Sunday 14 June 2020

Flowers for midsummer

 Midsummer flowers, from my own garden for once, revived by a bit of midweek rain -

Lilium martagon 'Arabian Knight'. It has taken me a while to get these to establish and I would love to fill my borders with them. They like well-drained soil - this one has popped up in the sunny bed that never gets watered, even though I have always though of them as a plant that liked partial shade.

Left: bee ascending Allium 'Mount Everest', a tall, stately pure white-flowered allium that contrasts exceptionally well with the purple varieties. Right: sweet peas catching the morning sun.

Viburnum opulus 'Compactum' in the foreground; paeonies and Geranium 'Rozanne' towards the back. Rozanne will carry on flowering all through the summer and into the autumn.

Climbing hydrangea - Hydrangea anomala subsp petiolaris - takes a while to establish and get going, but once it does, it gives it back in spades every spring. The white blooms surround tiny foamy white flowers, and last for a couple of months before beginning to fade. The bright heart-shaped leaves cover the fence beautifully too. 

Paeonia lactiflora 'Bowl of Beauty' - just about going over here - on the left, P. lactiflora 'Bowl of Cream' (I think) on the right, overseeing the Geranium nodosum.


Rosa 'Iceberg' climbing up the fence. The new flowers don't aways show these pink tips and the colour soon fades to pure white -