Love Knot

In an earlier post Tangental asked for suggestions for flowers that would be blooming in the last week of August when he hopes to host a family event. Although, he, the Textiliste, and Dog themselves have an enviable garden I promised to let him know what we have currently flowering. Needless to say they will be aware of most of what I have to offer, but, here goes.

This month does not finish until next Monday, the 31st, but this will be the last full week. We are predicted to be hit by another fierce storm tomorrow so I decided to post what we still have today.

The second of these two pictures demonstrates that gladioli are vulnerable to gusts of wind and need to be supported with stakes strong enough to see off Count Dracula.

Carpet roses come in a variety of colours and drape everything in sight. The red one might be appropriate for the special occasion.

Super Elfin is a fast growing prolific climber.

Given the occasion, the red Love Knot, might be appropriate; this one, and the sweetly scented peachy Mamma Mia and yellow Absolutely Fabulous survived our heavy pruning yesterday. The latter two are most prolific repeat flowering.

This is all that is left of For Your Eyes Only, the most prolific rose of all, but so resilient is it that all our snips will have prepared the way for plentiful new shoots within the next sennite (Archaic English WP).

At this time of year Rosa Glauca converts clusters of delicate pink and white flowers to rosy hips.

A variety of hydrangeas still thrive,

and hibiscus,

seen also with red and white dahlias and tall, strongly scented, bronze fennel, has come into its own.

This is of course the time for dahlias, of which we have a range.

Our Japanese anemones come in two shades of pink and in white. In the third of these images they blend well with pink pelargoniums and fuchsia Delta’s Sarah.

Pelargoniums and geraniums will grace any hanging basket,

as will begonias of any shape, size, or hue;

likewise sometimes scented petunias.

Provided you keep up with dead-heading, as with most of these plants, sweet scented phlox of many different colours will continue to delight.

We find rudbeckia hard to grow a second year, but this Goldsturm variety returns.

A number of crocosmia, like Emily MacKenzie and the yellow one we can’t identify for certain, are still blooming, although others such as Lucifer have finished, but, like Arnie, will be back.

The daisy-like erigeron and yellow bidens offer points of highlight throughout the garden. Erigeron thrives in paving, steps, and stony soil; all our bidens are self seeded survivors from last year.

Sedums begin to blush towards the end of the summer. The second picture has a backdrop of ornamental grass, some of which puts us in mind of Cousin It from the Adams Family. All good space fillers.

Eucomis, or pineapple plants, are a fun talking point;

nasturtiums trail everywhere until the first frost.

Nigella is a little blue flower.

This white solanum has flowered consistently for more than twelve months, far outstripping its neighbouring honeysuckle, now transformed into not very attractive berries. The solanum comes in blue, too.

Jackie produced a dinner this evening consisting of her special savoury rice served with prawns, some of which were spicy, and others tempura, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Saint-Chinian.

87 comments

  1. What a wonderfully colourful and varied garden you and Jackie have! I haven’t seen ‘sennite’ in print for a long time – simply must find an excuse to use that word!

  2. Your garden always looks so fresh and lovely. Mine is about wilting in the heat this time of year.

    I realize I have a little game I play with myself when reading one of your posts: I try to guess the name of the flower before you tell me. I got a good 50% this time. When you use the “scientific?” name (Nigela), and I use the folksy name (Love-in-a-mist), I still get a point. My score would be dismal otherwise.

    1. I hope Geoff reads this comment, Jodie. An appropriate alternative title for the (wedding) event. I got two of them wrong yesterday 🙂 Corrected under direction rom the Head Gardener 🙂 Thanks very much.

  3. I won’t remember the names of any of the flowers, but they certainly are beautiful. Your garden is lovely in every season.
    And dinner sounds delicious. 😀

  4. Spring has always been my favorite flower season, but this posts reminds me to not discount the beauty of late summer blooms 🙂 Beautiful flowers, thanks for sharing!

  5. Beautiful I especially was intrigued by the Nigella. I have never seen that before. I have hollyhocks, Columbine, and Zinnias bloom like crazy still. Stuff in my pots like begonias, marigolds, vinca are going to town. And my wandering jew plant is breathtaking.

  6. Your gardens never fail to amaze. The variety of color and form is so pleasing. We’re sharing storms this week. They haven’t figured out precisely where Hurricane Laura is going to make landfall, but I’m doing my best to bend it east and away, like some meteorological Uri Geller.

  7. Beautiful photos as always, Derrick. We get much pleasure from your posts. (How are Nugget and Nugget Jr? Will they winter over with you or head south?)

  8. You have opened my eyes, spirit and the soul about flowers and plants in August, and the enterprise to keep them shipshape. And then there is always the aura of your riveting narration, anecdotal and lyrical.

  9. Nigella is so pretty!
    I hope the rain and storms won’t wreak any havoc. 🙁
    Your garden is a rainbow of colours! A delight for our eyes! A feast for our hearts!
    I’m sure Count Dracula and Cousin Itt appreciate the mention!
    You know I’m fascinated by the names of the plants/flowers and I enjoy learning about how they got their names. 🙂
    HUGS!!! 🙂

  10. Oh my gosh, I am in love with every single one of these flowers. I will admit I have special memories with Gladiola. Every summer my mother filled her House with vases of the tall stately gorgeous stems. And even now that she’s gone all of us in her family, wherever we live, fill our homes with Gladiola also during the months of July and August.
    Your garden is beauty inspiring. Hope the storm wasn’t too fierce

  11. If we adopt the spelling sennite, do we also have to adopt fortnite? Shudder…

    The flowers are superb, they get better every year. Here’s hoping the storm passes painlessly.

  12. such a delightful collection, Derrick. all the flowers are simply gorgeous! hope the storm isn’t too bad. take care 🙂

  13. So many blooms to delight late in the season. I like how you pointed out which ones come back. I need to keep learning what can stand my terrible soil, and I appreciate learning about your experiences and successes!

  14. It is amazing the large variety of flowers you still have in your garden. From my side I only have geranium on my balcony. I gave up my orchids to a friend as they were not faring well with me. I am starting to catch up with your posts after almost a month away from wordpress!

  15. Your pictures of flowers always astound me. Such beautiful photography! Thank you so much for sharing. And I loved the description of Jackie’s savoury rice served with prawns, some of which were spicy, and others tempura. Makes me want to plan that for our dinner tomorrow night. I will look for Saint-Chinian to go with it. Where is the winery? Tell me about that wine… a dry white?

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