I am sorry but probably along with many this week, I have to mention the weather. It has not been flaming June! Quite the reverse, it’s been cold and very wet. In one aspect it’s been good, we desperately need our land to be watered and our water butts filled. However, it’s been too much of a good thing and not only made us gardeners happy, but the weeds have also thrived and the slugs and snails have been delighted with plenty to chew.
My Six this week are from my daughter’s garden, which you know, if you follow me, I help look after.
1. Lupins
Daughter and SiL’s neighbours have a beautiful garden and last year brought around a wheelbarrow full of plants they were digging up. One was this magnificent lupin. It had finished flowering when we were given it, so to see a mass of dark purple flower heads appear this year is an absolute treat.
2. Salvia ‘Hot Lips’
This was one of many salvias I planted in their garden last year. ‘Hot Lips’ is one of my favorite salvias. I gave it a good haircut earlier this year and look at it now.
3. Roses ‘Graham Thomas’
I’m delighted daughter and SiL are into roses and they have brought lots of shrubs from David Austin. ‘Graham Thomas’ is a climber with large, delicately scented blooms. The rain has ruined the open flowers but the emerging buds are well worth sharing.
4. Bottle Brush shrub
Callistemon is the proper name for the ‘Bottle Brush’, although I suspect most people know it better by its common name because it does look like a bottlebrush. I love the bright red color it brings to a garden and being next to the Hot Lips salvia that part of the garden lights up.
5. Delphiniums and Alchemilla Mollis
In contrast to the ’red corner’, on the other side of the garden is a refreshing combination. I’m sure this delphinium was a pale blue when I planted it last year. It is a beautiful dark blue/purple and has produced a lot of flower spikes. Sometimes color combinations happen more by accident than desire. The contrast of the ‘delphiniums blue’ (A.A.Milne’s The Dormouse and the Doctor), the yellow/green alchemilla mollis with the blue salvias in the background are a picture to behold.
6. Clematis (name unknown)
When we cleared the unruly growth covering the garage last year, there were a few climbers we left behind. One was this clematis, with a dark purple flower the size of a saucer. I included it in a post last year and asked if anyone could name it. There are so many clematis so I knew that would be a difficult question, one person suggested ’President’, I guess we will never know for sure.
The weekly Six on Saturday is hosted by The Propagator and is followed by a vast number of bloggers showing off their weekly wares. Hop over and take a look and catch up on what is growing in other gardens this week.
