It was such a sunny day today the ‘St Swithun’ roses on the pergola look almost bleached to white, but the roses all over the garden are fantastic. I did water and feed them earlier in the month, ahead of the opening on the 9th, and of course we did have rain in early June, so I think that really helped.
It’s funny to think had we not moved the date of the garden opening from coinciding with the St Helens fayre (as it has done for over a decade) today would have been the day. Instead, it was all over, and today was spent gently pottering instead. Lovely!
Having struggled to keep plants growing in these metal troughs in the past, I took the decision this year to plant them with Pelargoniums as they’re happy in the heat and more drought tolerant. You can see that the whole ‘right plant, right place’ has worked a treat and I don’t feel I’m fighting to keep them alive as I have in the past. I bought I think three of these ‘Choun Chou’ Pelargoniums a couple of years ago, and these are all cuttings from those original plants. (The very leggy plants at the back are white Stocks. I really love their scent so am a loathe to dig them out, but they do look rather a mess and certainly don’t complement the dark red. Hmmm)
The Swing Beds are pretty full with roses, and plenty of herbaceous Salvias, Verbena, Lupins, Diascia but, in addition to the small Eucalyptus I planted earlier in the year, I recently planted a new Anisodontea ‘El Royo’ in each bed to provide some larger more permanent structure. You can’t see the Anisodontea above, but I’m working hard to keep them watered through this dry, hot weather in the hope they’ll be something to see soon!
Round to the Grass Bed and you’ll see I finally replaced the Stipa Tenuissima which line the back. They’re a bit mismatched in size as some were grown from seed by me, some survived and some were bought in. In the bed in front, I recently planted out both Cosmos and Zinnia seedlings. The rest of the bed is covered with self sown seedlings of Forget me nots, Nasturtiums and a grass I’ve forgotten the name of. Hopefully once the Cosmos and Zinnias get going they push the rest out of the way!
I managed to miss taking a photo of the Mid Century bed, so we’ll move on to the Lavender Beds and this shot, looking over the Coleonoma to the greenhouse. If you look closely to the far left hand side you’ll see Kiri – now more than six months old and almost as big as Nimbus.
Up the lavender steps
takes us back towards the house.
The picture above shows the ‘Flower Carpet roses’ which sadly weren’t open on the Secret Gardens day, but are certainly making up for it now.
In the Bronze Bed the ‘Pat Austin’ roses are having a bit of a rest,but the Achillea ‘Terracotta’ and Helenium ‘Moerheim Beauty’ are romping away. The ‘Happy Single Date’ dahlias are the dark leaf to the right of the photo.
Looking towards the oak table you can see we’ve still left up the decorations from the opening. Here’s looking outwards, with a second flush of Wisteria.
In the corner where we have had morning glory in the past, this year I’ve planted Eccremocarpus scaber, the Chilean Glory flower. I have to confess I’ve failed to grow this from seed in the past, so this year I bought seedlings.
The way back round takes up past the old tub, which I’m really chuffed with this year
and some morning glory, Ipomoea lobata, in pots.
Inside the greenhouse I have more morning glory, as well as the usual peppers, aubergines and tomatoes.
And outside, well, er, rather a lot of seedling and cuttings….
On the decking there are the usual pots with Surcouf Pelargoniums and Clematis ‘Princess Diana’
There is also the beginning of our own little citrus grove!
Terrible picture of the Veg patch (which needs renaming as it’s more about flowers these days)
and the Agapanthus coming (and squeezing out the strawberries) below.
And to finish – oh looky, looky. The OH went mad while I was in London, and we are now the proud owners of two loungers for the very first time. Can you believe, very shortly after this photo was taken, I managed to sit down on one. There might even have been a snooze in the sunshine.
A miracle indeed!