Six on Saturday 01/08/20

We don’t seem to get two days the same weatherwise at the moment. On Tuesday night the temperature in the glasshouse was down in single figures, yesterday afternoon it was over 45 degrees in there. Poor plants. There’s a few showers forecast for this morning and it’s quite breezy. Again.
We’ve braved going out into the world a bit more this week (only to outside places with few people around). A lovely long beach walk and a visit to Cerney House Garden were both very enjoyable. The Non-Gardener is slowly starting his work again but I can’t see when I will be able to start mine 😔. On the positive side, that gives me plenty of time in the garden, most of it dead-heading at the moment. I’m building up to a visit to a garden centre or, even better, a nursery! Definite withdrawal symptoms and things are starting to run out.

For the last few weeks I’ve been showing the garden by area but this week normal service is resumed, focussing in on individual plants.

1. Let’s start with a Clematis. This is ‘Diana’s Delight’ and I planted her last year. I wanted a shorter variety for this trellis but I am hoping that she will get a bit taller (never satisfied, as the NG says). The main flowering was in June but there’s a second flush of flowers appearing.

2. Last week I showed Gaura lindheimeri with Verbena bonariensis, this week it’s teamed with Achillea millefolium ‘Cassis’. This is a pairing to keep an eye on I think – the first seeds quite freely and the second runs well.

The Achillea is a lovely soft crimson colour, not as pink as this looks

3. Dahlias have done better for me this year but some of the ones I planted in the borders have suffered recently in the damp weather. How much can a few slugs and/or snails eat in a night!!! Dahlia ‘White Onesta’ hasn’t fared too badly.

4. I have two Agapanthus, both deciduous and in pots. One is quite a dainty one and the other is much stronger growing but both are unnamed. The smaller one started life in a pot, never had more than two flower stems and so was planted in a border. After five or six years with no flowers at all (and not a lot of growth either) I dug it up and put it back in a pot. There followed one or two years with no flowers, then progress with three stems but last year I was disappointed to only have two stems again. I wasn’t holding out much hope for this year but there’s 11 stems. Woohoo!

The second plant is stood in the garage side border. This is it’s third year with me – one stem last year and two this year (they wouldn’t both fit in the picture). The flower heads are about three times the size of the above plant, although they don’t really look it in the photo as it’s in with the big boys.

5. I wanted the glasshouse to be a bit more flowery this summer and have a few ornamentals growing in there. This is the first time I’ve grown Impatiens repans. It was one of my few on-line purchases (a gardener can only go so long with no new plants), was slow to get going but is making up for it now. I’m growing it as a trailer in a shadier part of the glasshouse. If we have a prolonged hot spell I may have to move it outside.

6. The gardening season has started to change over the last couple of weeks with Cyclamen hederifolium popping up at the border edges. I love these little flowers and, after many years and a little help, they have spread around the borders really well. Some of the seed heads from last years flowers have still to open (you can just make out some of the coils) so the new flowers seem a little early to me but I suppose it is August.

Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend and don’t forget to catch up with all the wonderful gardens thanks to our host at https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/