In a Vase on Monday - where has the snap gone?

I last grew Antirrhinums and put them in a vase in 2017. They were tall strong white specimens which I had planted the first year in the garden.  This year I picked up some very young plants from the Bishop's Palace at the start of July and they are just now coming into flower.  The speed at which they have grown is quite remarkable and another strange thing is that they are open throated, which I had not noticed up to now when admiring snapdragons in other gardens. There were in small modules with nine plants and they are just now coming into flower. I think they may be of mixed colour, but these were the first to flower, and by some luck when I planted three lots of three plants, these coral coloured ones were all together.

These antirrhinum have no snap!  In the vase are a few other plants from the garden: Sedum Frosty Morn, Fuchsia 'Tom West', and the flower spike from a heuchera, of which I have no name.  

July garden flowers in a vase.

 I am linking in this arrangement to Cathy's 'Gobstoppers'.

Once again we are having very high temperatures, and the garden is seriously parched. To give you an idea today the washing dried out in the garden in only two hours! The Antirrhinums have need watering regularly, using mainly water run when waiting for the hot water to reach the kitchen sink.  Sadly the forecast shows no rain for the coming fortnight. 

Six on Saturday - 9 August 2025

I wonder what takes the place of the garden and love of plants and gardening in non gardeners?  Can be it something as fickle, which has ways to enchant and ways to cause angst?  Even something completely uncontrollable such insects or weather or disease can stretch ones feelings whether is is pleasure or pain?  This is a rhetorical question.  It is Six on Saturday so to a few observations to link in with others over in Jim's Garden Rumination post.

1. What is not to like about this glowing fiery nasturtium.  I first admired this one in a friend's garden a few years ago that autumn was given a few seeds, and I was delighted that they came up in the garden despite spending two winters in my seed box under the stairs.  The colour is not easy to capture but they literally glow in the early morning sunlight.

2.  We have had a little day flying moth flit around the garden over a number of days, and I finally managed to find it when I had my phone in hand.  

Jersey Tiger Moth

3. This week saw my dearly beloved finish the external shed refurbishment, and I am particularly pleased with some of the little improvements such as replacement of the rusty hinges for marine quality stainless ones, and also a lovely escutcheon.  Two more coats of paint and the guttering was dismantled cleaned down and the waterbutt reassembled. The internal refurbishment is to take place once the weather cools down. The shelf is back in place, no paint needed there, and plants put back.

4. I may have mentioned that I was disappointed in parts of the garden. Possibly this time it has been my fault, but I have learnt lessons which hopefully when applied will make it a better summer garden next year.  On the way back during a little excursion yesterday we happened to pass East Lambrook Manor Gardens. Somehow I had, it seems quite wrongly, thought the gardens having changed hands had ceased to function as before.  As we saw a sign outside I begged a little forray to see if they had any plants which I could add to fill in some gaps. Even though we didn't have time for a garden visit.  I can confidently report that East Lambrook Manor Gardens are open, and they did have some good plants.  I was delighted that Ellie, the person on duty in the garden filled me in, and I shall be sure to return.

All four plants were planted last night: two Dahlia Karma Sangria, and two Agastache Bolero.

5. I had a clump of Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Golden Arrow' which honestly had looked like it had decided to 'kick the bucket'.  It just could not hack the dry clay and extreme sun. However now that it has been dug up and has its roots in muddy water in a bucket, it has come back to life.  It will be tried in a couple of different parts of the garden to see if another area would suit it better.

Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Golden Arrow'

6. Last year I bought the grass Miscanthus nepalensis, and my SOS Sis was sent some seed.  I kept a seed head back and this was sown earlier this year straight into the ground.  Given the unpredictable seasons ought I to pot these very small plants up and maybe overwinter them on inside the shelf by the window?  It will depend if there is room!

Miscanthus nepalensis seedlings

Another week of dry hot weather is ahead of us......

In a Vase on Monday - Monochrome

 This morning we woke up to an evenly grey sky with no billowing cumulus nimbus clouds, and like the other days where we were promised rain but got none, today I fear that wind will be the on the agenda as Storm Floris hits the north of the country, with lesser winds felt this far south. The Storm is called Floris, so quite apt to mention it as the name means flower or blossom.

To reflect the storm and the grey skies this week I chose again a monochromatic selection which I think for three or four days will form a shapely arrangement in our living room.

There are four elements in this Chinese Cloisonné vase.  Central are the spikey rosettes of Eryngium 'Silver Ghost', and soft velvety whorls of  Pseudodictamnus acetabulosus form a lovely contrast in texture, again the  Hylotelephium × mottramianum 'Herbstfreude' much more easily referred to as Sedum 'Autumn Joy' is a favourite even before it is showing any colour, and appearing for the first time in a bouquet the delightful still green seed heads of Corncockle.  

I only got to grow Corncockle this year as they had a tray of 9 small plants up at the Bishop's Palace, and I like to buy something as it raises funds for the garden.  As a cultivar is had the tiniest of pink purple flowers not at all as shown in some pictures, but it did have good height, and I am so pleased that that I did not grub them all up straight away.  The stems of the unripe seed heads are to me very attractive and the grey green colour a perfect element in this vase. When we were down in Kent a few weeks ago I saw the white form of Corncockle with larger blooms grown to great effect in Great Dixter and also at Sissinghurst

Unripe Corncockle seed head

With winds in mind, armed with my bucket of water I had headed outside this morning and picked a selection of material including some roses, as well as doing some dead heading. Although I could have used the roses and changed the mood of the first arrangement completely, they did not go to waste. Here they are on the sideboard in the dinning room in front of a sampler made by a very special person.

The most recent read from the book club is James by Percival Everett. I found it well written and worth reading, but must say in parts I didn't feel brave enough to read it as a bed time read, as I found the cruelty metered out too upsetting.

James by Percival Everett.

I am linking in the In a Vase on Monday post to Cathy's blog, where in contrast you will be able see the sweetest of colourful arrangements.

 

Six on Saturday - 26 July 2025

Whilst still suffering from a lack of adequate rain, I am focusing this week on some pleasing aspects of my gardening.  Over at Jim's blog called 'Garden Ruminations' you will find more than just my post, providing an insight into gardens and gardeners, plants and possibly also weather. 

1. How could I not start this Six on Saturday but with this luscious plant:

Looks like it might be Canna 'Tropicanna'.  After only one month its first ripe mango/papaya coloured blooms are charming me.  For a while all the plants in pots along the shed side of the large gravel, size of the gravel, not the area, have been moved together whilst the shed is having a full refurbish. I am certainly enjoying veering off my usual pallet towards warmer richer colours for the summer.

2. On our date day out yesterday, we had a little detour for lunch and a mooch around Sherborne Garden Centre, and how could I not be tempted by a few plants.  With several large empty pots back home, I took advantage of a late season sale of two for one and bought two Begonia 'Bossa Nova Night Fever Papaya'. at first my eye was taken by the contrast of the dark foliage and the bright flowers when someone at the till was buying some.  I had to go back of course to get them: two for £3.99 was a definite bargain . Two Thunbergia 'Sun Eyes Terracotta' again £3.99, which I had to earn by disentangling them, I felt would look good growing in the same up up some old sticks that I had used last year and bound at the top with some copper wire.  I am hoping that like the Canna, given a month, they will be putting on a good show:

3.  And just because I had seen them growing on Tresco, I also picked up a couple of Lotus Berthelotti Orange, two for £2.75. I have since read that it needs a cooling period before flowering, so these went in together in my precious Whichford Pottery bowl, and hopefully after a winter in the conservatory they will flower well again next year, even if they don't this year. Usually plants at this time of the year in garden centres are in a poor state but the care and attention which the dedicated staff give to watering etc., means that the nursery is still well worth visiting.

I decided it was too hot to put the order in the car, whilst we parked up and had a couple of hours in Sherborne, so had them hold my order, and returned later. 

4. The cuttings of Phlox bifida 'Alba' which I took a few weeks ago looked ready to be potted up again, so whilst I was potting up the plants mentioned earlier, these got planted in a half pot ready to pass the winter and later make a show next spring for one of the tables.

5. I took this White Pelargonium 'New Century White' which I was given as a plug by the gardening club to grow on, for our Gardening Summer Party competition, 10 days ago.  After this it stood on a pedestal by the front door, but it proved a little too hot there, so it has been moved to the back garden.  Some of the flowers have started to grow seed capsules, so one of my tasks later will be to take my fine nosed snips and remove these. It will probably entail removing entire heads as well, to allow the plant to develop more blooms. It won second prize, but the judge was a non gardener who even had to ask the name of the plants. My consolation was that I heard several people mutter under their breath that mine was the most tricky of the plants to grow and even the finest plant overall!  The judge probably just didn't like geraniums or white flowers.  But being a good looser is realising that everything is 'In the eye of the Judge'!

White Pelargonium  'New Century White'

6. Origanum Buckland is still quite small.  It has been moved and hopefully having a little space to itself in the middle of the gravel garden will suit it.  It has of course been struggling, but hopefully it will soon get its roots down in its new situation and flourish next year. I bought it in 2021 from Pottertons.

I can't find much about this cultivar except that it is probably a hybrid between O dictamnus and O. amanum with the branched hairs of the former but the intermediate in floral characters. I have O dictamnus close by but have yet to acquire O amanum, which seems elusive at its best. Should anyone be able to source or share same Origanum amanum with me, I would love to have it and if I have something in the garden to share, let me know.

Monday morning breakfast posy

We breakfast in the conservatory and usually on the central lazy Susan I have a little collection of finds. Having arranged this little posy of fresh flowers it was moved temporarily there. 

A few dwarf dianthus, Chamomile: Chamamelum nobile 'Flore Pleno', some lemon thyme flowers, and wild marjoram, as well seed heads from Scabiosa 'Butterfly Blue.

As soon as breakfast was over, the little posy was moved to the kitchen windowsill, as the heat and sun would desiccate the flowers before evening, when it is cool enough in there for us to have dinner.  On very hot days we step back to eat in the dinning room, or eat out in the garden.

Already there were some seedheads from the Clematis Alpina 'Blue Dancer'.  When I first picked them they had a smooth and shiny tails to the seeds, now several weeks later, all water gone and fully ripened the tails are now feathery. I picked them as I wanted the young plant to focus on growth rather than on seed production.  I've kept them just it for their sheer beauty.

Feather tails on seeds of clematis flower

Behind it in the other vase are a few stems of Persicaria Red Dragon.  After I had picked these for a vase a few weeks ago, I also cut down the large plant.  It usually bounces back nicely, but with the ground bone dry, I cannot yet see any signs of life.  It rained at last yesterday but nothing like the amount falling in other parts of the country.  The Persicaria is slowly growing roots and this is my insurance should the large plant fail on account of the drought. Regular readers will appreciate just how often I use this, and of course it has great sentimental meaning for me, since the original plant was given to me by Cathy our beloved anchor woman for In a Vase on Monday. Do go over to Cathy's post, where I and several other gardeners show flowers from their garden. 

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.

Bugs and plants in the garden - 28 June 2025

 The year is trotting along, and I am already noting that I didn't quite plant the right things at the right time of the year, but hey ho, there is next year to plan for and I am already doing that. For all sorts of sensible gardening observations, many can be found on Jim's post and others that put links within the comments section as I am doing. 

Six things from my garden this week:

1. Origanum Emma Stanley is certainly my favourite and trickiest decorative Origanum, and once again I ought to take have taken a few cuttings well before flowering  It is a delight in the middle of the gravel garden, but I wonder if the soil there is a little too poor.  I have given it a bit of a liquid feed. I bought it five years ago from Pottertons, but he is no longer offering it for sale, so as insurance I shall be taking a few cuttings, when hopefully there is a flush of new growth after I have cut a few of the stems back in three or four weeks time.

Origanum Emma Stanley

Origanum Emma Stanley Closeup

2. Chrysanthemum Chatsworth, which was left in the ground over the winter wasn't told that Chrysanthemums usually flower towards the autumn, it has been in flower now for a few weeks, and has already featured in one of my In a Vase on Monday. I have already started also to harvest all those poppy seed heads before they start to scatter the seeds.  I left far too many, but they are over some cyclamen and I want to get into that space to spread some mulch.

Chrysanthemum Chatsworth

3. At the top end of the gravel garden well just within the border the hot dry weather hasn't phased the Pseudodictamnus acetabulosus. Beth Chatto gives an excellent description.  

This is the patch in another bed where I pushed in some stems last autumn. Already some of this clump has been promised to a neighbour.

Close of the flowering branch, here are the bracts the little purple flower is a great favourite of pollinators.

4. The clematis Clematis 'Purpurea Plena Elegans was almost overcome with blackfly a few weeks back, but thanks to a league of ladybirds they are now under control.  I was looking at the different types, and this week saw a new one amongst them:  form of Harlequin Ladybird:  Harmonia axyridis f. conspicua. 

Harmonia axyridis f. conspicua

5. Having seen 'Venus's navelwort', now hang on to that name, which is in fact Omphalodes linifolia, a few years back, and having been luckily given a little plant this year by Alison, I decided to allow it to seed, and have just harvested  and placed them in paper envelopes. I couldn't work out what exactly was the seed, and tried to look for it on the internet. Hands up who thinks the seeds look like little navels?

Omphalodes linifolia seeds

I've read various sowing regimes, from sow in the spring after frosts etc.  I have sufficient seed to carry out my own trials, all of which will be direct sow in the ground, as I understand they do not like disturbance.  Perhaps if I stagger the sowing, I would be able to have different patches of plants flowering at different times?

6. Difficult to photograph and especially this week when we have had some usual winds is Dierama 'Snowbells'. Also called Angel's Fishing Rods...fishing for what though? Compliments perhaps? Each morning I tell it how beautiful it is and wonder at the same time whether petals will emerge from the straw like calyxes further down the stem. 

Dierama 'Snowbells'

I was just looking back on my posts from 2023 when it was the year of fasciations...non so far to report this year. If it is too hot to sleep and you wake up early, the nicest thing is to get out there early as I did this morning and do a little gardening....then come in as I did this morning to a delicious breakfast ready made.

Chatsworth and Indian Summer together for a Mid Year Vase

I just didn't know where to start.  I could have given you pastel colours, but after a very hot and sunny few days, it seems richer warmer colours suit my mood, even though it is nearly 10 C cooler than it was only a couple of days ago. I myself find hot weather difficult to cope with.

This lovely spray Chrysanthemum now in its third year, is proving quite hardy in my garden.  It is listed as Chatsworth (21c) on my invoice from Halls of Heddon, under the heading Garden and Exhibition Sprays. On checking their latest on line list it is (U21C).  I have no idea what this numbers after the name signify. Since it started flowering a couple of weeks ago, for a Chrysanthemum it is really early flowering, and the first in flower in the garden. 

The stems are longer than this, but I didn't want to sacrifice the display and snipped a couple of pieces high up the stems towards the back, of course just above a leaf from which more blooms will emerge.

The Astrantia 'Indian Summer' has given many stems so far this year. Also in the vase is a long stemmed dark Origanum.  It has no name and is probably one of those seedlings which I consider to have great merit.  A few poppy seed heads, and dark Astrantia again with no name given to me by friend Hilary, add a little further interest.

I am linking in this arrangement under Cathy's In a Vase on Monday post.    

Six on Saturday - 21 June 2025

This regular slot showing Six things from my Garden links into Jim's post, and with several followers I shall be linking this post there.

 Its been hot, with at least a couple of 'Tropical Nights' and I shall launch this week's offering with a couple of plants which are more than happy with the temperature but also need watering.

1. As I mentioned last week, for this year, there is a little potted homage to Great Dixter, going on by the shed. I went out with a friend a couple of weeks ago and ended up at a fund raising plant sale, finding there just the right plant to add to the grouping. All around me when I was growing up, were Cannas, there were green leafed ones and darker red leafed ones, with a limited range of flower colours, but never a stripy one that I remember.  I myself am completely new to growing Cannas, so it is going to be a learning curve.

2. This is the other plant that I knew from when I was young. Last week when the shed shelf with its succulents were the topic, Fred and another asked about this plant.

Bergera koenigii more easily remembered as the Curry Leaf Plant

No Mauritian curry would be complete without the wonderful fragrance that a few curry leaves impart to a dish. Our cook, gardeners or neighbours were forever raiding our clump of curry leaves..  Even a dish of dhal is elevated by the addition of a little oil in which some garlic, spices and curry leaves have been heated through and used to finish the dish just before serving.  It has two types of feeds: a winter and a summer citrus feed.  In the winter it makes a fairly elegant plant on the kitchen windowsill. I bought it at the local food festival in 2022, when I spied just a couple of plants on a stall selling a large variety of chilli plants. 

3. Low growing plants work well softening the gravel, in the absence of any lawn, they form green areas without crowding out the longer views of the garden.

4. Following on from the the curry plant neatly, may I show this lovely 'aromatic' plant which is on the right on the picture above. This is Chamaemelum nobile 'Flore Pleno'.  I love its scent, and even  in the non flowering state is sweet smelling when crushed.

For when I am not in the garden, there is always a good or charming book on gardening or plants to hand.  On my bedside table I currently have Roy Genders's 'A Book of Aromatics' published in 1977.  What a charmingly written small book this is, and full of history of the use of Aromatics across the centuries as well as horticultural tips.  

5. Also this week, another of aromatics looking good is this low growing creeping thyme. When we first laid out the garden, the delineations between soil and stone were crisp. With time and the movement of stones onto the garden by worms, and soil onto the stones by birds, the edges are getting blurred, but planting these low growing herbs and plants to keep the separation is part of the evolution of the garden.

6. Another little low plant is filling the evening air with its fragrance is Daphne x susannae 'Cheriton'

Daphne  x susannae 'Cheriton'

On the warm evenings even when there is hardly any light left in sky, walking around the garden is a great way to wind down, I pause and breath and take in the scents, and as the light was almost gone last night, I suddenly realised just how late it was, for last night was just about the shortest one this year. 

We now need a good few hours of rain....