flowers of the season are hanging on to give the bees a treat on sunny days. They have put on a wonderful display since May and seem to be unaffected by the changing climate. If anything, they enjoyed the drought this year and didn’t need a drop of water. They are having a lot now though!

I struggle to understand why some plants from hot countries, like Peru and Chile, seem to do better in the UK when it’s getting cooler and wetter! These Alstroemerias are revelling in the current conditions and flowering their heads off. I am picking armfuls for the house every week.

Salvia uliginosa still growing strongly and flowering in her rather haphazard way. The tall stems are a bit lax for my liking and gradually become horizontal after days of wind and rain but nothing stops it from flowering and it soon picks itself up again. A number of passers-by have stopped to ask what it is and are very surprised when I tell them it is a Salvia. I don’t tell them its common name is Bog Sage!

I think I may have overdone the Viola pot a bit! The Cyclamen in the middle are getting smothered and as for the scraggy bit of Ophiopogon…! Cheery, happy little faces though, I love them.

And finally……a bit of an oddity. This Rose ‘Let’s Celebrate’ has produced some very odd flowers with petals that don’t fully open making it look a bit like Eaton Mess! Could be the cooler nights or maybe the rain; I just hope it is not a permanent affliction!

Have a great weekend

David

Good morning from a bright and sunny Cheltenham! The Violas gave me a cheery wink when I went out with my camera to see what was interesting enough to photograph amongst the detritus and windblown plants in my garden.

The Alstroemerias are suddenly enjoying the cooler temperatures and producing loads of stems to pull and bring indoors. This one is ‘Summer Break’.

Rosa ‘Darcey Bussell’ is flowering for the third time and, although she is not as shapely as usual, she certainly puts on a show! Most of my other roses are ready for the early winter chop but Darcey just keeps going.

The NIgella damascena has shed millions of seeds into the gravel path which will have to be carefully culled to leave a manageable number to flower next year. I do love a self-seeder as long as the resulting progeny are where I want them!

A few weeks ago I popped a cutting of Tradescantia pallida into a shot glass to root which it kindly has. It has also decided to flower for me! This is the third flower so far and I suspect there are more to come. Isn’t nature wonderful!

I can’t bear to throw good plants away and these bedding pelargoniums which flowered all summer outside in big pots are now tucked up in the cold greenhouse where they continue to flower their heads off. If we have a mild winter they will survive and be used again next year; if not…….compost heap here we come, but only when they have died of natural causes!

Have a great weekend

David