Sweetest smelling honeysuckle

Honeysuckle with clematis and R Kifstgate

With r. Kifstgate at its mot beautiful - apart from when bedraggled by heavy rain - there is too much to enjoy in the garden just now to spend too much time blogging!   But one thing I have to note is how good it smells - especially thanks to the evergreen honeysuckle.   Although rampant it is easily controlled and doesn't really have any nasty habits but even over the roses and some gorgeous clove-scented white dianthus the smell is all-pervading.   In the house too!

The "Russian ballet" colours are bursting into an energetic dialogue in the rose and herb garden - pictures to follow - and its lovely that the most prolific clematis Etoile Violet will be late flowering this year as it will extend the season's colour.

Have been particularly enjoying the antics of a young blackbird who has both mastered the knack of picking berries off the prickly mahonia and standing waiting for Dad to feed him on anything that's going.   Supplementary benefit bird-style!!

Roses take over

R. William Morris - so aptly named

The roses have survived the torrential rain and incredibly fierce winds to reward me with some luscious blooms.   Not least r. Kiftsgate has begun bursting into flower.   From the bathroom window it dominates the whole vista reminding me of the tower beset with fierce-thorned roses in Rapunzel.   In this view you can just about make out a patch of grass through the archway in the bay hedge and also the new birdbath - a great success with the blackbirds, young and older, just in front of the greenhouse. It shows just how small the garden is.   No wonder it's such hard work keeping it all under control.

From the bathroom window - see the jungle I have created!!!!

Yesterday morning I was greeted with the sight of a male blackbird feeding a very large fledgling.   It put me off going out for a while but they were soon on their way.   I can't imagine he was feeding the young bird mahonia berries (what a digestion!) but he was certainly tucking in himself!

In spite of the dire weather forecast the weather has been good - if windy - this weekend and I managed to plant nearly all the dahlias, making a very strange discovery in the process.   I seemed to remember planting more allium corms last autumn than have surfaced and indeed I had.  I found quite a number still looking healthy just totally dormant in the ground.   I replanted them hoping for better luck next year.   Must look in to what has caused this....

Otherwise most things seem to be catching up - particularly the clematis.   Hopefully this will work in my favour by extending the flowering season.   Must pay some attention to late summer plants to fill any gaps!

Uncovered this delightful planter Diana made when I was pruning recently and have cheated a bit of colour with some things from the garden centre.

Planter by Diana Roles with garden centre annuals

Self-set treasures

Having missed an early spraying of the roses due to the incredible amount of rain we've had during our "drought" I have spent a great deal of time clearing up the horrid yellow black-spotted leaves.   I have taken to sweeping them off the grass but can't do much to keep them out of the borders where they slip between the plants and accumulate waiting for vulnerable victims.   Geranium Phaeum seem vulnerable to mildew - another thing I think they catch from the roses if left unsprayed.   So it is at this time that I am most grateful for the self-set treasures which just do their own thing and seem relatively unaffected by such ailments.
This year I had a wonderful array of aquillegias in all shades of blues, pinks, purples and white and a good mix of pink and white fox gloves.   It is sometimes hard to leave these seedlings when they appear but it is worth restraining ones self.
Other good selfl-seeders in my garden are some of the geraniums - particularly Kashmir white and the silvery-leaved, long-flowering lychnis coronaria (also white version).
I am constantly looking for people to give seedlings to ...    Anyone interested?

Self-set aquilegia with alliums - and that broom again!

Wisteria - a matter of scale

I vividly remember the day I found a special offer on Wisteria at a Bloom's nursery.   Of course I couldn't resist it.   But every year I am reminded that such rashness is not advisable with a garden the tiny size of mine!

My idea was to plant it to cover the left side of the trellis which screens the greenhouse - both for colour and also to form a framework in its own right once the trellis disintegrates.   In fact it is working in both these respects but rather more rampantly than I had anticipated (shades of R. Kifstgate).   The racemes of flowers are massive - at least 12 inches long - but sadly its position means you don't really get to see them properly!    Nonetheless, it is staying.   I wonder if it will survive and become a structure in its own right in years to come.    Hmmm.

Wisteria with R. Zepherine Drouhin

Wisteria on trellis with new bird bath by Diana Roles in foreground

Dahlia id disaster - snails eat labels!

So much for hours of planning my dahlia colour combinations.   In addition to last years' tubers rotting, I just discovered that snails have eaten the labels of most of my potted-up tubers.  Oh well, it will be interesting!

The weather has at least been a bit warmer the past two days and the dahlias are mostly showing growth - very behind last year's progress.

The tulips are almost over now but it's been another learning curve.   Purple Dream have been spectacular - HUGE flowers.   Jimmy and Renaldo are still a great duo as are Burgundy and Ballerina although I have decided to give up on any attempts at second plantings.   Wasteful and expensive it might be, but I shall be giving this year's bulbs away (to those with enough space to take a chance on it) and planting new ones next year to avoid disappointment.   Princess Irene was lovely but not quite as variegated as last years batch.   Here are the last tulip shots for this year!

The green leaf is actually a malformation of the tulip - var. Purple Dream

Gorgeous deep blue centre on Tulip Burgundy

Burgundy and Ballerina - smaller flowers on last years bulbs  with a self-set Geranium Pheum in matching hue!

Spent hours clearing up black spotting leaves today - must find time to spray the roses - and planted up a grow bag in a sunny spot by the kitchen wall with some French beans.   I can keep an eye on them there and they should be easier to water!

Some of the nicest things in the garden are those that happen on their own - like these self-set forget-me-nots lining the brick path.

Swifts in the evening

I managed to get home in time to wander down the garden this evening with my glass of wine - albeit it wrapped in a scarf and thick coat - pick a bunch of lily of the valley and stand and ponder.   These are the precious moments gardeners cherish.   There was no time to start anything (and it was to jolly cold tonight) but the sky had cleared after a light shower so everything was sparkling fresh bright and full of life.  

There is never anything dull about gardening.   This year my hero redcurrant bush is giving me the cold shoulder after my vain attempts to get people to appreciate the value of its efforts last (and I still have fruit from 2010 in the freezer!).  I am trying to remember who I optimistically promised its bumper 2012 crop to, so they are not disappointed.   My dear apricot tree seems to have succumbed to the same canker that killed off a gooseberry standard planted in an adjacent spot.   Some of my most virulent clematis seem to have gone on strike - or at least on go-slow - and the lily beetles I have found so far (plenty) always seem to have been in pairs, mating, although at least I was able to dispatch them in pairs!!!

On the plus side the lily of the valley are going mad - anyone is welcome to some, as per fox gloves, most of the roses seem very healthy (albeit dear Kiftsgate is dropping yellow leaves all around as ever), some of the newer clematis are looking very promising, the tulips have been wonderful, the raspberries and loganberries are flourishing....  

One of the best things this evening was listening to the birds.   I could have been way out in the countryside.   Not least, the swifts are back, peeping and swooping, making my tiny patch seem to spread up into the sky.

On days like today I know that, however much I long for a bigger garden, I will never love the next one as much as this!

More tulips

Lots to catch up on since the rain and a little bit of sunshine - enough to get out for a few hours over the weekend and start tidying moss from the (slippery) path and training rampant climbers.

But the tulips are a great joy to me so here they are again.   The first shot features a lot of cercis siliquastrum blossoms which have been battered off the tree by strong rain and winds but makes a lovely backdrop!

A rest from path sweeping.