New Guinea impatiens – derrickjknight

The Best Part Of The Day

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Friends Rob and Helen visited for lunch today. They arrived late in the morning and remained until early evening. We spent a very enjoyable afternoon catching up with each other.

For lunch Jackie had made a superb leek and potato soup followed by plentiful cold meats and salads. Rob and I shared a bottle of Languedoc red wine of 2016 vintage.

Helen and I began early on a photographic tour of the garden.

She used a very impressive Fuji bridge camera,

and actually focussed on some of my own favourite subjects, such as begonias

and the rose For Your Eyes Only.

Alongside the latter, Lady Emma Hamilton is rejuvenated,

continuing to bloom in The Rose Garden where red antirrhinums still thrive.

Autumn leaves are beginning to fall. Some, suspended in spiders’ webs, wait to reach this glass table on the decking.

Among the clematises enjoying another flowering are these in the Back Drive Barrier boxes, leading the eye from the purple petunias to the now reddening leaves of Virginia creeper on the back fence;

and this one sharing Margery’s Bed with Japanese anemones.

Petunias continue to cascade from the iron urn,

and from the hanging basket over the Shady Path. Begonias are planted in the bed below and New Guinea impatiens shares the basket.

Here is today’s example of a fuchsia. Helen created many good images of these and others.

We walked up and down paths like the one termed Gazebo

sharing the corner of Margery’s Bed with the Phantom Path.

Just before lunch Jackie and Rob joined us.

Rob was intrigued by the regeneration of the apparently dead yellow leaved tree that has live stems on either side of the wasted trunk.

Given that rain set in early this afternoon, we had chosen the best part of the day to concentrate on the garden.

Jackie and I just grazed on small plates of salad this evening.

“So Much Colour”

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This morning Jackie continued her autumn clearing and planting in the garden. This afternoon I tidied up a bit then wandered around with my camera.

Petunias and geraniums continue to glow, with bright little erigerons still standing proud;

and diascias and begonias adding to the music.

The lead hat on the patio wall would grace an Ascot attender,

although she might not be happy about the resident bee.

Other insects enjoying the warm weather include this fly on a New Guinea impatiens.

Fuchsias are among the delights of the Dragon Bed,

of the Kitchen Bed,

and of Elizabeth’s Bed.

That second example, via dahlia Coup de Soleil, continues the chrysanthemums’ colour in the top left hand corner of this Oval Bed view. The yellow nasturtium peeping into the bottom right hand corner is just one of

many rambling around the garden.

Rhododendron leaves in the Palm Bed form a sinuous shape with the rudbeckias,

seen in the same bed dancing with Japanese anemones;

or taking the eye through the regenerating eucalyptus to the yellowing leaves of the weeping birch.

A similar yellow palette is taken up through the Kitchen Bed by way of the eucomises, the potted ginkgo, and the bronze fennel;

whereas the pale pink diascias in the iron urn lead us to the hot geraniums and dahlias beyond.

A dragon stands proud, protecting plants in its eponymous bed.

Still the Chilean tree produces lanterns,

while gentler hued colchicums sprawl across the soil opposite.

Begonias still glow in their hanging basket alongside the Heligan Path over the Cryptomeria Bed,

and sunlight has a similar effect on this penstemon.

An array of supporting plants accompany the roses in their Garden,

where such as Festive Jewel display several generations at once.

Even the patch of grass delights in the day.

Perhaps this is what John meant when he came to paint the garden and observed “so much colour”.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s luscious lemon chicken with her especially savoury vegetable rice – itself a veritable complete meal. She drank Hoegaarden and I finished the sangiovese.

P.S. See my response to Luanne below as a recipe for the vegetable rice.

September Approaches

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Although, like this on these marigolds, a certain amount of ash remains from the North Breeze bonfire,

the prevailing wind has changed and the fire much less prevalent. The mechanical digger glimpsed over the fence is levelling the now plantless next door garden.

This afternoon we both took up deadheading again. When I became bored with snipping, I wandered around with the camera for a while.

This is a view from Margery’s Bed looking towards the Rose Garden

where Rosa Gaujard is among the flourishing roses

and Clematis Duchess of Albany festoons the arbour.

Alongside the Brick Path

lies the Palm Bed with its resplendent rudbeckia and Japanese anemones.

From the Shady Path we are led towards the house.

Just visible among the wisteria leaves these rich red dahlias stand proud,

while a striated variety remains out of range to the left of the picture.

This similar view from further along the path

contains the hanging basket featuring bell-like begonias.

Delicate pink Crinum Powellii swamp lilies float over

the Cryptomeria Bed.

All the hanging baskets demonstrate their gratitude that their thirst has been regularly slaked.

Clematises like Star of India continue to shine,

and New Guinea impatiens brightens several beds.

I didn’t get around to deadheading these cosmoses, because

Jackie brought me the telephone which emitted the voice of our mortgage advisor. I needed to return inside, turn on the computer, download some documents, and endeavour, with his assistance to understand their contents. This took some time, and I wasn’t up to returning to the gardening afterwards. Instead, I drafted this description of the condition of our garden as September approaches.

This evening we dined at Lymington’s Lal Quilla where, despite the fact that they were very busy, we received our usual warm welcome and friendly service with excellent food. My choice was lamb naga. We shared special fried rice, a plain naan and an onion bhaji; and both drank Kingfisher.

A Little Short Of Perfection

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After three days of cloud and rain, this one was hot and humid. Too much so for making a start on restoring our plants to their best condition.

The sun did, however, cast friendly light upon such as these heucheras and leaves of barren crocosmias.

Those crocosmias my not have bloomed this year, but many have.

During last week’s storms the container of our aptly named Tumbler tomatoes was blown down, smashing another underneath. It has recovered reasonably well.

The hydrangeas have probably fared best in the wet weather.

Roses such as Mamma Mia

and Special Anniversary have become rather spotty.

The New Guinea impatiens plants have thrived,

as have various cosmoses, like those adorning Florence.

Canna lilies stand proud in the Palm Bed.

Various delicate penstemons, like this one with a lodger, also remain upright,

while the stems of this unusual antique pink foxglove has stooped a little.

The clematis Marie Boisselot still climbs her obelisk.

The begonias and geraniums are doing well, but we have a lot of dead heading to catch up on.

As will be seen the garden is currently a little short of perfection.

This evening we dined on pork and apple sausages with strips of pork belly, fried mushrooms and onions, crisp cabbage and carrots, and mashed potatoes. I drank Meszaros Pal Kekfrankos 2013, while Jackie chose fruit jiuce.

Planting Continues

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My contribution to garden maintenance today was to accompany Aaron to Mole Country Supplies to buy more fencing materials with which he and Robin virtually completed their job; to cut the grass; and to dead head some roses. Jackie did a lot of watering.

In the Rose Garden Emma Hamilton basked in the sunshine,

and Hydrangea Lanarth White tolerated the shadow of the orange shed.

A bustling bee explored a bidens;

a Small White butterfly sought refuge in the camouflage of a petunia;

and a rather tattered Gatekeeper took a rest in the Weeping Birch Bed.

The Head Gardener had also purchased a few more plants, including

the New Guinea impatiens introduced to the chimney pot on the grass that it shares with lobelia and geraniums.

By request, for our dinner this evening, Jackie produced fried eggs, bacon, and mushrooms; chips and baked beans. Lovely. She drank Hoegaarden and I didn’t.