There is no doubt about it. This has been a tough year. But there are always some cheering sights among the wilting, stressed and sometimes dead plants. The tithonias have reached five foot and the flowers are coming thick and fast. All grown from tiny seeds. Here are some others:
One
Scabiosa atropurpurea ‘Black Cat’. These have such lovely velvet petals. The deep wine colour is fab too.
Two
Antirrhinum majus ‘White Giant’. Not quite so giant as I imagined but these were really teeny tiny seeds to start with so I am glad they have got this far. I thought I would be planting them in the middle of the border to give some tall white spikes but when the time came it was obvious that they wouldn’t be able to fight their way through geranium ‘Brookside’ so they were planted along the edges of the path.
Three
Echinops Globe Thistle. An experiment in having something different in the border. Much loved by blackfly but in truth, so far, not much loved by me. I will see how they go, perhaps I’ll like them more when they turn bluer. I think I got my plants mixed up and really meant to sow eryngium!
Four
Sweet peas: Midnight Blue, by far and away the most successful of my sweet peas. The very lovely Gwendoline, Black Knight and Anniversary are in a shadier spot and are not happy! Only two of the Anniversary seeds germinated. I’ll try them again next year but I will have to find a better site for them.
Five
Not from any seed that I sowed but doing a great job of extending the border colour are these echinacea purpurea. They work well with the self seeded verbena behind and they might be good self seeders themselves. Apparently they don’t like drought but so far so good.
Six
Lastly a dahlia mystery. I bought six dahlia tubers at the same from the same place. All labelled Thomas Edison. They are beginning to open up and I realise I have two varieties. Now I think about there was one pot that seemed less vigorous than the others. The colour is much darker than comes across here. How interesting!
Still not a drop of rain here, to see how other gardens are fairing take a trip to The Propagator for all the links to many, many lovely #SixOnSaturday posts. Happy gardening.
n20gardener 
Beautiful!! We’re having a cold winter and a lot of plants we have had for years have been hit hard by the frost this year. Hoping that many will recover in the Spring.
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We are trying to enjoy our heat wave but some cooler temperatures and rain would be welcome here!
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No rain here and nights can get as low as 3 degrees Celsius.
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I keep getting Echinops and Eryngium mixed up to. That is a nice shade of sweet pea.
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I have a couple of Dahlias which were not what I ordered. There are so many varieties there’s virtually no chance of finding out what they are, which is frustrating. Growing things from seed is very satisfying, much more of a sense of achievement than buying them grown. It still seems miraculous what can grow from one tiny dead looking speck.
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The echinops will definitely turn more blue. Mine are now covered in teeny blue flowers and teh bees absolutely love them. I picked a few for my local show today and the bees looked a bit cross!
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That echinachea is looking good and the scabious is unusual. I’ve got a mix of scabious grown from seed, including some dark red and ones which have yet to flower. May have to look out for that cat one, it’s rather nice.
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My scabious just flowered this week. Hope you do t wait too long
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Where else can you say, “Nice Scabious” as a compliment? It sounds like a disease. Stick with the Echinops, I say, they give good Autumn structure when dead.
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You have reminded me why I sowed them. It was for some architectural structure! Thank you.
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That scabiosa is gorgeous – have to keep an eye out for it. How wonderful to have echinachea self seed in your bed, & in a place where it’s colour coordinated! It’s really looking healthy. I hope you grow to love your globe thistle, since you have it. That photo shows a nice bit of variety in that bed, so hopefully it’ll have done the trick for you. Like that wrought metal stakey thing (plant support?) in the photo, too.
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Yes it is a plant support. I have some taller ones too which are great.
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Your Echinops will look better in time and the bees do absolutely love them, so bear with them a bit longer. I am growing some for the first time too, but so far mine are just producing leaves. I am hoping for a mass of flowers next year. I do have some Eryngium too which were planted at the same time and just coming into flower. I love experimenting. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t and I failed miserably with where I planted my sweet peas this year. 😦
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It’s a bit frustrating when really you know it’s not quite the right place. But of course we plant in hope!!
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Indeed we do!
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Echinops are bee magnets and so gorgeous flowers..! They should be more blue soon, you’ll see…
About the other topics, I liked the scabiosa ‘ Black cat’ (even if the other pictures are very nice, as always.)
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Everyone is encouraging about the echinops. I’ll be patient!
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A lovely selection – love that scabious and your blue sweet peas. I must must grow Echinops next year.
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Sweet peas in July! It must be nice! Well, they are all nice. I do not grow snapdragon because they get so rust so badly. However, someone planted them last year, and they threw seed before succumbing to rust. The seedlings from this year are now rusting of course, but managed to bloom impressively before succumbing. Some were bright yellow, and some were clear bright white! I was impressed!
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I have rust on hollyhocks but I’ve never seen it here on snapdragons .
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Rust is why I would not plant new snapdragons. However they sell in nurseries, so someone must be growing them well. Those that were planted at work looked nice from a distance for a while. Hollyhock almost always gets rust really bad, but it somehow blooms nicely anyway.
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Enjoying your (and other blogs’) echinops this week! I will add some. The eryngium that’s new to my garden this year is doing well, so I recommend it as well. Those dahlias are way ahead of mine. Definitely resembles T. Edison on the left but absolutely not on the right. Enjoy!
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Many thanks. Eryngium is on my list for next year.
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The sweet peas look so fresh and lovely – I can almost smell them. I just don’t seem to be able to grow Antirrhinum from seed. Is there a trick to it?
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They were so small I didn’t use grit to cover them and I always put the modules in trays to soak up the water so sadly no tricks to share
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I like echinops very much and I think yours will look more attractive when they open out more. Your echinacea look lovely with the verbena bonariensis behind.
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Lovely Six, as always. I love the colour of the Scabious. I grew Echinops for many years but needed room for something new a few years ago. Might have to see if I can squeeze some in again as they’re great later in the season.
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They are looking bluer already and I had forgotten that I wanted them for the winter look!! I’ll be patient.
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