#shastadaisies

Six On Saturday: What a mess!

/ n20gardener / 12 Comments

Back to the garden again after a busy few weeks and of course the garden has run riot. Three times recently my gardening style has been described as ‘messy’. But I’m not sensitive. Well, of course I am! What is a messy style? Plants overspilling the paths, geraniums climbing over other plants, self-seeders encouraged. Sounds just right to me. However July is a turning point in this garden and those geraniums do need to be cut back, I have a mass of rose deadheading to catch up with and worse still I have two trays of annuals not planted out yet. I’d better get on with six for the week and then get out there and garden.

One

Here is the garden path. Encapsulating self seeders and overspillers. The alchemillia mollis and geranium psilostemon and ‘Brookside’ are the main culprits. Last autumn I lifted a number of alchemillia mollis from the main border to tidy things up and promptly planted them in the thin border for the ‘time being’. They love it there. ‘Brookside’ self seeds very readily here and since it is an extensive roamer I am more ruthless and I do thin it out every year.

Two

There are one or two shasta daisies escaping from their restraining supports but on the whole I do keep these pretty tidy. These also self seed. Here they are working rather well with a dahlia that gained a reprieve from last year. They are planted in front of the blackberries, probably not acceptable to some.

Three

This week the verbena bonariensis have looked stunning. Of course these self seed here. This week I heard them called thuggish! I find them rather amazing. Here they are growing amongst the grass ‘Karl Foerster’.

Four

Surely these hydrangeas are tidy? A little blousy perhaps? Next week they will be frazzled to a messy shade of brown as the hot weather spoils them.

Five

Do meandering climbers also count as messy? If so, guilty as charged. Clematis cover walls, fences and arches. This is the first year in flower for ‘Madame Julia Correvon’. She has valiantly pushed through the undergrowth and made it the top of the wall where her beautiful flowers are much appreciated.

Six

Oh, I know what it is. I have allowed erigeron karvinskianus to self seed all over the terrace! Now that does look messy.

I was remiss at reading SOS posts last week. I hope to catch up this week, but of course there’s some tidying up to do first. The links for the SOS posts are hosted on The Propagator’s site. I’ll stop by there now. Happy gardening everyone.

Six On Saturday: No more slug banquets

/ n20gardener / 17 Comments

We had torrential rain on Monday evening which caused local flooding on some roads, nothing like that experienced in Europe this week for which I am grateful and this weekend we have a scorchio heatwave. It is feast or famine weather-wise and I had a nostalgic longing for the gentle summers of childhood. We did have them didn’t we? There is one aspect of the garden that is very much feast time and that is the dahlia banquet I have been serving up for the slugs. That’s it. I am done with dahlias, never much liked them anyway and as I don’t have that many they will not be missed. Also suffering this year are the lupins and zinnias. The new resolution is ‘if the slugs munch it, it is not staying in the garden’. In ruthless mode I also dug up an echinops ritro – globe thistle. Never much liked that either. It seemed to suffer from aphid attacks and then took on a bedraggled look until the next wave of growth came through. Not attractive and now gone for good. On the good news side, I have planted out all the salvias and some very slow to get going nicotiana ‘Whisper’ seedlings. Twenty tiny seeds sown, four germinated. They grew on so slowly that I had actually forgotten them. Yesterday, in some cobwebby corner of the greenhouse, I spotted the glowing green leaves and they were in the garden pdq. Here’s this week’s six.

One

Hebe, variety unknown. I inherited this in the front garden where it lurked under the magnolia tree doing not very much. Two years ago I dug up it and for the time being, as one does, put it in a corner of the veg plot. This year it has performed spectacularly. With fireworks of white spikes of flowers fizzing of in all directions. It is alongside the potatoes this year and I am very happy to let it stay there. Added bonus: no slug damage.

Two

Ever reliable, no slug damage, and so easily taken for granted, even moaned about occasionally, verbena bonariensis. Moaned about because here it self seeds readily. It seems to grow in every corner but does the best in the sunniest spot where it really does stand up well without falling over the path too much. I pull them up where they are flopping.

Three

Hollyhocks. Hmm, yes some occasional slime trails but the plants just push on upwards. Self seeding itself throughout the borders and I do nip out the seedlings when I spot them but of course some manage to elude me and then deliver a mid summer surprise as they soar above the other plants.

Four

The ever sunny leucanthemum superbum or shasta daisy. Now securely staked. I grew these beauties from seed when I first came to this garden and used them to front the wild blackberries, that I was going to dig out. Over the last few years the blackberries have been somewhat tamed and since they deliver a bountiful crop they get to stay. They are one of the few happy weeds that I inherited.

Five

I had to laugh as I saw glorious photos of lupins in SOS posts and then was told last week that one of the ‘jobs to do’ was to cut back lupins. Mine have barely got going. This one has just managed a flower spike, the others have been munched by slugs. I fully expect the blackfly to descend on the lupin this week. They are going and I think I’m going to use the space to plant another rose.

Six

Last of the slug free plants is euphorbia oblongata. Slightly past its flowering best but what a stand out colour in the garden right now. Grown from seed a few years back, and if I remember rightly I sowed a whole packet of 45 seeds and got three seedlings. But then what would I have done with 45 plants! Sometimes nature knows best.

We have been enjoying cucumbers from the greenhouse this week and I think the time has come to dig up some potatoes. My old allotment site issued a tomato blight alert this week – so far all looks okay here. The French beans are flowering and the courgettes will undoubtedly zoom away in this weekend’s heat. It’s also time to pick some currants and the last of the gooseberries. It’s not all bad, is it? Over at The Propagator’s garden all seems good too, with plenty of sunny flowers to enjoy. I hope, on balance, things are also good in your gardens.

Six On Saturday: Good things being delivered

/ n20gardener / 17 Comments

It was the perfect week to be on holiday with nothing to do as it was too hot to do anything. The dead heading was left but there was no avoiding the need to water in the greenhouse. Tomatoes, melons, strawberries, lettuce and basil are all motoring along. Outside the green beans are being picked along with raspberries, gooseberries and blackcurrants.  Here’s the view of the garden this week.

One

I have to share this view of the allotment end of the garden although it’s not to my credit.  I had a few calendula plants in the garden a couple of years ago and if they are not ruthlessly controlled they run riot! Beautifully so, but I need to fight back.  I’m enjoying the splash of colour for the moment but an afternoon spent pulling them out is on the agenda and next year I will be hoeing them off, immediately, no ground given.  Honestly. 

Two

It is now four years since the move to this house and the garden borders are transformed.  Each year a new corner or two comes under scrutiny.  This year it was the passion flower draped arch and trellis.  I could see that a honeysuckle also entwined its way around the uprights but it never flowered.  One side of the passion flower has been taken down and the honeysuckle probably got a bit of a cut back in the process.  Perhaps this is why it has flowered for the first time.  It’s a great addition.

Three

The scented leaf pellies are back in their summer pots and are decorating the patio.  The peat free compost does dry out quickly on the surface so daily watering was necessary.  This one is ‘Prince of Orange’.

Four

The cheerful Shasta daisies seem to be twice as high this year.  They were started from seed about four years ago.  They grow up into the wild blackberries that are another corner of the garden awaiting some attention.  It looks like there will be a good crop there too. 

Five

Most of the delphiniums are going to seed now and need to be cut back but this one came through a little later.  It was a pot luck buy at a plant sale, just marked delphinium.  I’ve had it for three years now but it always only puts up one spike.  Is that a thing for certain types of delphinium ?  

Six 

To finish I offer this combination of blackcurrant sage and a penstemon  – could it be ‘Apple Blossom’?  The  sage looked a little sad after the winter but it responded well to a cut back and is now threading its way around the penstemon. 

Cooler temperatures for next week will see me back in the garden catching up on the dead heading.  The roses need to be fed to help them produce the next wave of flowers and I think I’ll have a nose around the late crop new potatoes.  If nosing around gardens is your thing then go immediately to Mr P’s he has the most divine photo of the rose ‘Generous Gardener’, it’s a must see! 

Six on Saturday: Flowers are hiding a multitude of sins

/ n20gardener / 17 Comments

Continuing on from the theme of last week: losing the plot, all is still chaos in the garden. It’s been a busy week. The house is encased in scaffolding. Painters and roofers are everywhere. Good for them that it hasn’t rained, not so good for me.  There is watering to be done and weeds to be pulled.   It is time to cut back the hardy geraniums and delphiniums, which, once done, will definitely bring the garden back into some sense of order.  But then who wants order in the garden? Let the flowers rule!

One


I call these shasta daisies, but I have a distant memory that they have been renamed. Or maybe it is just that they have a formal classification name as well. Of course I didn’t get round to giving them a little bit of support so they have happily sprawled over the path. That path is getting hard to find these days. These have been in the garden, grown from seed, for three years now. Doing well I think.

Two

Suddenly the day lillies have burst forth.  I have ‘Golden Chimes’.  I can’t quite remember why  I chose these.  I really have a hankering for ‘Flore Pleno’.  But these will do – for now.  Day lillies are a sign, for me,  that the season is moving on.

Three

Sidalcea also indicate a change over is taking place.  This is ‘Stark’s Hybrid’.  This came to the garden last year and is beginning to clump up.  It should be very good next year.  It is in the mallow family and is not too dissimilar to hollyhocks but quite a bit shorter.

Four

Speaking of which, the hollyhocks this year are not quite at the giddy heights of last year but there is still time.  They seeded everywhere and I have realised that you need to be quick to pull out any unwanted ones. They develop very long roots that put up quite struggle.

Five

Gaura lindheimeri ‘Whirling Butterflies’ was a feature of SOS posts last year and after spotting it in a garden in France I was convinced that I had to have it here.  This is the first summer of flowering and it is not an established clump.  It does look beautiful swaying in a breeze, very summery.  I have high hopes of this making a bigger impact next year.

Six

There always has to be a rose at this time of year and this week it is ‘Darcey Bussell’.  Beautiful scent, fabulous colour and full of flower.  What more can you ask for?

For more summer highlights visit Mr P’s garden and you will find yourself meandering down garden paths from around the world.  Highly recommended.