Our heatwave is over – thank goodness! My plants and I were wilting before the rain and lower temperatures came and rescued us both. The air is now so much fresher and plants are once again standing proud and looking happy!
Phormium Yellow Wave.
Looking through the photos that I have taken for today’s post, it has dawned on me that a lot of them are evergreens, these are the leaves that are still looking good in spite of all the unexpected heat that we have had recently.
I know I showed this photo in the last post, but I think there is interest, even though there aren’t any flowers.
Also in the gravel garden along with the phormium above are Echeveria and Aeonium Schwartzcopf, making a nice contrast.
Also in the gravel area is Euphorbia mellifera next to Pittosporum Irene Patteson.
In the back garden a blue cedar is next to Philadephus coronarius Aureus………
….and next to them is a variegated laurel.
All the Horse chestnut trees that we have, are showing once again, that they have been infested by the larvae of the moth that is attacking them all. It doesn’t seem to damage the tree, but how long can it put up with having its leaves attacked like this each year?
Darmera peltata behind the scree, was thinking of flopping in the heat, but the rain came in time and rescued it.
A tree heath behind the Darmera is getting too big, must cut it back to a more manageable size.
At the far end of the bog, the ferns and hostas are still looking bright and perky.
Acanthus mollis is just thinking about flopping, they need so much water to keep their huge leaves turgid.
In the border by the field Phlomis russeliana is happy in the heat and sunshine.
A Berberis in the dead oak bed is fine, no matter what the weather is.
When the heat strikes, it is definitely the evergreens that come off best, they seem to cope far better than the deciduous leaves when there is a lack of moisture in the soil. Hopefully by now, all my plants have got their roots down nice and deep in the heavy clay, so should be able to find moisture there for quite some time.
Thanks as usual to Christina at My Hesperides Garden for encouraging us all to look at the foliage in our gardens. Do pay her a visit to see other foliage from around the world.
Your observation about evergreens coping better with drought is definitely true in Italy; I think that is why most people want evergreen shrubs rather than herbaceous plants. I also know that having clay soil makes a huge difference, a friend has very heavy clay and her plants survive much better than mine in their very free draining soil. the view of the seat under the pergola is very inviting and I also love the Hosta and fern combination. thanks for joining GBFD every month it is always very special for me to be able to see such beautiful foliage planting.
It’s at this time of year that I appreciate our heavy clay Christina, our last garden in the N.W was on sand, so was just the opposite! The evergreens are definitely looking better than the rest of the foliage, but we have more rain on the way so the plants should be ok.
I’m glad to see everything is looking much fresher where you are with so many lovely shades of green. Our heatwave is still continuing with no rain yet – and the leaves do have that dull, dry look. I think the same about the horse chestnuts here.
I hope rain soon reaches you Wendy, I was so glad to see it here, you could almost hear the garden breathing a sigh of relief!
I don’t know what the answer is for our poor chestnut trees, they look such a mess and have already started dropping their leaves. I can’t help but feel that it must affect the trees in the long run.
A beautifully illustrated post, your observations are very interesting, so timely too. No rain here yet …. Despite being on heavy clay, the spring planted herbaceous perennials and deciduous shrubs are crying out for a good soaking. The shady seating area looks invitingly cool🙂.
Thank you Kate. What we need is a good downpour, we just keep getting sprinklings! Hope you get some rain soon, I’m sure all our gardens need it after all the heat.
The arbour area is lovely and cool when we have heat like we have just experienced, I always used to retreat there with a long cold drink and a good book, it was the only way to keep cool, hopefully I will soon be able to do that again!
Pauline, you have a very good gardening eye for setting together contrasting foliage. My favourite is the blue cedar and philadelphus. By the way, the heat wave you had seems to have moved North to Sweden, I have the sprinkler working overtime!
Thank you Denise, you’re very kind, I have to admit I do like contrasting foliage so that even if there aren’t any flowers, there is always interest.
I wish I could use a sprinkler, but we are on a water metre, every single drop has to be paid for, which would cost a fortune in a garden the size of ours!
We are very fortunate to have a drilled well which sources our water between the rock beds over 120m down and provides a fairly limitless supply. We are so lucky.
You certainly are Denise, I envy you!
One of the benefits of gardening in Scotland – heatwaves are few and far between!
You’ve created some lovely structure using some lovely evergreens in your garden Pauline. I particularly like the Euphorbia and Pittosporum they really set each other off.
The intense heat has gone, thank goodness Angie, we’re just not used to it! The evergreens do make good structure, which we enjoy through the winter too, when everything else has died back. I read somewhere, when I was first making the garden here, that you should have 1/3 of the plants evergreen and that is what I’ve tried to do, I think it works.
Oh that phormium is such a graceful shape Pauline and its varying shades of colour have a most cooling effect. Is it evergreen? The chestnuts at the top of our lane have looked most dejected for the last month or so. As you suggest you can’t help but wonder about the long term implications for the trees.
Yes Anna, the phormium is Yellow Wave and is evergreen. It has grown a bit bigger than I thought it would, but like it so much, I don’t want to disturb it.
The Chestnuts are starting to drop their leaves already, the woodland looks quite autumnal these days, the heat wave didn’t help of course.
The gravel garden is a great example of how plants with beautiful foliage can be a major contributor to color and form in the garden. Too many gardeners think of evergreens as boring background plants. I truly believe that all great gardens use foliage just as they use flowers, with consideration of color, texture and form combinations.
Thank you Deb, being evergreen, the scene doesn’t change much when we look out of the window, but there is always colour there. Subdued colour is more restful than the jazzy colours in the rest of the garden, which makes it a good place to sit.
Cooler here but no rain yet – although we don’t seem to have got to the ‘almost drooping’ stage, so perhaps there was sufficient moisture in the soil after all. Your evergreens look brilliant but so do your ferns and hostas – good to see them all
We had more rain overnight, but we are up to high temperatures again today! The ferns and hostas that I showed are in the bog garden, that never dries out, so plants always look nice and perky there.
Your gravel garden really is pretty!I love the foliage you showed here. Good to see the heat hasn’t done any damage. I’m glad it’s a little cooler now too.xxx
Thanks Dina, I too like the foliage in the gravel area! We have been having more rain today, just a few showers which I’m sure the plants appreciated and I like the cooler temperatures too.
I’m so glad the rain came in time! Your foliage combinations are remarkable and I would hate think of these beautiful plants in distress. I’m worried what my garden will look like when I get home in a few days time…it has been in the 90s for more than 6 weeks now. Send a few drops our way if you can:-)
Our forecasters keep promising us more rain Marian, but nothing comes! I don’t know how you or your gardens cope in such high temperatures and for such a long time too, I hope you get some much needed rain soon.
I have a pot just like that. Your garden seems to be coping well with the drought. We still haven’ t had any rain. I love the idea of a gravel garden. I used to have one and it looked good all year round. My Horse Chestnuts have the same problem each year. I am always surprised that they come back as good as new each spring.
We keep having showers Chloris, but what I would really like, is for it to rain all one night because the ground is so dry. Big pots make a good focal point for an area I think, I leave mine empty of plants, do you?
Blue tits have been seen pecking at the larvae in the Horse Chestnut leaves, if only we could train them up to eat them all and break the life cycle of the moth that is causing the damage!
We caught that heat wave in London.
Enjoyed our balcony in the shade of tall trees overlooking the water.
The heat was nice for a short time Diana, but I prefer cooler weather I’m afraid! The forecasters tell us it is returning next week followed by thunderstorms!