Early July delights in the garden

I spent a while in the garden today and enjoyed seeing what is in flower.  Watering does give an opportunity to look at the plants closely and I find it a meditative activity, although as I have a lot of pots, I have to stagger the watering schedule.  I was also doing a bit of repotting. Above is Clematis Princess Kate.

Clematis Perle D'Azur is flowering now on the metal arch.

Here it is from the other side, with the Buddleia.

Various phloxes are flowering too and their honey scent is lovely.   They seem to prefer a bit of shade. 

Hydrangea Annabelle is flowering although she is not enjoying how dry things are.  

Always a joy every year is Hibsicus Oiseau Bleu. Exotic-looking flowers, hardy and tough, this one always makes an appearance or two on my blog. I think this is quite an early appearance.

Clematis Arabella, scrambling through the border with her purply/lilac flowers.

Bringing me so much joy has been this goldfinch, which was on a TV aerial in the next street, so I had to use my zoom.  It has been singing most of the morning and afternoon and had a beautiful song. What a lovely little bird it is!

Roses, Clematis and Cosmos and a visitor

 We are bracing ourselves for another heatwave.  I do not like the heat, so am not looking forward to the next week.  So far, the garden appears to be coping although I will need to be very careful with my watering.

The rest of the roses have now started to flower.  Above is Ferdinand Pichard who has a lovely perfume.

Emily Bronte, with her pink and creamy yellow flower.

Blush Noisette, with its sprays of smaller flowers.

The clematis are also doing well.  I used to have many more but over the years, they have come and gone.  Above is Venosa Violacea, whch is sprawling over the winter flowering honeysuckle.

This is Prince Charles, making his way over the trellis.

Arabella is a herbaceaous clematis who doesn't cling.  She is tied in to an obelisk.

Blue Angel is draping itself along the fence and wall.

Neptune is a smaller variety in a pot.

I have been growing different varieties of cosmos and this one is Cosmos sulphureus Polidor.  I haven't seen an orange cosmos before, but I like it!  I need to get these into larger pots.

Finally, I saw this amazing dragonfly (edited to add: a female Emperor, we think) in the garden.  These are not usual visitors and luckily, this one posed for me beautifully while I rushed to get my camera. Isn't it wonderful?

A Clematis post

Seeing as the roses have had their turn, I now bring you my Clematis selection.  Despite the continuing hot weather (for the UK in June), the clematis are flowering and looking lovely.  May I introduce:

 

Clematis New Love - a non-clinging herbaceous variety.

Venosa Violacea which is coping with the sun by curling its petals up.

Perle D'Azur growing over the arch.

My newest one, from the smaller Boulevard series, called Poseidon.   I need to get this one into a bigger pot and given it something to climb up.

The elegant Princess Kate.

Prince Charles.

Another non-clinging herbaceous variety, Arabella.

Finally, Blue Angel.

Most are blue/purple in colour (although this wasn't an intention when I bought them) and manage to drape themselves gracefully over trellis or up obelisks. They are very obliging plants.  Of course, there are also the Spring flowering varieties, but they have been featured previously.

Things to enjoy in the garden - before Storm Babet...

I took these photos a week or so ago, before Storm Babet decided to make her presence felt and flood a lot of the UK.  The watercourse levels were higher than I have ever seen them in thirty years and we lived in a state of worry for a few days.  We have been so much luckier than so many others and our house hasn't flooded this time. We did get between one and two months' worth of rain in one day.  Here's what caught my eye in the garden before all that happened.  Above and below is my cosmos plant which is at the front door.  It was grown by my sister-in-law and has given me so much pleasure.

The faintest pink colouring can just be seen on the edges of the petals.

Salvia Amistad, which has been great value. I bought six of these earlier in the year and grew them on inside initially. They were planted out in pots and have flowered all through the summer. They are showing no signs of stopping yet, but I expect the frost will kill them in time.

Hydrangea Bobo is putting out two more flowers and its leaves are starting to turn yellow.

Ever reliable Liriope Muscari doing its thing and really needing to be divided (I have been saying that for about four years).

Rose Roald Dahl - there are still buds to come.

A few raspberries from my Joan J plants in a tub.  They have been fruiting since mid August.  If Ii had more space, I would have a lot of these!

Clematis Arabella which has just decided to flower in the last few weeks.  This is a non-clinging variety and I have another of these in the North facing border, but this one has always struggled a bit, so it was lovely to see it flowering.

Clematis (and a penstemon)

This year, the clematis are looking wonderful.  I have some in the borders and some in pots, but the majority of them have been flowering so well.  They are looking a bit more battered as we have had several rainy days in a row this week. Above is Clematis Venosa Violacea, growing through Rosa Ferdinand Pichard.

Here it is again.

This is Clematis Perle D'Azur growing with Rose New Dawn.  The clematis has grown a lot since I took this photo.

Clematis Prince Charles, growing in a large tub.

Clematis Princess Kate also growing in a tub, but which needs to be potted on into a larger one - next Spring perhaps.  I had planned to do it this year, but lockdown and a lack of compost postponed this,

Clematis Arabella in the border.

Perle D'Azur and Rose New Dawn on the metal arch.

Penstemon Garnet was looking rather lovely too, so here it is.

My plants in Chelsea week 2016

 My plants have been busy during Chelsea week too.  The recent sun and rain has helped everything to shoot up.  Above is Clematis Asao.

 Cirsium rivulare Atropurpureum with its beautiful maroon flower heads.

 Clematis Guernsey Cream, which I had planted and totally forgotten about.

 Astrantia Hadspen Blood, I think, but am not sure, as it could be Moulin Rouge or Ruby Wedding...

 Lilac and Magnolia looking lovely together.

 Allium Purple Sensation against the shed.

 A rather pretty combination of Gladiolus Byzantinus, Nemesia Confetti and Chive flowers.

Clematis Arabella.

 The star of the show has to be my patio peony 'Athens' which is in its second year with me and looking amazing.

Even when the flower is shut up in the rain, it still looks beautiful.

Wow!  Peonies may not last long in flower, but when they are in flower, nothing else comes close to them for sheer glamour.  They get my gold award this week!