End of July round up

Posted Mon 31 July 2017 in garden

Another month, and with all the rainy days not at all like summer. So here goes...

Flowering

In no particular order, certainly not alphabetical...

• Snapdragon - this appeared along the side patch where even the weeds fear to grow. So quite a surprise

• Sidalcea - this grew flower spikes and in the blink of an eye, the were gone. The leaves are all brown around the edges, so something not quite right with it.

• Penstemon - only had one flower stem so far, but for a time it was the best thing flowering.

• Lemon Balm - well I think it is lemon balm, it has very lemony smelling leaves. The leaves are speckeled and don't look very healthy. The flowers are very inconspicuous and I don't think I shall be keeping this.

• Yellow loosestrife - there is a large patch of this which is growing very well, and is very tall. The rain has given it quite a bashing so the flowers stems are all at differing angles, which improves the effect.

• Purple loosestrife - this is growing very well and the best it yet to come, so there will probably be a picture in the August round up.

• Alchemilla mollis - I can't say that I like this. It looks OK when the leaves are fresh, but the flowers have been flattened in the rain and it all looks a bit untidy.

  So here is a photo that doesn't show any of that.

  

• Himalayan honeysuckle - lots of flowers. I saw a blackbird in the bush eating the berries.

• Potentilla - there is not a mass of flowers but they are quite pretty. Long stems that are trailing along the ground so the flowers are away a bit from the actual plant.

  

• Lovage - I believe this is lovage it is supposed to have a celery like taste. As I am not at all fond of celery I have not tried eating any of it. The flower stalks are impressively tall though.

  

• Geraniums - my new Rozanne variety is still flowering, not many at a time, but they keep coming. The leaves look a bit brown in places so I can't say it is thriving.

• Polemonium - nearly finished unless there is going to be another flush of flowers later. I like it, it should be good if it establishes and grows.

• Lychnis chalcedonica

• Verbena bonariensis

  

• Hypericum

  

• Lobelia 'Starship Scarlet' the other perennial one has buds but is not near flowering

  

• Eryngium - this is low growing but puts up stalks which are way too tall so they flop towards the ground (not helped by all the wind and rain to be fair).

  With added bee

  

• Crocosmia/Montbretia

• Sanguisbora - this has grown well and has many flowers

• Californian poppy - in a container, the ones in the ground are not anywhere as good as this.

  

• Zinnia

• Petunia

• Lavender

Bought

I bought six new plant in two set of 3 for.. offers.

• Anemone Praecox
• Salvia microphylla 'hot lips'

• Nepeta 'Purrsian blue'

• Salvia 'Wendys wish'

• Physostegia virginiana 'Crystal peak'
• Gaillardia × grandiflora 'Sunset cutie'

Lawn

I over seeded the whole lawn earlier, but because I did the whole lot I couldn't really tell if it had made a difference or not. So this time I have prepared and sown a couple of selected areas. I've also removed the patches of grass that I do not like and have sown them as well.

So you could now say it now looks worse as there are bare patches, but somehow I like it better...

Re-seeded the front lawn too.

Posted by Steve