Heatwave – Monsoon. How the Flowers coped

It’s been a strange year for flowers, some came and went so quickly as a result of the heatwaves and generally hot summer. Quite disappointing when you’re looking forward to seeing them.

Others like Ligularia ‘Desdemonas’ huge leaves kept wilting, but then revived with a small amount of water and went on to flower.

The Walnut’s drunk all the Water

Lots of the mid-summer perennials just didn’t reach their usual size. The thalictrum being the most obvious down in the white garden. It only reached about half the normal height, with very few flowers.

I suppose it’s not that surprising that quite a few plants in the white garden have suffered, they are planted next to a great big walnut tree, which I’m guessing is rather thirsty!

Finally, though the rain came and once the walnut had had enough to drink, the flowers got their turn. The Japanese Anenomes, Persicaria and white, Fuchsia ‘Hawshead’, have all eventually started flowering just smaller and less of them.

The Jasmine is the exception, not just flowering once, but now for a second time.

I’m hopeful that no real harm is done, and the stunted plants will come back happily next year.

I did plant three new plants in the white garden this year, not ideal conditions for them, but hopefully I’ve watered them enough.

• Hydrangea ‘Zebra’, I was incredibly happy with the shade of white, it had no cream at all, although as it’s faded it has got some pink in it. I suppose you can’t have everything!
• Actea racemosa, which used to be called Cimicifuga, I ordered this plant five years ago when we first planted up the white borders. Unfortunately, it never appeared, so I’ve already done better than the first time having seven flowers.
• Sanguisorba. If Actea looks like a bottle brush, then this looks like a fluffy bottlebrush, its only had one single flower, but considering the conditions, at least it’s survived.

Hopefully this late rain will have them coming back strongly next year.

First Annuals for Years

I haven’t grown annuals for years, but this year I grew some for the new wildflower border, they coped very happily with the dry conditions.

Coincidentally a friend had grown some cosmos from seed and gave me some plants.

Despite the garden being quite big, there’s not a lot of space left, so I planted a couple in the new wildflower border and planted one in a pot.

Cosmos always surprises me quite how big it gets and as a result the one in the pot really struggled. There were a couple of times I thought it was a goner! But since it’s started raining and boy has it rained! Bucket loads in the end. It finally came into its own, absolutely covered in flowers, so much so that I’ve bought myself a packet of seeds for next year.

Jack and the Sunflower stalk.

The other flowers that have simply loved all the water are the sunflowers. As most of them seeded themselves they were quite late, and the dry conditions had them sat there just a few inches tall for a very long time. Then it rained and boom, like jack and the beanstalk they reached for the sky!

First Dahlias and Nerines

My first year growing dahlias has been quite challenging, especially growing them in pots. Luckily the pots are rather large which I think has saved them. Anyway, after looking like they’d given up the ghost and were packing up for winter, the rain revived them too, and they are currently experiencing a last hurrah! Much to the happiness of the bees.

The other pink explosion is coming from the Nerine bulbs. I dug them up from my mums a few years ago and initially planted them too deeply, resulting in no flowers. I replanted them at the beginning of the year just below the surface, as they like to be baked. Well, they’ve certainly been baked this year, and heh presto, flowers!

You may also notice all the new growth on the lavender! That what warmth and water do.

Late Flowers

For those that hung on in there, and the later flowering plants, they have simply loved all of the late rain.

The rain seems to be extending the season with more flowers coming than you’d normally have at this time of year. Even plants that have seeded themselves are flowering like the Calendula officinalis, the English marigold, and a Phlox that’s appeared in front of the mauve Asters.

The unknown pink Salvia has been covered in flowers all summer and still going strong. The purple ‘Amistad’ and very originally named ‘Deep Blue’ salvias started flowering late and are still looking great, against the yellow Chrysanthe’s and Sunflowers.

The Woodland Border

The woodland border had a bit of rearranging earlier on this year and I’ve been pleased with the results. Some plants haven’t performed as well as a result, but mostly it’s been a riot of colour all year and still going on now.

It has been nice to spend so much time outside, especially still feeling warm well into the evenings. And on the whole the flowers have been good, if a little smaller than normal. But I’d really rather not have temperatures like that again and I think the flowers agree!

Stay safe and happy gardening.