There are times when I just can’t think of anything to link a batch of photos so, apart from these being in the garden last week, these are all very random. The wet weather has produced good growth in the garden and although some things have been flattened by the wind and rain, most plants are looking fairly decent. At least it has helped all the new shrubs to get established without me running around with a can.

The yellow and white garden has grown out of the exuberance of youth when iris, peonies and lupins dazzled and it is looking a bit more sedate. A lot of colour is now from foliage such as sambucus ‘Golden Tower’ (above) but the (pale) yellow leucanthemum and white achillea ‘The Pearl’ provide a bit of zing. Both, incidentally, have been providing some cut flowers for the ‘gate’. A month or so ago we started ‘selling’ flowers for a local charity (Talk to Tom) and have so far handed in about 150 euro and should double that by next week.

Lilies, both real and ‘day’ also add some colour.

Some of the batch of leucanthemums grown from seed last year were put in the ‘wild flower’ patch, an area of long grass for the butterflies, moths and beetles (plus the slugs). Most of the other flowers from last year are now crowded out but the leucanthemums have done well. and are battling the grass.

I am not altogether happy with the effect, and there are plenty more flowers elsewhere in the garden, but I will kid myself that the pollinators are happy.

Not far away are the beds planted with fruit trees: plums, pears and cherries. It won’t be the bumper harvest I had hoped for and the iris underneath, which had to be there because it was the only place for them, have now been moved to other beds where they will get more sun and soil that more resembles something that might sustain plant growth.

Planted pots are important to me but I don’t have as many actual large pots as I would like, mainly because of cost. I had to get a strawberry pot for an article I had to illustrate and that was annoying because I find them very impractical, especially to water. It had to be planted with strawberries but once they had cropped I could empty them out and this year some echeverias were popped in. They won’t be so traumatised if they dry out, though they are just as likely to be attacked by vine weevil!

Not far away another pot planted for photos is filling out though the scented-leaf pelargonium is a mistake because of its vigour compared to the other plants. The deep pink argyranthemum is cute but annoying in equal measure – actually it is more annoying than cute. Plant breeders have develeloped so many dwarf forms of plants that when you go to a garden centre to get plants, so often they don’t really get any bigger. I am old-fashioned and remember when argyranthemums were big and lusty plants. As a student at Kew we used ‘Jamaica Primrose’, a pale pink and the various species and that was all that was available. The modern range of colours is remarkable but now they all (well most) seem to be stunted. It is why I go to the effort of keeping tender perennials that I like (such as the Ageratum corymbosum below**) over winter, so I don’t have to buy disposable, commercially popular varieties.

I finally thought I may have cracked the box-edged, formal beds this year with a combination of dwarf cosmos, statice and (perennial) ageratum. I see that some of the statice are not the right (pink) colour but it is slowly coming along and definitely better for the wet weather. I will post another in a few weeks when there is more colour showing.

Calendulas and nasturtiums are two annuals that most of us only have to sow once – they pop up every year after that. This can be a nuisance but it is also welcome and I am grateful for calendulas in particular. They don’t always breed true but all are pretty and I like their smell. I am grateful to this one for at least providing some colour in front of my clump of Crinum x powelii. The crinum is now four years old, was planted as a big pot of bulbs and it has not bothered to produce a single flower yet. I know it likes sun and good living so it was given lots of feed this year, whenever I was scattering fertiliser around, but I am starting to resent its ingratitude. How different to the calendulas which are so eager to please.

I am even warming to hydrangea ‘Invincibelle’. This ‘arborescens’ hydrangea is a case when it is best to wait a bit before planting and not buy plants when first introduced because, although lauded as the first of its kind with pink flowers, later generations are better. It is a bit of a ‘Betamax’.* It is always a bit weak here and I spend more time worrying if it is really happy than I really should. But this year it is actually making an effort, albeit only about 60cm high and not enough to cover the gap created when I have to cut back the campanulas behind.

The tree lilies are starting to open and fill the air with their heady perfume. This year may be their last because their viral infection is beginning to cause mottling of the petals. Many are declining in vigour because of this and some have smaller stems that usual, though this may be because of increased shade from the hedge – when planted the lilies put the hedge in the shade! But they are providing some flowers for the ‘stall’ and sell immediately. Virus in lilies is a problem second only to lily beetle and I should pull up all infected plants but, while they produce decent blooms I will let them struggle on, if only for the sake of the hoverflies that flock to the open flowers in huge numbers to feast on the nutritious pollen.

The lacy grey plants in the foreground are hostas – snails have been a plague this summer!

*I am aware that Betamax was probably a better system than VHS but was not the one that people bought. For those of you younger than 50 then don’t try to understand!

**I bought this as Ageratum corymbosum but I am far from convinced it is the right name. But it is easy to propagate, grows easily to 75cm high and wide and flowers well and I value it for summer colour.

hydrangea invicibelle