There is surprisingly little going on in the garden at the moment. At this time last year there were daffodils appearing and some crocus too.
This Ipheion uniflorum 'Charlotte Bishop' is shooting up leaves just like they did last year in December.
I've planted 50 more of these, along with some I. 'Jesse'. It turned out that the later were very much smaller bulbs than the 'Charlotte Bishop' so we will have to see if they grow and flower as well this year.
A lot of rain especially towards the end and the ground is very wet. Very little sun gets to the garden at this time of the year.
There is not much to report this month, as things are slowing down and there is there is little new showing.
I started to plant the new bulbs.
The following were flowering at some point during the month.
This is Helenium 'Siesta' and the original stems were dying back, while new growth was appearing at the bottom. There are now a couple of fresh flowers.
The snapdragons that were planted on the …
The week was very wet overall and earlier there was a cold east wind. Today it was quite bright until late afternoon when it started to rain again.
The sun hardly touches the ground in the back garden at this time of year, but it was bright enough for six photos so here we go for another Six on Saturday.
After the long flowering period of G. 'Totally tangerine' last year, I added a few more Geums to the garden this year. However, this year flowering was restricted to spring and early summer.
Except for this one, which has flowered continuously.
This grew after I dug up part of the left border. I've read every article on the internet on how tell the difference between dill and fennel and I still don't know which it is.
I'm going for Dill, but I …
Lots of rain last night, but by this morning it was sunny. At this time of year most of the garden is in shadow until later. By then, the sun was in and it was rather dull for taking photos. Always seems to happen every Saturday...
I'm doing a Six on Saturday this week while there are still plenty of flowers out.
I bought this a few weeks ago as I like having a splash of colour in this area during the autumn. I don't expect it to survive the winter, but if as long as this winter isn't as bad as last year it may survive the rest of the year.
This is the last Gladioli to flower. Its just an impression, since I haven't kept notes, but it seems that ones that flowered later, are also lasting longer.
This is Anemone …
Compare with last year
There were still plenty of flowers around this month and some plants just getting going.
This year I thought I would try out buying bulbs via mail order. I was mainly looking for tulips and I did some research to find varieties that flower year after year. As it happened I ended up with a lot of bulbs, but not so many tulips!
I've also got the tulips in the trough container which have been multiplying over the years. I removed a few which I will plant in the ground. They already had shoots and a few roots.
Also, I got some smaller daffodils, 'February gold' and 'Jetfire'. Some more Ipheion 'Charlotte Bishop', and some I. 'Jessie' which were recommended by Jim and look good.
Also more anemones which I shall spread all over, they flower early and then disappear, so they will go well beneath later growing plants.
Finally some spring flowering Gladioli, and blue Alliums.
They were from Rose cottage plants
Here is …
One of my Primulas had a few dead leaves so I was idly pulling them off the plant when the whole plant came away from the ground. Dug up the soil and there were lots of vine weevils.
There were not many roots left, but I've replanted it so we shall see how it does.
This is the first flower from my other Actaea. It is Actaea simplex 'Brunette' (Atropurpurea Group). Unfortunately the plant is not doing well in this location. I believe that it is sensitive to the wind whipping around the side of the house and has lost all of its highest leaves, and this flower is very low near the ground too.
At one stage I thought it wasn't even going to flower, so this is a bonus.
