Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - August

Catanache caerulea alba

I'm a day late for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day again - I took the photos yesterday and sorted them, but ran out of time to post them. But I thought as I had them ready I might as well post them today.


Leucojum autumnale

I'm still catching up with all the things I missed while my internet connection was down, including reading other blogs, and replying to the comments on this one. We've had four internet/phone engineers come out to try to fix the problem, and it still isn't properly sorted, but at least I now have reasonably constant internet, rather than half a minute's connection every half hour or so.


Fuchsia hawkshead

Several of the potted plants I brought with me when we moved are flowering this month, including the ones above, the Papaver rupifragum, which I've shown you a couple of times before, and the Potentilla fruticosas, which have all been in flower since May.


Potentilla fruticosa goldfinger

The courgettes I planted in the spring are also still flowering away ...


Courgette black beauty

... and so are the Calendulas which seeded themselves in the corner bed.


Calendula citrus cocktail

At the bottom of the garden there's a bare patch of earth which I have covered with annuals for the time being. Last year I just planted Phacelia there to break up the soil and keep down the weeds, and this year I planted more of that ...


Phacelia tanacetifolia

... and also a variety of Centaureas and Amberboas.


Centaureas including blue diadem (top left), the snowman (bottom centre), and black ball (bottom right), and Amberboa muricata (top right and bottom left)

However, the garden as a whole is sadly lacking in colour: most of the things which were here when we moved in seem to flower in spring or early summer, and there's very little still out now. I really need to change this!


Achillea ptarmica the pearl, with unidentified yellow daisies behind

If I'd had more time and more of an internet connection last month, I'd have posted photos of the Achillea and the yellow daisies above (photo taken July 2014) - some of these are still flowering in the back garden, but they are going over now. The Rudbeckia in the front are just starting to come out, but there's not much else out there.


Rudbeckia (toto?)

And there's not much else in the whole of the back garden either. The only things in full flower are the purpley-blue spikes in the photos below.



I don't know what they are so if anyone can ID them I'd be grateful: they look a bit like a Salvia, Nepeta, or Veronica? - but I'm not sure the leaves are right for any of these. The bees like them though!



For more blooms, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - July

I'm in a rush again so this is a quick summary of the flowers in my garden at the moment ...



Woohoo!



D'oh!

If you've posted a comment on my blog in the last month or two and I haven't got around to visiting yours - or even to replying - please accept my apologies. I hope to have more time for the blogosphere soon, but the real world keeps getting in the way at the moment!

For more blooms, visit May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - June

This is a quick, mostly photo, post this month as I am still struggling to catch up with everything, blogging included.



Most of the things flowering in my new garden at the moment are in shades of blue, lilac, and purple. Nigellas have seeded themselves all over the garden.



There are a lot more Geraniums in flower.



And there are quite a few tall blue Irises. I don't know which ones they are, but they are very pretty.



I also love these little purple flowers, but I've no idea what they are. I'm not even sure whether they're cultivated flowers or weeds. Whichever they are, I plan to keep them! If anyone can ID them for me, I should be grateful.



Here's a close up of the flowers. They are very tiny and only open if it's sunny.



We have a lot of blue Campanulas coming out around the garden, but just this one white one - I'm not sure where it has come from, but again, I hope to keep it.



And there's a big patch of lilac Erigeron. I'm not that keen, but the bees love it! There are also several pink (yuck) shrubs flowering in our new garden this month, but I'm saving those for another post.

For more June blooms, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - May

My Papaver rupifragum, which flowered well into December last year, started early this year and has been flowering since April. It should continue to flower on and off all through the summer - I hope it keeps going into the winter again, as it's one of my favourite flowers.



My Narcissus minnow have also been flowering since April and are showing no sign of stopping!



Several of the Potentillas I brought with me from my old garden have come into flower in the last few days: clockwise from above left are Potentilla rupestris, Potentilla fruticosa goldfinger, Potentilla fruticosa abbotswood, and Potentilla megalantha.



The Choisyas in the front garden are covered with flowers. We will dig them out when we replace the garden, as they are not in great condition, they're too big for the space, and for most of the year they just sit there looking big and yellow, but I must admit that they are spectacular in May. Suddenly they seem to have a point!



If anyone can identify the flowers above I should be grateful. They are growing under one of the Choisyas, and while the flowers look quite similar, they are less open, and the plant is much smaller and has green leaves rather than yellow ones.



Near the end of the back garden we have a huge Solanum. When we moved in it was really overgrown and straggly, and threatening to take over the world, but we pruned it back heavily earlier this spring and it has rewarded us by flowering its socks off (if I dare use that phrase in the blogosphere!).



We will have to cut this back a bit too, when it has finished flowering. It is our neighbours' white lilac, which has decided to colonise our garden - it has grown all across our flower bed and is now spreading over the lawn. It's lovely, but I'd like to see what's underneath it!



The purple Allium I dug out of the corner bed last year has a twin! I will dig this out too, when I have a minute, and put it in with the the other one, out of harm's way, so it doesn't get beheaded when the fence is replaced.



This is another mystery, and I'd be grateful for an ID. I recognise it, but I just can't remember what it's called. They are all over the garden ...



... as are these Myosotis, or forget-me-nots.



We also have a lot of Geraniums coming into flower this month, both ones we brought with us and ones which were in the garden already. Above are a selection, from left to right, Geranium phaeum samobor, Geranium himalayense, and Geranium macrorrhizum white ness.



But the flowers we have most of at the moment are Aquilegias. In fact, we have so many different ones that I had more photos of them than I had of everything else put together, and had to give up on the idea of posting them all. I'll post some more another time, but I couldn't resist including the one above today - it's far and away my favourite.

I am a day late for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day this month, but having taken and sorted a lot of photos yesterday and then run out of time, I thought I would post them today anyway. For more blooms, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - April

Pulsatilla

Finally I have managed to make a Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day! I am a little late in the day, but I'm still delighted.


Blossom on Prunus

My new garden is very much a summer garden (something I'll be changing - I want colour all year!), but there are a lot more signs of life in it this month. It was lovely to see the plum tree burst into blossom again, as it was looking very sickly in the autumn.


Saxifraga

I think the flowers on the Saxifraga (above), which we brought with us are very similar to the ones on the Spiraea (below), which we found in the garden here. I don't know whether they are in the same family - does anyone reading this?


Spiraea

The back garden is still full of Primulas - the one below is the only one we brought with us, so I might plant it in the front when we have got that clear.


Primula denticulata alba

I hadn't realised until I started to sort my photos ready to post that I had quite so many white flowers out at the moment.


Vinca minor gertrude jekyll

There are other colours in the garden, I just haven't taken so many photos of them, or the photos haven't come out well enough to post. Some flowers are also rather late this year - my Corydalis china blue and my Veronica georgia blue both normally flower in March, but this year they are only just coming out now.


Magnolia stellata

I'm always happy when there are still Narcissi out for my birthday (tomorrow) - they are also flowering quite late this year so there will be plenty!


Assorted Narcissi including Minnow, Mount Hood, and Ice Wings

I'm not quite so happy to see so many of these so early though ...


Eeeek!

To see my February and March blooms (many of which are also still in flower), and find out why I'm so pleased to have been able to post this today, have a look at this post.

For more April blooms, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.