Tag: digitalis

My Garden Journal 2019 – July

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 20, 2019
2 Comments on My Garden Journal 2019 – July

We move into the second half of the year with this visit to my 2019 garden journal, where we shall see what the garden has to offer and take a look at some of our gardening tasks for the month.

The first double page spread featured borders in our front garden, beginning with a follow up look at the New Garden, where I wrote, “July began hot and humid so during the first week gardening wasn’t easy. Every job was tiring, but there is lots to look at. Let us visit “The New Garden” to see how it has developed over the last 4 weeks or so.”

“Three different Agastache, including A. ‘Kudos Yellow’ and A. ‘Kudos Gold’ and an unknown blue flowered cultivar.”

“Step across the grass from “The New Border” and we come to one of our two “Doughnuts”. This one comes in two halves, an airy meadow of Dianthus and Briza backs onto our sun-loving ferns and euphorbias.”

“Dianthus carthusianorum” “Briza and Dianthus”

“Festuca glauca flower buds.”

“Dianthus cruentus” “Rosa Prince’s Trust and R. Enchantress”

Foxgloves feature on the next page and opposite we look at the “Layby Border”.

“This year is definitely the year of the foxglove, and throughout June and into the middle of July Digitalis rule the border roosts.”

“Digitalis fontanesii” “Digitalis grandiflora”

“Digitalis lutea”

“Across the drive we can have a look at how the “Layby Garden” is coming on.”

The next double page spread deals with some of our Achilleas, of which we grow many as we love them as much as the wildlife does, especially bees, butterflies and hoverflies.

I wrote, “Last year we decided to develop a section of our Beth Chatto Border, which is our gravel garden planted with grasses and herbaceous perennials which never need watering. We added a river of Achilleas.”

On the next page I concentrate on pink and white flowered Achilleas where I wrote, Variations on a theme, “Pink to White”, caused by so many self-seeded natural crosses made by bees and their colleagues. Thank you bees!”

Turning over to the next double page spread, We look at the perennials in the Shrub Border and then some of our jobs for July.

“Staying in the front garden it is noticeable how the perennials towards the front of the Shrub Border are giving extra colour.”

“July is a busy month, but this year it is extra busy as winds and frequent heavy showers mean lots of tying up.”

“Ready to topiarise the box clouds”

“Low level and high level pruning.”

“Deadheading climbing and rambling roses.”

Eryngiums or sea hollies feature next.

I wrote, “Mid-summer is when our Sea Hollies, Eryngiums, are at their best, their blue and silver stems, bracts and flowers take on their metallic tints.”

The first set of photos are of E.bourgattii ‘Picos Blue’

The next four photos are of E. Jade Frost.

The four photos below are of E. ‘Neptune’s Gold’ with its bright green foliage and metallic blue flower heads.

“Eryngiums add so much to the garden in virtually every month. Amazingly textured, coloured and sometimes variegated foliage plus metallic flowers and bracts.”

These are exciting plants to finish off my entries into my Garden Journal 2019 for the month of July.

Tags achilleas, Asiatic Lilies, clematis, climbing plants, digitalis, eryngiums, foxgloves, garden jobs, garden tasks, hardy perennials, Sea Hollies, succulents

birds garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening gardens hardy perennials ornamental trees and shrubs poppies roses Shrewsbury Shropshire shrubs trees Yellow Book Gardens

My Garden Journal 2017 – June

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 13, 2017
1 Comment on My Garden Journal 2017 – June

We have reached the half way point through the year and I am beginning a second book in my Garden Journal 2017. A book of blank pages waiting to be filled with words, paintings and photographs.

On the first page of my new book I started my June reports by writing, “June is the month when our wildlife friends become very obvious, pollinators and predators work away helping us out, and all our wild friends entertain us, stimulating our senses. We had a dip in the wildlife pond with a net and found a healthy population of newts and dragonfly larvae. Whenever we sit in the summerhouse for a tea break we are entertained by birds coming for a drink or bathe in the pebbled shallow end, especially bright are the Goldfinches with their splashes of red and yellow. Next to the summerhouse door a pair of Blue Tits is nesting in one of our boxes. Both parents are making frequent visits into the garden to collect caterpillars to feed to their young. Each day these caterpillars get larger as the youngsters grow and their appetites grow even more quickly.

Wildlife in the garden is so entertaining!”

Over the page brightly coloured photographs glow from the pages, photographs of Geum cultivars.

“Plant of the month for June is the Geum, the cultivars with hot colours – yellows, oranges and reds, – Totally Tangerine, Koi, Mrs Bradshaw, Lady Stratheden ………………..”

Leaving the brightly coloured Geums behind I next looked at a few representatives of our garden’s wildlife friends.

“Double Brimstones, butterfly and moth, the Brimstone Moth and the Brimstone Butterfly.

The Brimstone Butterflies are one of the earliest arrivals in our garden but a few continue to fly in May and June. The Brimstone Moth flies in both daytime and night time.”

On the page opposite I talk about and paint the Little Owl, a regular visitor to our patch.

“We host three owls in our garden, the Tawny, the Barn and the Little. When we first moved to Plealey our Little Owl migrated in search of warmer places every Autumn to return in Spring.Today they stay with us year round. We love this change!”

Over the page I share with you some of our Foxgloves, the Digitalis family.

“Foxgloves, spires of colour buzzing with bees, flower every day this month. Bumble Bees and our neighbour’s Honey Bees disappear right inside the larger flower gloves. Bees explore each flower on each spike starting at the lowest bloom and moving upwards methodically.”

Next I looked at one of our poppies, Papaver somniferum the Opium Poppy.

“Papaver somniferum comes in a variety of pinks and lilacs”.

“The small orange double poppy is Papaver rupifragum “Orange Feathers”.

From an orange poppy to an orange rose I moved on to look at a small flowered orange patio climber.

“Rosa “Warm Welcome” is a small climber and a cheerful charmer. Roses continue to flower profusely throughout the June garden.”

June turned out to be a difficult month for the garden with extremes of heat accompanied by a long dry spell causing plants to suffer especially relatively recently planted trees and shrubs. We water trees every week for a year after planting but a week’s holiday prevented us from doing this. We returned to find trees and shrubs with brown shrivelled leaves. A sad sight. I wrote, “June ended up being a dry month with many plants showing signs of stress, especially trees planted this year and lawn areas. We need rain urgently!” I included photos of some of the plants looking worse for wear.

On the opposite page, which is the final page for June I mentioned the return of the rain, refreshing us and the garden. “In the last few days of the month, steady rain helped put life and vitality back into our garden putting extra sparkle in flowers and gloss on foliage. We can only hope that trees planted earlier this year survive. They look troubled! Lilies however quickly burst back into life.”

Tags Avocet garden, digitalis, dry weather, foxgloves, gardens of Shropshire, June, poppies, roses, Shropshire, Shropshire gardens, summer, summer gardens

garden design garden photography garden wildlife gardening hardy perennials photography Shropshire wildlife

Plant Portraits – August

This post is dedicated to portraits of the blooms that are starring in our garden in August. The individual stars which shine out of the borders.

Tags agapanthus, agastache, alliums, daisies, day lilies, digitalis, echinops, garden photography, garden wildlife, gardening, hardy geraniums, insects, knautia, lychnis, monarda, poppies

garden design garden photography grow your own hardy perennials ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture poppies Shropshire shrubs trees

A Wander around our Garden in June

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 12, 2012
5 Comments on A Wander around our Garden in June

Half way through the year already where these monthly garden wanders are concerned. It should be warm and sunny as befits the Summer season but it has mostly been raining. We get occasional dry, pleasant days but they have been few and far between. Just look at this interesting early evening light colouring the landscape beyond our garden gate. One field is in the spotlight, I wonder why it was chosen?

In the garden I shot this photo looking up at the sky above our big, white-flowered rambling rose.

But, one afternoon as the rain went quiet for a while out I went camera in hand to follow my garden wander. The borders are burgeoning, blooms are getting bigger and brighter by the day and we enjoy every moment in our June garden.

Spires reach for the sky in every border, Foxgloves, Antirhinums and Lupins.

Let us visit the front garden and see how the borders have developed since our May post. There is far less gravel visible now as foliage increases sideways and upwards.

The ferns in the Stump Circle have grown considerably and the grasses in our other circle are now a good 4 feet tall.

The Hot Border is full to the brim with colour, rich colours against vibrant greens.

Jude’s Border is also full of colour from the blooms of shrubs such as this Weigela and Syringa.

The Shade Garden continues to glow with colours against vibrant greens.

Anstrantias love it here in the shade but we do grow them throughout the garden. They flower best in the shade and grow taller. There are so many to choose from starting with whites through all different shades of pink to the deepest reds.

The Freda Garden is at its peak in June, when our orange-flowered Honeysuckle creeps along the fence top, the Pyracantha and Weigela flower together, and the border is full of Oriental Poppies, Foxgloves, Aquilegias and Euphorbias all doing their own thing.

Throughout the garden the promiscuous Aquilegias self seed and create new plants in various colours, shapes and sizes. Now this little white one was a surprise! At just 1 cm across it is the tiniest I have ever seen – a true gem! And to top it all it grew alongside this Euphorbia.

When I had finished my garden wander and taken all the photos to select from, the weather deteriorated, heavy rain and strong wind lashed our garden. The Fennel in the picture below was tall and healthy around 5 feet tall but the weather bent all the stems down. The fresh stems of our rambling and climbing roses which would carry blooms next year were snapped off at the base. I only hope they have time and energy to make up some new growth.

All the borders in the back garden are full of interesting foliage with varied texture and colour as a foil for the plethora of flowering perennials.

The most beautiful plant must be our miniature chestnut (Aesculus) which is now 3 feet tall, a third of its final height, covered in blooms, spires of salmon.

Alliums are stars throughout the back garden. They have only been in a few years and are so happy they are spreading like wildfire. They really need thinning out!

I shall finish this garden wander with a few shots of some of the borders, as a taster for my next blog, “Another Wander Around our Garden in June”. There is simply too much to show, too much I want to share.