Summer is in full swing now and gardens are looking fabulous with many many perennials in flower and the roses delighting us with a profusion of flowers and scent.
There are some pictures of Liz and Bob Watson’s garden from their NGS open day in June and a few from later in July (2014) on the right.
The most striking things that are in flower in June that you can see in the pictures were the orange blossom and rambling roses, the tall spikes of yellow verbascum and the smaller creamy flower spikes of Sisyrinchium. There were also lots of Geranium varieties from bright pink tall Patricia and blue Rosanne to the smaller pink Nodosum, Oxonium and Walker’s Gift. In July the colours get more firey as Crocosmia Lucifer comes into flower with yellow Inula daisies and tall Hollyhock and orange Hellenium. The white and pink stocks are coming into flower too and the tall grass Stipa Gigantia and the Scottish Thistle Onopordum are still looking good. The trick now is keeping the garden in shape until the opening at the end of August.
Judas Tree Cercis Siliquastrum pink flowers – grown from seed Dwarf Lilac Syringa Pallibiana mauve flowers Aquilegia Granny’s Bonnets – The larger flowered ones are from the ‘State Series’ Valerian Pink
Tulip Colour Spectacle – (see below) four blooms per stem! Meconopsis Cambrica Welsh poppy yellow Pimpinella 'Rosea' – Pink Cow Parsley Polygonatum Multiflorum Solomon’s Seal Magnolia Pink Susan Magnolia Bicolour pink/white –from seed Dicentra Spectabile Geranium Phaeum – dark purple flowers Other geraniums – pink and blue flowered Viola Plus two samples from Liz’s garden that were included - Viburnum Opulus Sterile – Snowball Tree Choysia Ternata - Mexican Orange Blossom – white scented flowers
Things are beginning to wake up now and the garden is coming to life. The early flowering shrubs are flowering well and many of these are scented. The evergreen shrubs are still looking good as they have all winter but now some of the perennials like primulas, euphorbia and pulmonaria are beginning to take over the limelight. Pam and Liz both brought in flowers and shrubs from their gardens to show the members.
Mahonia Japonica
Dogwood
Daphne
Cyclamen
Crocus – large flowered purple and white
Hellebore – purple, pink spotted, double
Heathers – Erica Carnea pink and white
Galanthus – various including a very special one with a yellow centre
Shrubs
Mahonia Aqufolium
Jasmine Nudiflorum
Pieris Japonica
Euonymous Silver Queen – White/Green
Euonymous Blondie – Yellow/Green
Rosemary Officinalis
Viburnum Tinus
Holly –Ilex Ferox Argentea
Chimonanthus Praecox Wintersweet – Sweetly scented
Viburnum bodnantense – sweetly scented
Lonicera Fragrantissima – winter flowering honeysuckle – scented
Skimmia Japonica Kew Green
There is not much in flower in my garden in November and December!
This is a time when viewed up close most gardens look a bit tatty but there are still some lovely things to see. The sun is low in the sky and on the days when it shine it lights up the autumn colours beautifully. The leaves have stayed on the trees a long time this year as there were we did not have many windy days in October and November so we have been able to enjoy the colours much longer. The beech tree in our garden looked wonderful as it caught the sun in the afternoon. The other things looking good are the coloured stems of the cornus in red yellow, the white stems of rubus (cockburnianus) and birch, Betula jaquemontii is one of the best and the paper bark maple Acer griseum. There are some pictures of them in my garden and more of the winter garden at Boadnant in North Wales. There the grasses also looked good and there were early rhododendrons in flower in late November.
Early in the month the gardens are still looking good. Jenny, Pam and Liz brought some flowers from their gardens to the meeting. Towards the end of the month the Michaelmas daisies will be in flower for one final burst of colour before Autumn really sets in.
Kenilworth Horticultural Society
February and March
Pam brought in two delightful arrangements of winter flowers to the February AGM. One was Daphne and several different varieties of snowdrops, doubles and singles, some very special. The other was winter aconites and cyclamen.
Liz also collected a selection of hellebores from her garden in March and has included the photograph below although they did not make it to the meeting!
Dahlia
Verbena Bonariensis
Knautia Macedonica – in flower since early May
David Howard – orange Dahlia
Bishop of Landaff – Red Dahlia, purple foliage
Begonia non-stop – living up to its name
Rose – Ruby Wedding
Crocosmia
Eucryphia cordifolia – 30ft tree covered in white flowers
Hydrangea white mop head – Annabelle
Hydrangea Panticulata - white
Echinops ritro globe thistle
Heliantus Lemon Queen