Protective Custody

Between watching recordings of the Rugby World Cup quarter final matches featuring Wales and France then Japan and South Africa, I wandered round the garden.

When we arrived here five years ago a variegated myrtle bush that had grown to a tree was in the process of reverting, This meant that the two-toned cultivated leaves had become dark green. Jackie and I have twice removed all those of the pristine hue, but we have been fighting a losing battle.

This morning Aaron stripped the lower trunk to reveal its colourful bark. Thus we admitted defeat.

Nasturtiums, continuing to scale the trellis in front of the garage door, are  hoping they will get away without a frost this winter.

Some of the more established pelargoniums

remain outside in their pots, whereas

 

others, with begonias

and fuchsias have already been taken into protective custody in the greenhouse.

 

Dahlias are still in season,

and the Rose Garden features carpet roses,

Absolutely Fabulous,

Special Anniversary,

and Lady Emma Hamilton.

Self-seeded bidens, like these floral cuckoos among heliotrope and petunias remain ubiquitous.

This recently planted panicum Warrior grass has taken well to the Weeping Birch Bed.

The solanum swaddling the dead tree will probably be blooming long after the birch has shed its leaves.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s flavoursome cottage pie; tasty carrots and Brussels sprouts; and tender green beans, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Malbec.

 

72 comments

    1. I feel the same way here when Spring is making promises she doesn’t keep, it’s a long wait after Winter and I get a bit impatient. Right now I can’t believe that there is a thing called’frost’ about to put an end to this endless Summer!

  1. Derrick, those close-up photos of flowers, needing protection from the frost, leave me in awe of the grandeur of Mother Nature. If only we could care for all that’s so precious in our natural world, as you and Jackie do so well in your home garden!
    Thanks for the joy you bring to me this Sunday <3

  2. I’m fasting for two day, I’ve a little procedure on Tuesday, so I concentrated on looking your beautiful photos only…… thank you for all the intoxicating colourful photos this morning Derrick….

  3. Gorgeous garden growing gloriously!
    Love the roses! Especially the yellow ones!
    And the “mountain” climbing Nasturtiums! So pretty!
    Protective custody…HA…but an important part of that tender-loving-care Jackie gives to the plants!
    Aaron is such a good helper!
    Hope your nice weather holds on.
    We are getting colder here at night…38 degrees Fahrenheit.
    HUGS and TWEETS for all!!! 😀
    PS…I saw a movie you might enjoy The Professor and The Madman…James Murray begins work compiling words for the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary in the mid 19th century, and receives over 10,000 entries from a patient at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, Dr. William Minor. Fascinating story!

  4. I’m glad some of the plants are going to be wintered under glass. Sadly my greenhouse was demolished followIng one too many storms. I might take some Sophie’s, it’s a little warmer in the valley.

  5. The change is weather has mandated shifting of certain inhabitants of the garden. Anticipation and hope are in the air. That is a quite a world out there, in and about your garden, in those shady lanes that bend and taper into culs-de-sac, and the moors dotted by ponies and cattle. Do they still bear the footprints of that

      1. Yorkshire moors may be far from New Forest moors, but to someone situated thousands of miles away from those places, the perspective appears compressed enough!

  6. Love your roses. In the past I could never keep a rose bush alive, but I decided to make one last go of it. I bought one about 2 foot high with peach-colored flowers. It has grown about another 2 feet since, only sometimes I get peach flowers and others come out pink or orange. Every bud is a guessing game. 🙂

  7. Still so lovely in your garden. My nasturtiums have no hope of escaping the frost, but they continue to flower bravely as they wait for the killing nip that is sure to come. They wish good luck to yours. I have been saving their seeds so, in a sense, they will live on next year.

  8. The photos are stunning. I did not see our little friend Nugget. Winter here is predicted to be warmer than normal…of course that could just means -20 deg F instead of -30.

    1. It’s cottage pie, Steve. Minced beef with potato topping – traditionally made on a Monday with the leftovers of the Sunday joint. Jackie always makes enough for two or three meals. Thanks very much.

      1. ‘Outage’ pie. Oh, my, that’s the one you serve when you lose power from storms. ??? But ‘cottage’ pie sounds good. And we follow the same ‘leftover’ pattern. Sometimes, leftovers taste better than the original. ?

  9. As always, I admire your roses most of all, although your photos of the rest of colorful flowers are marvelous, Derrick.
    P.S. In Russia, yellow roses symbolize farewells, thus an old romance “Yellow roses, the emblem of grief…”

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