As the trees spread their shade in the garden, much of it consists of textures and shades of green, but there also some star performers that provide splashes of colour, especially in shades of pink. The earlier cool, wet growing conditions has meant that the plants that successfully outpaced the slugs and snails have reached giant proportions and I find myself looking up at many of them. The Nicotiana have never been finer and although they tend to wilt a bit in the heat, they quickly recover.
It is also a wonderful year for hollyhocks with many of them over two metres high and flowering their socks off. The dahlias have been more variable with Rip City munched to oblivion (I’m about to dig it up and see if I can resuscitate it) while Hillcrest Royal has never looked finer.