A WEEK IN MY GARDEN - 29 AUGUST - DAISIES AND NASTURTIUMS

I thought I would kick off this week's post with yellow daisy-type flowers.  Along the Long Border there are plenty of them mixing in with the dahlias to provide lots of late Summer colour.  All of them are easy to grow.  

The first of these is Helianthus 'Lemon Queen', which I bought many years ago and has flowered well ever since, expanding in girth, but not in a troublesome way.  It gets some support from one of those twisty plant stakes.

There is also Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' which is shorter and was in last week's blog, and then Rudbeckia laciniata 'Herbstonne' which is the giant one at 2m high. This hasn't been quite so good this year.  It may be the dry weather or it may need dividing. We'll find out next year.

A final one for the Long Border before we move on.  Last week I featured Kniphfia 'rooperi', which has now finished flowering.  This week we have the very similar Nobilis, which flowers just a bit later.  It's flowers are a bit shorter and fatter - more drumstick like- than those of 'rooperi'. It was another purchase from Great Dixter.  I got one of each to try them out, and they are both good.

Also growing in the Long Border are nasturtiums. Mostly 'Alaska' with the marbled leaves, but some self seeded ones too.  They survive, but don't thrive.  I has always read that they shouldn't be given rich soil as they would flower poorly, and I'm now questioning this received wisdom.  For behold - the biggest Nasturtium in the world! 🤯

That's just the one self seeded nasturtium in the planter which holds a standard Portuguese Laurel.  The secret of its success?  Being watered regularly, as all the pots are, and being situated in the cats toilet of choice.  

Moving on swiftly, my next plant in a pot is this Dianthus. I brought one years ago because I love the scent and it had got very straggly and old.  I propagated from it in the Spring and now have some lovely mature plants.  It was so easy to do as well.

 

As I mentioned last week, the rose are starting to re-flower.  This is Iceberg in the front garden.  There is a thicket of shrubs behind them which needs tackling.  The foreground is pulmonaria, hosta and sisyrinchium.  

It's all coming out a bit random this week, but I wanted to mention this herbaceous clematis, Clematis integrifolia' as well, just because it seems to have been flowering on and off for a couple of months now and that's the kind of plant I like. It grows about 30cm high and you just cut it back to the ground in Spring.

So that's all for this week/last week.  Hopefully I've managed to catch up now and I can write another one on Friday to celebrate the rain we've been getting at long last.  Thank you for reading and see you soon.