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....

Six things to note from my garden - Six on Saturday 14 June 2025

Mid June, and thankfully we have had some rain, but also plenty of sunshine.  Since it is Saturday, now is the time to post six things from my garden, which is being linked into Jim's post.  So for even more garden musings do go over and enjoy.

1. Following on our visit to Great Dixter, I decided to pay homage to Christopher Llyod, or at least that is my excuse for picking a bunch of plants I had been fancying growing for a number of years. Great Dixter is well known for the collection of plants individually grown in pots amassed by the front door.

Gazania Frosty Kiss

This plant is what my dearly beloved describes as a clown's or magician's prop, which opens up when they pull it out of their sleeve, it is totally over the top and only opens when the sun is bright. The other two plants which I picked up quickly from the same market stall were ( was Lantana Bandolero Orange and Coleus Flamethrower Serrano.  My parents used to grow these types of plants, and I remember the smell of the Lantana hedge along the board boundary to their house.

2. Up on the shed shelf, even the succulents etc have been appreciating the showers we have enjoyed this week.

3. Once I have a plant that I love and does well in the garden, I am drawn to spotting them, and if in the right place, ie I can ask or buy another different cultivar, then I do.  In this way I now have several different Rodohypoxis.  They are currently on the garden tables in pots.

Rodohypoxis on garden table

After being kept dry overwinter in the shed as recommended, I gave them a water, and when they started to shoot divided them up.  Over the few years I have done this, and I must have forgotten than I had put some into the gravel garden and that I ought to have lifted them if following the advice of keeping them dry during the winter.  This little plant proves that for my garden, even with all the rain we had earlier in the winter, the Rodohypoxis can be left out all winter. 

Rodohypoxis growing in the gravel garden

4. Another plant in full flight in the gravel garden is Saxifrage Southside Seedling.

5. Photobombing as it were the above two photography is Hypericum polyphyllum grandiflorum, which is ready early morning for the visiting bumblebees.

6. Another poppy which I had been lurking in my seed box for a few years has come up, it is almost black.  I've lost the seed packet, so no name. Again early in the morning full of pollen and ready for the bumblebees.

Last week I showed a poppy casting its sepals, and people asked what it was like fully open....

In a Vase on Monday

When I posted my Six things from the garden on Saturday, someone mentioned how early the Fuchsia was.  We have a sheltered garden and this Fuchsia is not cut down to ground level, with the growth from just the top of thickening four foot stems cut back in March,  with new growth since then. I am perhaps trying to grow thick trunks over the coming years. 

Phalaris arundinacea, and the strickling white Zantedeschia aethiopica or Arum Lily, which all grow close together.  In the middle of the vase and also under the foot of the old elephant are some foliage from a new 'unnamed' Gingko which I picked up at 'Rocky Mountain'.

The vase was prepared yesterday ready for ladies from the WI coming over for Knit and Natter.  When I first suggested such a group, there was such a response that several groups were set up to accommodate the numbers as there was not one home who could hold so many.  I think there are five groups altogether.  The groups are very inclusive and for some it is just an opportunity to have coffee or tea, and companionship.  This morning first thing, I made a really lovely Victoria Sponge with the best of strawberry jams home made on Friday from delicious Cheddar strawberries, and some ginger and spelt biscuits, made yesterday. 

The creator of this weekly sharing of flowers from the garden is Cathy, and when I post on Monday I link into her blog.

In the garden: Six on Saturday at the start of June 2025

What a change in the weather and light conditions from just a few weeks ago.  We were away house sitting for a son of a friend.  Wow their garden was huge, but I hope I left it in good condition. As well as being cooler with rain, we have had some unusual winds here. For insights into what several gardeners and plant enthusiasts are writing about this week, the place to go is is 'Garden Ruminations', where Jim is the custodian of our weekly musings.

1. Early morning is the time to catch the poppies about to cast off the outer sepals and then unfold their creased chiffon like petals, the pale early morning light enhancing the ethereal look, and their grey green glaucous foliage. 

They are coming up all over the garden, but are easily removed.  I will keep a few plants up until I can harvest the seed heads, which I enjoy arranging and also save the seed to use in my bread making.

2. Over in the gravel garden this small low growing Teucrium pyrenaicum, I acquired last year, is one the bees just love.

Teucrium pyrenaicum 

However it was too early to catch the bees visiting, they are rather later rises!

3. Over towards Gooseberry Corner, the gooseberries are doing their thing, and we have already had a good picking from Gooseberry Invicta, but this picture is from  Gooseberry Hinnonmaki Red. Its berries are much smaller than last year, probably due to the very warm and dry months, but we are now into a much cooler and damp period, so maybe the more immature berries will swell a little.  So far the squirrels have been completely content with eating all the apples on D'Arcy Spice, but there are only two or three left and I may be in for a shock one morning to find the berries stripped!

Gooseberry Hinnonmaki Red

4. I'm not going to mention scent from roses as the ones in the garden here pale into insignificance compared to the ones at Sissinghurst, which we visited last week.  However there is perfume coming from the Valeriana officinalis, which has self seeded itself towards Gooseberry Corner.

5. The clump forming Phalaris arundinacea probably needs to be reduced this year, but for now it makes a lovely addition setting off several plants, such as the white arum and darker plants behind.

6. I kept the thickening long stems in a pollarding fashion and all the green is this year's growth.  This is a hardy Fuchsia, name unknown, and it has now been in flower since first weeks of May, but is now forming a colourful pop up against the garden/cemetery stone wall. 

I have mixed views regarding the various gardens we visited, but gradually thoughts about my own garden are readjusting in light of what I saw. Hopefully during the week, I shall get to upload a few of the pictures I took along with some thoughts in a few posts.