A better end to the week
Well that has been a week and a half. It has been most notable for extreme wind and rain. Tuesday night was pretty sleepless with gusty winds and rain that felt like the house was being power-washed! But yesterday the wind dropped and the sun came out and the sun was warm. The ground is still too wet to consider mowing but who knows, it may be just about dry enough today – and it needs it.
But the kind day yesterday coaxed the flowers to open on the Schizostylis (Hesperis).
This had been struggling for a couple of years so this spring I divided the clump and moved it to a spot that is damper, at the base of the young Metasequoia. It seems very happy and is sending up a few spikes of bloom which is more than it did before. But the spot is, after the heavy rain, very damp!
Squelching around the garden is not really good for the lawn and I have tried to keep off the grass and fortunately some of the new additions in the greenhouse have begun to settle down and bloom and keep me sane.
Cuphea micropetala has started to bloom. I like cupheas and they are so diverse. This one is a tough, shrubby plant and is recommended for warmer climates where it is allegedly tolerant of heat and drought. It should attract hummingbirds but that is unlikely here! I am not sure if the late flowering is down to me getting a small plant to start with or whether it is a short-day plant. I have never grown it before. The tubular flowers certainly have very small petals! But they are colourful and they have extraordinary glandular hairs that are very intriguing.
I hope it has a long flowering time and is easy to root because I can think of a lot of uses for this in the garden.
The fuchsias are settling down and some are blooming. Now the trial will be to keep them alive over winter. I prefer long, elegant fuchsia flowers and singles to the big doubles and this will be evident from this strange selection. I know they won’t appeal to everyone though I refuse to believe that anyone is not enraptured by ‘Impudence’.
The Biking Gardener 
I need more fuchsias in my garden…
Well that is exactly what I thought and I have redressed the deficit a bit now. The only thing I had forgotten is how messy they are, dropping flowers everywhere in the greenhouse! I used to have a neighbour who refused to grow any flowers that dropped petals on the path or lawn. I am not that bad, and the fuchsias are worth the effort of clearing up but it is annoying at times.
I think so too… 🌸🌺