mid-Summer 2018

I am so happy to have sea holly - that I haven't spent a lot on in the garden centre. Slugs have eaten those from last year as soon as they started coming up this year - but I collected and planted seeds from them last year and now this year, they are blooming. Not as exuberant as those from the garden centre last year but they're getting established, have the challenge of growing in pots and coping with drought (which they'd be able to cope with after getting established). The stems are starting to turn purple, in that fantastic electric way they have of doing so.

sea holly

close-up of one of the flowers starting to turn purple

sea holly

I am intrigued with these new forget-me-nots. They have appeared in these "garden in a pot"s   I tend to have with things that have self-seeded, this example with stachys byzantina, ox-eye daisy, hollyhock and this tiny-flowered forget-me-not, much smaller than my usual forget-me-nots which have all finished now for this year.

garden in a pot

these are my usual forget-me-nots flowering back in April, the flowers are enormous compared to the one above, I'm wondering if common or wood forget-me-not??

forget-me-nots

close-up of some of my usual forget-me-nots

forget-me-nots

close-up of the recent tiny-flowered plant, field forget-me-not??

tiny forget-me-not

close-up of the flowers

tiny forget-me-not flowers

I love buds, sometimes more than the flowers. These phlox buds are great. I got 3 small plants but the slugs got 2 of them so this is my only one left.

phlox buds

the blue of these cornflowers is exquisite

cornflowers

scabious

scabious

red admiral butterfly on the echium blue bedder

echium with red admiral butterfly

all purple / blue flowers today, here's a chicory I saw the other day in Allen Gardens, east London, one of my favourite flowers

chicory

I don't know why some morning glories flower so quickly when they are so small. Most are still growing and no flowers yet.

morning glory

the flower seems to be glowing

morning glory

flower bud of my Big Daddy hosta

hosta flower bud

I can't believe it can still flower with this kind of damage - and the Japanese anemone is untouched

hosta and japanese anemone

I am still surprised when I get flowers from seeds I planted. I shouldn't be but it's so often hit and miss. Black Swan poppies and echium Blue Bedder. The poppies only last a short time so in just the last few days I have 3 seed heads without petals. The terracotta pot on the right on the bricks has an echium vulgare which I put next to the echium Blue Bedder to compare the flowers, difference in size but otherwise extremely similar.

black swan poppies and echium Blue Bedder

the bees are loving the poppies

black swan poppy with bee

I have one largish red poppy plant after sowing seeds the last few years. One of the more difficult plants to grow from seed.

red field corn poppies

the bees are loving the poppies, and the tomato flowers but so far haven't managed to get a photo of one on a tomato flower

red poppy with bee

View from my stairs down to the garden, flowers: cornflowers, delphiniums, verbena bonariensis, foxglove, knautia, scabious, corn cockle, tomatoes, poppies, honeysuckle, nepeta; buds: globe thistle; still awaiting buds: lupin and monarda.

patio

I love veronica. The fancy cultivars are nice but don't last. The bog standard ones at least come back every year. The bees will visit but not when there are exciting things like poppies.

veronica flower spikes

harlequin ladybird I noticed yesterday (22-6-2018)

harlequin ladybird

nice acanthus spinosis flower this year, none last year because of slug damage

acanthus spinosis

Sadly no iris flowers this year. They were choked by green alkanet and too dry. The weather has been terrible. Drought in my garden unless I water it and I'm only watering my pots. I can't water the entire garden.

iris

the daisies and forget-me-not are finished in the compost pile garden, now teasel, morning glory and the blackberry hanging basket (I have no place to hang it)

compost pile garden