Welcome to this weeks ‘Flowers On Sunday’ which on this beautiful weekend I am bringing to you from the garden. There is so much going on and it seems so long since I have written about the garden, that I thought the flowers should take centre stage in their uncut form for a change this Sunday.
I have two honeysuckles in flower at the moment. One is climbing up a tells against one of the old walls that surround the garden. The one in the photo above is actually planted underneath a large old yew bush. It grows up through the centre and cascades over the top and down the sides – quite beautiful and a very easy way to support a heavy honeysuckle.
The same yew tree also acts as something of a chicken hotel – all the garden chickens that have moved into garden from next door use this yew as a safe place to sleep overnight – here you can see one of the cockerels settled into its interior branches.
Still in the front garden you can see some of my many white alliums – Allium Mount Everest. These alliums are growing around a corkscrew hazel tree that I planted two years ago. Aside from the dark leaved hazel everything else in this bed has a white flower. I have planted the David Austin white rose William & Katherine, arum lilies, hydrangea Madame Mouliere, dicentra alba, the double philadelpus Virginal, viburnum opulus (guelder rose) and white agapanthus. The season kicks off with a selection of white tulips and ends with the beautiful white hydrangeas. The bed is edged with a number of box balls that you can see are coming close to their annual trim.
In another area of the front garden I have a large border where I grow the majority of my collection of bearded iris. These seem to be oblivious to the wildlife and do well in the very sunny dry conditions. The name tags have disappeared, so I need to trawl through the Claire Austin website where I bought them to try and identify the names as they flower. These are the first two types to flower.
Also in the front in a very shady bed, these beautiful red peonies are the first of the herbaceous varieties to flower every year. There are three of these peony plants in this bed, which we inherited when we moved in – I am going to hazard a guess that they might be peony Red Charm.
Most of the lilac has finished in the garden now, but I have two white trees that are growing in shady spots. Although they flower later than the ones in full sun the flowers last longer and so extend my lilac season by a week or two. The scent is still delicious.
Moving to the woodland – I did finally have a few lillies of the valley this year, thanks to a kind friend in the village who gave me some of her plants back in February. I am keeping my fingers crossed that these beauties will start to spread soon.
My Solomon’s Seal has been beautiful, but is already on its way out – the season is rushing past far too quickly.
The cow parsley is fading fast, but still looking good in shady spots. Outside my gates the council have already been round to trim it back from the verges – that is always a sad day.
Moving out from the shade into the flower garden, the first white scabious (scabiosa caucasia perfecta ‘Alba’) has just started to flower.
Peonies all over the garden are full of fat buds. As all my peonies are relatively new (planted between 1 and 4 years ago) this will be the first year that I have had an abundance of buds – I am keeping my fingers crossed for a beautiful peony season!
The first lupin to flower is this beautiful deep purple called Mastepiece. I grow this in a bed with very dark peonies and the rose Souvenir de Docteur Jarmain. The lupins follow on very quickly from the dark tulips Black Hero, Black Parrot and Queen of the Night.
Moving along to what I call my Country House Border the first delphinium is just about to flower. There are plenty of roses in this bed that are full of buds.
My favourite allium Purple Sensation is popping open throughout the garden.
And finally for today I just had to include my beautiful laburnum trees. These are the last of the blossoming trees for this year, but really do provide a grand finale to a season that started back in March with the earliest cherry tree.
This has been a very good week in the garden – conditions have been perfect for weeding and planting out. I am concentrating on getting all my sweet peas and hardy annual seedlings out into the beds. Then I will start putting out all the sprouted dahlia tubers and gladioli bulbs. I have just ordered a selection of chrysanthemum cuttings to keep the season going, hopefully into December. Also on my list for this week is the Chelsea Chop for my later flowering perennials – without this everything could be in flower in June and the plants will be exhausted by September. The Chelsea Chop ensures that the borders continue to look good until late in the season.
The sun is shining again today and I am taking a break from the garden – I am looking forward to a lovely concert this afternoon – Beethoven’s piano concerto no.5 and no.6 with afternoon tea. I hope to see you again tomorrow with my bouquet for ‘In A Vase On Monday’.
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I love how you played around with the focus in your images today! I’m sure you’ve mentioned in the past but what camera do you use? There is also so much promise from all the fat buds, a wonderful time to enjoy the garden.
Good morning Christina! My camera is a Canon 500d which gives me 12 points of focus to play with. I am using a 50mm 1.4 lens, which allows me to get my f stops down to 1.4 rather than the 5.6 the standard lens allowed. The lower the f stop the shallower the depth of field. I love the clarity this lens gives to the flowers and it is also a great portrait lens. My next purchase will be a macro lens to allow me to get closer to the flowers.
I hope you have a lovely day planned.
Hi Julie, thank you so much for all the information. I think I will have to dig out my dslr I’ve almost completely stopped using it because the automatic camera I have is so good at macro (much, much better than any slur I’ve seen so far) and has a particularly wide angle which I find very useful, but it’s failures are that it is not good in low light and I’ve become lazy about using any of the controls that it has. I hope you’re enjoying a sunny Sunday. Christina
Thank you for a lovely tour:-) It is good to read that someone else needs to figure otu what they planted in certain areas. I have many plants that I put in, but forget which cultivar they are etc. I need to be better in labeling, but sometimes they get lost in the dirt/misplaced.
You are a few weeks ahead of us in the MIdwest USA, so I enjoy stopping by to see what is blooming ,for I know it will be here soon!! Lovely garden:-)
Isn’t it frustrating Robbie to find you can’t identify a plant that you have put in – I always try to keep a written record of what is where but when the outside work is full on it can be hard to find the time to keep my records up to date.
Thank you for this beautiful tour! I have two questions: 1. How does the honeysuckle get enough sun to grow up through a yew? 2. How do the Red Charm peonies grow in a very shady garden? I have a yew hedge and a shady garden so I’m always on the look out for the best use of these features. Thank you!
Thank you for your questions Elizabeth.
As these are both plantings that pre date my ownership of this garden, the ideas are ones that I would not have tried. Looking at the peonies first I would usually choose a sunny position. I have since learnt that they will grow in sun or shade, but produce more flowers in sun. These peonies in the shade may have fewer flowers but the flowers do last a long time in their protected position so I would not let your shady garden put you off trying peonies.
Regarding the honeysuckle I suspect that when it was first planted the yew would have been quite small, otherwise I agree that the honeysuckle would not have grown well. Now that both plants are mature the honeysuckle is strong enough to climb to get the sun it needs. If I was attempting this with a mature yew I would plant the honeysuckle to the side and train it over the yew. As your yew is a hedge you would have to think about whether you could cut it without damaging the honeysuckle to much – my mature plant recovers well from its annual haircut.
What a beautiful tour round your garden, everything is looking wonderful! I gave in and had my box balls cut the other day, they were so shaggy, cutting them early probably means they will need doing again later in the year. Your honeysuckle is really beautiful and your laburnum trees are stunning.
Thank you Pauline – I am very close to giving in and trimming my box balls!
Lovely tour of the plants in your garden. Do you restock your alliums every year? They are fantastic!
I do not restock Mel but I do add alliums to the garden every autumn. When we moved here 4 years ago there were no alliums in the garden so I am adding bulbs to different areas every year. Once planted I find that they repeat well and often increase in numbers.
The weather has been fabulous and the your flowers in situ look really lovely too. I like the idea of your Honeysuckle cascading down from the Yew, that must be a magnificent sight.
Thank you Julie – that honeysuckle is one of my favourite sights of the season.
I have grown up with irises and peonies, so I’m a bit biased towards them, but all of these flowers are beautiful. 🙂
You are so lucky Sarah to have grown up with these beautiful flowers – I only came across irises and peonies about 15 years ago. They certainly did not grow in any of my childhood gardens.
So many lovely things going on in your garden Julie. Must be wonderful to be outside among the plants. The laburnum trees are fabulous.
The best bit about the laburnum is the bees – you can hear the buzzing long before you reach the trees!
Hi Julie,
Beautiful post ever. You garden has all the colours to match every hour of the day.Only beauty I have in common is the Golden Shower ie laburnum .we consider as a religious plant with lot of medical properties. As a child I used have morning milk with these flowers as it is good for girls. I loved drinking it. My mother had tree which bloomed every single day in a year for many years. But the poor plant stood outside our gate and two years back the muncipality chopped her plant which was not required at all . And every year in the month of April on13 th th morning all the flowers in her big tall tree will be missing as some ruthless people would have taken it to the market to sell for the festival on 14th snd 15th of April
She felt totally sad when her tree was chopped and a couple of years back she had planted the seeds of the same plant in her backyard. This year she was able to enjoy few showers for the festive season in April.and I have one in my house back home in Bangalore.Last year it started to bloom . Few showers were there when I left. But I am sure it must be more this year.i have requested my tenant to send few photographs.but then it’s coming and coming….still waiting for it.
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Any way all is so divine in your priced land.i enjoyed every bit.