July should be hot, but not here, certainly not a flaming July so far! We have had mixed weather this month, a lot of cloud, some days warm, others a bit chilly, a little rain but not as much as I or my plants would like and a little bit of sunshine. The plants have carried on as normal and flowered away as usual, so let me show what I have flowering in my garden at the moment.
The hydrangea under my kitchen window.
I think the hydrangea by my front door stays pink because of the concrete and cement that must be in the soil.
White agapanthus by the driveway have started flowering before the blue ones, hopefully they won’t be far behind.
Hypericum prolificum is a lovely shrub/small tree in the border by the dead oak.
Stipa gigantea at the end of the dead oak border, this looks wonderful when the sun is shining through it.
Clematis Perle d’Azur is climbing up Rosa Mdme Alfred Carrier on the pergola and then up the apple tree.
Hydrangea Blue Wave is underneath C. Perle d’Azur and continues in the same colour.
Also on the pergola is Trachelospernum jasminoides which this year is absolutely covered in flower. I thought my gardener last year had almost killed it when he cut it back so hard, he obviously knew what he was doing! The perfume here is amazing.
A lovely day lily, hemerocallis, up by the pond which wasn’t flowering when I did a seperate post about them.
A nyrtle tree underneath the dead oak is now flowering and will contiue for some time. It is unfortunately getting far too big, so will have to think about what action needs to be taken.
Lysymachia punctata Firecracker which is a thug! It has designs on world domination, so be warned if you plant it. I am always pulling it out when it wanders too far!
Better behaved is Lysimachia ephemerum here with Rosa Iceberg.
This hydrangea still hasn’t decided if it wants to be pink or blue, a bit in between, unlike its neighbour which is a lovely shade of blue.
Santolina Lemon Fizz is fizzing away on the alpine scree.
There are quite a few Fuchsias flowering at the moment and they will all carry on until the frosts. This one is F. Whiteknights Blush.
That finishes my tour of the garden. The roses and day lilies are also still flowering away and contributing to the colour in the garden, but I have recently done posts about them. The garden is full of baby birds at the moment and my little meadow area is bringing in the little brown butterflies as I had hoped, Meadow Browns, Gatekeepers and Ringlets.
Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens once again for hosting this each month, do pop over and see what else is flowering in the world at the moment.
Here I thought I had something rare and special in bloom for the first time, and then I see you have a much nicer patch of Lysimachia Ephemerum than I will ever have!
Everything looks quite happy, cool weather or not. I love the lushness of your hydrangeas, here the large mopheads nearly always loose their flower buds to a late freeze so the display is never as nice as yours, but I’m nursing along a few lacecaps which will hopefully come close.
We did have a nice soak last week but the 10 day shows hot weather on its way so I will keep the hose out and ready!
My Lysimachia ephemerum has been in a long time so has had time to grow to a decent clump, yours will grow too! We are lucky here in that we don’t have much frost so our hydrangers aren’t usually affected, do you leave your old flower heads on to protect the new buds?
I do but maybe I’ll start leaving them on longer in the spring and see if it helps. Sometimes the branches still die back to the base if the winter is harsh. Another problem is late frosts which burn all the fresh growth and flower buds as well… I don’t think the mopheads were made for this climate!
Love your hydrangeas Pauline, what a display. I’m glad your gardener knew what he was doing with the Trachelospernum. I always seem to be pruning my shrubs at the wrong time. I really must pay more attention to the RHS Pruning book!
Glad you like the hydrangeas Denise, they do provide colour for such a long time in the summer and there are so many new varieties produced these days. My pruning is also very hit and miss, I certainly don’t get it right every time!
I would love a better behaved Lysimachia. I ripped out most of it because it wanted to take over the world. I did leave a tiny stand while I try to figure out how to contain it.
-Ray
I’m still getting rid of clumps that have appeared from nowhere Ray, I really wish it was better behaved! I think it would need something strong around it like some bamboos.
Oh, so many beauties! The weather is odd at the moment for sure. We seem to have summer in the spring now! I do hope your hydrangea chooses blue!xxx
Lovely sunshine yesterday and today Dina, but more rain due at the weekend for us, which we do need.My Hydrangea seems to be in 2 minds though, part of it is lilac, so I’m hoping it chooses to be blue as I seem to have far too much pink in the garden at the moment!
Always good to see what’s happening in your garden, Pauline. The differences in ‘normal’ flowering times has been really interesting to observe this year
Thanks Cathy, the flowers are just carrying on without much attention from me. We could do with more rain, I’m having to fling buckets of water over a few shrubs. The forecasters keep promising it but it never seems to reach us.