Penstemons and Roses

Long before I became interested in gardening, my first introduction to Penstemons was via my father in law.  He grew all sorts of varieties, but I was young and paid little notice.  I had no idea how easy they are to grow and they are slug and snail proof!  A couple of years ago I bought Penstemon ‘Garnet’, I give it a hardy prune early Spring and it rewards me with an abundance of flowers.  It has made its way through the Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ which blends in well with Garnet.

 

Last year I bought three more Penstemons, ‘Sour Grapes’ which is an almost florescent bluish purple, the pretty pink and white ‘Vocano Fujiyama’ and a similar colored ‘Apple Blossom’ which had not flowered yet, hence only pics of the first two.

  

  In keeping with an Enlish country garden in June, the roses are looking magnificent.    The ‘Compassion’ rose never fails and was the first to flower earlier this month. 

   

 I love the ‘Peace’ rose, bought for me on my 60th by a friend as a ‘Silver Jubilee’ rose, it was clearly mislabeled but turned out to be a gem for the garden.

This year the ‘Ballerina’ is doing particularly well, adding much needed color at the bottom of the garden.  This is always necessary at this time of year when the spring plants have died down and the summer flowers are yet to make a show.

 I have one rose without a label and can’t for the life of me remember it’s name.  However it’s vibrant color is a joy, although once it’s fully flowered, unlike the ‘Peace’, it doesn’t hold its blooms for long and the petals fall quickly. 

Not one to be deterred or beaten by the technology it has taken me a week to get this post correctly loaded.  For some reason the WordPress app on my iPad has been very unforgiving and has sorely tried my patience.  A bit of Googling and setting readjustments, along with a friend suggesting I upload the photos first and then add the writing I finally succeeded.