AUGUST — TOM HOWARD

Another picture dump

Because life is busy isn’t it

Is there a finer sight in a garden than a Pineapple Lily? Love its little hairdo.

My debut salvia. Inspired, really, by a two-day Urban Gardening course I did back in May at Walworth Garden. The guy who ran the course - Oli Haden - was giving people in attendance plant recommendations for small gardens, and the two families that came up the most were euphorbias and salvias. Lots of varieties, happy in a wide range of conditions, and they either flower for a long time (salvias) or provide year-round structure (euphorbias). So I bought this (the name eludes me, I’ve lost the label), and whaddayouknow, it’s flowered all summer long. I love it so much I’m gonna dig out my disappointing front garden rudbeckia border and replace it with loads of different salvias. It’ll be beautiful.

Rosa Iceberg, looking delightful in last night’s rain.

Clematis Madame Julia Correvon, climbing up an olive tree in the front garden. Hasn’t actually done well in this, its second year. In theory it should’ve flowered from June to September, but I got about six really small flowers in late August. I have one theory: it didn’t like the extreme heat.

You don’t need me to tell you how amazing Geranium Rozanne is. Flowers forever, while everything collapses around it. Hasn’t minded the heat one bit.

Double vision

Until this year, when I grew them for the first time, I did not realise that sunflowers A/ have little sunflower babies, and therefore produce multiple flowers in one season and B/ sometimes produce these flowers at the same time, as illustrated above. I love the little fight they're having in the middle of the picture, and I love the slight difference in colour, as if the petals fade when they spend some time in the sun. I've really grown attached to these flowers, you know. They've been incredibly easy, have been blooming since June and almost always have bees buzzing around them. I'm keen to get them in the ground in a border next year, because they don't take up much room and provide excellent height, but I'll stick to medium-sized ones because the giant ones are terribly ungainly, don't you think.

The second coming

My garden is small, so all the plants in it need to earn their keep. The easiest ways to please me are 1/ be evergreen (for example: bamboo) 2/ be a self-seeder (for example: erigeron) 3/ flower for weeks or ideally months on end (for example: salvias) 4/ be drought-tolerant (for example: sedums) or, in the case of the Kew Gardens rose that you see here, 5/ flower twice or even three times a year. I've planted four of these plants to create a mini-hedge and, as I've written before, it's an ideal plant if you've got babies because they're thornless. So far, it has been a very well-behaved and low-maintenance rose. This is year two, and I've only fed it once (when I planted it) and I haven't watered it since the summer of 2017. No mildew, no blackspot, no nothing. Its leaves get shredded every now and then by hungry caterpillars, but I don't mind too much because BUTTERFLIES (or moths) and it's never had a negative impact on the plant as a whole. What a trooper. Plus: it flowers loads. This year it flowered for the first time in early June, but then I went away for two weeks so wasn't able to do any deadheading which resulted in a bit of a lull in flower production. Now, though, it is back. Pretty innit:

Bonus bug at 12 o'clock. Pic taken August 7, 2018

I love that the buds are a peach colour, and that they fade to white when they open. Pic taken August 7, 2018

I never thought, not in a million years, that I'd meet so many dahlias

Something about this pic doesn't make sense, but I dig it anyway. The way the sun catches the two flowers is kinda magical. I like the slight imperfection of the hole in the petal at 9 o'clock on the flower in the foreground. I like how that flower looks sun washed and sort of vintage. I like that flowers are pointing in completely different directions, just trying to drink up the sun's tasty rays as best as they can. And I like the single-flowered dahlias much more than the flouncier pom pom varieties. I just find them easier to look at. A bit more minimalist. Less shouty. And bees like them more too, which I am absolutely down with. This is a Bishop of Llandaff dahlia, which is very much a mainstream dahlia, and you can see why, can you not. I haven't fed it at all, but it's enjoyed its sheltered spot in a terracotta pot against a north-facing white wall and is flowering well. I haven't done any scientific experiments, so I have no proof, but I reckon the plant has been getting extra heat from the sun reflecting off the white paint. I had to buy this plant new this year because I left my 2017 BoL outside in a terracotta pot over the winter and it rotted away. Silly aren't I. That was good though, mingling with grasses and nasturtiums, look:

Last year's one was a lot more upright, for some reason. I've had to use two little bamboo canes and some string to keep this year's one from flopping over. Could be because the plant is bigger (it's in a bigger pot) and therefore heavier. Could be because the plant has no other plants surrounding it to act as a support. Could be, I suppose, because I haven't fed it, and so it's not strong enough to hold its own weight. I'm honestly not sure.