This long spell of dry weather is affecting the garden now. The grass is crispy underfoot and despite watering more than I think I have ever done before, many plants are sadly wilted. The promised 100% chance of rain this evening has proved to be nothing of the sort. Fingers and toes crossed for some rain soon. It's not all doom and gloom as I have managed to find some plants that are looking at their best to show you this week.
Day Lilies first. The one taking centre stage is Catherine Woodbury, which I tracked down after admiring it in an NGS garden. It has taken years for it to do anything much, but it has finally got going. The flowers are much larger than the copper coloured one behind it, which I also love. This was one of the original rabbit proof plants that were in the garden when we moved here and it's easily to propagate by division so there are large clumps of it throughout the Rose Garden.
The soft fruits are all ready to harvest. Mr B's fingers were very sore after picking these 'Hinnonmaki Red' Gooseberries. They were quite small and the thorns were vicious. I have promised to make him a Gooseberry fool as a reward.
A pretty large flowered Clematis Comtesse de Bouchaud grows up an obelisk in a large square pot. It didn't look like it was intending to grow at all this Spring, so its a great relief to see it looking so good now. Unfortunately I missed the opportunity to train it to cover the bottom of its support as it raced straight to the top when I turned my back.
I do like to have some Pelargoniums and Salvias in pots as they tend to do well in hot dry Summers and don't mind a more casual watering regime. This one is called 'Plum Rambler'. I lost most of my Pelargoniums over the winter but I'm glad this one survived as it is one of my favourites.
I planted this in the Knot Garden last year. It has two names it appears - Stachys officinalis 'Hummelo' is also known as Betonica officinalis 'Hummelo'. Little purple bottle brush flowers appear above a base of arrow shaped leaves.
My project to write about every rose in the garden has stalled but I'm sneaking one in at the end of this post anyway. I visited David Austin Roses a couple of weeks ago and bought this one there. It's called 'The Ancient Mariner' because Albatross killing old sailors are just what springs to mind when you think about pale pink cabbage roses. It has made me want to read the poem again though. I have copy which I bought mainly for the Gustave Dore engravings.
Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
S T Coleridge
Thank you for reading and hope to see you again next week.
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