The garden has reached its late summer peak, the evenings are drawing in and the night time temperatures are dropping, but the garden is still alight with flowers.
I do love the prairie style of planting with echinacea’s and stipa tenuissima and with the amount of rain we had at the earlier part of summer even my rudbeckias are flowering, after I threatened to get rid of them this year. They prefer a moisture retentive soil, and so with the light Bagshot sand it was always a bit of a gamble to have them in the garden, but the splash of yellow pops amongst the pinks, purples and whites. I have found with the dry soil, growth tends to be more stunted, and less flowers than if on a heavier moisture retentive soil but I’m enjoying them this year and so are the bees it seems.
It is a great time of year for collecting seeds and storing them for next year or sowing them as nature would do anyway. I’ve collected Lupin, digitalis, Stipa tenuissima, and I’ve noticed popping up in the gravel path are hardy geraniums, salvia dayglow and bumble, and Echinacea seedlings that I will pot on and grow on over in winter in the cold frame, ready for the garden or next year’s plant sale.
I’ve decided to add further to my hydrangea collection and have already moved the Vanilla Fraise I planted last month before it got too established. I found some beautiful Hydrangea ‘Silver Dollar’ in Longacres last week. We have a slight bank at the end of the garden at the entrance to our wooded area and so this should be perfect for the hydrangeas to get a balance of sun and shade. I watered the planting hole before planting and will need to keep them well watered but after the success of the Annabelle on the other side of camellia it looks like it could be an area suited to hydrangeas. As the Vanilla Fraise is slightly taller than the Silver Dollar, I’ve moved that further back and now have Silver Dollar nearer the base of the bank and I can look forward to them developing over the next few years as the Hydrangea limelight has done, with it getting better each year and being absolutely stunning this year.
About 3 years ago I decided to add some Buxus balls to the corners of my middle border. They give off a mild scent which I find rather pleasant so I thought I would give these a try. They’ve lasted the 3 years but I have noticed that they have succumbed to the dreaded Box Moth Caterpillar. As they are still fairly small balls I think I’m going to cut my losses and start some research to see what alternative I can find. Ilex Crenata is one option in garden centres but this isn’t favoured by horticulturists, but I have seen some beautiful Pittisporum ball shapes in a friends garden so I may be tracking some of those down. Pittisporum is a great shrub that can be topiarised into all sorts of shapes.
Now schools have gone back, the garden centres are turning their attention to autumn colour and next spring. I’m not ready for summer to be over especially with the lack of sunshine but my pots haven’t done well this year though so maybe it is time to look for the Chrysanthemum balls I usually buy as my homage to our time in Kansas. It’s also time to start thinking about what to buy for the pots for spring colour which always prompts a few visits to Longacres to get some inspiration.
Our garden is about to go through an element of change. The garden next door has had about 20 leylandii trees removed in the last month, we are already seeing an improvement in our grass, where it had previously struggled to grow. With further trees due to be removed next month, the garden will receive more light and although we still have the large oak for shade and as a feature we are thinking we will receive more sun in the garden, especially in the winter months when the sun is lower and was previously in shade for most of the winter. We will be waiting to see if the garden floods again if we have heavy rain as when another neighbour removed a boundary hedge of leylandii 7 years ago we had a pond feature for 3 weeks after heavy rainfall. It has never reappeared so I am thinking this was due to the water table needing to balance itself out after the conifers had been removed. Time will tell if my theory is correct.
In the meantime, I’m off out into the garden to enjoy this last glorious burst of warmth and sunshine and to water the camellias and rhododendrons to they will flower well next year. Happy gardening.
Look forward to seeing your hydrangea s in flower next year.
Must mention azaleas need lots of water to ensure flowering next year