Thursday, January 16, 2014

Blooms of mid-July

Ok, this is very strange indeed.
I do remember having posted this pretty much about the time when I took the photos (that is mid-July) but I found it in my drafts section and nowhere on my blog.
 
Therefore, in the middle of winter (ha!), I give you some colourful summer blooms.
Enjoy!
 
Some pretty bloom grown from seed
 
David Austin's Pilgrim - a relentless bloomer
 
Pretty Lady Emma Hamilton
 
Tea Clipper, an older rose by David Austin
 
Rosa Pierre de Ronsard (or Eden Rose) with fully opened blooms.
I must confess I much prefer them not quite so open :)

A double poppy.
I let the seeds fall on the ground, so let's see what next summer brings
 
Prettiest soft pink poppy, a perenial this time

These are 2 plants I removed from my garden at the end of the season.
The monarda, in the foreground, was too gaudy a pink to mix well with the rest of the coulour and the echinacea had grown too big for my linking, so it's in a friend's garden now.
 
 
Astrantia ruby ...something. A fuss-free perenial that goes so well in bouquets
 
Alium
And a pink pelargonium on my balcony









January in the Garden

It's a new year and a new start.
It feels weird that there was never a proper end, at least not in the garden. There are still leaves on most of my roses and some plants never stopped blooming.

This Munstead Wood bud, for example, has been on the rosebush since ... November maybe. It's in a more protected area, so I guess no frost has properly bitten it :)



One sign of this new season, besides the many bulbs poking out, are the hellebores. Three of them look very promising, with a forth one close behind. These guys love the shade and to confirm it, the one that hasn't done so well is planted in half-shade. I must move it once it's done blooming.
These are the most advanced two:

 
Here is Matthiola incana or wallflower. I bought it last season and after a few month's break, it started producing new buds right in the middle of December.
Don't you thing it's weird?

 This is it's sister, the double mauve Matthiola. It never stopped blooming since last spring when I bought it.
Double weird!

 And this is no surprise - the primulas start making their come-back.
The red one:
 and the white drumstick one:
and there is the pink one which I haven't photographed, but which is in bloom, too.
 
I don't know about other gardeners, but I do fear late severe frosts and I do hope winter is over noce February ends.