In a Vase on Monday - In drought times

Hydrangeas are definitely a shrub which does well given the weather we usually have with a good down pour every few days.  Since until 12 o'clock today when we had a five minute shower, there has been no rain and wall to wall blistering hot sun, for several weeks.  

One of the shrubs in the garden getting the odd bucket of water has been a hydrangea. Three stems of a pink unnamed hydrangea were all the better for having a soak up to their blooms in a bucket of water.  These make the central part of this arrangement.  

Two other plants that are coping well with no watering are the Origanums, and these ones were cut from  Origanum 'Emma Stanley'.  The arching stems from Pseudodictamnus acetabulosus, and a third additional element are the stems from Hylotelephium  erythrostictum 'Frosty Morn' left over from a previous arrangement.

I mentioned in my SOS post a couple of weeks ago that I ought to take a few cuttings of Origanum 'Emma Stanley' and to bring on fresh growth I have cut off all the old stems, so in addition to this vase and a vase full which are being dried.  It is the new growth when growing vigorously that I shall use for cuttings, and also hopefully there will be a good later season show of blooms in the gravel garden, The long curving stems of Pseudodictamnus also make very good drying material.

Together with several keen gardeners, I am linking in my arrangement of home grow flowers to Cathy's post on 'Rambling in the Garden'. 

 

Six from my Garden - 12/07/2025

With the drought and wall to wall sunshine for several days, the garden is really taking a battering with things such as rose petals becoming desiccated within a day of opening.  I remember 1976 and I think this is harsher, but perhaps it is because I am further south than I was then.  It is really getting hard to find six plants that have not capitulated or that I can't bear to show.  There are others who live perhaps under more benign or with a much higher water table, they of course will be showing a more interesting array of plants and like me will be linking their posts to Jim's for these ruminations called Six on Saturday.

1. The Eryngiums seem to be showing their best colour this week with Eryngium Silver Ghost turning a good silver after looking somewhat greener a few weeks ago:

Eryngium Silver Ghost

Here in the bright sunshine it isn't dramatic as it is late evening, and with the hot nights, we have been sitting out late when the silver leaved plants show up nicely.

2. Over on the side of the seating circle the steely blue of Eryngium Planum Tetra Petra, is the best it has been for some time.

Eryngium Planum Tetra Petra

3. All sorts of bumblebees and flying insects and butterflies have been flying in the garden and availing themselves of nectar and pollen.  

4. Last week I mentioned the surprise and joy of finding a little frog.  Yesterday morning early when I went to remove some pots from a large deep tray where they had been taking up water overnight, I was even more surprised to find this toad.  This time I had my phone to hand.  This is the first time I have seen a toad in this garden.

5. This low growing creeping plant has also been a godsend for the pollinators and makes a nice addition to the edge of the gravel garden.

Phyla nodiflora commonly called Turkey tangle frogfruit

6. When one sees an unusual plant it registers somewhere deep down.  I admired this plant in a new acquaintance's garden several years ago when she had not long taken over from a person I happened to know from dancing. Again a couple of years later, whilst on holiday in Wales this plant situated in a  Japanese garden once more drew my attention.  This is the picture I took then in The Botanic Gardens of Wales.

  

I since got to know Kate and we visited each other's gardens a number of times.  She remembered my mentioning this plant, and just before she uprooted and moved away, with her car full of last minute packing, she turned up with a few small pieces.  It was touch and go but I am delighted to say that given a larger pot and quality compost, the sun and a little watering seems to have brought them to the point where I dare describe them as small flourishing Toona sinensis 'Flamingo' plants.  The other name for these is Chinese Mahogany.

Toona sinensis 'Flamingo' starter plants

It grows to be a big tree, but I shall hopefully keep it within check.

Decorated Focaccia

 Within my WI we have a crafty group that meet each month, and our leader suggested that I do a demonstration of a decorated Focaccia.  

There are loads of eye candy type coverings on the internet, and our leader already tried an instant shop bought focaccia mix.  We ought to have a proper base!  Yesterday I had a trial run at home, and just wanted to try to see what replacing half of the flour with sifted wholemeal flour would produce.  

Decorated and ready for final rise

I didn't quite get the process right as there were not the "consistently inconsistent bubbles", probably dimpled it too many times, but it was very light, delicious.  Anne said she would be alright with just white flour, so I shall be taking two batches of dough on Tuesday for the ladies to decorate.

Out of the Oven

Everything else was in accordance with Jack's recipe and technique.  The focaccia was cut up and filled as in a sandwich with home made pesto, and sliced ham to take to an Italian picnic today.

From my garden, Six things this Saturday

It is the start of another month and although this year I had not planned sufficiently for good summer displays, I've managed to find Six things from the garden to note down.  For much more summer colour and plant related things, a bunch of us gather under Jim's wing and cogitate over our gardens.  You can either just hang over the garden fence as it were, or you can join in with musings of your own, guidelines are on Jim's post. 

1. Last year in September I brought back a few plants purchased from Derry Watkins of Special plants.  One was a small plant then, but just look at it now.  I took a couple of cutting in November, and these together with the original are in the one pot.  This is Pelargonium 'Salmon Angel'. 

Pelargonium 'Salmon Angel'

Behind it is the pelargonium which was given as a plug plant by my gardening club last year which we were to grow on and bring to be judged at the summer party.  I can't remember the name, but it does go quite well with 'Salmon Angel'.

2. These next couple of weeks will be taken over with our shed refurbishment.  It is amazing how the years have flown, it is eight years since it first went up, plants have had to be moved from along the edge and the shed shelf. On the end of the shelf was this white Pelargonium,  again another plug plant from our club for growing on. I have been careful with this, as I hope to go to the Summer Party this year. 

I always feel a little discombobulated when there is disarray, whether it is when the house is being decorated or something like this is taking place.  The pots have been dotted around the garden. Mr S is very competent and also has sourced a membrane that has a twenty year guarantee, rather than just replacing the felt roof.  It will be an upgraded shed, with stainless steel hinges etc, but at the end I shall get busy with the brush and give it a coat of paint inside and out.

3. I looked at the mess of the border now that the poppies are well and truly over.

Over the last two early mornings, I have been out there cutting them to the ground, keeping some stems to use in dried arrangements, and the rest were cut with short stems and put in a large bowl, ready for harvesting the poppy seed which I use in my bread. The bed is looking much better now, and no doubt I shall show it again in the forthcoming weeks.

4. I just couldn't resist another Coleus when I went up to the market on Wednesday. Whilst the shed is being refurbished, they have been moved to sit by the willow.  The growth on Flamethrower Serrano in the foreground has been prestigious, and it has already been moved up a couple of pot sizes.  I planted 'Coral Candy' bought this week in a larger pot straight away. When we were at Dunster Castle recently they were edging the tropical themed beds with Coleus 'Skeletal' with what looked like hundreds of plants, what a show that will be.  I had Coleus  'Skeletal' envy! I am on the hunt for that one, is not a trio after all is a better show than just two?

However the most exciting thing is that when I went down to check the names for this post, a little frog jumped out.  What excitement, with such a rush of endorphins, it is making up for my worry over the lack of rain.  We haven't had a frog in the garden for years. In this hot dry weather it must have been attracted to the damp around the pots.  The large pot at the back is on feet, so there is always a cool and damp place guaranteed there.

5. Summer time is not all about sitting back and enjoying the colourful displays!  I had been meaning to do this job for a few weeks: repotting up young cyclamen that I have been growing from seed from the Cyclamen Society. Now the job has been done, they sit under the blue bench in a relatively cool and shaded situation. Maybe one or two will flower this year.

Cyclamen repotted.

It is also time for me to spread a mulch over the ground where the Cyclamen hederifolium in the garden, they are waiting on some rain to send up their flowers, so I had better get on with that job next week. I have been meaning to mulch that area for a couple of years, but there is a small window to do it in, as that is where early spring bulbs are situated too.

6. I have been buying the odd packs of small plants from the stall within the Bishop's Palace - simply to support them I tell myself.  Although it says things like Antirrhinum it doesn't give the cultivar, but am I embracing the real 'Cottage Garden' ethos, when planting just bits that become available?  It was when planting these early yesterday morning that I experienced the hard clay phase of our garden.  With water and compost I managed to make a planting hole suitable to take what is only a little more than a seedling, quite different to the large Antirrhinum which I saw recently at Waitrose, fully in bloom, looking like they were ready to plant out in some Hampton Court Palace Show garden.  I did however prepare a good large spot for them to grow into. It also made me realise that the roses could really do with a good watering.  They are very slow to reflower after their first flush, but I do have one flowering stem.

Rose Home Florist Timeless 'Charisma'

This morning any rain is amounting to a very light mizzle, just enough to make a glass surface such as our conservatory roof damp.

In a Vase on Monday at the end of June

The heat is damaging the plants in the garden and the scorching sun is taking its toll too.  An early spell gardening at around six this morning meant I was able to pick a few stems of the hydrangea before they start to flop. For other fine arrangements from garden material do go over to Cathy's post.

  

To give you an idea on how hot and dry it is, the washing dried in two hours!

The Hydrangea was first cultivated in Japan and flowers during their rainy season of June and July and etymologically hydrangea stems from the Greek words for water, hydros so fitting  since hydrangeas require constant moisture to stay happy, healthy and blooming. And spare waste water goes to them every few days.

Hylotelephium  erythrostictum 'Frosty Morn', aka 'Alison's sedum' by me since the first plant was given to me by Alison who used to contribute to IAVOM.  It certainly is a cool looking plant, with its cream edged thick waxy leaves. The blooms are still at the tight bud stage, and may not open. Another IAVOM gift from Cathy, which I love is the Persicaria Red Dragon, and to finish off the arrangement, I have added some poppy seed heads.