My Little Garden 28th Aug 2021
It’s been a very pleasant end to the month of August. The weather decided to return to something approaching summer-like and we escaped on a little mini break to Shrewsbury and Wales. Gardens have been visited (I didn’t mention them all to the husband in advance just in case he came up with an alternative plan) and they were all very different and very enjoyable. To add the icing to the cake, I’ve had an article accepted for publication in Cheshire Life magazine with the prospect of regular monthly garden features in 2022. Exciting times!
Before we left, the garden was thoroughly watered as I didn’t want to return home to wilting flowers in the pots. Fortunately for the garden, whilst it didn’t rain, the late summer heatwave didn’t materialise either and after more watering duties were completed on Friday evening order was restored ready for the Bank Holiday weekend and Six on Saturday. And here we are.
- Gladiolus papilio
This is the new plant that I was gifted last year and I’ve been trying to get a shot of the butterfly-like markings that gives it it’s name. It’s not best photo in the world but you can see more of it’s insides than I showed you last week. Isn’t it gorgeous!
2. Asters or whatever they are called now
It’s so annoying when plants change their names (ok, perhaps highly trivial in the grand scheme of things). Anyway, this one used to be Aster macrophyllus ‘Twilight’ but now it’s Eurybia x herveyi. It has lovely lavender blue flowers followed by very pretty seed heads. The only downside is that it has big juicy leaves and the slugs love it.
The second is one of my favourites that the slimy army ignore and has kept it’s original name. The flowers of Aster amellus ‘Veilchenkonigin’ are just started to open. They will be fabulous up until the first frosts.
3. Hydrangea ‘Little Lime’
A petite version of the more famous Limelight, this variety is just perfect for a small garden or container. The colour starts off white and changes to pink as the season goes on.
4. Persicaria
Planted underneath the hydrangea is a mildly rampant Persicaria ‘Purple Fantasy’. The frost killed off it’s first lot of leaves in spring but that only seemed to encourage it more. It’s currently trying to reach from one side of the lawn to the other.
5. Daisies
Little Erigeron karvinskianos is still going strong in the container it shares to Nassella tenuissima. Another Erigeron that I tried for the first time this year called ‘Lavender Lady’ isn’t doing anywhere near as well.
6. Blue sky
A very welcome sight this week. Oh, and the plants are Jasminium officinalis and Clematis ‘Ernest Markham’ fighting it out for the top spot on the arbour.
The flowers of the clematis are in a very inconvenient place for photos partly because the jasmine needs to be tamed. This shot was a case of poke the camera through the top of the arbour and hope for the best.
And August is a wrap. A busy September and October beckons and I have to explore the world of non rampant conifers for some lovely new clients. At least I’ve my tulips ordered now though! As always 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 there are many more excellent photos on twitter under the hashtag #SixonSaturday
Thank you for reading and have a great bank holiday weekend.
