A Bit of a Belated Bloomsday

Things have been a bit topsy turvy since I got back from Staffordshire, so it's only now that I'm beginning to make sense of what's happening in my garden blooms wise. Here's just a small selection of what's actually there: the rest are filed away neatly so I have a full record, but these are the ones I particularly want to talk about this month.

The Clematis are in full flow (see the right hand pictures) and are the first thing which greet me when I go into the garden, particularly the obelisks in the top picture (also shown here) and C. 'Elsa Spath' in the middle. C. 'Dr. Ruppel' in the bottom picture is flowering for the first time, even though he's been in my garden for 3 years. I'm being a bit cruel to him by confining him to a pot in the shadier part of the garden. Perhaps I need to set him free elsewhere...

The roses have finally started to bloom too. Here we have R. 'Congratulations' (middle bottom picture), given to me last year by my friend C from choir and R. 'Zepharine Drouhin', a thornless rose I have in a very large pot by the pergola at the side entrance to the back garden. A good one to have there as it means no-one has a surprise when they brush past. She has a heavenly scent too, and is therefore a good welcome into the garden. However, when I bent down to sniff at this bloom when taking its picture, an adult vine weevil fell into my hand :(

The very middle picture is of assorted geraniums of the cranesbill variety. This is for the record as I'm about to start ripping out plants from this part of the garden (the single terrace bed) and who knows how these will do in the process. I think I'll do a precautionary belated 'Chelsea Chop' first...

The top left is Aquilegia 'McKenna's hybrid', the only one I have left of my original planting. The rest have died back and self seeded themselves into the usual muddy pink and purple forms. I'm wondering how much longer this one will last.

Then there's my 'river' of Allium christophii in the middle left. I used to think one could never have too many of this firework-like member of the onion family, but self-seeding over the past couple of years has shown me otherwise. I like the river effect, but there's too many of them vying for attention now and a little thinning is needed.

Finally there's loads of elderflowers just ripe for the picking to make cordial, elderflower & gooseberry fool or ice cream and all manner of other tasty delights. This is the bounty I have in my garden courtesy of the public land next door. There's sloes and hawthorn berries within reach (as well as elderberries) to follow in the autumn :)

Oops, my Blooms Day post appears to have magically transformed itself into a To Do list. There's nothing like multi-tasking is there? ;)

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

Comments

  1. Plant Mad Nige21 June 2010 at 17:50

    Fabulous pictures, and It's lovely to be back, browsing yours and others' blogs again. We too have a Rosa Z. Drouhin - wouldn't be without that rich perfume.

    We've also a 'Guincho Purple' elder in flower and will try using the pink blooms to make our elderflower cordial this year. I'm hoping it will turn out to be rosé - howzzat for class??!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mr. McGregor's Daughter22 June 2010 at 01:25

    I just love your Clematises, especially the obelisks of them. It's like billows of blooms. I learned in just a single year the danger of allowing the big Alliums to seed about. I moved them last fall, but this spring I was pulling and pulling seedlings from the former position. Yes, you can have too much of a good thing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. VP22 June 2010 at 17:40

    Nige - good to see you again! I've been enjoying your posts from Singapore and Malaysia :)

    Last year's 2nd batch of cordial included some pink elderflowers from next door. Even a few of them added a distinct pink tinge - very classy

    MMD - thanks. It's effective yet a very easy thing to do - my kind of gardening :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Melody22 June 2010 at 20:30

    Lovely blooms. Glad to know I am not that only one that can't just look at teh flowers. I am always amking plans for the next step - lol.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Elizabeth Musgrave22 June 2010 at 23:08

    Too many alliums? What a great problem to have! I have just been making notes to plant yet more, must not have got to the self seeding stage yet.
    Wonderful photos.

    ReplyDelete
  6. VP3 July 2010 at 11:08

    Melody - welcome :) It's such a natural thing to do isn't it?

    Elizabeth - shame I didn't know earlier in the year, I could have dug up some of my bulbs for you

    ReplyDelete

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