Coming into flower at last

Well here we are, nearly at the end of May and the garden is beginning to look like a garden.  Two years here and I am still not used to how late the season begins this far North.  I have a friend who sent me pictures of her Granny Bonnets (aquilegias) all in flower over a month ago and that garden is in Salford not the sunny south.

We have just finished Chelsea week - even though there wasn't a Chelsea thanks to Covid.  As a passionate follower of all things gardening on TV it was really quite odd not to see the buzz and prettiness of all that's new in plants and of course drool over all the gorgeous gardens we see - well almost all of them. 

Up here we had two days of strong winds whipping through the garden.  On inspection we found loads of flower buds just snapped off and strewn around with the leaves.  I can't remember ever seeing this before.  You expect the wind to snap the stems of soft new growth and even pummell plants flat but not to daintily nip round the garden snipping off buds.

 

As always the west facing border is filling up faster than the east one.  I have pruned the straggly lopsided (but wonderful) Early Sensation clematis back in hopes of getting some nice summer growth on it that I can tie in to where I want it to flower next spring.  

I think the mass of geum is Mrs Bradshaw and she is doing well.  

The rose - Wollerton Old Hall - is healthy and looking promising so far.  It, and its partner - Shropshire Lad - across the way, are twelve foot climbers but they proved to be a pain to have to keep tying in at the back of a five foot border so I contacted Peter Beales and asked if they could be pruned savagely this year and treated like a shrub rose.  The good news is that they are really a sort of overgrown shrub rose that Beales discovered made good climbers so I was told by all means bully them back into shrubs, which is what is happening this year.  I am expecting them to flop badly though when their large roses weigh the branches down.  Fingers crossed they don't.

The clematis was an Aldi buy the year we moved in and didn't have a label so is an unknown.  It is a bit of a strange one - very patchy and stripey.  I am wondering if it has a virus???

I have no idea why these delightful daisies cheer me so much but they do.  Mexican Fleabane (Erigeron).  I have them in broken patches along the edge of the gravel garden so they are pretty much always in sight when I am sitting down there.

In mt veg trugs the carrots (back row) and spring onions have germinated, so all the veg trug planting has been a success so far.

I can't believe how brilliantly the cheap little winter hanging baskets are still doing.  We do try to be thorough with watering and feeding them.  I am sure I got two of them for ten pounds from Dobbies late last autumn.

We have the first rose out, always a bit of a celebration - Shropshire Lad.  Quite a small version which I hope continues to be the case so the rose 'bush' stays tidy.

Luckily our gardener doesn't do the best job when it comes to weeding - though to be fair this time he may have thought I might want these self-seeded-whatever-they-ares.  I am hoping they are foxgloves but as of now I really have no idea.  I am going to give them another week and then remove carefully and put in pots to grown on and see what I have.  They might be big enough to go back in the border in the autumn - always assuming I am not cultivating a weed.

These two seedlings without a doubt are verbena bonariensis and are ready for their little pots - a job for the weekend.  Sadly I didn't plan any 'nursery' areas in this garden as I had no intention of gardening any more when we came to this house - lawn and two shrub borders and somewhere to sit was the idea behind the layout.  I am now struggling with what I would like to be doing/growing versus what the layout will let me do.

My granny bonnets are finally catching up with my Salford friend's.

I am sure I must say this every time but I have no idea how you capture a garden in a photo - it always looks decidedly boring and even a bit pathetic but when you are in it I assure you it isn't.

This is the rather odd clematis - doesn't look quite right to me.

I have four of these poppies - that should be preceded by 'unfortunately' - it is a colour I really don't like but, as they are bonny and healthy and flowering well I haven't the heart to bin them or even give them away.  I think it is a case of trying to appreciate them for their gusto and somewhere down the line replace them.  I do have two new ones added this year - Royal Wedding (white) - which I know I love.  I hope they manage to flower this year. 

Whilst on the subject of colour...........  my gardens have always, but always, been colour themed.  At the last house the back garden was all cool colours - pinks, blues, whites and blends of that and the front garden had all the hot colours, reds, yellows, oranges.  This one was thrown together in a hurry with the idea of swapping stuff out over the years until it was where I wanted it.  So I have ended up with combinations like this which in anyone's rule book is a no-no..... and you know what I love it.  Maybe I will become a fan of Great Dixter in the end.