Mid summer colour 2018

It’s a wonderful time of year in the garden. All our work during late winter and spring is now rewarding us with masses of flower colour and the promise of bountiful produce from the kitchen or vegetable garden.

As always, for the purposes of this blog post I’m using the #six-on-Saturday meme format from Mr. Propagator. It’s a nice format to use for updating blog posts like this.

My first is Hemerocallis, or day lily. This variety is called ‘Copper Windmill’, and came from Pollies Lily’s collection. I have to say, while I’ve known about these for many years, it’s only after encountering Pollie on Twitter that I really became addicted. I’ve a lovely collection here that I plan to expand, but that’s for another day. In the meantime, I’m loving the blossom they provide.

The next flower of note is a very lovely variety of Leucanthemum x superbum this or Shasta daisy. While this is an unnamed variety, I’ve had it for many years and it provides such reliable colour each and every year from June through to August. Here these flowers are enjoyed both in the garden and indoors as cut flowers.

Next up is Dianthus ‘Pink Kisses’, with its power scent and minature colour. This particular plant was propagated this time last year from soft wood growth, into a nice 50/50 mix of compost and pearlite. Of the ten cuttings, eight rooted and after winter six of these are now in a single wide pot providing a wonderful display.

What mid summer blog would be complete without a reference to roses. There are many different varieties here, each of which I could blog about in their own rights, however, for this week, I’m going to include this one called ‘Buff Beauty’. Now if you were to have only one rose growing in your garden, I think this is it (I saw this about many roses btw … Lol). This variety provides a series of flushes throughout the growing seasons. The flowers appear as a strong apricot colour and then fade to buff tones, hence its name. It can be grown as a shrub rose or a climber, depending on the space you have to let it thrive. It’s relatively disease free and with only a little care, you’ll be well rewarded with colour and it’s delicate scent over many months.

Now for something a little different. Phlomis fruticosa, or Jerusalem sage, is a plant that provides unusual whorls of hooded yellow flowers during the summer months. It’s one that catches the eye as it has a different look and feel to it compared to other shrubs of a similar size and shape. It’s one I definitely recommend to propagate every couple of years in order to enjoy it at its best.

Last but not least of the six, is the summer flowering Clematis. Now much has been written and discussed about this grouping of plants, and what is most certain, is that no matter what your site or soil, there is a Clematis to suit you. While I only have a handful of varieties here, in future years I plan to have a whole lot more. And yes, there’s lots of guidelines to follow when growing them, but once mastered, you will have walls and arches and pergolas covered with masses of colour throughout the year. For now though, enjoy the first flower of this container grown Clematis ‘Pilu’, and please forgive the dirt under my thumbnail, it’s part of the package of being an enthusiast gardener … Lol.

So, as always, thank you for stopping by this wee blog, and please do like and leave a comment. If you haven’t already done so, click on the ‘follow’ button and enjoy the delicious updates from North County,

All the very best, Hugh