My Little Garden 24th July 2021
I went to the RHS Tatton flower show on Wednesday and apart from the queues to get in and the sweltering heat, it was a highly enjoyable day. Everything was well laid out and the sides of the Floral Marquee were mostly open which was a vast improvement on a hot day, regardless of Covid. As the show opened after the 19th of July there was no requirement for either a negative lateral flow test or proof of vaccination and given how long the aforementioned queues were to get in, I dread to think how staff would have coped if there had been.
I didn’t buy any plants but I was pleased to see that my favourite nursery Bluebell Cottage Garden had won a gold medal for their fabulous display. And they got a mention from Carol Klein on the BBC show about Tatton last night. It’s just as well the husband was out playing in a golf competition as there would have been mutterings about a Friday evening with two back to back hours of garden related programmes. I usually watch Gardeners World on iPlayer but I wanted to see the feature on Ulting Wick which is a garden I would really love to see.
At home, It’s been too hot to do much in the garden other than watering and a bit of deadheading, but I have a plant of the week award to give out. Or should that be a gold medal……
- Agapanthus
I bought this plant about 7 years ago from the nursery at Arley Hall which is another favourite place to buy plants. Like Bluebell they are also peatfree and they have a great selection of plants, pots and peatfree compost. I think the variety might be Torbay and it has over 30 flowers which I think is pretty impressive!
2. Monarda
Another plant that I bought from Arley more recently is a pink monarda.
The variety is either ‘Croftway Pink’ which is the one I was looking for, or ‘Beauty of Cobham’ but I have had a mental block (I’m blaming the heat). I hope I’ve got the label somewhere because I don’t normally lose them this quickly.
3. Heucherella
I’m including this one because it came from Plantagogo who are the Master Growers at Tatton this year. I know the name of this one just to prove my memory isn’t completely going and it’s H. ‘Art Nouveau’. The leaves are fabulously huge and it has pretty little sprays of white flowers.
4. Thalictrum Elin
I need a ladder to get a decent shot of this one because it’s so tall. It’s probably a little past its best after the heatwave but it deserves to be included this week.
5. Achillea
I struggle with achillea in my garden and annoyingly it’s this one, which is completely the wrong colour for it’s location, that’s the only one to thrive. will I think it could be a variety called ‘Summer Pastels' but I can’t guarantee it. Fortunately I am considerably more organised with the plants I buy for clients and make lists!
6. Dahlia
This is Dahlia ‘Honka Fragile’ and the second of my dahlias to flower. Isn’t it gorgeous!
And on that happy note we come to the end of this week’s Six on Saturday.
If you want to find out what’s happening elsewhere around the gardening world, take a look at the blog of The Propagator (aka the boss of Six on Saturday).
https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/
And as always there are many more excellent photos on twitter under the hashtag#SixonSaturday
Thank you for reading and have a great weekend.
