GBBD - Summertime and the Living is...

I'm very excited this month. The above photo of my Agapanthus 'Blue Peter' may not look very much. In fact, it's not how it looks today - you'll need to have a look at today's new Slideshow in my sidebar for that. No, I'm excited because this is the first year I'll have more than one Agapanthus flower. I bought them 5 years ago - we'd just come back from a long trip to Australia where they'd been blooming profusely in everyone's gardens. It's one of my strongest memories of that time, so I decided I'd buy some to plant in a couple of pots I have at the side of the house as a souvenir. Each year since I've had lots of lush foliage, followed by a single gorgeous bloom for the past 2 years. When I took the photos for my submission to Emma's Big Green Leaf Day, I noticed that the foliage was even more lush this year. I didn't dare to hope, but at the beginning of this month I found not one, but 10 Agapanthus flower stems and today, the first full bloom. It's been worth the wait.

Elsewhere in my garden, two of my favourite flowers have come into bloom this month - Dahlias and Fuchsia. I loved Dahlias even when they were out of fashion. My dad was chairman of the Chrysanthemum and Dahlia Society where he worked and some of my happiest childhood times were spent at their annual flower show. Firstly, there were the show tents bursting with colourful firework dinner plate blooms; then there was the display from the works' own fire brigade (in which my dad also featured) and I was their mascot; then there was the waste ground by the railway to explore - great for capturing grasshoppers and crickets with my handkerchief and taking them home in a matchbox my grandad gave me. Dahlias bring back those happy times, so I'm especially pleased to have them in my garden, especially the dark leaved forms like 'Moonfire'. In contrast, I love Fuchsias for the way their flowers remind me of some of the earrings I wear! A couple of Crocosmia have also started to explode out of the border - the usual 'Lucifer', plus an orangey 'Amberglow'. Thus my borders are well into their transition into their late summer clothing - still a thing of beauty, but tinged with a little regret for the shorter days to come.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Comments

  1. Rose15 July 2008 at 14:46

    Your "Moonfire" dahlia is gorgeous, but I think I have to have Romeo and Juliet, for their names, if nothing else!

    So many beautiful fuschia; that's a plant I don't see growing hear except in hanging planters.

    ReplyDelete
  2. this is my patch15 July 2008 at 14:51

    Lots of agapanthus at Hampton Court this year. My Moonfire dahlia is doing really well this year, I am going to pick some to bring indoors. I love the dark leaved varieties too and now have five, losing one to frost. x

    ReplyDelete
  3. Carol Michel15 July 2008 at 15:07

    Only true gardeners can understand your excitment on the Agapanthus blooming for you. We do have to be patient sometime. Congrats!

    I like your slide show. You've got a lot blooming right now.

    Thanks for joining in for bloom day again!

    Carol, May Dreams Gardens

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous15 July 2008 at 16:15

    Lucky you! I've had my agapanthus for 4 years now without a sausage - this year at long last I have one flower stem showing. Am most excited.
    (I love white fuschias best of all.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Frances,15 July 2008 at 16:50

    Hi VP, that is indeed beyond the pale to have ten bud stalks after such a long wait. We are on the edge of hardiness for the agapanthus and I have resisted giving them a try. Your blooms have given me hope and strength. Thanks.

    Frances at Faire Garden

    ReplyDelete
  6. emmat15 July 2008 at 17:59

    lurvely. None of my dahlias or fuchsias are flowering yet, but my back garden is north aspect and it takes a bit longer to get going. But requires less watering!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Cindy15 July 2008 at 18:00

    I am so happy for you and your Agapanthus. The wait has been worth it. I also love Dahlias even though they are not hardy where I live. I think they are as pretty as a rose.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Mr. McGregor's Daughter15 July 2008 at 19:16

    I just love all of your Fuschias. My lame little potted one decided to take a bloom break just in time for Bloom Day. Now that I've seen an image of it, I have to have Dahlia 'Juliet.' The color combo is so my taste. Congrats on finally having a proper blooming of the Agapanthus. They're sold here as very expensive annuals in bud. If I lived in a warmer climate, I'd grow them too. They're such an amazing shade of blue.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Helen/patientgardener15 July 2008 at 20:32

    Your Agapanthus looks lovely - alas I wont be having any flowers on mine this year as I divided it and I think it is sulking as a result - lots of foilage, no flowers!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous15 July 2008 at 21:51

    Indeed good things come to those that wait ! Here the late summer stars seem to be opening all at once. Lovely to see them but as you say a reminder of the shorter days to come.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous15 July 2008 at 21:59

    Lovely foxglove VP, I also like your dahlia's very much. Must put some on my list that I am drawing up for the "keyhole"bed.
    Regards
    Karen

    ReplyDelete
  12. garden girl16 July 2008 at 02:35

    VP, I love Agapanthus, as I do 'most any blue flowers. I do wish they were hardy here! I'm so happy for you that yours will have so many blooms! Enjoy! (I know you will!)

    ReplyDelete
  13. The Constant Gardener16 July 2008 at 04:00

    am loving those dahlias too - I adore 'Moonfire'. The slugs got most of mine this year - except Dahlia merckii which thumbed its nose in their general direction. Beautiful roses too... am amazed Mr Rector hasn't swamped your entire garden yet though...!

    fab agapanthus - can't grow them myself but adore them. Gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
  14. VP16 July 2008 at 14:39

    Hi everyone - gald you liked the show. I see there's lots of fans of Agapanthus, Dahlias and Fuchsias :)

    I'll head on over to your blogs and leave you comments over at your place...

    ReplyDelete
  15. HappyMouffetard17 July 2008 at 20:03

    Lovely blooms. Your agapanthus is way ahead of mine, and a nicer colour too!
    It's so easy to overlook the sempervivums, but your photo shows off their beauty.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Matron19 July 2008 at 09:01

    I have some wonderful white agapanthus this year. I bought the roots from a man at the side of the road during a trip to Madeira. Next time I go I will try to get some blue ones!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous19 July 2008 at 12:16

    This is to show CWB how to add a comment!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love hearing from you and welcome thoughtful conversations :)

Comments aiming to link back and give credence to commercial websites will be composted!

Your essential reads

That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide

Image
Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it
Read more

Jack Go To Bed At Noon

Image
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl
Read more

Red Nose Day - Gardening Jokes Anyone?

Image
The nation goes ever so slightly bonkers on Red Nose Day - hurrah! Previously, it's been very easy to join in - usually via a dress down day at work plus lots of people up to mad things at the station and in the office. Everyone smiling for once - it's a real feel good day and all in a good cause. This year's different - every day's a dress down day for me now - my friend L suggested yesterday that perhaps I could have a dress up day instead and whilst that's a good idea, I confess that ballgowns and tiaras don't really feature in my wardrobe: scruffy student's always been my favourite look. So my Red Nose Day contribution for this year is to compile a list of gardening related jokes. For each one (clean ones only please) you leave in the comments below, I'll make a donation of 50p to the cause. Here's a few for starters just to get you warmed up: Q Why do potatoes make good detectives? A Because they keep their eyes peeled. Q What did the grape
Read more

Salad Days: Mastering Lettuce

Image
I've decided one of my salad challenges for this year is to grow as many lettuce varieties as I can, ready for the publication of my planned Factsheet* later on. The idea is to grow as many of the Tried and Trusted lettuce varieties last year's Salad Challengers helped compile, then provide a visual guide and as many lettuce facts as I can muster. So far I've found around half of those listed**. Then naturally whilst I was out searching - because such is the way with seeds - a number of other varieties found their way home too ;) A couple of weeks ago I sowed 22 varieties***. Just the simple act of sowing them has me intrigued. Why are some lettuce seeds black and others white****? They split into about half white to half black in my sample and as far as I can tell it's nothing to do with whether they're a type of cos, iceberg, or whatever. I sowed them indoors and popped them into a propagator on the windowsill. The soil's too cold outside for sowing
Read more

VPs VIPs: Derry Watkins of Special Plants

Image
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Derry Watkins at her home, garden and nursery - the acclaimed Special Plants - just a few miles along the road from me. I first met Derry at one of her open garden days last year and was keen to find out more about her wonderful garden and running an independent nursery. She specialises in tender perennials and regularly goes on plant hunting trips to find new treasures, particularly in South Africa. As well as running Special Plants and opening her garden under the NGS scheme , Derry holds day courses at her nursery, hosts Special Tuesdays from April until September, lectures and has written a couple of books. How did you find your way from Connecticut to the UK? I'd started a biodynamic vegetable garden in Connecticut and we used to have people come along at weekends to help out. A particular young man turned up: he returned many times and at the end of the summer I married him. So it was all down to love? Isn't that the
Read more

#mygardenrightnow: heading into summer with the Chelsea Fringe

Image
Ahhhhhh, that's better! I love walking through dewy grass in bare feet, not that there's much in the way of grass on my back lawn this weekend. My wild and woolly lawn has morphed into meadow of sorts this month, which even NAH admits looks attractive*. It's also proved a great source for my Flowers for mum project so far, yielding self-sown perennial cornflowers, lamb's ears, and lemon balm in addition to the blooms you can see. These originated from elsewhere in the garden, the ox-eye daisies must have blown in from the A350 nearby. * = he got very stroppy about the weeds aka self-sown foxgloves in the lawn one year, so he's come along a bit since then. Skimble's demanding to say hello to you too. He does enjoy the patio when it warms up. If the embedded video doesn't work try this link instead. The Nectaroscordum are a revelation. I planted the bulbs around 2 years ago, but it's only this year they've bloomed properly. The bee
Read more

The Resilient Garden

Image
  Part of Tom Massey's Resilient Garden at RHS Hampton Court I've been pondering VP Gardens a lot lately. Last year's drought conditions set me off initially, then our harsher than usual winter combined with this summer's flip and flop weather means the thinking continues. It's a huge topic which I freely admit I'm struggling to get my head around. Tom Massey's Resilient Garden  at Hampton Court recently  tackled this topic brilliantly and was a timely interlude which gave me much food for thought. There he encapsulated the detailed research he'd found which informed both his show garden and book of the same name. I think it's one of the most important show gardens I've ever seen. It's clear the way I garden needs to change so that I have my own resilient garden. I haven't worked out the exact details yet, but Tom's book plus a couple of others (see below), alongside the rainwater management handout from the show garden's  sponso
Read more

Testing Times: Tomatoes

Image
  I've run a couple of tomato trials this year. The first is a revisit of the biochar trial with Oxford University I attempted some years ago (with a different organisation this time), and the second is a trial of a water gadget called Plantsurge which I was given to try at Malvern Spring Show earlier this year. Most of you have probably heard of biochar already and the claim that this inert, carbon-rich material can help soil fertility and plant health. The RHS information in the above link says results can be mixed, with reduced effects found in alkaline soils. This may help to explain the lack of difference I found in my previous trial as VP Gardens is on a lime-rich soil. Plantsurge is a different beast altogether. It's a strong magnet which is attached to a hosepipe as shown in the photo above. It's claimed that it softens water, with the result more like watering with rainwater. The higher nitrogen found in rainwater is thought to be beneficial to plants. Gardener
Read more

Chelsea Fringe 2014: Shows of Hands - Episode I

Image
The gloves NAH used to build the raised bed . The effects are L to R, top to bottom:  Original photo, Warhol, HDR, Green tint, B&W, Posterize, Boost, Cross process and Sepia Welcome to Shows of Hands - my Chelsea Fringe project for 2014! As you can see I've been having a bit of a play around in Pic Monkey for my first contribution. You're welcome to join in between now and 8th June 2014. The idea behind this year's project is to highlight the tool most precious to a gardener: their hands. How do I take part? It's simple. All you need to do is take a photo of hand(s) in a gardening context and then share it via your blog or other social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), then make sure I know you've done so. I've set up Mr Linky below for your blog contributions. The Chelsea Fringe photo on the right sidebar links to this post, so you can easily find it again when you're ready to add your contribution. If you share your photo on Twitter,
Read more

Make Use of Mildew

Image
On my garden patrol this morning I spotted some powdery mildew on a couple of my new Verbena bonariensis plants. I suppose it was almost inevitable as I prefer to grow my plants hard - this means no water for them unless they look absolutely desperate. This approach means plants root themselves more deeply and have a better chance of survival during spells of dry weather like we've had lately. However, it also means I run the risk of problems like today's, especially with any garden newbies planted late in the season. We've had a good drop of rain overnight, so this should help my plants survive. I'll mulch them later today to help lock in the moisture as it's water stress which encourages the mildew to take hold. I've also removed the infected leaves and sprayed the rest with a milky drink.* I'm also pleased to find there's a use for my infected leaves. Oliver Ellingham at Reading University has started a PhD - sponsored by the RHS - researchi
Read more