Our Living-Room has a sliding glass door that opens out onto the garden. Just outside is this:
The little splash of yellow is a Rudbeckia Fulgida "Goldsturm". It is usually pretty vigorous, but this year it is pathetically small, and I don't know why. It has been in the same pot for three years now, so I suppose it needs re-potting, though I always feed it generously.
In stark contrast, my Salvia Cardinalis is looking really good, its tall slender dark-coloured stems tipped with fiery red blooms (supposedly the same color as the robes and caps worn by Roman Catholic cardinals!).
I have found it hard to photograph those flowers - they are just so vivid.
Another poor performer is my Helenium, which normally has a huge mass of russetty-golden blooms at this time of year. Currently it has about 10, and the stems are soft and floppy instead of the usual perky upright ones. Strange.
No such trouble with the "Bishop of Llandaff" dahlia though.
This time it is much taller than before, standing nearly four feet high. You can see it in the background of the first two photos of this post.
Gardening is definitely not a precise art. Plants perform differently from year to year, even when you think you are treating them exactly the same. But that's what makes our hobby so interesting, isn't it? It would be dull if there were no challenges to overcome!