The week started last Monday with torrential rain which lasted all day, so more flooding! Since then though it has been sunny with just the odd shower for the rest of the week and similar forecast for the weekend. Not much work has been done as the ground has been so wet and soggy, I’ll have to try and catch up sometime. In the meantime I’ve taken lots of photos so now will have to decide which six to put on my post.
Primula vialii which is a recent replacement for one that I had years ago but lost as I didn’t split it when I should. The books say they need splitting after 2 or 3 yrs and I didn’t, eventually one year they just didn’t appear any more, so this time I must pay more attention to what I should be doing.
The rose Golden Wedding which was sent over from Canada for our Golden Wedding 8 yrs ago. Well it came from M&S but you know what I mean, a nice reminder of my dear undergardener from my nephew.
A really lovely dark red rose, The Dark Ldy, with a perfume to match, smells just how you would expect a dark red rose to smell.
Libertia grandiflora which is up by the pond, is flowering away at the moment and looking very happy in the damp soil.
Another plant that has been very happy in the floodwater is Iris pseudacorus, the yellow flag iris, which is one of our native wild flowers.
A lovely little dwarf Rhododendron on the rockery, seems very happy where I’ve put her.
A Hydrangea flowering in May? This one, in a corner of the back garden, can’t wait to join in with everything else. It ends up a beautiful pale blue which lights up the dark corner.
Here is an update on my wild orchid, the flower stem has formed and is starting to elongate. Maybe by next week I will have the flower spike to show you.
There we have my six or so for this week, the rest of my photos will have to wait until next time. The garden is going full steam ahead and there is no stopping it now. I always feel that I can’t keep up with all the work that needs doing , but from experience I know that things will be ok in the end. Thanks to Jim at Garden Ruminations, who will be showing gardens from around the world. Hope you have a good gardening weekend.
The wildorchid is very exciting! I shall be watching. Primula vialii is a great favourite, but I’ve found it very fleeting too. It doesn’t seem quite real, so unlike anything else. Lovely golden rose. Hope you start to dry out now. Have a good week.
And I will be too Gill, I go to check on it each day, hoping that a rabbit hasn’t taken a liking to it! Weather lovely and sunny today, but we had thunderstorms yesterday which means that everywhere is very wet once more.
Sorry to hear you’ve had more flooding, Pauline. I hope it dries up quickly now and you get some decent weather. Your full selection of plants this week is gorgeous – it would be hard to pick just one as a favourite. It’s good that you have some who appreciate having their feet in wet soil, such as the lovely yellow flag iris.
The two roses are gorgeous, I love ‘The Dark Lady’ – beautiful. My roses appear before June (perhaps later as I pruned them late – and hard!) though I’m watching some buds on a rugosa! Here’s hoping the sun shines on your garden!
Yesterdays thunderstorms didn’t help Catherine, but at least I can manage to get round the garden once more. There are a few plants that seem to enjoy all the rain, like Primula japonica, so I’ll just have to increase those, lots of seed needs to be saved. The dark lady is a lovely rose, to look at and to sniff!
very nice choice this week, and this wild orchid is full of promise! I can’t wait to see the flower. Regarding the primula vialii I had the same problem: mine flowered for 2 years, and I no longer see them so well that I no longer know where they are. I should have split them like you said…
Thanks Fred, hopefully the orchid will show its flowers next week, I will keep checking!I will put Primula vialii nearer to the house this time where I can keep an eye on it and hopefully it will remind me to split it next year!
Lovely roses and the wild orchid is exciting.
Thanks Rosie!
Beautiful flowers but especially the hydrangea. Looking forward to seeing the orchid!
I was amazed when I saw the hydrangea flower opening so early Helen,I thought I almost lost it last year and cut it right back, so if anything, I thought it would flower later than usual.The orchid is keeping us all waiting!
What a special yellow rose, with sweet memories.
Thanks Susie, would you believe it is now 7 years? The rose is a lovely reminder.
I brought a dark red rose with a wonderful scent with me to Sweden years ago. After some years it died and I never knew its name. But now the Dark Lady would be a good replacement I think.
Sorry to hear you lost your rose Denise, hopefully you will be able to find a replacement which will be just as good, The Dark Lady has such a wonderful perfume
Ahh rain, so loved when needed and so hated when we want to get out into the garden and save our drowning plants! I have both rain barrels full now and damps soild everywhere, so I will only need to potentially water ungerminated seeds and very young seedlings.
The wild orchid is very exciting! Beautiful roses too! I cannot imagine that even our native roses would do well in my yard once the Japanese Beetles get going. Much like the hungry slugs that others on this blog write about, for me it is the JBs that show up just as the Echinacea purpurea is beginning to bloom and they will destroy every flower if you let them. The key is to kill every one you find. I am hoping that the drought made reproduction more difficult – they need moist turfgrass to lay their eggs. It may be a good year for flowers…
Unfortunately Elizabeth we have had more than our fair share of rain over the winter and spring, it has been torrential at times and is the wettest winter and spring on record. Half my garden is still flooded and I have lost lots of plants that don’t want to sit in water for 6 months!
Good luck with hunting your beetles!
That’s a pretty dwarf rhododendron, Pauline, and I was interested in your Primula vialii, which I gave up trying to grow as it never lasted more than a year. Lovely roses too!
Thanks Cathy, the dwarf rhododendron is a small one on the rockery and I think it likes living there. I will remember to split my Primula vialii this time, that is where I went wrong before.