My Actaea pachypoda 'misty blue' was seemingly doing fine, when I got it the leaves were hardly open but they quickly grew and there were three flowers. Then recently one small leaf wilted, I immediately watered it well of course, but rapidly more and more leaves fell and eventually the whole plant seemed to be gone.

There seemed to be nothing to lose, so I dug it up to see what might be going on. The roots were all moist but very congested, I tried to break them apart the best I could before replanting it. The roots were very tough so this was not easy.

I will leave it for a while to see if there is any new growth but I am not hopeful.

Its not easy to see in the photo as the dead leaves blend into the soil, the bulk of the dead leaves are slumped …

The dry spell continues even though it rained today it was hardly enough to wet the surface of the soil, never mind giving the plants a decent drink.

Since the garden is usually very wet I've planted many plants this year that do not like to dry out. Since they are not well established, this is the worst time for this lack of rain, so I am watering more than I would normally do.

Yesterday storm Hector hit. Since the garden is not that large, the fences provide some shelter, but the wind whips down the gap between the house and the next which affects all the new plants on the left side of the garden.

A couple of Lupin flowers and some leaves were torn from the plant, the new Phlox has a broken stem at ground level, and a Polemonium had its flower stem flattened.

1 Orchid

This …

The two orchids have returned this year. Last year the one by the back door had a short flower head and looked distinctly different to other one, but this year the back door one is much taller and perhaps more impressive than the one beneath The Tree.

This orchid grows wild in the area, so I am assuming that it wild and not deliberately planted but obviously I don't know for sure. The one at the back door is right next to the paving which would not be somewhere that I would plant anything.

I spent a long time last year trying to decide if they were Northern Mash Orchids, or Southern Mash Orchids. It looks a bit more like the SMO, but on the other hand this is too far North for it. Also the SMO is supposed to be a taller than these are. They are so variable …

Spent the day making sure everything was watered and planting most of the annual Lobelia along the edge of the new bed before going away for work for a few days.

There are a couple of new things to note.

Ligularia bud

This is the L. przewalski from Penlan.

Geum 'Mrs J Bradshaw'

This is a new Geum this year, its an old and well known variety and having seen it I'd say it would be hard to beat.

I planted all the seeds I received from the HPS in cells outside. Many of them just looked like dust so I wasn't too hopeful anything would grow.

Nothing happened for a long time, but there are now three of these which have appeared in the section for the Potentilla delphinensis.

The leaves don't look like a Potentilla, but I searched 'potentilla seedlings' and I am somewhat confident that they are, but we shall see.

There are a variety of other things growing, but I believe they are all weeds as they are growing elsewhere too, although I have not identified what kind of weed they all are yet.

I was away for the week and on arriving back I was surprised at all the changes.

Foxgloves

The foxgloves by the side of the house were just rosettes last year but this year they all are growing flower stalks. Before I went away I thought this was going to be yellow or cream, but turns out it is completely white with a small amount of darker markings inside.

Geranium 'Versicolour'

A couple of flowers opened on this new geranium. It is not quite what I was expecting, thought it would be paler with more distinct markings.

Orchid

The orchids are almost fully out. I will do a separate post on them later.

Osteospermum 'Lady Leitrim'

This is one of the new plants, it had buds when it arrived but it opened out today. It seems it only opens when sunny or warm enough.

Geranium

This is my favourite Geranium…

This is a roundup of what happened in the garden this month. You can compare with May 2017 last year with some additional May 2017 pictures.

The garden is still behind where it was last year at this time.

Tulips

seem a distant memory now, but were very colourful.

Tiarella

these were a great success. Very welcome flowers at this time of year. The flowers are just about finishing along with the month.

Ipheion

will be getting some more of these for next year.

Bluebell

there were two that actually looked like the English bluebell all the rest did not. Since most were presumably hybrids, it is likely that the remaining two were also, they just had more of the features of the English variety.

Geranium

I moved one of the pink Geraniums from the back where it got a bit lost to the front. This was a great …

I made this order to Special perennials on the 8th February, their policy is to send the plants when they are ready. Its possible that this is a bit later than normal this year.

This order was built around the Sanguisorba, the full list being:

• Sanguisorba 'lilac squirrel'
• Actaea simplex 'pink spike'
• Helenium 'El Dorado'
• Helenium 'Mardi gras'
• Lobelia cardinalis 'Bees Flame'
• Osteospermum 'Lady Leitrim'
• Phlox amplifolia
• Veronica 'Pink Damask'

Delivery

They don't take payment until the order is about to be delivered, so I received an email on the 17th along with a Paypal payment request which I paid straight away. The next email was on the 23rd notifying me that the order had been dispatched and that it would probably arrive the next day. Today I received a text from the delivery company giving a time range when to expect the delivery. It was delivered almost exactly …