Tag: clematis

Chilly

Published on by Catherine39 Comments

I packed away my winter clothes when I thought summer had arrived. I was too hasty. I should know by now how unpredictable our weather can be and now I’m searching around for warm clothing. Our top temperatures have hovered around a chilly 13℃ (55.4℉), with a ‘feels-like’ 11℃ (51.8℉) thanks to the relentless cold winds – but I hope you’ve been enjoying warmer weather than we are here.

Despite the unseasonably cool weather, the garden is beginning, slowly, to show summer colour, though some plants, such as the oriental poppies are struggling to stay upright, and refusing to open fully.

I was visiting one of my daughters and missed last week’s Six on Saturday, but here is my garden offering for this weekend.

Continue reading “Chilly” →

Five in a Row

Published on by Catherine22 Comments

Five what? Five dry days without rain! The perfect cause for excitement, don’t you think? With heaps of sunshine adding to the joy, it’s definitely a reason for celebration. We’ve managed to accomplish a remarkable amount of work in the garden this week. Despite the chilly air, by afternoon, the garden’s been a ‘jackets off’ workplace. This weekend is shaping up to be more of the same! I hope your week has been as good as mine. Let’s take a look at my six subjects for today.

Six on Saturday

Exochorda x macrantha ’Niagara’ This was planted last year, so it’s still not quite large enough to create the beautiful waterfall of flowers shown in the marketing blurb. One day…

Continue reading “Five in a Row” →

Gardening Resumes

Published on by Catherine26 Comments

My lovely family visitors have returned home. The house is quiet. We still have two grandchildren nearby to keep us on our toes (they do that with enormous ease) but it’s nice to be able to get back to my summer gardening duties. However, in just under two weeks my two teenage grandsons will arrive from the US for a visit, so I’ll possibly have to duck out again from Six on Saturday for a couple of weeks and I expect the garden will get a bit untidy, again.

It’s summer…so they say…and heading rapidly towards the final summer month, but I feel the garden is taking on that distinct feel of autumn a little bit before it’s time. Perhaps it’s because it’s so cool and there’s been so much rain or because the roses are currently taking a rest. In a few weeks though, there will be more colour back on the rose bushes, as they’re showing plenty of new growth. Meantime, colour is being provided by cosmos, clematis, hydrangeas, heleniums and rudbeckias (more about rudbeckias next week).

Continue reading “Gardening Resumes” →

Summer is Hiding

Published on by Catherine31 Comments

I know many of you were hit by torrential rain last Monday. Here, it started at 11 am and thundered down without a pause, through the day, and continued overnight.

The forecast had been for a good, sunny, warm day and I have to ask myself – how could they get it so wrong? My son had taken one of his holiday days to work on the construction of his garden office, and my husband had gone out early that morning to help him. Instead of adding to the building, they spend the entire day trying to waterproof it. They were soaked to the skin and so discouraged.

As for me – well, I stood at the patio doors and watched the plants slowly bend over until they reached the ground. We then had a couple of sunny days when most of the plants lifted themselves back up. Yesterday though, we returned to very heavy rain and overall temperatures are poor.

Does anyone know where summer has gone?

Continue reading “Summer is Hiding” →

Six on Saturday 2020 03-10

Published on by Catherine38 Comments

There are times when gardening has to take a back seat, and I have two such afternoons each week. We had mixed weather again this week, some days heavy rain, others gloriously sunny. On two of those sunny afternoons we were back on the beach, and of course, the play park on the prom, with our two-year-old grandson, a little boy who has the ability to spread his own sunshine wherever he goes. I’m sure I could have been getting some plants and bulbs into the ground, and making the most of the good weather, but when you have a little person who waves, smiles and calls out ‘Hiya’ to everyone he passes, gardening jobs that you are desperate to tackle, become less pressing.

Every person we passed responded with a smile and a friendly acknowledgement and it’s nice to think that one little person’s warmth perhaps brightened up someone else’s day. We grown-ups could learn a lot from little children.

Continue reading “Six on Saturday 2020 03-10” →